Mizblog

TJ’s Thursday morning class was a surprise. I didn’t think I’d be able to attend, but my morning meeting was over in 30 minutes and I was ready to go! TJ started by asking who’s scheduled for upcoming testing and wanted to see something, and I suggested bearhugs.

Warm up started with running and stuff, then shadow boxing, then shoulder tag. I paired with Jeff twice on that, and he’s very good. Tagged me a bunch of times. Mixed in was more calisthenics, then we got down to stretching. I was sweating a pool, and so was lil’ John next to me.

We strapped up the Thai pads, and I again paired up with Jeff. He’s awkward with the Thai pads and kept holding to the wrong side or forgetting to hold for the kick. He wasn’t terrible, but he was a lot like how I was a month or two ago. He’ll pick it up quick, I’m sure. Anyway, we got through it all without getting hurt.

After putting away the gloves and pads, we pulled out heavy bags and practiced the hip push move for bearhug defense before getting into the details. Base and strike/push the hips to make space, then strike and escape or whatever. We covered bearhug from the front with arms inside and outside, with space and without space. Lil’ John got to practice with Renee, and TJ joked that he was not supposed to do the motorboat defense.

To finish the class, we had a gauntlet that started with eyes closed spinning followed by a bear hug escape, run through a gauntlet of kick shield wielding classmates, and then throw continuous strikes on the tombstone pad that Brandon was holding up.

Good class.