Mizblog

Brandon took on this Saturday morning class, and it was a sizeable one. 9 participants including myself, so we were an odd bunch. Susan, Brian, Ray, Me, Jeff, Ronnie, Victor, Ul, and Dave. We started the warm up with a circuit of shadow boxing, jumping jacks, push ups and sit ups. Then we did shoulder tag for a bit before stretching.

We did very basic focus mitt combos, and I ended up teaching Ul how to hold mitts. It took me ages to get decent at it, so I was very patient with his crazy first attempts (holding the mitts very wide or low, for example). Dave was in our group too, since there were an odd number of students. The drill was not a very good one for me. I don’t feel I sharpened my skills at all.

After that, we put away the pads and mitts and gloves. Time for the self defense part: bear hugs! First we did from behind, with arms trapped. I paired up with Victor on this one, and he WOULD NOT LET GO! I had to work really hard, and it spiked my adrenaline when I realized I was not getting out of this one easily. It was a GREAT lesson for me. I even stomped his foot for real once or twice but it didn’t work. The only thing that loosened his grip was when I started throwing real elbows to his chest. After that, I was able to get out without such a serious struggle, but the adrenaline effects continued. I had a really hard time catching my breath!

Next we did bear hug from the front, arms trapped. The sprawl and hands to the hips make this one so much easier. I had no problems.

We finished the class with a drill where half the class stood on a line with their eyes closed, and the other half applied either a bear hug from the front or from the back. I started in the group that was delivering the bear hugs, and it was pretty easy. I finished as the group that was receiving and defending the bear hugs, and I was really struggling to catch my breath after each defense. After the class, I was spent. There was only a tiny spot at the bottom of my t-shirt that was not drenched with sweat.