Mizblog

Pam taught this Saturday morning class. It started with jumping jacks, squats, push ups, and sit ups. Two rounds. The shoulder tag in between the sets for another round.

We did a circuit of ground and pound on a kick shield, alternating with stomps to said kick shield. 3 rounds. 2 minutes total.

We did tombstone punches, old school. 5 jabs, then 5 crosses, then 5 1-2’s. Then we did the same drill but 3x, ending each one with a 20sec flurry of punches. After that, front kick to the groin, 5 each side. Then front kick and 1-2 punch. All the way across the mat. I was in a 3 person group with Susan and Dave, and the odd person out for that drill had to do squats the whole time! Lots of squats.

After that drill, we covered the choke from the front defense with a 2-handed pluck. Susan much preferred the 1-handed pluck variant, so she kept doing that instead. Whatever, huh? Her kid was teaching the class, so I guess she felt a certain freedom to disobey. Anyway, I did well on that one. I’m usually pretty good with the side control and angling off to make space and separate. I could be better though, I’m sure. I gave Dave a few pointers.

Then we did 360 defenses against high or low attacks. I Susan’s reflexes were to throw the simultaneous strike. I had to fight that to just keep my off hand up to block punches, like Pam instructed for the lower levels. That felt super awkward for me. I advised Dave that throwing his strikes palm forward to be blocked by 360 defenses would be less painful than simulating a knife strike, where the block would land on his bone and cause more pain and bruising.

Then we went for a run around the speed bump in the back alley. When we came back, we had all the heavy bags pulled out. We’d create a gauntlet for folks to go through. So after sprinting to the speed bump and back, we’d have to walk slowly down between the bags, and our classmates would attack us, either with a choke from the front, or an overhand or underhand strike, or they would hold a pad for us to punch or kick. We’d do the defenses or blast away until we made it to the chair and were safe. I went second, and screwed up defending Ray’s overhand strike (I did a cross body 360 defense, doh!) but did the rest fine. I didn’t want to get out of the chair once I was done, but I did.

To end the class, we did 2 more minutes (3 rounds) of ground and pound, then stomping on the kick shields.