Mizblog

I went in with a broken nose and an injured thumb. Wore a thumb brace/guard to remind myself to take it easy.

Christian taught the KM Extreme class tonight, and we practiced striking with a gun to focus mitts. That did it for my thumb. I was out 30 minutes into the class when my thumb had been jammed several times and I realized I didn’t have both of my boxing gloves.

Got to watch some thai pad work, light sparring, and rear naked choke from the back defense.

When I walked in with Saranya, Larry was mopping the mat. He asked me how I was doing and I told him my nose was broken. He got worried and asked “Was it me?” and I told him “You probably made it worse, but it was caused by Tig kicking me in the face.”

Watched Saranya’s class while the Strikefit class was going on. She needs to work on throwing knees with some power, but she sure does have style. :) Oh yeah, and we got her white belt back at the cost of 15 sprawls. Small price.

My class started after that, beginning with injury announcements. I came in with a broken nose and a sprained thumb. Larry joked that everyone should stay away from me, leaving me in my own bubble. It didn’t help entirely, but I’ll get to that.

Warm up was a run to the wall (all the way across the back of the strip mall’s parking lot and back) and then shadow striking mixed with jumping jacks, squats, push ups, and sit ups. Pretty easy.

Combatives were palm heel strike and groin kick. We practiced each (my partner was Ed – he’s getting good at striking) and then we did getting up from the ground, split the class in half, and did a stress drill where the person in the middle would get up from ground fighting position and start striking, while people around the circle interrupted them and got them to do either palm heel strikes or groin kicks to their tombstone pad. I thought the kicks would hurt my thumb but it was fine.

Then we did defense against the carotid choke. I did good. Other guys had trouble with the pluck. Ed and I got teamed up with Steve because big Brian’s calf was bothering him and he had to duck out.

To finish the day we did gun defense from the side. First in front of the arm, and then behind the arm. Behind the arm was new to me, but it’s just a turn and burst in and wrap. It was during this last one that Steve threw a kick and it contacted with my sore thumb and BOOM I had to sit out of the rest of the class. At least I didn’t come out with any new injuries.

All sparring all night. I jammed my thumb in the warm up, and that hurt a lot.

Tig got his back tweaked by Larry after he kicked me in the face. That hurt a lot too.

John tagged me and I tagged him back a couple times. I did well there.

Anthony got me a couple times. I got him several times.

We did 2-on-1 drills. I got to attack Susan and she kicked me in the groin. I kicked her groin later too.

When I was in the middle, it was against Larry at first, and he lit me up. Then Susan joined in and they teamed up and pummeled me. My face is still swollen.

Finally, we did wrist release for the last 2 minutes of class. I could barely stand, my legs were so weak.

Jeremy taught us tonight. Starting out with a circuit of 10 each jumping jacks, squats, push ups, then 3rd set added 10 burpees after the squats. I wanted to quit.

Next we went to partner drills. I partnered with Brian. We did left/slip, right/slip, alternate. Then left/inside defense, right/inside defense, alternate. Then left hook/bob, right hook/weave, alternate. I was gasping after that.

Drink of water, MMA gloves, and then light sparring (just hands) with Brian. We tagged each other in the face a couple times. Lots of body shots. I cramped. Seriously dying afterward.

Then we learned a sneaky front groin kick and a spinning back kick.

Finally, the last 10 minutes of class, we geared up and sparred. I started vs. Brian and then vs. Adam. Traded shots. Not too hard. Didn’t die. Didn’t get too injured. Good result!

It was a squishy morning. 5 trips to the throne and I was worried that it would interfere with my class.

It didn’t. Much.

Pam taught the class. Starting with jumping jacks for about a minute, then squats, push-ups and sit-ups. Repeat. Repeat again. Then shoulder tag. 15 squats and pick a new partner. 15 push-ups and pick a new partner. 10 sit-ups and pick a new partner. Exhausting.

Then we paired up and took out the heavy bags. One of us would do Bas Rutten’s workout combos on the bag while the other would occasionally put on chokes and the other would have to defend. I did 3 rounds and was absolutely dying by the end of the 2nd round, but I gutted out the 3rd round cramps and all.

After that we retired to the back room where we were instructed in defending chokes against the wall, where you can’t just step back and rotate out. And that was it. No injury, just pushing hard on the cardio. I needed that!

We had our front door painted today. Had to keep it open all day long, letting in the critters. Still, it came out beautiful and shiny. I’m still getting used to it.

First day back after a cold and a business trip to Menlo Park. Second day in 2 weeks because of the old foot injury that seems to be a thing of the past. (Yay!) Warm ups had me devising strategies to quit before doing any sparring, but I recovered pretty quickly.

Part of the warm up was inside defenses, which I am TERRIBLE at performing, so I got hit in the head quite a bit. Focus mitts went very well.

We did sewing machine knife attacks to the midsection. I was pretty terrible at that too. Then we did “The brown belt killer” straight stab to the face defense. I was better at that but still awkward.

Wrist came out bruised and a little bit scratched.

I think I got Saranya’s cold. Irritated sinuses, congestion, and coughing. Feeling a bit miserable. Had to skip KM class tonight.

After Krav Maga yesterday, I drove up to Bakersfield with my girls and my brother Rob to visit my good friend Diane and her girls, and to watch an AHL hockey game. The Ontario Reign were in town to face the Bakersfield Condors and it was a great excuse to make the drive and visit. Diane got us seats in the lower level, adjacent to the visitor’s net. It was great! I hadn’t seen a live professional hockey game since I was a boy scout, so it was great to experience the game as a real activity with real people playing it, rather than just a television spectacle.

I went to the Reign’s first game to scout the Kings’ young prospects and see what they were like. Some things I noticed – Backman is really short. Auger is freakin’ HUGE. Zykov was most noticeable when he was dumping the puck in and going for a change, though he did have one rush up the middle that started with some fancy moves and got angled off into the corner by the Condors’ defense. Kempe was similarly incognito. Mersch was a wizard out there, twice stealing the puck from the Condors’ goaltender during a penalty kill, and using some sort of magic to send the puck on net with surprising speed and timing and angles. The rest of the offense looked professional, I guess. They blocked several shots on the PK that looked quite painful.

LoVerde is the captain of the Reign and he exudes confidence, calming things down on the back end. McBain was crafty and solid on the blue line. The rest of the defense was solid, always present to clean up messes in the slot. Outlet passes were generally crisp and quick. Budaj was a wall in net, and all the Condors’ screen chances that he didn’t stop were shot or deflected wide before they got to him (hence the 5-0 shutout).

The Condors’ shooting was terrible. It could have been a 5-2 game with a little better shot accuracy. They reminded me a lot of the Kings in that regard.

My 10th Krav Maga class since returning was taught on a Saturday morning by AJ Draven. The warmup started with shadow boxing, then push ups, sit ups, squats, and then immediately into a review of all the level 1 chokes, with various partners. It was great for me because I’d forgotten so much. I partnered with Ed and Scott and Calvin.

I learned a new one for me – the carotid choke from behind. If someone puts their forearm across your neck and wraps you up there with a choke, you pull the hand/arm away while turning toward the opening, driving your shoulder into the attacker to make space, then twisting out and under the arm, leaving you free with an arm lock.

After that it was more warmup. Push ups, fast feet with jumps and/or sprawls on command, and then AJ slowed it down with stretching. Arm and shoulder, squat stretch, some yoga poses and stretches.

Then I got my first stint holding Thai pads. We did the same combos like we do with focus mitts, but we follow it up every time with a round kick from the leg opposite the side that threw the last punch of the combo. Ed and I were paired up, and he was even newer to kick combos than I was. We kept messing up but we got better as we practiced. AJ noticed one of my better combos and complemented me on it. :D

After Thai pads, we did a stress drill where we had groups of 3 and a tombstone pad. One person would hold the pad for various strikes while the other went nuts. Then the 3rd team member would put on a choke and the striker would have to do the defense. I went first. I did okay. Not great.

Following the stress drill, we did gun defenses from the front. It was the two hand cup method, which takes the gun to the outside and immediately lets you get 2 hands on it. I found it felt natural to throw a shoulder at the same time as I put my knee to the groin and broke the grip on the gun by punching it through.

After class I socialized with John and Calvin, who both gave me encouragement. Calvin’s been doing Krav Maga training for 2 years. John has shoulder problems that kind of fade once he warms up, but he says it’s common in Krav Maga to have shoulder issues. I told him I hadn’t had them myself, but that I’d had just about every other injury.