Mizblog

Pam’s Saturday morning class (first SMKV KM ALL class of 2016!) started with me feeling like I was going to poop my pants. The warm up had me very nervous.

Got into a team of 3 doing focus mitt stuff, and I was gassing early (not in a butt way but in a cardio way, thank goodness. Susan helped me with my mitt techniques. I was advised to move my head more and not just stand there delivering punches, or I’d get hit in the head a lot while sparring. Good advice.

Then we went into level 1 chokes and Susan put a bear hug on Steve (the other of the partners) so I had to learn the bear hug defense. Get low, break the grip, turn and strike.

Then we focused on the push/pull chokes. From behind with a pull – go with it, turn and pluck, kick the groin. From the front with a push – arm up pinch, hard rotation to break the grip, elbow them down into the basket, elbow the face, side control, combatives. From the back with a push – plant with arm up pinch, rotate and step offline, control and combatives.

We finished the class with more practice on all the chokes. I needed it, but I did okay.

Twentieth class! Christian taught us shoulder rolls and technical sparring. I learned some bear hugs!

Sparring was light and technical. I did okay. My body kick defense sucks. I worked on groin kick defense and still got a couple shots to the pills. Got to work harder on that.

Cardio is still an issue. Shoulder rolls were pretty rough. Need way more reps.

Pam taught us. I did focus mitts with Brian, who’s a southpaw. I had to learn to hold the mitts backward. I did okay.

Choke against the wall was good. Brian again. Choke with a push, too.

Gun from the side of the head went kind of awkward but good reps.

Saranya tested for Krav Maga yellow belt and got skipped ahead to the yellow stripe level! She’s been doing really well and her instructors are always coming to me with compliments about how well she’s doing.

Loraine’s class. Started with jumping jacks and shadow boxing. Little bit of shoulder tag.

Focus mitts with some covering and rolling. Jammed my thumb at the very end.

Then we did knife defense, same as Saturday but slightly different technique. Kept the head hard to the forearm.

Didn’t get too sore. The last focus mitt strike I landed was a right cross, and it tweaked my thumb a little bit. The thing is still sensitive. I think I need new boxing gloves. The fasteners on the old ones are crap, and the padding seems to be leaving my thumbs very vulnerable.

I felt very fat. My fat is really forcing its way into my consciousness. I got to watch myself shadow box in the mirror, and it was not very pretty. Time to do something to get rid if it.

Saw Saranya’s yellow belt and certificate. She’s testing tomorrow!

Saranya sewed me up a pillow to put in my thumb supporter so I wasn’t so scared of getting it smacked. It worked!

Class was pretty laid back. Taught by Pam, there were 7 students. I paired up with Mike, the old stinky guy with bad knees and wrists and teeth. Also with Eric, who’s a little guy but he’s really good.

We started with level 1 chokes. Eric kept stopping me to clean up my technique. Props to Eric. I got a lot better under his tutelage.

Next was standing guillotine defenses, then knife around the neck defense, then a stress drill with the knife and all the chokes, and then some wrist releases.

I got out of it without any pain. I’ve got some tired muscles but no injuries!

Saranya also had a class today, and Christian said she’s a “workhorse”. :)

After 55 minutes of cardio and circuit training, I’m beat. Walking is going to be an issue for me next week.

My striking combos were light or into the air, because my thumb is still wrecked. It doesn’t feel like it got worse, so that’s great news.

The bad news is that my shoulders are so weak I can’t do 30 seconds of plank. I need to work those extra while my legs recover!

FOLLOWUP: It took me 4 days to be able to walk normally, and another to recover emotionally. Wow!

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.