Mizblog

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!

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.

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.

This is the first time I’ve been able to do a class just 2 days after another class. I was nervous going in, because I had some mystery foot pain earlier, but the foot was fine.

The class was very cardio-heavy. Warmup was shadow boxing, jumping jacks, squats, push ups, jogging, side jogging, mat smacking with jogging reverse, then shoulder tag. The mat smacking part had me a bit panicked, but I was able to slack during shoulder tag and still do okay. I have long arms and I’m not bad with feints and blocking.

Anyway, then we went on to focus mitt work. We did combos and bob/weave. I’m bad at bob. Then we reversed stance and tried to do the combinations with our off hands. I was fairly awful.

Choke against the wall, we did against heavy bag stacks. My partner was Tig. I need to squeeze tight to the wall and shoulder to my head. I did alright, especially the strikes and control afterward.

The stress drill was choke against the wall, then a knife defense (my underhand knife defense sucks – my wrap was reversed every time) and then heavy strikes on a tombstone pad before going back for another choke. It was exhausting. We followed it up with practicing the knife block and simultaneous strike, but actually striking a tombstone pad. I kept hitting too close but I don’t know how I could do an effective block from an effective punching distance.

Anyway, then we put in our mouth guards. Tig and I took turns punching each other lightly. Then it was sparring time. For 15 minutes. I sparred with Tig, Loraine, some other guy, John, and finally Larry. Tig did some good leg kicks. Loraine hit me lightly in the body a few times but I went pretty easy on her. The other guy had some heavy leg kicks but I landed some good body shots on him. John I hit on the head with an overhand right (actually hit him with my thumb and bruised it) then he followed up by knocking my mouthpiece out. Finally it was Larry. He’s tall and I was exhausted. I think I hit him once and he hit me dozens of times, easing out of the way of all my lobbed attempts. It was really almost all I could do to keep my hands up and stand there.

My 8th class since I started up Krav Maga again. Jeremy taught. We started with shadow boxing, then shoulder tag. Susan chastised me for blocking.

Next up was focus mitts with grappling gloves. We did combos mixed with going to the ground and machine gunning punches. On the ground we were either on top or bottom, guard or mount. It was seriously exhausting. I was paired up with John and he pushed me to keep going through the 3 minute drill. Exhausting, but I made it. I’m getting better!

After that we started ground work. First was armbar from the guard. I got to practice it with John and Adam, so I didn’t practice that much, but I got my neck cranked and it popped. Let’s see how bad it hurts tomorrow. I’m icing my back and neck right now and I had an ibuprofen.

After armbar from the guard, we worked on triangle from both sides. I was seriously rusty with the BJJ stuff. It felt alien after all the time off.

Finally we did defense against mounted knife attack (in the last 5 minutes of the class, when apparently Susan always injures Larry) and Adam wasn’t committing to his knife strikes so I couldn’t wrap his arm. I should have bucked my hips to get him to fall forward! Didn’t realize until after class was over.

I got to listen to the Kings play the Ducks on the radio on the way over and on the way back. Got home in time to watch the 3rd period on TV. Kings lost in 3-on-3 OT when Ehrhoff left Perry alone in front of the net.

Saturday morning. Saranya had a sewing class so it was just me, driving in last minute, almost out of gas, scrambling for the bathroom, and paying for Saranya’s ongoing KM lessons.

I got paired up with Mike while Adam taught his first class. I didn’t know either guy, but I had seen Larry, Susan, Brian, and Brian before. Warm ups were not so bad, but both Mike and Brian were unable to jump because of their knees. I didn’t feel so bad about being gimpy compared to those guys.

For focus mitts I learned combo 5 – the liver punch finish. I need to work on that one. Also I need to work on holding my hook pad right in front of my face instead of out to the side. Nobody mentioned that I need to get my hands up in front of my face after a combo, so I might be getting better at that.

We also warmed up on all the level 1 chokes. 2 hand pluck from the front and back, 1 hand pluck from the front and the side. Head lock from the side. I was very very rusty.

Then we did basic gun from the front. New one on me. It seemed simple but I messed it up every single time in stress drill at the end. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

After that we did overhand knife from the front (again) and then underhand knife from the front. They used to call it “Chinese Stab” but now they call it “what we used to call ‘Chinese Stab'”. That was harder but I did okay for my first time.

Finally, for stress drill, we did “Circle of Death” where one person goes in the middle and everyone else throws attacks on without a break, and the person in the middle has to defend as best they can. I forgot the choke from the side defense and I did the gun defenses wrong every damn time. Blah. But I kept my intensity and never quit. Survived the class and I’m not terribly sore or bruised up, as far as I can tell.

Found out they’re starting some daytime classes now. Tuesday 12:30pm is a Strikefit class, and Thursday 12:30pm is a KM ALL class (taught by AJ Draven himself). I might hit that one up…

Tonight’s class was a technical class, and while it did get me sweating and breathing hard, I was able to keep up with everything.

Starting out with shadow boxing, then shoulder tag, then focus mitts with 1-2 combo, a hook defense, and another immediate 1-2 combo. My footwork needs a lot of work, but I did okay.

Next we did long gun defense, and learned a bit of history. It seems that KM Alliance is teaching a new method of long gun defense – redirect, wrap for control, attack and take away. The old way was more of a hand grab thing rather than a wrap, so the new system gives you more control of the weapon. I got a gnarly bruise on my right bicep. It’s a red mottled welt. I’m icing it.

The finale was stick-on-stick defense. The technique (overhand attack blocked crosswise overhead, followed by redirect and strikes) comes from old bayonet moves, since after WWII the Israeli military had a lot of surplus German bolt action rifles with bayonets.

My 4th Krav Maga class back went down this Saturday morning. There were lots of people invited to the classes to participate for publicity videos that AJ was having filmed. They were regular people. I liked them fine.

We had interesting rope-ladder warmup drills where we worked on footwork and took turns standing in line (big class!) so I feel the class size contributed to my sense of improving cardio. I wasn’t gassing out by the end of warmup.

Then we partnered up. I got paired last, with a girl. We did straight punches for what seemed forever, with a flurry drill that left me gassed by the end but I didn’t give up. We did round kicks and groin kicks, with the “Cheshire Cat” pad drill (or “Pendulum” drill, more traditionally) where the pad holder holds the pad at various angles and the kicker throws the appropriate kicks continuously. Exhausting!

For the defense technique, we did defense against a gun to the midsection from the side, in front of the arm. I may or may not have done that drill before, but it felt somewhat natural so maybe I did. I’m still kind of intimidated by guns. I view them with reverence and respect for their power and utility, and danger. Finally a defense technique that doesn’t hurt the defender (like the knife defenses we’d been doing the week before) but it sure bruises up the gun hand when you’re playing the attacker and having the gun twisted out of your hands repeatedly. If you do it right, you’re going to have a bruise between thumb and forefinger.

Saranya did her 3rd class (first with equipment and a belt) and I got to watch. The kids’ classes are way less intense than the adult classes, and Saranya’s home practice sometimes made her look like an expert in front of the other slacker goofy kids in the class. She learned 1-4 combos, groin kicks, and front choke pluck.

UPDATE: Four hours after the class, I’ve had a nap. My left knee feels really gimpy. When I try to straighten it, I feel pain on the outside of the joint.

UPDATE 2015-09-13: Knee feels better already, but sometimes goes “out” and has to be “popped” back in. This has been “normal” for years, but the discomfort of it being “out” feels worse now.

I signed up for a month of Krav Maga on Tuesday, and took a beginners’ class. Thursday morning and I’m quite sore. I’m banking on the prediction that the soreness will become more manageable the more I train. Maybe I can one day work my way up to taking 3 classes in a week!

In my Tuesday class we did punches, forward elbows, groin kicks, and 360 defenses. That was my 3rd class back, and my 3rd class in a row doing 360 blocks (first 2 were downward knife stab defenses). My wrists are darkening.

Saranya also started training Krav Maga this week. She should be passing me by in about a year, just because she’s able to recover more quickly and take more classes (3/week for her, half that for me so far.)