Mizblog

Saranya got her green belt last night.

TJ’s Saturday morning class was not one I approached enthusiastically. After a week of neck and shoulder problems, I was very apprehensive. But I had to take Saranya to her BJJ class so I suited up at the last second and took my place on the line.

I knew I was in trouble right away. My cardio wasn’t there anymore. The early jog around the mat was causing my left ankle to twinge and complain. I felt unbalanced during shadow boxing. Unbalanced and awkward. We pulled out the bags and did a circuit, moving from one bag to another, landing a variety of strikes on each before moving to the next. I did okay but was seriously gassing out on the second time around. Then we stretched, and I sweated all over the mat.

We gloved up and did Thai pad work. I teamed up with Thor (Eric) and had a good learning experience. Again, I was gassed. Very low energy reserves.

Gloves off, we learned ridge hand strikes. We also learned mouth hand strikes. These essentially both strike with the injured part of my right thumb, so I had to use my left, and it hurt my elbow and biceps. Very awkward.

We did vertical forearm defenses against high kicks and straight punches to practice for knife defense. Straight knife, and backhand knife defenses. Ended with a drill.

When I got off the mat, I just leaned my head on the TRX post to relax my strained neck muscles. Saranya was sitting on Ivan and crying because she’d hit herself in the eye with her own knee. We were both hurting. Eventually she wiped her face and calmed down enough that we could go home.

TJ’s Saturday morning class started without Saranya, as she’s at Gigi’s house for a sleepover.

TJ got us running while he showed off his swollen cauliflower ear. Ouch. We did shadow boxing, shoulder tag, team calisthenics, and stretching. Then we geared up and did Bas Rutten combinations (the Thai Boxing tape) on our geared up partners while they defended. I did a poor job of defending against old man Mike, but at least I improved as the session went along. He defended well throughout, and his combinations were crisp and fast.

After a few rounds of that, we got into boxing sparring. I started with Mike, and immediately landed a good body blow after a jab to the face was blocked. He thought that was so good, he did it back to me a few times, and I did it a couple more times to him. We were pretty even.

My next sparring partner was Alex, who’s starting to warm up to me. Last time, he lit me up from the outside, but this time I had far better head movement and made him miss a lot of his punches. I was able to land quite a few of my own, and I felt I got the edge on the contest.

Finally I sparred with Ray, who had a sore ankle. A couple times I found myself standing on his right foot. I wasn’t doing it on purpose, it’s just that he’s a leftie and so he stands with his right foot forward, next to my left foot forward, so an advance means I’m standing on his foot. He stepped on my foot again later, and I did his once also. I found I was able to pressure him and get him dodging too much, but he was able to land a few good punches to get me to back off. I felt bad later for standing on his sore foot, but I did tell him it was unintentional. I didn’t want to hurt him.

After sparring was over, we got down to gun defense. Mike and I reviewed gun from the front and from behind, then we did gun pressing the back of the head and gun pointing to the face. We also went over gun to the side, both in front of the arm and behind the arm. Mike started bleeding out of his little finger, dripping all over the mat. He joked with me, saying “You animal!” and I retorted with the not-so-witty “I didn’t do that!” Anyway, it was little and he got a band aid, but it took time to clean the mat and we just moved into a drill with A’s and B’s, one group closing the eyes while the other group came around and did gun threats, and the threatened had to open their eyes, assess the threat, and make the defense.

Christian started his Tuesday morning class by pulling out bags, tying belts between them, and laying out ladders on the ground. I came in with a padded thumb guard strapped to my right hand, and being unable to properly grip things with my right thumb. I was a little nervous that we would have to do choke defenses, but Christian reassured me that we’d just be punching each other in the head, so I relaxed.

Class started with me, Thomas, and Melissa lined up behind the first row of bags. Then Thomas and I alternated at one station while Melissa got the other one to herself. I started doing bobbing/weaving and advance/retreat with punch combos under a pair of belts tied between two heavy bags. Thomas and Melissa started doing L-R-L-R kick combos on a heavy bag – Left front kick, Right round kick, recoil to Left side kick, then turn and look for Right back kick. After 30 seconds we switched, and I was kicking. 3 rounds of each exercise, getting more intense during each stage, and I was already sweating and breathing hard and panicking. After the last phase of the 3rd round, we did 30 seconds of sit-ups, then rested while Christian explained the next circuit – floor ladder fighting stance footwork and a reverse stance version of the kick combos we had done before. The footwork drills were easy to do slow but I messed up a few times as they got faster. My last of 3 rounds of Right front kick, Left round kick, Right side kick, and Left back kick had my dying, but right after that was done we got into the stretch and I just made my little sweat puddle on the mat.

We cleared off the circuit apparatus and put in mouth guards. Then we stood still while our training partner punched us in the face and in the body. I got paired with Christian, and I survived. He didn’t hit my face hard. I might have hit his too hard once, but he got payback on the body right afterward if he wanted it. I weathered it okay. I’m a soft body target.

Then we gloved up and did focus mitt combos. I need all the practice I can get on focus mitts, and this was the first time Christian had as do a round of Bas Rutten’s boxing exercise tape with focus mitts. I’d never imagined such a thing. Anyway, I was dying while throwing the punches for my round, and I screwed up a few of the combos. I survived again, and got to hold for Christian. I screwed up a couple of those combos for him too, but mostly I did okay. Surprisingly okay!

Then we did 6 rounds of boxing sparring. My partners were Melissa, Thomas, Christian, Melissa, Thomas, and finally Christian again. I feel I did really well. I got smacked a few times, but I was laying down some smack of my own. I punished Melissa for turning away from me by repeatedly tapping her head until she turned back and smacked me in the face. It was worth it. I was also able to sit back and play defense when I got tired, instead of panicking and just getting lit up like I used to. My defense has improved a lot, and so has my footwork. I was moving and using combos and movement to try to create openings, and I was sometimes successful.

After sparring, we lost the gloves and headgear. We did kick checks in the mirror from both stances for a bit, then put on our leg guards and I paired with Thomas to defend some kicks with my leg. We both went mercifully easy on each other and survived without incident. Then class was over. I dragged my butt over to my bag and laboriously changed outfits for 805BJJ30.

TJ’s Saturday morning class was nervous time. I came with my BJJ gi anticipating a return to ground training later. I also wrapped my hands to try to protect my right thumb, which I jammed on a focus mitt the week before.

Things started smoothly with shadow boxing and level 1/2 defense technique review. I teamed up with Jeff and Mike. These 3-man teams don’t give you as much practice but they also don’t wear you out as much. Still, I dinged my right thumb a couple times and thought about icing it, but didn’t.

We gloved up and donned focus mitts for combos followed by a bursting punch, then transitioned to a turning, bursting elbow to the rear (anticipating gun from behind defense). I alternated between striking the pad and striking the bag, and I came out with a big ol’ bruise on my right elbow from landing so many heavy shots.

Then we reviewed gun from the front a bit (covered last weekend) before we got into gun from behind. Turn body/arm to first see what’s in the other hand, then continue to redirect the gun, burst in to underhook the gun arm while delivering that elbow, trap their wrist to your chest while you land some combatives, turn into them to loosen the grip and control the line of fire, reach over He-Man style to grip the gun from the top, and pull up to disarm. Strike with the barrel and whatever else to disengage, and keep the damn gun. Don’t give it back!

Gun from the side (behind the arm) is supposed to be basically the same technique, but in front of the arm is another thing altogether. It’s the wrist scoop, step into horse stance while bringing the other hand to underhand grip the barrel, twist the barrel over the top to use the gun takeaway as the attack, and finish with a face strike or whatever.

Class ended with an A/B eyes closed gun/other defense drill.

TJ’s Saturday morning class started with me having my orange belt awarded and Alex having his green belt awarded. We had a couple of new guys in the class, and a few old faces. I felt kind of lonely. We started off running around and then playing shoulder tag. Mixed in a bunch of calisthenics and group exercises. Then we got drinks and MMA gloves.

First technique was bursting right punch. We did that a bunch then went to focus mitt combos and bursting punches. I jammed my right thumb on an uppercut and it ruined my day. Last time I had a right thumb injury was 2015-10-01 and it lasted 7 months. Now I get to start over, huh?

After that, we did gun from the front. Redirect, Control+Attack, Take-away. RCAT. It wasn’t too hard for me, except for the takeaway part.

Saturday morning I woke up at 3am, fevered, chilled, weak, and aching everywhere.

At 6am I woke up again, drenched in sweat. My fever broke. I was so relieved. I had resolved that I was going to test even if I was still sick, so I was glad that the illness was getting better. I’d just keep going until I collapsed, either way.

The workshop started at noon. We lined up on the big mat, bowed in, separated orange belt testees from green belt testees, did a quick warm-up, and then the other orange belt testees and I went into the back room with Brandon but no windows and no fans. I was pouring sweat almost immediately. I joked with Jeff that I was like a Rain Bird, spraying sweat in all directions.

Brandon started off by explaining that he was only going to do about half of our orange belt workshop, and then someone else was going to come in and finish us off. This turned out to be a big problem later, but hopefully we’ll get to that. We started with chokes against the wall, and Brandon was showing us that you put the side of your face to the wall.

I had the hardest time with punch/kick defenses + counters. Especially 360 defenses with a counter. My blocks tended to use my fists instead of an open hand, and the counters were often open hand pokes instead of punches. Yikes! Even in the test, I was terrible and made lots of mistakes.

My easiest moves were the kicks (stomping kicks to the front, side, or back; with or without an advancing step) and the ground work (mount stuff, some guard stuff). I was able to rip through that stuff easily and powerfully. But we didn’t get to the ground stuff until the last 2 hours of the 5 hour workshop, and we weren’t taught the ground stuff by Brandon. We had a surprise instructor and tester coming, and it turned out to be Kim. She taught us all the ground stuff, and tried to fill in the stuff that Brandon didn’t cover (based on his notes).

At 5pm we were done with the workshop and we started the testing. I was 2B and Josh was 2A, meaning we were partners for the test.

TJ’s Saturday morning class, and it was a big one. 12 people on the mat, including some noobs. I came in still nervous about my sore oblique.

We started with some jogging around, shadow boxing, shoulder tag, and stretching. During shoulder tag, Ray hit me up to partner with him. I also got to play tag with Ronnie, Mike, and Nicole.

After that we got our MMA gloves on, grabbed a partner and some focus mitts, and started with a recognition/strike drill. Both Jeff and Mike asked to partner up with me, but I had to decline because Ray had already grabbed me. I felt like the popular girl before prom. It was odd.

Elbows into focus mitts were tricky. Also, Ray is a lefty so I got a little bit of practice holding for southpaw. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We did a second round on the mitts with elbow strikes, and then a third round of punch+elbow combos. Different.

We did knees with the kick shields, and I did a Thai clinch for the first time ever. Ray showed me the fundamentals. It felt less comfortable than the normal standing side control of Krav Maga, and offered a different kind of control.

After that, we teamed up into groups of 3 for a final drill – focus mitts punctuated by kick shield opponents bumping and drawing strikes and knees. Somehow we’d lost 2 students, or maybe gained one? Anyway, I was an extra so TJ paired me with the “heavy hitters” – Alex, Andrew, and Ronnie. Alex started, and he was throwing hard shit at the kick shields. Multi-spinning-kick combos and the like. I always jammed him with the pad so he wouldn’t kick me. Andrew didn’t take time to put his gloves on, and he hurt his thumb a few times on the mitts. Ronnie worked hard and you could tell it was all he could manage just to finish the time. I was the extra, and TJ knew it, so he made all the other groups pick someone to go twice so I could get my turn. Thanks, TJ. My turn was alright, but I did land a wild left side kick on Ronnie’s pad that slid up and touched his neck. He threw his head back and staggered when my foot got up there, and it looked to everybody that I’d sent him flying (not really – it was a weak and sloppy kick that slipped up a sweat-soaked kick shield, and I pulled it rather than following through with it). That ended the class.

So I felt popular at the beginning and respected at the end. Someday soon I’ll look back on this class and think I was the butt of a joke, but for now it’s very edifying.

TJ’s Thursday morning class. I came in worried about my left oblique, which had been strained a week before and was still convalescing.

Warm ups went fine. I teamed up with Andrew, a burly and friendly Asian guy who’s a yellow belt still trying to recover his skills after a layoff. I did Thai pads with VERY light kicks.

We did kick checking too, and I tried to go very light on those as well.

For the defense move, we did choke from behind with a pull, which is basically “pluck while you spin around and kick them in the groin.”

TJ’s Thursday morning class. I arrived earlier than TJ and spent some time sitting outside and putting Vaseline on my left small toe. It was sensitive and red after the last class so I thought it might be on the verge of blistering up again. After he opened up, I got about 10 minutes of stretching in before class.

We started class with shadow boxing, and I was already warmed up so I got right into it. Good movement and combinations were coming out of me, and I felt pretty confident. TJ mixed in various calisthenics (push ups, sit ups) and shoulder tag, then moved us to medicine ball drills. Two-handed passes, one-handed passes (first right hand, then left hand), overhead passes with squats, push up passes, seated sit up passes, then crunches alternating with having the medicine ball dropped on your belly 5×5. I paired with Jeff, who was nursing a tweaked ankle from the previous night’s class. We finished with stretching.

Then we gloved up and donned Thai pads. I held first, and Jeff was gimpily kicking with his sore ankle. We ended with 10 kicks each side, and then we switched. Sometime while I was throwing kicks, I wrapped my foot around the pad and tweaked my ankle. It didn’t bother me much through the rest of the class, but it sure did bother me later after I got home. I can’t remember if it happened before or during the final 10-kicks-per-side flurry, but I sure was surprised to see how slow I was at those kicks. Got to get faster!

We then moved on to kick defenses with the hands. You always use the right hand for low kicks and the left hand for high kicks. I was bad at this, as it was literally the first time I’d ever seen these maneuvers. I seemed to pick them up quickly, but later they went away in the stress drill. Anyway, we added counters and it was all new to me.

Then we went to the back room to finish things off. We did kick absorption in the thigh, then a drill where we combined all those kick defenses in a sequence of attacks. I moderately sucked.