Mizblog

Christian’s Thursday morning class had 3 girls in it. Woo!

We started with footwork squares around a kick shield, shadowboxing. Then we mounted the pads and did ground strikes. Up and footwork again, this time squares and circles and more strikes. Then we took the pad in our guard and struck it. Then back up and higher intensity footwork and strikes shadowboxing, which I was not so great at. Then mounted strikes, then guard strikes, then we were done.

Mouthpieces in, and then we paired up and took turns punching each other in the face. I had to remind Jeff not to hit me in the eyeball. 2nd round was exchanging 5-for-5 body blows. Jeff’s abs are hard as a rock!

After that, we put on focus mitts and did simple combinations. Then we paired up in groups of 3 and did an awareness drill where we had to throw strikes while watching the person behind the pad holder hold up fingers or tap their foot. I did not get it, but Jeff did great. At the end of the drill, we did the exercise where one partner holds the leg of the other partner on his thigh while the hopping partner twists and hops, turning the hips over. My calf almost died. I took 2 breaks on the first set.

With that done, we moved on to the self defense techniques, which started with rear naked choke defense. The first thing we did is lock the choke in on one another and see how long we could last before we tapped. My group included Yas and Josh, and none of us lasted a second. Then we learned that to defend that, you really need to prevent it from being locked in. Turn your head toward the direction of the fingers, and tuck your chin to your raised shoulder at the same time as you pluck at the thumb/hand and wrist. A little shoulder bump should make you some space, then you can turn under and get out while possibly still holding an arm lock.

To compliment that, we then went over defense against front headlock. Pluck with opposite hand while the close hand SMACKs the groin. I always forget the SMACK part. Then you get the returning up-elbow (elbow #5, for those who are counting,) step through under the arm and turn to strike. We moved into the back room, and the BJJ players left to start changing into their gi’s. We did an A/B drill where we applied the two attacks on each other and did the defenses. As I mentioned, I kept forgetting the groin strike. There was a funny moment when Yas was trying to wrap his arm around my head while I was spinning, and I kept just turning out of it and he couldn’t get the grip. LOL!