Mizblog

Curtis’ Saturday KM All class. Saranya was doing her first ever BJJ class with Jasmine (we didn’t know it would be going on, so she didn’t bring her gi) while I was working.

Class started with shoulder tag. I accidentally poked my finger into Calvin’s nose. Sorry, Calvin.

Then, thai pads and combinations followed by a knee. I partnered up with white belt Mike.

After that we worked on inside defenses, which is great because I suck at them. Mike and I went slow and I don’t know how much I improved but I feel like maybe I did. We also did defense against straight punch to the body. Then we did one hand defenses against straight punches. Then we put on boxing gloves and headgear.

As I was getting my stuff, Christian yelled at me from the kids’ training room that Saranya knew how to pull guard. I yelled “Yeah!”. I’m so proud. :)

I got to introduce Mike to sparring. We started one handed, then switched who was one handed, and then went normal.

After that I sparred with Scott, Alex, and Renée. Scott got me a few times. Alex was being showy and elusive, so I just started chasing him around with punches (to the great satisfaction of Curtis). Renee and I traded some pretty good shots. She’d just come in and wail on me and get out, so I started trying to time her with uppercuts as she came in.

And that was class.

TJ’s Saturday morning class. I started with hand wraps. Typical jogging warm-up followed by shoulder tag. I was very careful with my right thumb. Susan gave me lots of sympathy (apparently she’s been hurt by Rick too) but Eric (Thor) chastised me for too much backing up. So I touched his shoulder and he touched mine and he was happier.

We did some focus mitt work. I paired with old man Mike, and he showed me some stuff and I got better.

The rest of the class was ground stuff. Getting up off the ground, and getting out from under the mount, and getting up from the guard. I really struggled with the nuances of getting up from the guard. I kept wanting to raise the front knee instead of the rear one. Gotta practice that.

Saranya waited for me, spending the hour doing 4 pages of Kumon and getting ahead of her KMX homework.

Saranya tested out of Kumon level F (multiple operations on fractions and decimals)!

Now she starts on Kumon level G (Positive/negative numbers, exponents, Algebraic expressions, Single-Variable Equations with 1-4 steps).

I got to take Saranya to her orange belt test.

She passed. She passed me in only 6 months of training, and I started Krav Maga in 2009!

Her consolation to me was “don’t worry, dad – you’re old and fat.”

Tuesday morning class with Mark Morales. We worked on riding a turtle, tipping it over, and choking it out. At the end we practiced being a turtle and rolling the rider off.

I got a scrape on my left ankle at some point.

Then that night I was trying to show Saranya how to do a flying side kick and I re-aggravated my right calf. I’m too stupid to move.

While watching the LA Kings play the San Jose Sharks tonight, I was also stripping off the remains of the peeling laminate that covers my kitchen cabinets. It’s a weird black nylon/plastic covering that looks like it was mostly never glued on at all. The cabinets were purchased from Ikea and installed by the previous owner of the house, and they’ve been falling apart for some time. The doors and hardware are all very solid, but the covering of the fake wood keeps peeling and wrinkling and bubbling and looking awful. We visited Ikea to see if we could get them replaced, but not only do they not make them anymore, they no longer even have any of them left over to replace them with. Moreover, their new cabinet designs use a totally different set of measurements, so we’d have to replace all our counter tops if we wanted to swap out the existing cabinets for the new models. Nope.

So I decided that we should have them painted. Sangeeta knows a guy who does handy man work and he agreed to paint them all for $500.

He also installed a new faucet in the kitchen. The old one became so corroded that the swivel hinge at the base could no longer swivel, so turning the faucet from side to side forced the connector nut to loosen, and the whole thing began to wobble. The new one went in in about an hour and a half (including a trip to OSH to buy a hose adapter so the little connectors to the new faucet could mate with the big connector on the hot water valve under the sink) and it’s pretty sweet.

Anyway, I was stripping the nylon laminate while the Kings were losing 2-1 and time was running out. I didn’t want to watch the Kings lose, but they came back and surprised me by scoring the tying goal with 12 seconds left in the game. Then, with less than a minute left in overtime, Marian Gaborik lasers the puck past Martin Jones (former Kings backup goaltender) for the game winner. Had the Kings lost in regulation, San Jose would have pulled to within 6 points in the standings. Instead, the kings pulled a little farther away, opening their lead to 9 points in the Pacific Division. Sangeeta and I cheered so hard that we woke Saranya up. Oopsie. :)

EDIT: I forgot to mention that earlier in the game I had installed our new Epson printer. The old one died a mysterious death where it would simply error as soon as the power was turned on.

Woke up late! Barely had time to have my coffee before it was time to dress up and prepare for class. The girls had already gone. I got there in time to watch the end of Saranya’s class.

Saturday’s class was taught by TJ. He also had come to watch his kid in the KMx class, and he was not impressed. Saranya was pretty good. Looks like she had fun.

Anyway, warmups went fine. Shoulder tag went well. I was able to do very well against novices. I got a cramp in my right calf.

I met Andrew (Steve and Anna’s son) and we partnered up for the partner drills. Bursting in right cross then 1-2 combos while moving around. Front kick and 1-2. Then we did 360 defenses, then added a simultaneous punch, then worked it into overhand knife defense. It was a little different from the way I learned it last time, in that we controlled the wrist and pushed it back behind the attacker. It didn’t feel very secure. But we did put a lot more work into the disarm, which I had never really done before. Step back and extend the arm while putting the attacker off balance, then roll the wrist and either unroll the knife from the fist or (if the handle is sticking out) lever the knife from the hand. We finished with a stress drill where we stood with eyes closed and got to do either a front kick attack or a knife defense when someone approached us.

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!

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