Mizblog

My first class back after the holiday closure and renovation. I had strained my shoulder on xmas day, but it was mostly all better by class time. Still, I was apprehensive because of how easily I fell apart in the past.

The studio has two new rows of pads that extends toward where the big desk used to live (it’s smaller now) and the back room was extended out by one pad. The walls were painted a serious green, and some of it had been dripped on the pads. I heard they were still taking down tape when the kids were warming up on Monday afternoon. And there’s more to come!

Anyway, we started with shadow boxing, then shoulder tag, then running around. There’s an extra 6′ of mat to sprint now, so it gets a lot more difficult in the warm up. Still, I handled it, but I was a little out of breath and shaky.

Focus mitts and gloves, did combos with bursting cross punch and mixed in 360 defenses. Burst and 360 would factor into the later knife defense.

So, knife defense. I still horribly suck at punching with my left fist while blocking with my right hand bladed. We addressed the problem of “training scars” by donning a right boxing glove and throwing/landing actual punches to the knife wielding attackers. It motivates the attacker to duck the chin and bite down on the mouth guard. It does rattle the brain a little bit, but we weren’t throwing heat. Ronnie forgot to tuck his chin once and caught one in the nose. No blood.

TJ taught the last morning KM class of 2016, and I was there! Standard warm ups, then round kicks to thai pads with Josh. We practiced high round kick blocking and low round kick checking. Then we put on shin pads and had some round robin kick sparring.

At the end, we moved to the back room and practiced gun defense from behind.

TJ’s Saturday morning class was my first taste of Krav Maga this month after a series of infections and illnesses kept me off the mat for weeks. I felt awkward and heavy, but TJ was surprised to hear that I was free from injury coming in.

Started with shadow boxing and shoulder tag. The usual. Went to some thai pad stuff, some front kick stuff, and at the end we did gun defense from the front but with a redirect that left us on the live side. Control was with straight arms and tucked chin. Counter attack was kicks to the groin. Take away levers the gun back toward the elbow to break the grip.

EDIT: I was very sore for 4 days afterward, but sustained no injuries!

Saw the dermatologist and was given the green light to start training again, using deodorant, generally get back to normal.

Got a staph infection in my nose, as well as an unidentified rash in my left armpit. Legacy of Nepal, no doubt. Got me depressed.

Third class in 4 months, right? Teaching the class today was Cody, who’s a beefy brown belt. We did a pretty standard warm-up with shrimps, rolls, and hip walks. Then we got into the guillotine drills.

I teamed up with Jarred for the whole class. Starting with arm-in guillotine as a response to a take-down attempt. They key there was to dip the wrapping arm’s shoulder down to shrink the space. Then we went to arm-in guillotine as a response to a half-guard sweep attempt. I kept having trouble getting the arm to go in, because Jarred was using it across my neck for the sweep.

At last we got to arm-free guillotine, which lets you take that wrapping arm’s hand and pull it up with your other hand, lock the pulling arm’s elbow and forearm over the back of the choke-ee, and that’s a wrap. Still tuck your shoulder down over the wrapping arm, but that pulling arm locked over the back is the killer.

I left early before I got my picture taken.

TJ’s back, and he taught the Saturday morning class. Warm up was the usual shadow boxing and shoulder tag, but we also added in calisthenics like 20 push ups and 30 squats. Had some all-on-one shoulder tag as well. Then stretching, then focus mitts.

Focus mitts were jab, slip, hook, knee to start, then jab, slip, hook, liver shot, cross. Or something like that. Then we swapped out the left focus mitt for a kick shield, and did jab + round kick combos. We even practiced simultaneous punch + kick front/back.

Christian taught this class, and it started with mouth guards in. We paired up and punched each other slowly, relying on our inside defenses to keep us from contact to our vulnerable areas. Jeff reminded me implicitly that I need to make my abdomen shorter while in my fighting stance, because he hit me in the stomach several times, and my elbows did not extend low enough for the inside defense to block them.

We added focus mitts to this little process, and it was hectic. I ended up briefly in a 3-way group with a guy named Matt, whose mouthpiece was so big he could not talk at all.

After that, we got kick shields and did front kicks with ball of foot. First from fighting stance, then from neutral stance, then from neutral against an advancing opponent.

Finally we did defense against downward knife stab. 360 block while simultaneously punching, slide the blocking hand to a wrist grab and keep it pressed behind their back, establish standing side control and deliver knees and groin kicks, then turn the knife under, in front, and towards their body, wrapping their wrist forward towards their chest, and using that leverage to disarm the knife.

Christian taught my first class back after an absence of over a month. I was very apprehensive, feeling out of shape and weak. My few short attempts at exercise have resulted in a tweaked back, so I’m expecting an avalanche of pain. But my previous injuries have mostly healed overPeople were generally glad to see me after my long break.

Christian had us pull out a heavy bag, a medicine ball, a kettle bell, a jump rope, and a kick shield. We then started class and got busy on the equipment. We were throwing odd combinations of punches, which I felt super awkward throwing. 2 straights, 2 hooks, and 2 upper cuts. Then jump rope, then left straight, hook, upper cut, followed by right straight, hook, and upper cut, then back to the left. AWKWARD! Anyway, jumped more rope, then … blablablah. It sucked. I hurt my toe trying to climb the heavy bag with my feet while my hands were on the ground. Ouch.

We stretched, then gloved up and did multi-punch combos with focus mitts. Jab, slip, cross, liver punch for the first round, then jab, slip, cross, liver punch, hook, elbow strike, and pivot.

Then we got a tombstone and did 2 kick combos. Left groin kick and right round kick, then right groin kick and left round kick. Next combo left push kick right round kick, right push kick left round kick.

Did some inside defenses and 360 defenses. Hurt my left thumb a little on this one.

Did gun from behind. I accidentally elbowed Ronnie in the face.

Well, Saranya and I are. And I’ve got an itchy face, a rash starting in my left arm pit, and the sniffles. Saranya has diarrhea and stomach cramps. Sangeeta stayed in Nepal to take care of family stuff.