Just Go Anyway

Today I was feeling sickly & would have skipped class, but I had my regular one-on-one teaching session with Big Daddy J, and there's no way I'm missing that unless I'm dragging a kidney behind me. My own, I mean. We went over a particular weakness of mine, headlock from the side on the ground, using Young R as my attacker. I think I have it now, or will have with a little more work - the important thing is, the light bulb went on in my head. We'll see how many watts it has next time I try the technique. We also discussed training people to be successful, or more specifically, never training them to fail. This is a continuation of my working with Crazy L to continue to deliver combatives until her attacker collapses, but I'm intrigued by how the concept can be applied to all aspects of our training, and am looking for opportunities to integrate it at every level.

2nd hour was level 3/4 with Relentless. Fun stuff today, & he was keeping it interesting by moving quickly through the techniques - combos 1-4, mouth of the hand strike, ridge hand strike, bobbing & weaving with and without strikes, front kick with ridge hand followup. We did a really fun drill for bobbing & weaving where my partner, Miss C, gets into a fighting stance & "glues" her feet to the ground. I try to rest the focus mitt on her head, her job is to bob & weave & move her head around so that I can't touch her with the mitt - without ever moving her feet. Its fun! Then legs only sparring. I'm working on blocking a round kick with the shin of my lead leg, then immediately kicking with that same leg. So far its working pretty well. I'm glad I came!

Rolling Around On The Ground

A happy Saturday. First hour was with Relentless, partnered with Crazy L, who is SO strong. Her front kicks often lift me off the ground when I hold the bag for her. Lots of basics today, so just working on good form. I'm reading an outstanding book by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman called On Combat, & he said something I can't get out of my mind: "When in combat, you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training." So, in other words, how you have trained is exactly how you will perform under stress. This means that...say you're defending against '2 handed choke from the front' in your krav class. You perform the pluck & front kick to perfection, but then you throw a couple of crappy knees & stop, standing there to wonder if that was correct. THIS is what you will do if you are attacked this way in real life! My teachers have always mentioned this, but the way Grossman presents it in his book made a huge impression on me. I made Crazy L continue to attack me until I dropped to the ground, & I did the same to her. This book really is revolutionizing the way I address training & I recommend it.

Second hour was freaking awesome, even though I generally got my butt handed to me the whole time. Krav groundfighting! Woo hoo! Escaping sidemount (oh, I cannot describe how badly I suck at this!), escaping being mounted (better!), escaping rear naked choke (pretty good! woo hoo!). And then we rolled. Rolling is fun! Young R is fun to roll with because he's pretty close to my size, but he hates to lose, so he'll go hard with me. Then he usually yells at me about whatever I did wrong, which is cute. Ah, well, eventually I will be able to pound him for it, and won't that be fun?

Gunned Down By My Own Self (11/13/08)

Today I worked with Big Daddy J on teaching practice. He made me talk through headlock from the side, teaching it using no gestures of any kind. Kravvers are very particular about how techniques are explained - its not "move in like this", but "move in at a 45 degree angle". Exercises like this really help me to understand I can perform the technique better as well as how I can express myself more clearly. Next I had to defend against various attacks, performed slowly. At first it was fine, but towards the end I still seemed to get overwhelmed. (Please make a big sigh here on my behalf.) Still, I'm making progress, and this makes me a happy girl.



Next hour was level 3/4 with Relentless. Oh, he kicks hard even when he's not kicking hard! The day I can take a real round kick from Relentless remain standing I'm buying myself a red cape & a mask to wear around town, just like Supergirl. I was partnerless for the majority of the class, so I worked the assigned kicks on the heavy bag, adding additional strikes at the end. I don't want to get into the habit of striking once and then automatically stopping and resetting. Once we moved on to gun defenses though, I intentionally worked in with the pair made up of a cop & his wife. When you work work gun, do it with a cop or a soldier, they can point out everything you're not doing that you should be doing, and look scary at the same time. They are freaking anal about technique, fight to keep their weapon, and have great advice. I recommend them!
I still get "shot" a lot, but hey, I'm working on it.

All Grown Up

Clearly, I should have taken a rest day after yesterday's Crossfit workout. But, no. Today I started off taking in the first 45 minutes of Mighty Mouse's bag class. Bag class is a great workout & an excellent way to work on your form when you are completely exhausted. Bag class is also an excellent way to become completely exhausted. A beastly warm up then straight on to attacking the heavy bag with constant punches & kicks, mixed in with fatigue drills.

I scooted out a few minutes early to join in Relentless' level 2/3, where I teamed up with Baby D for the first time. Combos on the mitts with bob & weave or roundhouse, then on to side kick & spinning side kick.

One thing about being older (I just turned 43) that's good is if I want something to be a certain way, I'm quite happy to tell you how we'll be doing things. Baby D told me he is not flexible & can't get his side kicks up high, so I told him that we'd just try it & see how it goes. His 2nd kick almost nailed my knee, so I immediately said, "Yep! You'll be kicking the heavy bag tonight!" (Incidentally, while he struggled to keep his side kicks up, his spinning side kicks were quite high!)

When I was very young there's no way I would have put him on the heavy bag. I wouldn't want to have offended him so I would have risked having my knee trashed in an effort to be "nice". Of course, he was not offended in the least.

I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self that its okay to ask for what you actually want! I see this same hesitation in other young girls and I'm not sure if I want to pat their arm or shake them. Of course, neither would help, but I can't help believing that krav maga training strengthens that part in them that would speak out. I know it has for me.

Torture on the Track

So my buddy Hairless J tells me his Crossfit workouts have tremendously improved his recovery time & his performance in krav. Seriously. He insists its true. So I think to myself, "Self, maybe you should quit hiding & try", because the truth is, I would do pretty much anything to improve my krav performance. I would stand on my head naked and play the trumpet if I really thought it would help. But I don't really think it would, so I don't do that.

SO today I joined my friends out on the track at Austin High School and did as I was told, which was the following:

run 400 meters
50 squats
5 pull ups

run 400 meters
50 push ups
5 pull ups

run 400 meters
50 sit ups
5 pull ups

run 400 meters
50 box jumps
5 pull ups

I tell you, by the next krav class I'm going to be Bruce Lee! Actually, though I'm really tired, its a good tired, and its easy to see how this will help my krav training. There is a possibility that I judged Crossfit too harshly in the past, but I'm not telling anyone that yet.

Learned my Lesson, I Hope

So today I was so cranky I expected people to ask me at any moment when I was releasing the flying monkeys. Then my friend JF reminded me I haven't worked out since Monday - aha! No wonder I am intolerable.

Too late for krav, so off to the gym with me. New gym program, in order (pre-tweak, we'll see how it goes):

pull ups
chin ups
squats
overhead squats
deadlifts
Romanian deadlifts
overhead press (do you have to say overhead? I don't know, but that's where the barbell's going)
dips
row
Swiss ball mountainclimbers (120)

Everything with a barbell, except pull ups, chins, & mountainclimbers.

No pushups because we do a bajillion of those in krav, and no burpees tonight because I was too lazy.

Sweaty. Panting. Happy.

Oh! Tired & sore, so its been a good night. First hour was a private lesson with Miss C, taught by the Gorgeous Bastard. Like last session, we spent the entire hour working headlock on the ground & still can't pull it off smoothly. For an interesting take on trying repeatedly to do something, & then have it all of a sudden click in & work, go to You Tube & watch Eddie Bravo: Drills Part 1. I tried to make a link to it, but it didn't work, so too bad about that! Bravo seems to be quite right, and I wonder what my number will be on this one.

2nd hour was level taught by Relentless. Was partnerless at first, so I just worked the techniques on the bag til someone showed up late & worked with him. He was fun, & wiry & strong. Also I LOVE inside defenses with the hand sweeping across instead of running your palm against the attacker's arm to redirect. Good good good! Ended with choke with a two handed pluck, my favorite defense for this attack.

3rd hour, Gorgeous Bastard again. This class was huge! As always with GB we did crazy drills I've never heard of (he seems to have an endless supply) & then worked uppercuts till the cows came home. Oh, my arms were so tired I just wanted those cows to go home so bad.
And I am now quite smelly.