classes, classes

Saturday - circuits
Marcus and Lee were both away on a course so lucky Michael got us for circuits. It was an interesting mash-up of the standard type of stations that Lee has us do (loads of kettlebells plus bodyweight exercises), plus lots of padwork. I think everybody enjoyed the padwork because a lot of it was kicking tae kwon do style, inc the infamous jumping 360 degree turning kick. This particular kick has no real application outside of sport sparring but it's fun to do and good exercise.

Monday - krav maga
OMG - shuttle runs done sprint style! I am a s-l-o-w runner, and my asthmatic old lungs didn't especially enjoy this wee warm up. I suspect that I'm probably too heavy ever to get v good at this, but that certainly doesn't invalidate the exercise. Was glad when we stopped though lol.

I was really well chuffed for my usual Monday training partner - she totally won this one, destroying all the guys in the process. Way to go!

In krav we worked some combinations to warm up:
Jab, cross, hook, knee knee
Jab, cross, hook, round kick etc

Lee quite rightly picked up that I have become quite "tappy tappy" when punching. I think this is a partly me not wanting to upset the pad holder by leathering the pads too hard, and also I think my distance is wrong. I always seem to think I'm taller than I actually am(!), so I tend to be further away from the pads than I should be, therefore my strikes are losing some oomf by the time they land. I will need to work on this ....

We then started looking at what I'm guessing may be a variant of the krav 360 defence. It's basically a check, parry move against a straight punch. We trained to use this from inside the punch. I know this particular move, or very similar, from my previous training, but there we were encouraged to utilise this defence from the outside. It's good to train it inside as well, as you may not always have the luxury or opportunity to move to the outside.

Tuesday - krav maga
Wot? 2 days in a row? For some mad reason, it seemed like A Really Good Idea to go to last night's krav class. It was a big class. It was a good class. I was the only girl. I have many bruises, esp on my foot where if I got trodden on once, I got trodden on about 20 times!

We did much skipping to warm up - slightly tricky on a crowded mat lol. I ended up with the world's shortest skipping rope and kept clouting myself on the back of the head. Was better than catching my toes though, as that really stings!

We also did loads of pushups. I can manage 'wheelbarrow' style (where your partner lifts your feet off the ground) but the handstand variant was well nippy! Is good thing our partners were supporting our legs cos my balance isn't that great these days. Mind you, first time we tried I landed on my face lol.

There is a real gulf in intensity between the 'mixed' (read: guys plus the odd female) and women-only classes. We leathered some pads to warm up, then started adding in a takedown or two. I'm fine with takedowns but it was interesting last night because:
a) the Thai pads didn't half get in the way (cracking noise on breakfall though lololol)
b) the guy I was working with is lovely but he's a big hefty lad and I was toiling to make the takedown really work for me.

We then worked as groups of 4, effectively doing a Circle of Death. One person attacks and takes the defender to the ground. The other two then join in and all 3 give the defender a right kicking(!) The defender then has to pick their moment to regain their feet and get away. This was an important skill to practice, as it was training several things:

1) the importance of using the 'foetal position' to cover up and defend your face / head and stomach / groin.
2) using momentum to regain your feet.
3) picking your moment to regain your feet.
4) still covering up while regaining your feet.

It was also good in terms of learning to take some good hits! Mind you, thank god for all that MMA training - my mate Tracy hits harder and is meaner than any guy I know. She has lamped me some beauties over the years and I was grateful for that last night!

Marcus chose this moment to point out to the guys that they should hit me just as hard, something along the lines of since I'd chosen to come to krav then I needed to take the hits lol. I did, of course, point out that not only did I get to hit back, but I know where it hurts .....

Then we went back into our pairs and did a drill where the defender takes a shot to the face, covers up then moves into their attacker until they can manoeuvre their opponent into a chest to back position. After we'd worked that for a bit, we started adding in a takedown. This takedown seemed like a bit of a combo between a hip throw and a shoulder throw. Slightly tricky for me to achieve with my partner, due to his size and his reluctance to be thrown. Was carnage on the mats though, with bodies everywhere!

Overall, good class although my shoulder is nipping like beggary this morning. Have no idea what I've done it. Probably combination of all those bleedin' push ups and falling on it ....