this week's classes

Despite the whole Busted Toes Incident, this week hasn't been a total loss in terms of training. We have had:

Saturday - circuits
This was a bit of a 'mean mother' of a class, to be honest. We had:

standing rotations with a 7kg medicine ball
kettlebell swings and snatches
rollouts with ab roller
ladder (to improve foot speed) with bodyweight drills at either end
plyometric jumps (I was pants at these on the first circuit, but nailed it on the next)

Once we done several circuits of these stations we moved onto kettlebell drills (eg swings, presses, squats etc) followed by some bodyweight drills. Then it was onto the bags for some timed combinations, which inevitably end up being more challenging than you think they ever will be. We finished off working the Thai pads in pairs, with the padholder shouting out the combinations and keeping the defender moving. This one challenges the brain as well as the CV system! Good class, good workout.

Monday - krav maga
This one started off with the challenge of the sprint shuttle runs, in which my main achievement was being slow lol. Once we'd burst ourselves doing that we did some bodyweight drills to really finish us off.

We then looked at some of the level 2 strikes in isolation before moving onto the pads to work some combinations. Poor UTP (Usual Training Partner). I was slightly over-enthusiastic with a front kick and the pad smacked her in the nose. No harm done and she got her own back with the "1, 2, 3 Ow!" dance later on.

We then revised the check / block and counter defence from last week. UTP and I kind of flailed at each other for a bit before we settled into a rhythm. If I'm honest, this one always throws me when done at speed because krav seems to prefer to work this defence on the inside whereas I previously trained something very similar but from the outside. So there's a whole mental flap going on which can make me flail at bit at times. I'm sure it's highly amusing for others to watch.

Tuesday - krav maga
We started with skipping, then moved onto bodyweight drills - 3 sets of:

25 squats
25 pushups
25 crunches
25 star jumps

Then we moved onto working combinations on the Thai pads with our partners. These got steadily more complicated, and moved us through the striking ranges from close to medium to long.

Marcus then split the class into student levels so we could work on the relevant self defence. In our group we worked as a 3 on defence against a side headlock, on parrying and defending striking and on stop kicks. 5 mins from the end we had the whole Bust Toes Incident ....

Wednesday - no class
Not specifically because of ma wee tootsies - I had already signed up to go to a lecture in town.

Thursday - chi kung & kung fu
I wasn't sure how the toes would hold out but it was generally fine. Although I normally find chi kung v relaxing, I was actually quite fidgetty last night. Because I've been limping, my right side has been compensating for the left, so my right hip is all sore.

I wasn't sure how I would get on with the kung fu class, but the Sifu was brilliant. I stayed at the back out of the way and did what I could. In the stance training, I kept my stances shorter so that I didn't have so much weight on the left foot. The footwork training was generally ok, but I was slower to move because I had to 'think' more to make sure I didn't put too much pressure on my left foot. Striking work was fine, kicking was tricky for balance but I was ok if I speeded up.

We had an odd number in class so instead of partner work, I kept on with the solo training then rested my foot towards the end.

Going to class was obviously a risk, but because the training isn't high speed or high impact I felt it was one that was worth taking. I'm finding that keeping the foot moving is more helpful than not.

Today I have much more flex in the foot so am v hopeful that it's really on the mend now.