Category: Martial Arts

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…A Little Uncomfortable, Time to Play

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali. I woke up had a lot on my plate, went into work early to get a cake done that my boss needed me to do. Her boss asked for me personally to do the cake. =)

Everything on this cake is made by me, and is edible.

I don’t usually show my work here. But this is just an example of what I have/had to work on today.

I digress though… back to the martial arts. =)

Muay Thai – A Little Uncomfortable

There are days we cover so much, and then there are days were we need to just drill out what we have been working on. Lately we have been working on the T.B.A. (Thai Boxing Association) Thai 17 count. But today Kru Kristen broke down some of the combinations.

The first combo we worked on left knee, left kick, cross, hook, right kick. With this combo we were working on knee to left kick, we needed to load the kick and not just land heavy on the left foot. We needed to set it back almost parallel with our back foot so that we could take the quick step and land the kick. With this combo we were working on flow, and transition, trying to make them smooth, and in my case kicking harder.

The second combo we worked on is right knee, right kick, hook, cross, left kick. Again we were working on the knee to right kick, with a quick step to load and step out. Producing power, and a better striking kick when you do. Flow and transition are again things we needed to strive to attain.

Its important to learn new skills but it is also important to take apart the new skills, drills, moves, and work the parts through. I feel that doing this, gives me time to develop the skills I need so that next time we go through the entire Thai 17 count I will be just a tiny bit improved. Its all about them baby steps.

We worked on clench work after that. We worked with the less experienced students, and were helping them learn half clench, to off balances.

Kru Kristen said an interesting thing. Training is important, and taking people to a high fear level, like throwing them into sparring to soon, is a detriment. The high fear just hinders their learning, however, on the other hand letting them stay in this cushy close, comfortable area does them no good. You can have a great technician, that does not know how to practically use the skills they have. You have some one that is good at fighting but does not have the technical skills. Its taking a student out of their comfort zone, and making them a little uncomfortable is where the real learning comes from. So practicing the skill in a safe environment is important, but then letting the student play around with it is also important. I personally have noticed this is true. You can see how a skill can get used, then strung together with another move, and you can begin to see the openings. When I first started learning Muay Thai, and Kali, the instructors would talk about seeing openings in a persons attack. This was daunting for me then. How was I supposed to remember the attack or move and see an opening at the same time? I can tell you it gets better with experience. You will see the openings when you know what they look like, and you will see what they look like when you learn the moves and how to make your body do the strike.

Kali – Time to Play

In Kali we worked on playing with each other. Kru Kristen says that playful drills where we are able do some flow drills, while then being able to find an opening and using a previously learned move is the beginnings of sparring. Now I have been sparring for a while now, and she has mentioned this before. I agree with her. Being able to take the fear out of it, but making it it fun, and just a partner and yourself just trying to find an in/entry. Or you and a partner trying to find a way to alternate drills that you are doing forces your brain to look for those openings.

We worked on hubud drills again, body pummeling, wrist pummeling, and Thai Boxing pummeling. She encouraged us to talk while doing it. She did not want us to focus on our hands but what our partners energy was doing. Where were they moving their body to, and could you counter without looking directly at their hands.

So to bring the same theme into the Kali class, she wanted us to have time to play. Because if we can play and flow through the hubud, flow drills, then into the body grappling, and then out again into striking, you can see where you would have a opening. Again play is the precursor to sparring, and allows us to be in a safe environment but again, makes you slightly uncomfortable.

This has become a long blog, and if you read this far, wow and thank you. I need to wrap this up and head to bed.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali… Ring My Bell, Hubud

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali, practice. Today I was feeling much better energy wise. I was feeling some D.O.M.S from yesterdays workout in my triceps, but over all feeling great. Today was another one of those satisfying you know you worked hard workouts.

Muay Thai – Ring My Bell

Today we worked more on the T.B.A.’s Thai 17 count. I was able to go through all of it no problem. Woot! However, today it was over 84 degrees F or 29 degrees C for you across the pond. So hot when you are in a gym with 30 other adults and they don’t have the air conditioning on. The heat saps your energy, but you keep going cause you don’t want to quit. However, there were a few people who had to bow out for a few minutes due to heat, exhaustion or other problems. Not I though. I toughed it out and you can see how sweaty we all got just from my picture.

When I say Ring My Bell…No I did not mean this song:

What I mean is getting one’s bell rung inside the ring. That is what happened to me. During our sparring section of the class, I am working on being more aggressive, but in smart way that does not telegraph what I am doing. Notice the operative phrase “working on”. I am not there yet have a lot of practice sparring to do to get there. Getting ones bell rung in the ring is when a hard blow lands. Now for me everything got a little fuzzy. I had to stop for a second shake it off, and crack my neck right after. Kru Kristen was concerned for me and kept checking up on me. What happened was a hook landed on my cheek and part of my temple. Luckily we were just sparring so my opponent was not going as hard as he could have. But he did land a harder hit than he meant to. So that meant my head snapped around to the side, causing a few seconds of disorientation, and an internal monologue, “are we alright, all systems functioning, are we good to go?” This internal monologue happened within 30 seconds to a minute.

Is this the first time it has happened? Nope, I can count on my hand how many times it has happened. Maybe 3 times at most in my full year of training with Muay Thai.

Will it happen again? Is the Pope Catholic? Yes to both questions. I imagine it will happen again. This is a striking martial art and as such you will get hit. I cannot block every sing incoming strike. I would love to be that good, but no one really is. There are variations of that good, and I hope to learn enough to get better at blocking, but some hits will land no matter what you do.

Kali – Hubud

In Kali we worked on the hubud. This is the flow drill where we practice trapping and feeling the energy or flow of our partner. What we mean by energy is the feeling when a person is changing their stance, or when they lean in, or when the release pressure. We are using these drills to get the feel for when a person is changing something in their body stance, aggression, etc. When we learn what it feels like when a person say changes from defensive to aggressive moves, we can change out hand work, and trap their hands, or arms, or protect ourselves from the weapons that they are using.

Here is a video of people working on the Hubud. With the hubud, we meet the force of the attack, redirect, pak the arm, and trap the arm.

We also worked on, grappling flow drills.

1) Bicep control
2) Single arm clench
3) Wrist control

Kru Kristen says all martial arts have some sort of grappling and if we can learn how to grapple even just a little bit we will have more tools to deal with an opponent.

That is all for today. It is late and I must go to sleep. Have a great night all.

Saturday Krav, Bo Staff, and Muay Thai…Exhaustion, Full TBA 17 count, and Minnesota Shuffle.

3.5 hours of martial arts training. With D.O.M.S set in from my weight lifting workout yesterday. I woke up to my daughter asking about a math problem, and my legs screaming at me about my workout yesterday. We rolled out of bed and grabbed breakfast.

Krav

I started my training with Krav. We worked on striking, different striking patterns. Jab, cross, hook, uppercut. Jab, jab, cross, hook. Jab, cross, hook left side, hook right side. I even was able to show a lady in my class some the Thai parries to knee, elbow or clench entries. I also was able to show her the Thai scoop to knee, arm lock, and elbow or clench entries. That was fun and a great warm up.

Bo Staff – swinging from the hip

In bo staff class, we warmed up with a double hand swing of bo staff. We then worked on the 17 strikes to the body. I was able to help the new people with the 17 strikes. I was so surprised at how well I remembered the 17 count with the staff. You can see the strike positions on the paper doll I made bellow.

We then worked on upper strike, low strike, low strike, upper strike. We had some new people that came from another gym and we were able to work with them. They had not had a chance to train with bo staves and had a great time. We worked on controlling the center line again, and swinging from the hip.

Muay Thai – Exhaustion

We start Muay Thai, and at this point I have been training for 2 hours, and am going into my third hour. I am feeling the exhaustion set in. But I pull up my big girl pants and push on. Let me just say this was one of the most exhausting training sessions we had, but it was fantastic.

Kru Kristen wanted to work on and finish up the TBA (Thai Boxing Association) Thai 17 count.

Muay Thai 17 – this is the full 17

  1. Lead Teep
  2. Lead Torso Kick, for me Left Roundhouse Kick
  3. Cross
  4. Hook
  5. Upward Rear Knee, or Right Upward knee for me
  6. Lead Horizontal Elbow or Left Horizontal Elbow
  7. Downward Diagonal Rear Elbow or Right Downward Diagonal Elbow
  8. Parry Cross – (does not count as a step)
  9. Upward Rear Knee or Upward Right Knee for me
  10. Rear kick or Right Roundhouse Kick
  11. Hook
  12. Cross
  13. Lead torso kick, or Left round house kick for me
  14. Rear knee
  15. Rear torso kick, or right round house kick for me
  16. Hook
  17. Cross
  18. Clench, 6 skip knees, swing out/off balance partner, then double kick.

Oh my goodness, we worked on the 17 count for an hour with our partners. I am so tired at this point.

So to give you a little glimpse into how we train. Kru Kristen will show us the first 5 count of the Thai 17. We will practice it with our partners holding pads for a 3 minute round. After that round she will tell us to do 25 skip knees of one of the three kinds. Then we switch the pads and hold pads for our partners. Let them practice that same 5 count for 3 minute rounds. Then they have to do the skip knees. Kru Kristen will demonstrate the next set 5 or 6 steps/strikes of the Thai 17. We will then lather rinse and repeat, till we learn all of the 17 count.

The last round we did, she had us do the Minnesota Shuffle. What is the Minnesota Shuffle you ask? Well let me tell you. It is hell when you have been working so hard for hours ahead. I have a love hate relationship with it. It is fantastic for cardio, and training, but hurt so much when you are tired.

How do you do the Minnesota Shuffle you ask? You have to do “machine gun kicks” or rapid kicks. These kicks are not meant to be hard, but to be quick. Your feeder chooses a side and says 1, you do one kick. Then they say 2, and you do 2 kicks rapidly. Lather, rinse and repeat up to 5 kicks. Then you have to do 25 skip knees, and then wait for it… 1 to 5 kicks on the other side. I love, and I hate these. Today I was so happy to get through it not be supper gassed, but I was/am exhausted. That means my cardio is getting more awesome.

Then after that, she split us upper class men/higher armband students out and had us sparring. She said, “no one will be hitting hard now in sparring cause we are so tired.” She tired us out, and then threw us in to a ring and told us to spar. Which sounds bad, but I think the goal is to replicate the ring environment, when the adrenaline dumps, you revert back to your basic skills. Also, when you are that tired you are forced to focus on technique. There is certainly a method to her madness, and I love it.

I love leaving a class feeling this exhausted, because I worked so hard. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I push my body further. Even if I hate the recovery for the next few days. =) I know I am working to improve myself.

If you have read this far, wow. I have been really wordy, but had to get a lot of information in from my three and a half hours. Thank you for reading. I hope you have a great holiday weekend if you celebrate Easter/Passover, or just a great weekend in general.

Thursday Muay Thai, and Kali…Thai 17 count/Clench Sparring, Figure 8 family, Kilap Lightening

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali. We worked on new things and I got a great day of training in. Clench work will tire you out faster than anything. I am bushed.

Muay Thai – Thai 17 count/Clench Sparring

In Muay Thai today we worked more on the 17 count drill, we added hook, cross, right cross, right leaning knee, to right kick again. I believe I got that right. If I have to fix it I will. =)

Muay Thai 17 – the 15 we did so far:

  1. Lead Teep
  2. Lead Torso Kick, for me Left Roundhouse Kick
  3. Cross
  4. Hook
  5. Upward Rear Knee, or Right Upward knee for me
  6. Lead Horizontal Elbow or Left Horizontal Elbow
  7. Downward Diagonal Rear Elbow or Right Downward Diagonal Elbow
  8. Parry Cross
  9. Upward Rear Knee or Upward Right Knee for me
  10. Rear kick or Right Roundhouse Kick
  11. Hook
  12. Cross
  13. Rear torso kick, or right round house kick for me
  14. Rear knee
  15. Rear torso kick, or right round house kick for me

In Muay Thai we continued with clench sparring. Kru Kristen said students of all levels can work on that together today. The thing with clench sparring, or grappling, is it will sap your energy. You are trying to fight another persons grappling to keep them from off balancing you, and kneeing you, and getting a better clench on you.

I got to work with very tall people, and I worked on underhook clench, controlling the elbows above my head clench, and also bicep control clench. I need to remember to relax and just let my body framing do the work. When you fight it and try to muscle it you gass yourself faster. My instinct is to muscle it cause I am so much shorter than everyone else. After clench sparring, where everyone is drenched in sweat and dying of exhaustion we stayed for an awesome Kali class.

Kali – Figure 8 Family Flow Drill, Kilap Lightening (I might have kilap mispelled, but can’t find a comparable work on the internet so it will stay this way till I can ask Kru Krysta)

We worked on the figure 8 family flow drills. Where we started up high to hit the head then come back up to hit the ribs in a figure 8. We then followed up with an abecedario where we hit the knee then the head again with a #14 strike. We moved to mid area, or standard doing the same thing, aiming for the ribs and then, then knee strike, and head strike, then we worked on the lower range, aiming for the knees. All figure 8’s, and flowing so we get motion of how you want to move through the person.

Kilap Lightening was the next. It is also called tres personas ( father, son, and holy ghost), this is where you witik your opponents head, then come back with a forehand strike to 14, then you do a power shot down to crack open the head.

I made a video of us doing these things.

The next skill we learned was the half T and full T flow drills. This drill is called this cause you are attacking the head of your opponent, then leaning down to attack their feet, pulling up to hit what you can on the up and then attacking the head again.

I recorded a video of us practicing this drill as well.

And last, I was going through and trying to remember where the shots in the figure 8 flow drill were supposed to land. Because understanding where on the body the blows were supposed to hit, is a crucial part of Kali. This informs your swings and lets you see where you need to hit, how to twist your body, hand and feet placement.

It is really late here, and I have a early morning wake up. So I am going to end it here. Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week.

Tuesday Muay Thai, and Kali…1 hit landed in every 4 count is good, JKD Flow

2.5 hours of Muay Thai and Kali. I am bushed, but so very pleased. We got to learn new things, and you will get to see me mess up the new drills. Woot! But my hope is to get better over time. Also D.O.M.S. (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) set in early today. At about 11 am I noticed my hamstrings and glutes hurt when I tried to squat down onto the floor. Woo Hoo Ouch!… that is how you know you did a good workout yesterday.

Muay Thai – 1 hit in every 4 count landed is good

In Muay Thai, we were working on a new drill combo. We were learning the Muay Thai 17 count. Squee! A new count to learn. What that means is I am shit at it, till I learn it all the way, and have done it at least 1000 times. But it is a new drill yay!

Muay Thai 17 – the 10 we did so far:

  1. Lead Teep
  2. Lead Torso Kick, for me Left Roundhouse Kick
  3. Cross
  4. Hook
  5. Upward Rear Knee, or Right Upward knee for me
  6. Lead Horizontal Elbow or Left Horizontal Elbow
  7. Downward Diagonal Rear Elbow or Right Downward Diagonal Elbow
  8. Parry Cross
  9. Upward Rear Knee or Upward Right Knee for me
  10. Rear kick or Right Roundhouse Kick

Here is a video of me practicing. I am exhausted at this point, and have been through 2 hours of class today right before it. I am sapped.

After this drill, we broke off the people with yellow armbands and above, and we got to spar each other. I am loving sparring more. I just feel ignorant when doing it. Like I should block everything, and I should hit everything but that is not realistic. Kru Kristen says, “if you get 1 hit to land in for every 4 count you throw at your opponent, then you are doing well.” You are not going to get every hit in. That is the way of things. She also said there is a difference in hitting your opponent in sparring with intent verses with power. You don’t have to hit hard, and you should not. You are not trying to destroy your training partners. However, you should bring intent to the ring. You should honestly try to hit your partners. It does not do you or them any good if you are afraid to hit them, or don’t want to hit them. You can’t train well if you do that.

So I am excited to keep sparring and to keep learning new things. I have a bruise on my left shin from shielding/blocking a kick. We were using shin guards. I can imagine how much damage my shin would have taken if I had not had the shin guards on.

Kali – JKD Flow Drills

We got to work on some really fun flow drills. When I started doing it well, and stop thinking about it, the drill did flow well. I got a great compliment from Kru Krysta about the fact that I was doing it well. =) However, if you stop to think about what you are doing, it will mess you up. It messes me up all the time. I have to trust my body and let it do what it needs to do.

I have them written down in Chinese and in English. I will link the Chinese words to my glossary I have started. Trying to keep this straight without that reference page was getting harder, and harder. I also filmed my doing them… I can’t wait till I flow better with these.

First drill:

Feint high punch, Ping choy, gua choy, lop sao, gua choy, cross, hook, cross, nao tek

Feint high punch, horizontal fist body shot, back Fist, grabbing hand and strike, back fist, cross, hook, cross, pendulum kick

Second Drill:

Feint high punch, Ping choy, gua choy, pak sao, da, lop sao, gua choi, cross, hook, nao tek

Feint high punch, horizontal fist body shot, back fist, slapping hand, strike, grabbing hand, back fist, cross, hook, pendulum kick

These drills are a lot of fun. We were both pretty tired from sparring and Muay Thai class. But I love these drills and plan on shadow boxing them, and trying to make my flow much more flowing.

That is all for me tonight. It is late and I have a 5 am wake up tomorrow. Thanks for reading. I hope you have a fantastic week.

Saturday Bo Staff, and Muay Thai…Swing from the hip, Speed vs Power

2.5 hours of Bo Staff Training and Muay Thai. I had a late night at work last night, so lets see if I can remember everything we did today. I made a diagram today! I write my blogs up after my training, sometimes right away and some times hours after. The time I write it up depends on what my schedule looks like. So inevitably I forget parts of training, but here is what I remember. The highlights if you will.

Bo Staff Class – Swing from the hip

(note: The numbering system for these strikes sometimes differ depending on your Goru. Each gym may follow a different Goru, but the targets are the same regardless of the numbers. )

For this class we worked on 17 count again. With staves we have to slide our hands along the staff when we change which side we are holding from. But we do not have to change all the time. Just when we are swinging from the hip. When we are striking with a 1 or 2 blow, we just keep our hands where we had them. When we work on 3 or 4 strike you have to slide your hand down the staff and use your hip and foot work to push through your opponent. So I have a lot to work on. I made a diagram of the 17 count strikes, because its helpful to me, and easier to explain with a picture I think.

We worked on controlling the center line with staves. Where we meet the force of a #6 thrusting strike, and move it off center line. Then follow the staff up with ours to complete thrusting strike ourselves, either to abdomen or face. Our instructor wanted us to work on controlling the center line because a person may swing wildly but if you can get in close and control the center line. It is hard to deflect. So learning how to deflect thrusting blows, and also how to give them is a huge tool in our tool box.

Muay Thai striking class – Speed vs Power

So lately I have been working on power in my kicks and knees. But there are different reasons to work on speed. We are told often that when we relax and let the kick happen instead of forcing it. We will kick far harder.

It is hard and counter intuitive to think this way. If you are asked to hit harder, or kick harder, you instinctively try to muscle your way through it. However, in Muay Thai that is just what you have to do. Kicking is not about muscling your way through its about doing the form as perfectly as you can, using physics and momentum with the torque of your full body to lay the kick in.

Today we worked on same side teeps, kicks, punch/elbows, to knees. If you have read some of my other blog posts. I mention the 4 counts. Where you go left to right. Left kick, cross, hook, right kick is just one example. Today we were teeping with right leg, to right kick, to right punch or elbow, to clenching up, then getting the knees in.

We also worked on knees to push the opponent away, to kicks, to punches.

Our object is to get speed and timing in. Less worry about the power, but get the feel and timing in.

It is my understanding and hope, that sometime in the future the speed and power will meet and I will have both. But for now I have to just work on both and hope to keep improving.

Food -choices/lifestyle

We went to late lunch, early dinner after, and I wanted to share something with you that I do often. I know a lot of my friends and family say they cannot eat out, or eat anything fun while dieting. I say dieting is not the way to go. Changing your lifestyle is the way to go. You can eat out if you choose healthy options. Making small good for your health decisions is easier than, saying, I can’t go out and enjoy food and company of friends and family. Soon you will resent your “diet” and may even fall off the wagon.

This picture is the food I ordered at The Cheesecake Factory. This is the dish I got.

CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAP TACOS

Butter Lettuce Leaves Filled with Grilled Chicken and your Choice of:

ASIAN
Carrots, Bean Sprouts, Cucumber, Cilantro and Rice Noodles with Spicy Cashew Sauce

450 calories, 140 fat cals, 15 g total fat, 4 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 80 mg cholesterol, 1040 mg sodium, 49 g fiber, 3 g total carbs, 32 g sugar,
29 g proteins

This was from the appetizer part of their Skinnylicous menu. This is huge for an appetizer, and perfect for a meal. Most of their regular menu items are 1500 to 2000 calories, and loads of fat and cholesterol. If you are in the U.S.A. just keep an eye out for healthy options, and you will be successful with your goals.

Well that is all, this blog post is long enough. Thank you for reading. Have a great rest of your day.

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali… Upward Knees, Knife Flow Drills, Flowery Death

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali training. Today was a regular day, nothing remarkable about it, but I was able to get some more practice in. Its these days that sometimes we have to slog through to get to the progress we want. Its hard not to think that you might be stagnating when you have a just regular day. But I am telling myself that you don’t have to have extreme days to make progress. It was neither to hard or to easy. It was able to do all the moves, and did not get confused. Yay!

Muay Thai – Upward Knees

We worked on pummeling, 50/50 grip or half plumb. We worked on knife hand pummeling. We worked on bicep control pummeling. Then we worked on knees. Then we worked on defense with knee. Tuesday we worked on offence with knee.

Opponent enters with a jab, we parry, grab neck and shoulder, pull them into our knee, then downward diagonal elbow, to full plumb, 5 skip knees, off balance and throw the opponent, then two kicks either left or right.

Opponent throws jab, we catch jab, opponent throws cross, we parry cross, grab back of neck, and shoulder, pull them into our knee, downward diagonal elbow, to full plumb, 5 skip knees, off balance and throw opponent, then two kicks either left or right, depending on which way you throw them.

We then did pummeling drills where we off balanced our opponent and swung them around. The key to off balance and throwing your opponent is. Where their head goes their body goes. You pull their head off center line, their body is more likely to go there.

Kali – Flowery Death, Knife Flow Drills

We started with practicing our palm stick gunting drills. Then we went in to our knife drills. We worked on getting the sensitivity to the opponents moves and dealing several blows in flowing motion to one limb. In this case the arm.

For the Knife Flow Drills -we started with the pakal grip (or ice pick grip).

  • The opponent feeds a 1 (coming from right hand side of opponent at a downward diagonal angle to me), I gunting (scissor) his arm, then cut into his triceps controlling that cut arm I stab into the well of his neck.
  • The opponent feeds a two (coming from left hand side in a horizontal ark), I zone, block with the blade of my arm and the actual blade cut up, cut bicep while controlling the hand/arm with a pak (slap) and then sink the blade into the well of his neck.
  • The opponent feeds a 3 (coming from the right hand side in a horizontal ark), I zone and block with blade of my arm and blade of knife, cut bicep, while controlling the arm I just cut and sink blade into the well of opponents neck.
  • The opponent feeds a 4( coming from the left hand side of opponent in a downward diagonal angel to me), I gunting (scissor) his arm, then cut the triceps, control that arm with a pak (slap), then sink the blade into the well of his neck.

For this drill, the 1 and 3 strikes you pass the energy using gunting (scissor) and for strikes 2 and 4 you meet the force. Using the blade of your forearm and the knife you stop the force and cut the opponent in the process.

Apparently I bring the flowery death. I will make your death look pretty. Lol When we were practicing this drill, for the strikes 1 and 3 I was flourishing with my knife. Which while pretty, eats up a few extra seconds. Our guest instructor for the day wanted us to pass the energy and just cut quickly into the meat of the triceps. He said because severing the triceps will make it so your opponent cannot use that arm to do anything.

I have a 5 am wake up tomorrow, so that is all for me today. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful rest of your day.

Wednesday Muay Thai… open mat practice, working on my form

1.5 hours of Muay Thai practice on open mat, and just working on my form. I need to practice all I can get in, because I want to get my form and power correct. My goal for this kick is to stagger the opponent and then continue on my attack. If I can stagger my opponent then get in a hook and cross, or cross and hook, I got three shots in without taking a return shot.

This particular kick is meant to jar you, move you, and eventually I need to get enough power in it to scramble your opponents insides. There are different ways to put in your kick for your goals. For instance I can do damaging kicks to your leg (often quick successive repeat kicks to break down the muscle), however a kick to a leg you are going to try to kick out from under your opponent is more power.

Kru Kristen told me to visualize kicking through my opponent. I am trying to put more power in to my kicks. When he steps back that is cause I kicked so hard it caused him to stagger back a bit. Not every kick is there but I am trying to get there.



I worked on my punches as well. I don’t want to go back to the slapping habit, so need to keep practicing my punches.

I worked on knees, and tried flying knees… those are sad looking for me, so I need to work on those.

Anyway that is it for today. Thank you for reading, I hope your day is going well. Also 57 followers/readers wow! I never would have guessed that would happen.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali… Old Slapping Habit, Hammer Lock to Basset Dal

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali training. Have you ever noticed that when you focus so hard on fixing say a move you are doing, or an exercise you are doing, that you revert to old bad habits in other areas?

Muay Thai – Old Slapping Habit

I do… So lately I have been working on putting more power into my knees and kicks. Which means swinging my arm on same side as kick past my hip for more leverage, and trying to kick through my opponent. I was working on a knee entry to 4 count, putting power into kicks, as well as still working on distance management in our drill. Kru Kristen watched me drill it out. What was I doing? Well I am slapping the pads again, instead of doing my full extension punches, with power. I am basically pawing at the pads. That is what Kru Kristen said. What I was doing when I first started up till 3 or 4 months ago. I worked on getting my extension and power into my punches, and here I am making the same mistakes I made before. I was so annoyed at myself.

So of course I tried to work on my extensions and work on hitting the pads squarely. I worked on the power in my kicks and knees as well. Kru Kristen said, you love kicks but gotta remember form on your punches.

We worked on some pummeling where we used a knife hand into the bicep instead of putting our forearm into their neck for the transition to half and half plumb.

Kali – Hammer Lock to Basset Dal

In Kali… I had to shake off my annoyance at my old bad habit showing up again. We worked again on palm striking drills. Inside gunting, back hand gunting. This time we worked from a back hand gunting, to a stab in the bicep, pak sau (slap the hand on the bicep where you stabbed to control bicep and push arm into body), stab neck at the same time sapu luar (face opponent, and sweep leg from outside).

We then did a drill where we worked on gunting, pulling opponent off balance, stepping on their foot, and either putting the knife into the opponents knee, or putting the palm stick into the knee then pulling them over and off balance while standing on foot. For the drill we let go of foot so that we did not break our partners ankle.

After that we worked on two of my favorite moves put together. We scoop parry with a knife the jab, which cuts the opponents wrist. Then either mouse the cross while parrying, and checking the same jab hand with the blade of your forearm. Control the arm, force them to come forward by pulling them while attacking their face with the blade. Hammer Lock – you bend the opponents arm back around the blade so that their hand is behind their back. Controlling them this way, you perform the basset dal, step out to off balance, step your leg back to put all of their weight on the blade of their foot, and then hook your foot around that foot and push them over. The reason this is better if you can pull it off is that you have so much more control of the person when their arm is in a hammer lock. One wrong move on their part and they dislocate their own shoulder. So the opponent tends to be compliant. My two favorite moves, put together to make for a fun, dumping your partner drill! I had a blast doing this.

I have to work on focusing on my punches and making sure I get power into my kicks. I may have a private Muay Thai class tomorrow. I only say may, cause my instructor has been sick. We will see what happens.

If you got this far, you are amazing. Thanks for reading. I got smart and put links to my glossary in to the definitions I have for the words. Have a great night. I have a 5 am wake up.

Saturday Bo Staff and Striking… 17 count Bo Drills, Knees take the piss out of you

Grinning like fool. So tired its hard to get a selfie. LOL

2.5 hours of martial arts training. Today we worked on 17 count bo staff drills and knees. I woke up with really bad neck and shoulder pain. My scoliosis was acting up again, and I must have slept wrong. So I woke up in incredible pain. I showered, and had my husband put Namnam Thai Oil on my shoulders.

17 count Bo Drills

Today we worked on the 17 count Kali/Escrima drills using the bo staff. We worked using the staff holding it in the middle. Think like Little John in the Robin Hood movies.

(note: Keep in mind different schools/Guros have different numbering systems. We use the Guro Dan Inosanto system.)

17 Count – done with sword/stick/knife/and now bo staff

(note: this is my descriptions of the moves)

  1. Downward diagonal from the right side
  2. Downward diagonal from the left side
  3. Swing from right side of hip
  4. Swing from left side of hip
  5. Inward stab to torso
  6. Back hand stab to face/chest from left side
  7. Thrust to stab face/chest right side
  8. Head shot from left hand angle
  9. Upward strike to knee from right side
  10. Upward strike to knee from left side
  11. Downward strike to knee from right side
  12. Downward strike to knee from left side
  13. Side step/zone to the right with a horizontal shot to head from the right
  14. Side step/zone back to left while striking a horizontal shot to the head from left
  15. Over head straight downward shot to the head. Think Kendo or caveman style club to head.
  16. Step forward with right leg, and strike head again, this time a small swing, almost like a sideways redondo
  17. Striking hit to jam knife, stick, staff up in the jaw of an opponent, as you turn the body. Body is giving torque and power for shot.

With staff we worked on distance management as well. Because we only want to hit towards the ends of the staff when holding it in long style. We only moved in when committing to shots. So much fun to work staves and see the similarities and differences between, daga/knife, sword/stick, and the staff.

Striking – Knees take the piss out of you

Today in striking we worked on several things, however, it was the clenching and knees that were great and the worst.

We worked on a stopping teep/foot jab, right kick, to cross (this is weird cause it is same side), hook, to right kick again. This teep is different because we were not trying to push our opponent away, like we normally do. We just needed to stop their momentum, so we could hit them.

We also worked on the hop kicks to the rest of the 4 counts. I really, really need to work on my hop kicks. I am not so great at them. If you can imagine a drunk gazelle trying to hop or maybe a albatross trying to do a hop kick. You might be picturing me.

Then we worked on clenching. Pushing our opponent while keeping our hips in, and keeping our weight on them. This was hard on my neck but I kept at it. We worked on putting our knees in, knee number 1’s and the knee number 2’s. Knee number 1, is both feet on the ground and you knee in to your opponents quads or torso. Knee number 2, is you have one foot on the ground while your other foot goes out behind you. You open up your hips and then you knee the person in the quads or the torso.

This is especially hard when you are trying to hold on to your opponent. Frame on their shoulders, hang off of them while keeping your hips correct, and then putting the knees in. When they lean into you, you then spin them and get a knee in.

We then worked on pummeling just so we could work on getting the upper hand and keeping our framework. Can I tell you we all were huffing and puffing and dying of exhaustion.

The knees take the piss out of you. I was so exhausted by the end of the class at 2 pm, that I wanted to just pass out and sleep on the mat at the same time as I wanted food. But I don’t think at that point I could have put the food in my mouth. I would have had to have some one feed me I was so tired.

So what do you do? I just sat there… well lets be honest laid there, rested, and let my body cool down. Got dressed one piece of clothing at a time slowly and hauled my butt and my equipment to the car.

We went to get lunch and run errands. We got a screw in a tire, and had to wait at the dealer. Tire wont be in till Monday or Tuesday, but we have a loaner car, so all is well. I am exhausted and I hope to sleep well.

Have a good night, and as always thanks for reading. If you have questions or want to say something, drop a line. Also I started a glossary of terms on a separate page if you are interested.