Tag: Cross

Saturday Kali/Bo Staff and Striking… Bo Staff, Flow, Sore

2.5 hours of Bo Staff and Striking training today. Yeah you heard it Bo Staff training! Heck yes. I was and still am excited. We have started Bo Staff training, as an offshoot of our Kali training.

I have to say I am so pooped from class/training today, and I am going to be sore tomorrow. =)

Kali/Bo Staff

Did any of you ever want to be a Ninja Turtle when you were little? No? Maybe? Well I did. So getting to play with Bo Staves was so awesome.

We warmed up with single stick first inside the academy. We practiced (heaven watik, low strike, then high strike), (heaven redondo, low strike, high strike), (equise, low strike, high strike). This was a warm up for our Bo Staff practice.

We then went outside. Where it was sunny, but it was so so windy. It was so cold that after an hour I could not feel my fingers. I think it was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit or 7.222 degrees Celsius for those not in the states. But through all of that I had such a blast. Kru Krysta was amazing and she had her instructor Kru Mossy with her. We learned to perform the moves by pushing the top hand and pulling the bottom hand to perform a strike.

I felt clumsy and uncoordinated, but I was surprised how fast I was picking it up with a longer weapon. There are some things to think about when blocking with a longer weapon so save yourself from extra pain. Like moving your foot out from under your staff when you block so that your opponent does not slide down your staff and hit your heel. I need to remember to do my footwork. Kru Mossy hit my thigh to help me remember to do my footwork. Because we are learning a martial art that is meant to do damage, and I don’t want to learn bad habits.

Also for those that don’t know what a Bo Staff is, here is Donatello from Ninja Turtles to show you. We have not learned this move yet. *joking* =)

Striking, Sore

We worked on teeps transition to Thai four counts again. We also were working on a 7 count drill as well. In this drill my partner and I were working on flow and movement. So we were moving around, getting out of the box, and out of striking range, making sure to our feet moving.

7 count drill
Left Teep
Left kick
Cross
Hook
Cross
Right Knee
Right Kick

We also worked on elbows. Working on some on both sides, but one of note is we did a front teep/left teep, left kick, left knee, jab, left elbow. In this we were working on our distance management. Where for teep we are making them move away, we then do a kick, which is long distance, then move up to knee short distance, and jab shorter distance, then elbow shortest distance.

I am super tired, and going to be sore tomorrow. I should take a bath in Epsom salts. I held pads for Kru Mossy and he hits hard as he demonstrated. I feel like I might have some bruises from holding the pads. This may sound like a complaint but it is not. He is full of wisdom and he was helping us learn more. Not only that, feeling his full force, shows me what can/may achieve if I keep working at it.

I had a wonderful time today. Learned some things on a Bo Staff, and cannot wait till the next class Bo Staff class. I worked hard in striking and got a fantastic workout in. I feel accomplished.

Thank you for reading and if you have an questions, please let me know.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali…Cross, elbow, Sapu Luar, Sapu Dalam

Two hours of Muay Thai and Kali. It was a blast. This day was not a huge cardio day for our class. Meaning we did not do a lot of conditioning today. However it was still a lot of fun.

Muay Thai – Cross

In Muay Thai we worked on the cross, elbows, and clench work. While not the exciting dynamic kicking, boxing 20, or Thai 15 routine. I believe there is value in taking a step back and working on the basics. For instance my cross. While I can hit a cross just fine, there are a lot of fine tuning things I need to work on so that I get full extension.

At 5 foot I am short and so I often short change my punches. Because I feel like I don’t or cant get the distance in. However, today I was working on just that. As an orthodox fighter, I have to step out to the left and pivot on the back foot, throw the punch where I turn my hand at the end and point my first two knuckles at the opponent. What this does is extend my body and covers my right hands side of my face with my shoulder.

Sometimes it is good to just focus on one thing and try to make it the best you can. Then trying to do all the things the best. Kru Kristen, says she would rather us be great at a few things than mediocre to horrible at all the things.

Here is a video of me practicing just that. Again not the cool flashy, fast drills that we do some days, but a necessary step back to get these strikes closer to perfection.

Kali – Silat Sapu Dal, and Sapu Luar

In Kali we were working on Silat again, and while we did Basset Dal/Basset Luar before, where our back is toward our opponent. Sapu is where we are facing our opponent. Luar is outside leg sweep, and Dal is inside leg sweep.

We worked on off balancing our opponent only to sweep the leg out from under them just at the right time. This is very fun to do, and gets simpler once you understand the physics behind body movement.

We worked on a take down where you weave your arm between the legs lock out our elbow grab their hand. Pull their hand to the 3 point in the triangle and nudge them with your shoulder. This is a move you can do from the ground if they have hit you and you fell.

We also worked on if we are prone, just fallen, coming back up into combat ready stance, and then grabbing the persons arm and behind the knee to pull them down. Place knee on belly and then punch them.

Today was fun. We got to do sticky legs and work on some strikes where we take steps back and just work on our form and techniques.

Have a great day and thank you for reading. I am so amazed. I now have 51 international subscribers reading my blog. Who would have thought.

Saturday Krav and Striking…Reaper, Inosanto 18 count, Southpaws are SOL

After roughly 4 hours of martial arts training, I am pooped. Today was fantastic, and I got to learn a new 18 count routine. Writing down what a Soutpaw has to do to change the counts to work for them is mind bending and I don’t have the capacity for it tonight. =)

Krav – Reaper Sweeps

Today we made it to Krav Maga on time, and we got to work on Reaper Sweeps. I have had some late nights at work so I have not been able to make it to the Krav classes. The reaper sweep is a dump where we gain an entry after an attack and do a modified T position. We cinch in your arms off balance the opponent and leaver pull your leg up while levering forward. We got to do outside reaper sweeps, and inside reaper sweeps.

My back was not happy with me this morning so I let my instructor know and we modified the dumps for me, where my training partners, performed the moves, and I would get on the ground although not so gracefully. We learned how to follow up with more hits to the head and posting off of their wrists to jump up and get out of harms way. I try not to let my physical impairments get in my way of training, and try to work around it. Just be honest with your instructors and I find they are understanding. If they are not, then perhaps they are not the instructors for you.

Between class we worked on Muay Thai training to keep warm and to hopefully get better. Here are some of the things we worked on.

Here I am practicing my Muay Thai double kick. I start by placing a leg kick so as not to hurt my partner/pad holder, and then throw in the torso round house kick. We are working on timing and changing levels. This is because you are not always going to kick just the leg or just the torso in a fight.

Below I am practicing just my Muay Thai round house kicks. These hurt on the right side cause I have three bruises on my shin. Those bruises are from shielding a kick and a person ending up kneeing my shin instead of getting a kick in. These are normal bumps and scrapes that happen Muay Thai but it does not mean it does not hurt. =) Although I can say I have gotten more used to them.

Striking – Inosanto 18 count

Today we got Kru Krysta back! I was excited to see her, and she wanted us to work on the Inosanto 18 count.

For the whole class we broke the 18 count into digestible chunks, then we strung them together so that we could do all 18 count at once. I just realized I had not described what a # count means. An 18 count means 18 individual strikes. Below are the individual strikes in the Inosanto 18 count.

Inosanto 18 count: (note: Sorry you southpaw fighters are SOL right now. Cause that stuff is confusing. If you really want to know the southpaw Inosanto 18 let me know. I will ask my husband to translate to southpaw for me.)

  1. Scoop the incoming teep
  2. Right leg kick
  3. Left torso round house kick
  4. Cross
  5. Hook
  6. Right torso round house kick
  7. Cut Kick as opponent Right kick comes in and land a Left leg kick
  8. Right leg kick
  9. Left torso round house kick
  10. Cross
  11. Hook
  12. Right torso round house kick
  13. Scoop incoming cross
  14. Cross
  15. Hook
  16. Right Elbow
  17. Right pushing knee
  18. Right torso round house kick.

This 18 count was a lot of fun. I could be wrong but it feels like I picked this combination up quickly. When we first started almost a year ago I had trouble remembering more than 4 strikes in the Thai 15 count or the Boxing 20 count. So when I would come home to try to write it down so I could practice it I was stuck. However, today we learn a 18 count and I can mentally move through each strike/counter and see what we did. Now I think there are a few things going for me on this. One being I understand the moves much more clearly now. I would say that this is marked improvement. So yay!

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great weekend. Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them.

Saturday Striking class… tiny tweaks, clench work, lots of kicks, and cake

Drenched in Sweat

2 hours of Muay Thai practice, and I am pooped. We ended with clench work, and we were all working so hard we were all drenched in sweat. But lets start at the beginning first.

Today we made it to striking class. We focused on Muay Thai today, and had a great teacher named Dom. Both Kru Kristen, and Kru Krysta are still out at the instructor camp for Inosanto.

Kicks

We started out with stations, jump rope, heavy bag teep and kick, and then shadow boxing to warm up. We then went right into Thai 4 counts. We practiced leg kicks. It has been a long time since we have worked on leg kicks and I can say I am not as good at them as I am at round house kicks. I need to work more on them. You are supposed to turn your kick so much that your knee is almost pointing at the floor, and you are supposed to sink your weight into the kick.

We then worked on sparing where we tried to get any variation of left to right kicks in. My favorite things to do is to feint a left kick then teep the person, and follow with hook and cross. Or I like to throw a cross, and leave my hand there in their face, while I get a right round house kick in. It often tricks people and they don’t see it coming, so I get a hit in. =)

Tiny Tweaks

I had the pleasure of working with Dom personally, he helped me make tiny tweaks to my cross. I need to remember to fully extend my arm, and rotate my pointer finger and middle finger knuckles down when I punch to get the full extension and straight line. I have had Kru tell me the same thing but having a person take off my glove and actually have me punch while they turn my hand was so super helpful. I am so excited to keep practicing this and hopefully make my punch much better.

Clench Work

After all this we ended with clench work, and we were all working so hard we were all drenched in sweat. We got to play around. Trying our different things with our partners, to see if we could get in, make a frame and get the upper hand. Hah! It was so much fun. One girl and I were just giggling as we grunted and tried to get into full plumb

I had a blast today at class. I finally got a tripod to put my phone in to video some of my kicks. Here is a video of me doing right round house kicks to, right hop kicks. We were working on the right hop kicks last Thursday and I still need to work on them. I need to get my knee up higher to create more momentum.

After our class I had a date with a friend that I was so looking forward to. We went to a bougie coffee shop where I got a chance to have a coffee, a piece of cake and great conversation. The cake won! I was not able to eat even half of that cake it was so big. But it was nice to have a treat after a great workout.

If you have gotten this far. Thank you for reading. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your weekend. Keep being awesome and I think its ok to have a treat once in a while.

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Hop Kicks, Puta Kapala from Jab Cross entry

I just got done with 2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali, and boy was it nice to get to do my training. Doing something that is normal in my life. Because this morning did not start off normal. I had one of those cringe moments that every parent has, when the dreaded pink eye mentioned.

Waking up to find that your son has pink eye, will throw off your day. So today my son woke up and told us that his eye was crusty. I had been keeping an eye on him… haha, no pun intended. I had been keeping an eye on him, because he was around another kid who’s eye was red and crusty on Monday of this week. I got him into the pediatrician at 8 am, and we promptly found out that he has pink eye. He has medicine, and as of tomorrow will not be contagious any more.

On top of doc appointment, getting the medicine from the pharmacist, and dealing with every day family stuff. I also bleach bombed my house. I bleached and disinfected every surface of my house that I could think of that would have been touched. Everyone’s sheets and blankets, and his winter coat as well. So I am and was tired getting to the gym, but ready and raring to go. I needed this.

Muay Thai : Hop Kicks

Let me just hop… (hahah that was an accidental pun as well)… into the Muay Thai. Today both Kru were away at an Inosanto instructor camp. So we had a guest Thai teacher. He had us warming up with stations, jump rope, teep to kick on bags, shadowboxing, and then mirror movement to teep.

We worked on partial Thai 4 counts, where we teep with lead leg, right kick, then cross. The reason this was emphasized is that it is a different rhythm to what we normally do. You see in Thai a lot of the time if you do a right kick you return with a hook or cross, because you will have set up your body to do the opposite hand hit. So when you kick with the right leg then hit with the cross as an orthodox fighter, your opponent will not expect it.

The other partial Thai 4 count we did, is the front teep, left kick, to cross. What was emphasized on this one was the teep to cut step quick left kick. Because the habit or what your body wants to do is to teep and then put your foot down right in front of you. However, doing this drill we try to work on our balance bringing the foot back to do a quick cut step and left kick. It changes the rhythm again and my take your opponent of guard.

After all that we worked on Hop Kicks. Man trying to make the lead leg do a hop kick my brain is telling my body to do this thing, but either my leg is stupid or there is a miss fire/miss communication between my brain and my leg. That is what it feels like. We have to bring our knee forward and up, with momentum going forward place the foot down then do the kick. Yeah… I am going to have to work on those on my own, in front of the mirror. I have to get my brain and my body to synchronize.

Kali: Puta Kapala from the Jab Cross Entry

In Kali we had another guest teacher, because again both our Kru are at an Inosanto Instructor camp. He had us doing Silat again. We worked on the Puta Kapala again, but this time from the Jab Cross entry.

There were 4 entries we got to 3 of them that we were able to rep out.

  1. Outside Deflect from the Jab Cross to Puta Kapala
  2. Slip the Jab Cross to Puta Kapala
  3. Inside Deflect from the Jab Cross to Puta Kapala
  4. Reverse slip/Scissor/Gunting from the Jab Cross to Puta Kapala

We did 1 through 3. It was all clicking and I was not have a brain melty moment.

What you are seeing here is the instructor showing the first two, number 1 and number 2. I thought you might like to see some one who knows what they are doing instead of me. =)

Here I am doing the outside deflect entry of the Puta Kapala.

Here I am doing the slip entry of the Puta Kapala.

I did not get video of the 3 rd one. This one we deflect the cross with the right hand and mouse the bicep, followed with control of the other arm, eye sweep, throat punch, elbow, knee, to the Puta Kapala.

This was a fun class, and things were clicking. The Puta Kapala we were doing Tuesday and last week we were doing from the shield of kick. So this is the Puta Kapala with different entry. Either way you get your opponent on the floor, and then you can deal with them as you need to. Goose necking the wrist or submitting them, or hitting them and running away.

I got home was a little hungry so I made a snack of yogurt, fresh fruit, and a small bit of granola. It is important to refuel your body. Especially when it is telling you that it is hungry. Just make it something that your body can put to good use.

Thanks for reading again. I hope you have a great rest of your week.