Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Clench Sparring, In a knife fight you drip or you gush

2 hours of training today. Gonna make this short and sweet. Today I have been up since 4:30 am. I did not sleep well, and had to work two of my jobs today.

Muay Thai

We worked on entries with knees again. This time we used a scoop of the jab or cross and returning an knee. This gets you in to return your 4 count strikes.

I got to work with one of our fighters that actually goes and fights in sanctioned fights. He is really awesome and helped me work the drills. He is tall and I surprised him that I can kick as high as his torso. We discussed the fact that these entries are only for when a person is committed to the punches. If they are just throwing noise then you can’t scoop the jab or cross and get in there. I am having a hard time in sparring knowing when they are committed. I have been assured by him and Kru Kristen that, that is just time and practice. You have to know/feel when they break the imaginary barrier to bring the distance in and hit you.

After that, the more senior of the students broke out and practiced clench sparring. That is a tiring set of 6 rounds. However, it is a lot of fun. I feel like my clench sparring game/abilities/skills have gone up since I was at Thai camp. We did a lot of it, and I got to work with a lot of people. I was able to get my timing right and get my opponents in class off balance.

To finish we did:

  1. 100 knees on the bag
  2. 30 sit ups
  3. and x planks

Kali

We worked on knifes. Gunting or scissors move where you cut and pass the opponents arm when they attack you with #1 through #5 attacks.

We worked on disarms with:

  1. a c clamp on the wrist
  2. figure 4 arm control where you cut their throat with their own blade
  3. control of opponents arm and sheath the blade into opponents on leg, or arm pit
  4. three direction peel the blade away from opponents hand

We then got to spar with knives. We all wore mouth guards, eye protection, and gloves. One person had a knife, the other had just their hands. We tried to disarm the person with the blade and not get cut. The person with the blade was trying to cut but not get disarmed. This is another fun asymmetrical sparring practice.

We say in Kali/Silat/JKD in a knife fight you either drip or gush. You don’t want to be the one that gushes. What this means is going into a knife fight knowing you will be cut, but not knowing just how bad. Is more realistic. Knives cut fast and deep, and you will most likely get cut in a knife fight. If you get out of it with a few small cuts, and you did not die, you won!

That is all for today. Thank you for reading, I hope you have a fantastic day. My respect to you and your family.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali…Free Feeding, and Knife/Stick/Knife and Stick High Box

Do you ever have those days that you really just don’t want to do the workout? Not just a meh day. I have had just a meh day too. But a day where you are so tired you don’t want to go do your workout. You want to lay under covers and not come out. You are tired and don’t want to do anything, except maybe breathing. Yeah… I had one of those days today. I took my pre-workout, I stretched, and I made myself go to the gym and while I was waiting for my training/class to begin I felt this intense desire not to do anything. I almost gave into it. When I am meh feeling I don’t give into those feelings and force myself to do the thing. Today though I almost bowed out of training. I however, did not and I am so glad I did not.

My back and hips have been complaining at me, and my hip has been feeling like that burning sensation I get when the nerve is compromised. I have to get into the chiropractor tomorrow. This may have been a leading contributor to my feeling the way I did.

Muay Thai started and we were warming up. I still had that feeling of not wanting to do anything. However, as Kru Kristen started talking about what we were going to do I focused on that, and now 2 hours later I am feeling much better. My hip is feeling better and I am happy I pushed through.

In Muay Thai we worked on kicks. Right side only, or for those of you left handers/south paws, rear kicks. We worked on teeps, leg kicks, and rear round house kicks. I was happy when we had to do pyramid kicks, where you kick 1 round house kick, then two consecutively, then three kicks up to five kicks and back down again. I was not gassed and I felt like I could do another set right there. Yay!

This is a video of me practicing my right side, or rear kicks. These are teeps, leg kicks, and round houses. I am laying in the leg kick so as not to hurt my feeder. I don’t know why I spread my fingers on my left hand when perform a kick. But watching me in the video I can see the things I need to work on.

In Kali we worked on the high box. We used first the double stick, then the stick and knife, double knives, then stick and shield. Changing the length of weapon changes ranges you need to hold to just attack and defend in the drill. I noticed when my Kru Krysta asks if we know what the high box is at the time my brain goes no. But apparently at this time my body knows what to do. I have muscle memory of the high box and can do it, but if you were to ask me out of the blue I would stumble to tell you the terms and moves. I was told from a student who has been doing this for 5 years that this is normal, and he has the same problem. Today was a great day for Kali, I have a lot to fix but I felt good doing it.

In Kali we worked on the high box. In this video I am practicing here the high box with double stick.

This is the same high box drill with us using knives that I was practicing.

I need to go to sleep because I have a 5 am wake up, and it is 11:47 pm here. I am amazed you have read this far and thank you. These are my thoughts for the day. Talk to me if you have any questions or want to see something in my blog.