Tag: Martial Arts

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.

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.

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…Fear of God, Knives in Hammer Lock, and Puta


2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali training. I need to work on the Fear of God , and we got to play with knives. D.O.M.S set in from yesterdays workout. My shoulders and delts are so sore.

Muay Thai – Fear of God

Today and this week we will be working on knees. We used the knee as an entry into combo drill. So catching a jab, parry a cross, post on opponents shoulder, then driving knee, to right kick, hook, cross, left kick four count. Then we did a parry jab to post on shoulder, knee, to left kick, cross, hook, to right kick four count. Below is a video of me doing this.

Kru Kristen said my form is great, now she wants to see me kick harder, kick through my opponent. She said, “you kick hard, now put the fear of God into your opponent.” Make them not want to take that hit. She went on to say there is a magnitude of difference between some one who kicks hard, and some one that you really don’t want to take the next kick from cause they scare you due to their force.

I take these videos mainly to see what I am doing wrong, and what I need to improve. In these drills, I was not kneeing hard enough to get the distance I needed, so I was getting jammed up. I have to work on those. I also have to work on kicking significantly harder, than I do. Kru Kristen said, “give yourself the permission to kick harder. Kick through your opponent.” As a girl we are always told not to hit people and to be nice. Don’t get into scuffles. I find that this ingrained lessons make it hard sometimes for me to break out and do what I need to do. I am going to work on making my hits and kicks go through my opponent, and allowing myself to let go.

Kali – Knives in hammer lock, and puta

Kali was fun today. We have been working on the Puta Kapala a lot from different entries. Puta Kapala is the move where I twirl my opponent to the floor and knee on belly to control them. Today we did it with a knife. This is a dull or non bladed practice knife. We also worked on the hammer lock with the knife. That is where you control their arm, put it behind them, and control them with the knife in the neck and kick out the back knee.

We worked on gunting/scissor, inside gunting, and outside gunting. You can see below when I parry the strike and cut the opposite direction with the knife.

Kru Krysta had us also using pens, flash lights, and other objects to show we could do the same moves with any pen like object around us.

It is getting late and I need to sleep, so I will stop here. I had a blast in class again. I love going to train.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day.

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali… Level 1 test, Pummeling 4 ways

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali. Today was an exciting day. Every last Thursday of the month we have a testing day. Those that are testing, or have had enough training to be told they are testing. I just tested last month so this was not a testing month for me. However, we did have a teammate who wanted to be tested, and he was ready for his level 1 test.

Muay Thai – Level 1 test


For reference I have tested and been awarded a green armband so far. Level 1 test produces a the red armband. We all started with line up and showing different Thai moves. For instance all the Elbows, 1-8, then all the kicks, then all the knees.

Then we worked on some drills, and after that it was time for D’s Thai test. Where we were supposed to cheer him on. I am losing my voice so I was assigned counting of all knees that were put in silently. =)

Level 1 test round 1
Level 1 test round 2

Kali/Silat – pummeling 4 ways

On Tuesday we worked on a Silat Puta Kapala from pommel entry. This time we were working on the same thing, but we got to work on 4 ways to pummel.

Pummeling:

  1. Traditional pummeling where you swim between each others arms. Often used in Jui Jistsu.
  2. Bicep pummeling, where you are controlling one bicep, and your training partner is controlling the other side. Where you make a c with your hand to control their bicep and slide your other hand under to get out of their c clamp.
  3. Neck pummeling, where you control the neck, you pawk or hit the arm to make space, mouse their arm right above the elbow, and then you shoot your arm in behind their head. This is great when some one has a weapon and you are controlling that hand so that they can’t hurt you. You could side elbow their hand away or or downward elbow their hand out of your neck as well then grab their head/neck.
  4. Then we did the wrist pommeling. First single hand wrist pommeling, where you grab their wrist and then they twist that same wrist and grab your wrist. Or you hit down on their hand to remove their hand and you grab their wrist and upper arm to keep control. You could hit up on the wrist from below and then control the arm by holding the wrist and right above the elbow as well.

We then did the Puta Kapala throws, and we drilled all of these pummels. Switching through all 4, and having fun. Almost like sparring with just pummels. It was fun to see who could get the upper hand, and win control over the other person.

So that is all for me today. Its always exciting to see a Level 1 test. This is the 3rd Level 1 I have seen. Class was great again. I love Muay Thai, and Kali, and can’t wait till next class. I need to shower, and go to bed.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

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.

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Punctuate the sentence, Sparring, Silat kicks from the ground, Langkah

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali and I had an amazing class. I was asked to spar in Muay Thai and while I was totally nervous I did it. Yay!

I am a little exhausted at the moment. I have had on top of my normal routine, two extra cake orders. You see if you did not know I am a Pastry Chef and I have people ask me to do birthday cakes, pastries, wedding cakes, etc.

I am not complaining by any means, but I am just tired. I have been trying to get more sleep in. My average sleep last month was 4.5 to 5 hours of sleep a night. Lately I have been averating 5.5 to 6. So that is an upward trend. I know it takes about 2 weeks for my habbit to stick that I go to bed earlier. That is good. Enough rambling back to my workout stuff.

Muay Thai – Punctuating the sentence, Sparring

Kru Kristen had us all warming up. Then we were working on elbows. Feeling the resistance from our training partners then doing a forward elbow thrust then a side in elbow, to tie up in a full plumb, and get knees strikes in.

Then I was asked to spar. I kinda made a meep sound and said yes… sure. Sparing is both hard and scary for me. I fear I will forget all the things I have been taught. I know that forgetting is normal, and I know we all forget some of what we have learned in the moment when the adrenaline drops. However, I want so much to do well, oh and also not get hit a lot. I have gotten better about being scared of being hit. I have been hit a number of times in the head, I have been kicked in the side, and kneed in the leg and kicked in the leg. However, the fear is still there. One day it won’t be so scary but it still is. I don’t plan on being a fighter professionally, however, part of me is excited about the next time I get to spar.

Anyway I got into the ring and did it. I sparred again. I think this is my third time. I stepped up and did it. I did get punched in the face twice and I ate some leg kicks and a torso kick. But I got in a few face punches, some torso hooks, and I got a 5 or 6 good kicks in. I felt accomplished. We were sparring to help one of our team that is going to go fight in a professional fight. He is training and those of us who were asked to spar all helped him do conditioning. We were coached by Kru Kristen that when throwing we want to throw a cross in afterward. “It is like punctuating your sentence” as Kru Kristen says.

Kali – Silat from the ground, Langkah

We had a guest instructor named In Chun Kim. He was amazing. He brought us back to basics of Silat. He had us learning the kicks from the ground.

This video is similar to what we did. It is not me or my video.

Then we worked on foot work or Langkah and learning where our opponents balance breaks, so that we can better get our opponent off balance and it helps with our Basset Dal, and Basset Luar, Sapu Dal, and Sapu Luar. Or our foot sweeps inside and out, or our trips inside and out.

Langkah: Stepping and footwork
1) Langkah Lurus: Linear stepping
6) Langkah Persegitiga: Triangle stepping
4) Langkah Sigsag: Zig zag stepping

For this we did the above, 1, 4, and 6. All great practice, and really gave me insight to why and how we to do the moves better. If you understand the basics better you can understand the moves better. Sometimes I try to muscle the persons foot off the mat, but all you have to do is off balance them correctly and it becomes so much simpler.

Today was a great day and a lot of great information. I had a great amount of a-hah moments. Punctuating the sentence with a cross, and the langkah or footwork and how to do our Silat moves better. Where some of the things just clicked. I also had a good time trying something I did not know if I could do those cool Ground kicks.

Thank you for reading… if you have any questions let me know. Have a great night. I need to get to sleep. =)

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.