Tag: Muay Thai

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.

https://youtu.be/M5EOXWj_MNA

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

https://youtu.be/J-CWUg27Sfo

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

https://youtu.be/6KiY-r0IZ3o

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.

https://youtu.be/GXI9qUvZupg


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.

Whats in my martial arts gym bag?

I have seen these go around… so I thought it would be funny to do a whats in my martial arts gym bag. So for right now this is what is in it.

I am not certain anyone really wants to see whats in my bag. But maybe there are people out there that are just curious. I will tell you what is in the bag and why its there, and what I use it for. So if you are curious here is what I got.

Stuff:

  1. 12 oz boxing gloves
  2. Shin Guards
  3. Kali – Escrima Sticks
  4. Blue boxing hand wraps
  5. head bands
  6. Green Muay Thai arm band
  7. KT tape
  8. Glove Dehumidifier
  9. Jump Rope
  10. Ibuprofin
  11. Namman Thai Oil
  12. Video Tripod
  13. Belly Pad

Not Pictured:

Thai shorts, water bottle, ankle brace, and mouth guard are not pictured here.

All right boxing gloves are pretty self explanatory. Mine are 12 oz gloves, and 12 to 14 oz gloves are standard for women.

Shin guards are self explanatory, they are to guard the shins in pop the leather and sparring.

Kali/Escrima Sticks used in Kali practice.

Blue boxing hand wraps for wrapping hands done for protection and wrist support.

Green Muay Thai arm band… equivalent to belt system in most martial arts.

KT tape used to stabilize joints and wrap feet.

Glove dehumidifier used to remove moisture and keep your gloves smelling fresh.

Jump rope for cardio.

Ibuprofin is self explanatory.

Namman Thai oil is used for bruises, bone bruises and muscle aches. This stuff is the best.

Phone tripod so that I can take photos.

Belly pad used to protect against torso kicks and teeps.

Anyway this is what is in my bag. =) I don’t know if it is interesting to you, but this is what I have in it for now. Thanks for reading… have a great day.

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.

Muay Thai and Kali…Timing and distance management are the real skills, Trig 10, Palm Stick

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali training. Yesterday I worked on kicking through my opponent, and I was sore from that work out. But today after I practiced my Wai Krhu I loosened up.

Muay Thai – Timing and distance management are the real skills

Kru Kristen had us drilling more knee entries from catch jab and scoop of incoming cross. When you were able to push your training partner back we then worked into the Thai 4 counts. We also were working drills to feel when your opponent breaks the distance or enters your striking range with knees.

I find my knees are the worst skill in Muay Thai. I realized today that it was because when I had a herniated disk, they hurt so much to put knees in, that I have been babying my back since then. I was placing my knee but not pushing through. Kru Kristen told me again to give myself permission to hit and push through. So today I was working on pushing through my opponent to knee into and through them. Driving them back, so I could kick. I was putting the knees in and it was not hurting at all. This makes me so happy.

We also worked on full plumb to fence control of the opponents arm, and then to controlling the opponent with a choke or a putting the blade of your hand into the pocket of the arm and controlling your opponent by controlling their shoulder socket.

Toward the end, Kru Kristen wanted to emphasize that you may know the moves, but in a fight it is about knowing distance and timing management. If you cannot judge distance correctly then you will be hit, if you cannot get the timing down right, and avoid their hits you will get hit. In a fight you want to get hit less and hit more. Its the energy your opponent gives you, that you need to harness and return to them. If they commit to a shot then do a destruction, step off the line and return shots at them.

Kali/Silat – Panantukan Palm Stick and Trigg Ten

In Kali we worked on Silat again, Panantukan, and we practiced the Trigg Ten. Kru Kristen wanted us to do the Trigg Ten to focus on committing to the shots. Because with panantukan tonight we worked with palm stick. Where we could use the inside gunting and outside gunting to mouse the funny bone nerve cluster. This is were we find the entry for the gunting and use the palm stick, we can really hurt our opponent, or attacker.

A palm stick is any implement, usually a short stick, but can be a flash light, or a sharpie that you can use to do destructions (a destruction is a move where you damage the attackers hand with your elbow, knees, or a weapon in hopes to deter your attacker) on your opponent with.

Here are some examples of palm sticks:

So when your attacker throws a punch instead of parrying, or blocking you can hit your opponents hand with a palm stick, sharpie, flashlight, or the punyo/butt of a bladed weapon. Most people will stop trying to punch you if you hit them with this. Also it has a good chance of breaking their hand.

The Trigg Ten is a punching/boxing drill, I filmed me drilling below. Here are the punch combinations.

Trigg Ten:

  1. 1 jab
  2. 2 jabs
  3. 3 jabs
  4. 1 cross
  5. 2 crosses
  6. 3 crosses
  7. jab then cross
  8. cross then jab
  9. jab, jab then cross
  10. cross, cross, then jab
https://youtu.be/CFLJWjmUlzI

It is really late and I need to go to bed. I hope you all had a great day. Thank you for reading.

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.

https://youtu.be/RNKER7SV2z4

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.

https://youtu.be/1j9BTfAQNXU

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.

Saturday Bo Staff, and Striking workout…Wood Jokes, Hit me Harder, Muay Thai Fight

2.5 hours of Bo Staff training, and Striking. Then I got to go to Amateur Muay Thai Fight my team mate was in. Woot! Health update…my tests came back all normal, and I am allowed to go back onto BCAA’s again. The protein he was seeing was the excess my body was not using. I have a small cold given to me by my lovely germ filled children. =) But other than that I am good to go. So I took yesterday off of working out to let my body heal.

I got to go see my teammate, and fellow student at a amateur Muay Thai fight yesterday. There were 7 fights on the card and it was super fun. I am sitting here at home typing this up, and enjoying just having an off day with a cup of coffee. I got home at about 11 pm last night and did not have the juice to finish this post.

Bo Staff Training – Wood Jokes

Today in Bo Staff training, the wood jokes abounded. We were all joking and yucking it up. It was a beautiful day, and we soaked up some needed sun while learning how to control a huge piece of wood.

I took video of us working on Bo Staff drills because I have had a few friends asking to see what we do. =)

Bo Staff practice Watik Staff Drill. I got a fist bump by my awesome teacher Kru Krysta.

https://youtu.be/oXrT6OKRHkg

Bo Staff practice Redondo Staff Drill. As you can see I need to remember to keep my hands about 2 fists apart and not hold the staff like I am holding a baseball bat.

https://youtu.be/Mgnfn2tmdlY

I got a fist bump from Kru Krysta. She said I was doing really well. Its nice that the Kali practice we do translates well to the Bo Staff. We just have to manipulate the butt of the staff a little differently.

Striking – Hit me harder

In striking we worked on parrying and counter attacking. We often learn how to throw a punch properly. We drill doing combinations of strikes, like hands to feet, feet to hands, knees to hands, and elbows to knees. We shadowbox those things as well. However for striking we worked on parry and entries after that. Catch a punch, parry a cross, slip, gut punch, upper cut, cross, then leg kick.

Working with one of my friends who is newer to this than I am I was being gentle. He asked me if I was hitting him as hard as I could. I looked sideways at him and said no, not at all sweetie. He said, “ok hit me harder.” I laughed and said ok I can turn it up a notch. I did and he said go up again. I continued to adjust, because he wants to learn how to take a punch. So I kept my intensity in my punches at the point where I could hear him grunt.

Striking class was fantastic, and I am looking forward to sparring more. Which is new for me. I used to be super scared and nervous about sparring. Worrying that I was going to mess up, or forget all that I have learned. Yay progress!

Amateur Muay Thai Fight

Now on to the most exciting part of my day by far. I was super excited for my friend Jorge. I was excited cause I have never gone to see a fight in person before. I have gone with my class mates/fellow Muay Thai training partners to a bar to see a Pay Per View fight, but never in person. The energy was amazing.

There were 7 fights on the card. Including 1 exhibition fight. The video below is just Jorge’s first round. They were three 2 minute rounds. Jorge did a great job. Just getting into the ring is hard. Hell I have a hard time sparring still.

https://youtu.be/dtN26wkh3X8

Here are some things I realized and learned while watching this. (Note: I realize this is me watching from an outside view, up in the ring I would not have this perspective, and would be more focused on trying not to get killed. =) )

  1. Kru Kristen is right when she says, “you never rise to the occasion, you will resort to your worst habits when the adrenaline drops and you are in the ring.” Like dropping your hands while fighting, instead of covering your head.
  2. I could see what both Kru Kristen, and Kru Krysta mean by people over committing, or just committing to a punch, and the openings for using their movement against it.
  3. You can tell who has been training Muay Thai and those that are just MMA fighters.
  4. I got to see a haymaker windmill. (don’t do the haymaker windmill… it does not work) This one dude who was fighting was clearly an MMA fighter, and his punches were very wild, coming out wide, and he was trying to muscle them in. He would over commit on a punch in his effort to muscle the punch in. In that time he would be off balance and if his opponent was better at Muay Thai he would have used his momentum to drop his ass on the floor.
  5. Cardio is so important. So many of the fighters were getting gassed, after the first round.
  6. The last three fights – the one before the two main fights and the two main fights, the fighters were using combinations. They were doing hand to foot, foot to hand, combos, knees, and keeping their hips in when in a clench so their opponent could not knee them. This made for a better fight, and far more interesting to watch.

Going to the fight was awesome! I really loved getting to go and see my friend fight. I really liked to go and get to have some social time with team mates. I am going to keep working on my combinations, keeping my guard up, and looking for entries, and using my opponents movements/momentum against them.

This is a day late, but I got it done. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. Thank you for reading. Let me know if you have any questions.