Tag: Muay Thai

Saturday Muay Thai and Striking… entry, rhythm, and JKD (Jeet Kune Do)

I sit here writing this after a 2.5 hour training session, we also just refueled with some delicious Thai food. Because it is H’s birthday and we are celebrating. In most Asian families, long noodles are the thing to eat to ensure a long life. =)

I trained Muay Thai for one hour before our striking class. We worked on entries to get in and land our punches. We were working our range management. I am very short, 5 foot nothing, and my range is very short. In a fight I am going to get up close and personal. Where a taller 6 foot person is going to be hit me from further away. I have to get in close. There are advantages for the taller person. They can kick and hit from further out, and I have to eat a hit or kick to get into their pocket. However, the advantages for a shorter fighter are to my knowledge I have a shorter range, which is good cause I can then switch up what I am doing faster than they can. I can change my range with moving a little bit. I can cover up my actions by putting interference in their faces and then kick them without them seeing my legs move if I am executing the move correctly.

In Striking class we worked on JKD (Jeet Kune Do). ” Jeet Kune Do, “The way of the intercepting fist” in Cantonese, abbreviated JKD, is a hybrid philosophy of martial arts heavily influenced by the personal philosophy and experiences of martial artist Bruce Lee.” Wikipedia

We worked on both orthodox fighting and south paw fighting. What this means is we had to change our stances. We had to change our lead leg. Orthodox fighters have left leg forward, and south paw fighters have right leg forward. We had to faint, high, and low jabs, then work on entries into and range management to get the crosses, hooks, upper cuts, and then lead pendulum kicks a.k.a. Nao Tek.

From a technique point of view, this is hard to switch up. When I an orthodox fighter has to switch up to south paw, or right lead leg. It takes all your mental acuity to just make sure your throwing a hook with the right hand and not a cross like you would with orthodox stance. We then worked on a pop the leather practice where we try to use the tools we learned in JKD to asymmetrically spar our opponent. It was a fantastic training session, and I had a great time.

I have rambled on enough. I hope you have had a great day. Talk to me if you have questions or thoughts.

Here is a video of me doing some training on the bag. I was working on some left and right kicks. As you can see I am a orthodox fighter and I have left lead leg.

https://youtu.be/cVVcN8lvy3Y
Working on Muay Thai Kicks



Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Working with New Students, Full Box with all the Weapons

my crazy messy self after 2 hours of workout

Today is a good day! I was energized and raring to go to class. My teachers and I too have come to value working with new students. When we started and were new they kept reiterating that the senior students (which I am considered now… that is crazy) like to help the new students. Not only does it help the new students. But it helps us older students to help teach them, and lets us go back to the basics and review things we may have not been isolating.

So today we worked on the left leg or lead leg kicks. That is teeps, leg kicks, and torso kicks or round houses. I was working with a new person, and he seems timid. He does not want to kick or hit hard, and when he gets tired his form breaks down like we all do, but his was faltering more than I expected. I kept checking in on him to see if he was okay. He said he was, and that he was just tired. Today was hard cause he would move away from the teeps, and drill kicks we were doing, so it was hard to get my reps in. But I was able to get him kicking harder toward the end. Hopefully he will see that he does not have to be so nervous in future classes. We worked on catching the kicks again, but this time putting our knee and shin across and into the torso, while clenching up and framing so that your opponent can’t do anything and in the ring the ref would have to break you up. I got dumped by the new guy by accident but he was so afraid of catching the kick that he did not have my leg right and I fell on my side and hip. I hope that my back does not scream at me tomorrow.

Kali, we worked on full box. Using double stick first, stick and knife, double knife, single knife and then stick and shield. We used all the weapons at our disposal, and each change we made to our weapons brought new interesting variables that we had to change for, or exploits we could use more for with one combination than the other. For instance with double stick we had distance and could keep people at distance. Stick and knife we had to get up closer and see where we could cut the opponent all the while keeping an eye on that stick that has more range. Which weapon we used to check and trap changed as well. With double knife, we had to aim more for areas where cutting would not only cause damage, but we had to make sure to place them so that we could control the opponents weapons. Cutting above the elbow to control one knife arm while then simultaneously coming in with another attack. All very much fun, but brain melty.

I had a great day. I loved the workout. I love Muay Thai and I am growing to love Kali as much as well. I am icing my back as I type this up. I hope you are all having a good day, and continue working out. Get up get into the things you love to do. Live and love life. If I let my physical “limitations” stop me from doing things I would just be in the house, babying my back, and afraid to hurt myself. I have scoliosis as I mentioned in my Working Out Through Herniated Disk post. Listen to your body, but don’t be afraid to get out there and do things. Believe me it takes me a minute to quick check and tell myself, that I could just lay there waiting and worrying about getting hurt, or I can just go live life, and see where I can go. How far can I get?

I went to my chiropractor yesterday, to find out my hips were out of alignment and I had a dislocated rib. I live with back, neck, and lower back pain. So small things like that don’t tend to bother me. Till they accumulate and then they bother me. =)

Well that is enough rambling from me. Thanks for reading this far. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and talk to me if you have any questions.

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.

https://youtu.be/t5TUtPCtzXo

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.

https://youtu.be/LgI8-lrSjNU

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

https://youtu.be/cSlTndwdfaI

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.

Working Out Through My Herniated Disk Injury

Warning: I am not a doctor and I cannot speak to your injuries. Please seek medical advice before doing your workout. I was given the ok to do certain things/moves and my doctor knows that I am very tuned into my body, so he was ok with me going slow.

I had been going merrily along my fitness journey, and made one simple mistake stepping off a ladder. I thought I was on the bottom rung, and I was not. I ended up landing improperly and herniating a disk in my lumbar region. The pain was bad but I as able to mitigate it a little with ibuprofen.

I continued to to do my Muay Thai workouts and even forced myself through sit ups for three days after that. You see I have scoliosis and deal with back pain daily. I don’t let it stop me generally, so this time I tried to tough it out. That night and into and into the next morning. I was in excruciating pain. I had exacerbated my injury and could not move much. As a matter of fact any movement sent shooting pains down my leg. Any movement in my back, hip, and leg would cause pain. I ended up going to the doctor to find I had a herniated disk that was pushing on my sciatic nerve. That the pains I was feeling and the instability was normal with this kind of injury.

I had to lay down on the floor of my living room with my legs propped up barely moving, only to get up to attend to my human functions. I was in pain walking, in pain sitting, in pain laying there. I had to convalesces in home for 2 weeks. I saw my chiropractor 3 days a week to keep things in alignment and it was a game of waiting. I kept asking when I would be able to get up and do anything again. I even had a bit of depression, thinking that I would never be the same and never be able to move again. Because you see, when you have incredible pain, it is hard to see to the future. Depression is also I am told is normal in an extreme injury.

My doctor said it would take 3 months for it to heal completely. After the second week, I was given the ok to do what I could. No kicking, no bending, no twisting, and absolutely NO jumping.

I started slowly. I informed my trainers that I was severely injured, and what my doctors said I could do. They worked with me helping me, and giving me alternatives to my training. I made sure to ice my back before and after work outs. They let me lay down on the mat when needed, and they were there when I had questions. They helped me work around my injury. When I first started it was painful, and I paid for it afterward. However, I kept going. I kept going to my doctors appointments. I pushed through. My doctor was surprised at how fast I was healing. How my pain and numbness was ebbing. It would get better and I would aggravate it. But I was making steady progress towards better. Every two weeks or so my pain in my back and hip, and numbness in my toes would ease if just a bit.

My doctor truly believes that my activity though painful, and sometimes tear inducing, was what lead to my rapid amazing recovery. Because I did not lay and only let my muscles atrophy, I was able to ease back into the workouts I do now. It kept my spirits up, and I as able to keep working at it. If I had to lay there and not move for 3 months I might have given up on a whole lot of things. I enjoyed realizing that after a week, the pain of just twisting and moving would be slightly less, even if just a bit. Through out my training I had to lay on my back, no sitting, and only standing when I needed to. The only time I was up on my feet was to work and to workout.

See this article from Beachbody.com about tips for working out during injury. This is a great article to get you started.


“It is very important to know the difference between a real injury and pain. During a workout, you may tweak something and experience pain.
Your initial reaction might be, “Ouch … but OK, I’m not bleeding, let’s tough this out.” If you have pain, stop working out right there and evaluate your symptoms to check the severity. Don’t just try to walk it out and hope for the best.
Of course we all want to be tough and gut it out, but the consequences for continuing to train and not taking enough time off to heal can be severe. Most of the time, it is a good idea to just stop and heal up before training again.”


https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/10-tips-when-training-with-an-injury.html


Tips:

  • First and foremost… listen to your body ( I admittedly have a hard time doing that. The drive to excel can make me blind to my pain. )
  • Inform your coach/trainer. (Let them know what you are going through. Let them know what your doctor said. A great trainer will understand, and tell you to let them know when you need to stop, or the movement is painful.)
  • If you feel a pain stop. (Learning what muscular pain is vs. skeletal, or joint pain is important. There is a difference between tired muscle and pain of injury.)
  • Be kind to yourself…(You are going to take time to heal, so do the things that you can. If you are not able to do everything, know that after you heal you will be able to.)
  • Don’t loose hope
  • Work around your injury
  • Keep your nutrition up (Don’t just let your nutrition slide cause you have been hurt)
  • RICE method is good to use ( If your injury is such that Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation will help your injury)
  • Use lighter weights if you are weight lifting
  • Warm up
  • Ice before and After injury (If it is applicable to your injury. If you have just had a say hysterectomy, icing won’t help. =) )
  • Stretch after workout
  • Use proper form when working out (Go slow and make sure you use proper form. Using proper form will prevent more injury.)

My back is much better now. I am back to running, and can sit for a few hours without pain. I train hard now, and kick at 100% now. When my back starts to hurt or feel not 100% I lay down, stretch and try to rest it. I also go to my chiropractor often to keep back and hips in alignment.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions let me know.


Krav and Striking Class…single Leg take down, elbows, and asymmetrical sparring

This 3 hour workout training time was a welcomed diversion. Had to deal with a customer who was being a racist bigot last night at work. Trying to cause trouble and get a coworker fired because of her skin color. So when it came time to hit and kick things I was ready.

In Krav we worked on our jab, cross, and hook, stepping off the line to get a rear hook in. This set us up to do a single leg take down. Putting your opponents on the ground. We also worked on the kicking from prone position then got up to combat base.

After Krav I worked on Muay Thai with my husband. We worked on hooks, horridontal elbows, to faking missing horizontal elbow to spinning back elbow. This all felt good and I am at a point that I more or less know the moves. I need to work on them but if you tell me to do a sequence of say jab, cross, right round kick and left round kick, I can do that. This is both cool and amazing cause we are working on ways to string our skills together and ways to mislead your opponents and get a hit in. When I first started out this was daunting but sparring is becoming fun.

In striking class we worked on asymmetrical sparring. This makes us work on different entries into strikes. So for instance one person gets to do only kicks and the other person Ann only do punches. You know what your opponents tools are so you can work on blocks for those but you only can use certain tools as well.

In an fight/adrenaline situation you don’t know what tools will bubble up, so training all the tools and getting proficient in them is very helpful. My Kru Kristen always says “you don’t rise to the occasion like most people think. You will fall back on your bad habbits and things you drilled the most.” So if I have a habit of dropping my hands when I am tired I will do the same in a fight where the adrenaline dumps.

Class was fantastic and wonderful, I am exhausted after 3 hours but so happy I did it.

Thanks for reading this far. Have a great weekend.

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Thai Rank 1/Level 1 test and Espada Y Daga

Today was an exciting day! A welcomed exciting day because yesterday while I trained Muay Thai for about 2 hours and got good training in. I had a bad head day. I could not get out of my head yesterday so it colored my training yesterday.

I did get into the store and did some retail therapy, I got a pair of jeans that are 2 sizes smaller than the jeans I have at home. Yay for non scale victories. They are from the same manufacturer as my previous jeans… yay! But that is neither here nor there.

Today was exciting, because a friend of mine was going up for her Rank 1 test. We need to celebrate each other. I was excited for her, and was happy to give her pep talks just to stave off some of her nerves. To give you reference. I am 3rd arm band in…or orange. She went up for Student Level 1/ Rank 1. The solid blue band on the chart above. I have 4 bands between me and that test. *eye twitch* Yeah its a bit daunting but I will take each test one at a time. I may be up for testing for green arm band next month. We will see.

We got a chance to work with another person D, and learn some of the things he learned. You see he just got back from Thailand and was able to train at some 8 gyms in Bangkok and is a wealth of information. After training with him, we all stopped to support A, encourage her, and help count her kicks and knees. For this Student Level 1/Rank 1 test she had to get so many knees and kicks in during a three minute round. She had to do two, three minute rounds back to back. She did fantastic and she was awarded her blue arm band. I am so very proud for her. She did fantastically.

Here is a video of one of the rounds that she had while testing.

https://youtu.be/hX-u8Rddfso

In Kali we worked on Espada Y Daga again. This time it was not so melty of the brain. I was able to get off the line and figure out my angles. I was able to gunting the 1-5 attacks, and deal with a dagger attacks from the other hand. Today Kali was clicking. I was getting it. My muscle memory was working. I was getting the shots in, and returning with what would be devastating blows had they been real blades.

So over all a great day. I got some clothes that fit better, and got to help support a friend for an awesome nerve wrecking Thai test. I got to practice Kali, and it did not melt my brain today. It seemed to all click. But I am prepared to run into trouble later, when we add another move and I need to wrap my brain around that move and get my body to do the thing my brain is telling it to.

If you got this far and are still reading, thank you! I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. Keep up your work, and keep trucking as we say around here. As always if you are feeling frogy drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

The Team I Love!

Saturday Mixed Striking and Krav… boxing cover and respond, double Leg take downs

exhaustion

Today I was feeling over all okay. Just a general feeling of meh. I got enough sleep because after work, I finished work at 10:45 pm, I passed out. I had some bad news yesterday where a friend and former coworker died this week. I have shed tears but over all… just been meh. But my workout was a blessed distraction from current emotions. Maybe not a great coping method but it was nice to make my body exhausted and focus on something else.

Three hours and 50 minutes of martial arts training. I am pooped. On Saturday we wake up early (that is 8 am to get to the gym by 10 am) and as a family take Krav Maga for an hour. Because don’t you know… that is what normal families do. Learn how to take down an assailant together. After Krav I practice Muay Thai with my husband for an hour while we wait for our Mixed Striking class. In the Mixed Striking class we can cover anything from Kali, to JKD, to Wing Chun, to Panantuken, to Silat, and Muay Thai. This class we worked on Muay Thai boxing.

One hour of Krav we worked on our boxing, and slipping. We did jab, cross, slip, cross, jab, slip drills. We did jab, cross, hook, slip drills. The goal is to get smoother in your movements and keep from getting hit. We moved into learning transitions to the double leg take down. How to shoot your leg in between your opponents leg, lift them up after bringing your other leg up, and dumping them on the ground. This is the only class that the kids and I attend together.

Here are two videos of me working on the jab, cross, slip, cross, jab, slip, and jab, cross, hook, slip. If you watch these are taken after about 3 hours and 30 minutes. I am tired, and my hands are dropping, I am not guarding my face as well as I should be. These are things that I have to keep working on.

https://youtu.be/AlybJbk7A6k

jab, cross, slip, cross, jab, slip, drill
https://youtu.be/yqhSy0zvIwQ
Jab, cross, hook, slip drill

After Krav we worked for an hour on various Muay Thai techniques, including a catching a kick between your bicep and fore arm in a tight bite. You then lift the leg and push forward with so the person falls over. Also how to lean into the person and clench up, if they catch your leg.

Her is a video of me doing that to my husband.

https://youtu.be/Qv9lyi65l_0
catch a kick and drop opponent on the ground

Mixed striking class we worked for one hour and 50 minutes on boxing, cover and responding to a hit. My slips seem to be getting tighter. The movement is getting tighter. However, I am still going to the side a bit still. I need to do more of a forward head movement. Tight head movements where I get off the line are the key, so I am improving. Then we did asymmetrical sparring. Where one person does only jabs and crosses and your opponent does hooks and upper cuts. This forces us to figure out how to get into the opponents box, and get our hits in. Also allows us to know what kind of hit is coming and helps in training.

Here is a video of me working on what we learned in class. I normally cut the videos down, so that you only see one move/drill but this I left long so that you can see how we drill different drills. Again this was taken after I have been at it for over 3 hours and 20 minutes. I am tired, and have a lot to work on. What you are seeing is:
1) Parry an incoming jab, high cover, return jab at same time, cross, hook, jab.
2) High cover, cross, and high cover, jab.
3) Cover body shot, to opposite upper cut.
4) When you see us stop we are talking about what I am doing wrong, and how to fix it.

https://youtu.be/3pFJs5MlUgY

Linner (lunch-dinner) was had afterward, cause we were all pretty hungry, and now I am at home under my electric blanket typing this out. Its cold and I want to nap. =) Full hibernation is pulling at me.

Thanks for reading this far, have a great weekend. I am going to rest now. Leave a comment if you want.

Check out Grrrl clothing for workout clothes. If you use this link and end up buying something it gives me referrals.  https://www.grrrl.com/ref/652/?campaign=Thinks.Spinks

Pants that pass the THICC girl booty test…squee!

My booty, but more importantly this pattern fabric is fantastic

Did you hear that all they way over there? That squee of delight when I just tried these pants on last night. I ordered these pants to try them out, and I did a 2.5 hours of training in Muay Thai and Kali. I got them on recommendation from my trainer/coach in Muay Thai. She uses them, and I thought, hey I will give it a try.

I am always on the look out for good workout tights. I work out about 5 to 6 days a week. So I need pairs of tights that will perform, not break down after two washes, have some compression (the ugly truth is I have loose skin from losing 70 lbs), are comfortable to wear and fit over my posterior, and bonus is they have awesome patterns and styles. However, as I have children and a family I could not just buy all the things I wanted. I decided to try one pair of pants.

I will give you all the pros and cons of these pants so far as I see them. I got the Dragon Skin Next Level Leggings.

Pros:

  • They don’t use the “standard” size numbering system, that was developed not taking into account different bodies of all different kinds of women. They use their own models names, and measurements. If you get your measurements and order by that, you will have a great fitting garment.
  • The stitching is strong and stands up to vigorous exercise. (Note: Thighs that rub together. )
  • The fabric feel fantastic its silky and thick, wicks sweat, and moves with your body as you do your exercise. It does not feel cheap.
  • It passed the panty test. (When standing you cannot see the panties through too shear fabric, also normal stretching and bending did not reveal any view of panties.) (I have had tights that you could read the writing on them through the pants just standing there.)
  • The pants stay up, no rolling or sliding down the body.
  • It passes the thicc booty test. (When you have a larger posterior, often times patterns will get distorted and look horrible if they are stretched over an area. It also draws attention those areas that are larger and you may not want to have attention drawn to. As you can see the stretch was perfect and did not distort the pattern. )
  • Last but not least they have fantastic customer service. (They noticed right after I ordered that they were out of the pants I ordered. I had not been to my computer so I did not see the email. In a mater of 24 hours customer service person Chloe had emailed me that they did not have my pants, and did I want to change it, or for the trouble cancel and get money toward a different order? Then in the next hour she emailed me once more that she found them in their Canadian store and was going to have the Canadian fulfillment center send them to me. Heidi was fantastic from the Canadian side as well. )

Cons:

  • For me really the only con so far is that pant leg is long on me. I am a short person. 5 foot, so everything is long on me. But really its not all that much of a con. I am going to try their capri’s next. You can see them bunched up around my ankles in the pictures.
  • Front view
  • Side view
  • Side view
  • View with Grrrl logo
  • Side view
  • Pattern in different less light

Now about packaging. Generally when I go to the store, I have been trying to use less disposable bags. So I did not think I would care about the packaging for this. However, I think they used just enough packaging to ensure that my garment got to me safely, but made the packaging meaningful. I love the little details. The purple-pink of the outer packaging, and the washing instructions on the outer brown paper bag packaging. Both are recyclable and they brought a smile to my face. The best surprise was the tag that the pants had. If you were giving this to a friend, you could address the garment to them.

” In today’s society we are programmed to see each other as competition. At Grrrl, we are changing the game. We exist to break the cycle of competition, and band together as sisters.

As our newest member for the #GRRRLARMY, your initiation consists of letting another Grrrl know something great about her, because chances are, she doesn’t see it in herself.

Flip this card over and fill in the blanks. Sometimes it’s easier to write it down and hand it over. “

Other side:

” Hey Grrrl-FRIEND! I wanted to tell you that

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

Don’t forget, you were born perfect. You go Grrrl!”

You can see in the pictures below if you want. There is not much more to say. I was not paid for this review. It is just how I feel about this product.

I did find on their website that I could become an ambassador for them, and they will give me credit. They gave me a link I could give you, and a 20% off coupon that you can use when you decide to order. Even if they did not have the ambassador program, I would still support this company. It is doing good things for us girls/women/ladies out there. We need to lift up and support each other.

Here is my Thinks with Spinks link for you to try, and below is the coupon code.

20% off coupon code nom1yq8d

As always thanks for reading, and let me know what you think.

  • Packaging
  • Washing instructions
  • Pants
  • This tag says it all
  • Other side of tag

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Elbows and Espada Y Daga

Me and my Coach

2 hours and 30 minute training tonight.

30 minute warm up of 200 kicks and 50 knees.

Some days are just mediocre. Here is what I mean. Some days are annoying I am struggling to get the new techniques or even my body to do the old techniques in the correct way. Then there are other days where it is fantastic, I am learning new things, I am buzzing along, and I am doing great while I still make mistakes I am jazzed and doing fantastic. Then the pendulum swings back and hits the middle, where I am doing the techniques I have learned already, and helping less experienced students develop their skills. Helping others is a different kind of satisfaction then beating my body into submission. I am getting some work in but nothing to write home about. Well today was one of those days.

We worked on elbows today in Muay Thai. We went through all 9 elbows. 1 = horizontal elbow, 2 = upward diagonal elbow, 3 = downward diagonal elbow, 4 = vertical up elbow, 5 = downward vertical elbow, 6 = side in elbow, 7 = side out elbow, 8 = tach malach (spelling is probably wrong) or spear elbow, and finally 9 = spinning elbow. We worked on the parry or scoop and entry with elbow. We also worked on scoop, elbow entry, and then followed up with spinning elbow. I have two videos of me doing some of those elbows.

https://youtu.be/IG_9Q1Jf5EI
Parry Jab to Elbow Entry
https://youtu.be/Evg2RENoj4s
Parry a Jab, Elbow Entry, to Spinning Elbow drill

In Kali we worked on Espada Y Daga. Which translates to sword and dagger. This was fun, and surprisingly easy. I say this even though I made plenty of mistakes and needed to work on my footing. I was able to figure out how to cut my opponent and get out of the drill as well. We then got to spar afterward. Where if we had actually used real weapons I would have died many times. However, I got many good strikes in and would have been able to win a few fights. One of my friends even laid me out on they floor. We say in a knife fight the winner bleeds and the looser gushes. So if you end up in a knife fight expect to get cut. Anyway enough of my babbling. Here is a video of me doing the drill.

https://youtu.be/pokT5A1RqAY
Espada Y Daga drill

If you made it this far, wow, I have rambled. But this is the reality of a fitness journey. Not every day is going to be sunshine and sparkles. Not every day is going to suck. Some days are going to be meh… but I have still shown up, and put my time in. These days are days when it may seem like I am not learning a lot, but it will all culminate in the end.

Thanks for reading… =) Keep up being awesome you.

Check out Grrrl clothing for workout clothes. If you use this link it gives me referrals. I have another post to talk about some tights I got from them. https://www.grrrl.com/ref/652/?campaign=Thinks.Spinks

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali…Off Balances and Half Beats oh my!

I just completed 2 hours and 30 minute training.

1.5 hours of Muay Thai. For the first 30 minutes of my training, I did 200 kicks over a foam roller, and 100 knee number 3’s into a heavy bag. We then worked on basics again. It’s amazing even though I know these techniques I was having a hard time with them. It occurred to me when I was working on my jab, cross and then horizontal right elbow that maybe I am stiff cause of weight lifting yesterday. Or I just might be having an off day. We worked on entries after the jab, cross.

Then we worked on off ballances so that we could get range from opponent to get your knees in. We got to do the leg bump off ballance which is my favorite. I was asked to come up and demonstrate it to the class where normally I would hesitate and be embarrassed. But to my surprise as I sit here and think back on it, I jumped at the opportunity and to do the move on guy taller than me. I was able to execute it so fast and accurately that he almost fell over and my instructor was impressed. It’s a great off ballance for me cause I am short and shorter than everyone in our class. My instructor always says use what you have to your advantage. If you are tall use that if you are short use that. So I get in close and my opponents cannot see my hits coming if I am fast enough.

The mind bending Kali was also fun. We worked on off beats in Kali. Where we were performing standard six and adding a witik into it. I like the outside deflection witik and the lower back hand almost gunting type off beat. I messed up a lot, and you just have to keep going and pick up the beat again.

Shower and sleep is in order next.

Anyway here is a video of me doing it slowly cause I just learned it today and need to practice.

Again think you for reading and watching. Talk to me if you want. Let me know if you like anything, or want more information on anything I am doing.

https://youtu.be/ymfhMC7W6zg