Tag: Punch

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.

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.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali… 4 more Thai 4 counts, and Silat Basset Dal

forgive me I have wild hair

Getting to kick and hit things in Muay Thai was very cathartic. I have been carrying around some anxiety about a lot of things including my son being sick, and having a horrible allergic reaction. Having to watch him like a hawk to make sure that he is still breathing.

We found out that my son is allergic to the quinolone antibiotic. That is what was causing his reaction. So he is off of those antibiotics, we are hoping his infection is cleared up, and now we have to dose him with Benadryl.

Muay Thai, 4 more Thai 4 counts

On to more fun things. Today was Muay Thai and Kali. It was 2 hours of hitting and kicking, and it was great! I love learning, and trying to get tweak my movements to make them better, faster, more powerful.

So today Kru Kristen was back. She went to the Inosanto instructor camp. They did some Thai 4 counts that she wanted us to do today. So we added them to our normal 4.

Normal 4 counts include:

  1. Left kick (torso or leg), cross, hook, right torso roundhouse kick
  2. Right kick (torso or leg), hook, cross, left torso roundhouse kick
  3. Left kick (torso or leg), cross, hook, left torso roundhouse kick
  4. Right kick (torso or leg), hook, cross, right torso roundhouse kick

We added these four for a total of 8:

  1. Jab, cross, left kick (torso or leg), right torso kick
  2. Jab, cross, right kick (torso or leg), left torso kick
  3. Jab, cross, left kick (torso or leg), left torso kick
  4. Jab, cross, right kick (torso or leg), right torso kick.

These are not any new moves for us, but it is a new way of drilling and getting repetitions in. Because, we all know one of the key ways you improve is to get repetitions in.


“

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Pablo Picasso

The key is to over train your body, and mind. You do this so that your muscle memory and your actions become automatic. At first your learning is forced. You are so focused on the how, and mimicking others, that it is hart and you have to slog through it. Think back to learning how to read, and how it felt like work. Well eventually it is a automatic thing. You can read things fast, and glean the knowledge you need from just a glance. Eventually we hope to have our bodies move in Thai as if we are just walking, or running. It is automatic, rote, or something you do without thinking. When my brain see’s something coming at my head, my brain will eventually send signals for my body to react and cover to protect the head.

Here is a video of all 8 Thai 4 counts

Kali – Basset Dal vs Sapu Dal

In Kali we worked on Silat again. We learned that Basset means facing away, and Dal means in between the legs. Where Sapu means facing the opponent, and Dal means between the legs. So today we focused on Basset Dal, where we entered from the similar Thai 4 count. Left kick, Cross, Hook, Right kick.We answer the left kick with a destruction, then we slip the cross, then we had to high cover the hook and perform a posting choke, where the thumb is right under the adams apple, then we block the right kick while pushing the opponent away. After that we move to control the arm by rolling the bicep and forcing them down, off balancing them and then dumping them.

This was fun, and we are getting to a point where we know some of the basic moves, such as basset dal, and puta kapala, that we are now just fine tuning it, trying to make them more smooth, more flowing, and more finding the entries.

I got dumped multiple times and better yet I got to dump a lot of people. It is fun to feel where body mechanics takes over and your actions cause peoples bodies to just move to your whim. Because I guarantee you if you push on a persons knee they will move it back. Their body is smarter than you think and will want to preserve functionality, by avoiding being hurt.

We got to do a sticky legs drill, where we got to feel just that. Where your partner/opponent can feel when your body is about to move, and you have to re-position, and get them in a hold again.

Thank you all for reading my blog. I started this and continue to do this to log/write down my training, and my journey. So I am surprised that any of you read it. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Pablo Picasso had it right… I am going to keep learning Muay Thai, and Kali like a professional fighter would, and then I can perform it with my flare like any great martial artist.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali… Thai Test Leveling UP!, Silat Puta Kapala, and another take down.

Just a little sore from yesterday… Yay! My hamstrings are not happy with me, but that is ok. That means I targeted them and got a good workout in yesterday. 2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali training.

Testing for Green Band

Today was a great day again in Muay Thai. We had a Thai Test. What that means is we all line up and demonstrate our knowledge of the the Thai, Kicks, Elbows, Knees, Teeps, and Punches. Kru will say lead leg round house kick through, and shield, go. Then we have to demonstrate that we understand what she is saying.

We then worked on (Cross, Jab, Lead Kick), (Cross, Jab, Rear Kick), (Cross, Jab, Rear Knee), (Cross, Jab, Lead Knee), (Cross, Jab, Short Teep/Rear Teep), (Cross, Jab, Long Teep/Front Teep). This was a lot of fun. The Kru goes around viewing us and seeing what level we are at. What our moves look like.

After that we worked on the Thai 4 count. (Left/lead kick, cross, hook, right/rear kick), ( Right/rear kick, hook, cross, Left/lead kick), (Left/lead kick, cross, hook, left/lead kick), (Right/rear kick, hook, cross, right/rear kick). I am making it a point to say front or rear, because I was working with a south paw all night and his jabs come from the opposite side of mine, his hooks, everything is is different, and he has to think of it as rear kick, verses right or left. For him the rear kick is his left kick. =) So its a different way of thinking and it makes it hard to hold pads for someone that is opposite your stance. But you know what we both will be super proficient on both stances if we work together more.

Anyway… lets get to the point. I tested today. I was an orange band and was testing for green band. I got it! I passed and now have a green band. I leveled up! I am so happy. I was beaming, and Kru Kristen gave me a huge compliment, on how I bring everyone together as a family. Before I started she said “everyone did not feel like family, and now that I am and have been here. I draw them together.” I almost shed a tear, because that was so sweet of her to say. I was tough and did not get emotional and embarrass myself in front of the whole class. =)

This is the armband progression we are following.

Kali- Silat Puta Kapala and two more take downs I can’t remember the name of.

Kali was fun today, we worked more on Silat forms. We added throat gouging in, pulling the opponent off balance toward us, hooking our foot behind their foot and then simultaneously pushing them and sweeping their foot. Your opponent then falls backward and is in a prone position.

We worked on a move where we parry the jab, slip the cross, upper cut them, hit them in the genitals, then controlling the arm they used to throw a cross at us, we step forward off balancing them. Putting our leg behind theirs and lowering our center of gravity, elbow them in the stomach and then push them over our leg, right on their behind. I believe this is a version of the Puta Kapala that you use if they step with the inner foot.

It may say something about me, but I like moving a few limbs, countering an opponents move, and using their energy to dump them on the ground. One of these days I will get better and be more smooth about it. When it works it goes so fast and is amazingly easy. When I am not doing everything right it is more difficult, I have to muscle it. Then I know I am not off balancing my opponent correctly.

That is all. That was my night and as I sit here typing, I am eating a snack of Hot N’ Spicy pickle bites. I really was craving the salt.

Thank you for reading this far. Have a great night, and keep working toward your goals. I never thought I would be studying/learning Muay Thai, 2 years ago. You never know where you will be.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali…Kick High, Guillotine Choke Hold

My good friend DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Sorenes) set in again today at around 3 pm. Wee… this time thought it was my deltoids, biceps, and triceps. My hamstrings and abductors are a little sore. But my focus was on upper body so, it makes sense that those are more sore.

We did 2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali today.

Muay Thai- Kick High

I had a great day today in Muay Thai. Thanks to Kru Krysta for the fantastic class. The workout was hard, and fantastic. The conditioning we did where we did 20 kicks in a row, 5 on each side was amazing and while gassing, cause I was not breathing right, was amazing. I was having one of those good days where things were clicking. Where I have been training, and training, and it finally feels like my muscle memory is taking over. Even though I was sore I was able to do it all. As I am sitting here and things are cooling down, I can feel how sore I am and it is going to be fun tomorrow!

We worked on the Thai four counts again, this time with a teep first. We teep our training partner and then we have to chase them down to get the first kick in. What that had us practicing was our hop kick, and closing the distance. If you teep a person correctly it will send them back. When we work on teep to same side kick, to our punches to same side kick. We are forcing our bodies to practice and get better hip mobility. Which is key to landing our kicks correctly.

I got some really great compliments. I was working on our teep to 4 count, right teep, to right torso kick, hook, cross, to left kick. Kru Krysta came up to me and said “great job Tanya, look how high your kicking! A month ago you were not kicking that high.” I was working with some one that is nearly 6 foot, and I have to kick about just below shoulder level for me to hit his torso. We were continuing our drills, and she came back around, and Kru said “your kicks were looking great”. I was getting my rotation in on the ball of my foot, and my teeps were sending him back and I was chasing him down for my kicks.

Kali – Guillotine

After an hour of Muay Thai that kicked my butt, but was a blast. We went right into Kali. We worked on Silat again. Let me tell you when your triceps and deltoids hurt already, and some one does an arm control on you where they are putting the blade of their forearm into your triceps it does not feel good. We continued with learning how to smoothly take your opponent/assailant down. We also worked on how if they fight you and your move how to counter their trying to muscle up. We added something called the Guillotine Choke hold where you can either choke and cut off oxygen to the head thus rendering them unconscious and you can run away. Or doing the Guillotine on the jaw line, as a pain submission were they will stop fighting and want you to stop because the pain is unbearable. Then we did a variation where we do the full Guillotine with a thumb pressed into the hollow of their neck. This is also a pain submission, and if they don’t tap will also restrict airflow to the brain.

I have to remember to make sure to control the arm better. I sometimes let go of the arm, or stop framing against their neck with control of their arm. If I do that the assailant will then get out of my hold and then continue to possibly harm me.

I am super tired, need a shower, an need to rub down with Thai oil so I will stop there. Thank you for reading. Leave a comment if you want, and have a great day.

Bonus Muay Thai Training…Synchronized Thai



When plans fall through, you have bonus Muay Thai training, or at least I did. I got 3 hours of training in tonight. I have to slather my arm in Namman Muay Thai oil. I will do a review on it in the future. But I digress… I am tired and feel accomplished.

I meant to be out of town, and I was going to see friends. However, the friend I was going to go with had a family thing pop up and I fully understand. Family is always first, it is the case with me, and I fully support them. So I got a bonus training day in. Woot! This was not a formal class but a time in the gym when I could work on my form, timing, and get ready for an upcoming test.

Warm Up:

  • Complete 3 sets of the following
  • 2 minutes of jump rope
  • 60 seconds rest
  • 2 minutes of shadow boxing
  • Bag ladder pyramid drills. You decrease the punches by 2 and the kicks by one on each side till you are only doing 2 punches and 1 kick each side, and start ascending again.
  • 20 punches, and 10 right kicks, and 10 left kicks
  • 18 punches, and 9 right kicks, and 8 left kicks.
  • Lather rinse and repeat

We all lined up at the heavy bags, and worked together on our ladder pyramid drills. One of our friends that was rolling in BJJ looked up and said, “woo hoo look its synchronized Thai. ” We all looked back and laughed.

Then we worked on right leg kick, right torso kick, and then a fake out right kick again that lead into a teep. This kind of kick to faint to teep is one of my favorite moves. I think it will be my bread and butter. I am short and therefore my range is shorter than others, so a lot of times I can create noise with my glove in their face, and then get a kick in without them noticing. This is similar, they are expecting a kick and then get teeped. Now I am not perfect at this at all, and it is going to require a lot of practice, but I love this kind of move. My feeder was amazed I picked it up so quickly. I have a lot to work on with it, but I find when it is something I find exciting, or fun to do I pick it up faster. =) Strange how we are like that.

We worked on the boxing 20. I have to get it ready for testing. I am still dropping my hands. I need to make sure I get my hand turned with thumb up to do my hooks.

We worked on knees, and a hop knee. My instructors tells us that everyone is bad at something. My bad thing is the long leaning knee. The one used to create distance between you and your opponent. I am just crap at that.

We then did two 5 minute conditioning rounds back to back with a 60 second break in between. First 5 minute round, we had to put the kicks in fast and the knees in fast. 3 kicks on on side, 4 knees, and 3 kicks on the opposite side. For the second round we had to do the same kicks and knees with all the power put in. I was gassed after the second 5 minutes. I hated them during it, and I hated the person feeding me, but that was just cause it was hard. But I did it, and I got it done. I kept my form consistent, and while I have a lot to work on still keep it consistent and being able to stay in the ring for 5 minutes each time is fantastic.

I had a blast and I feel accomplished. I got a great workout in while I was here. I was able to do two 5 minute rounds back to back that I thought I might not be able to do. =)

Thanks for reading again. I hope you had a great day. If you have plans and they fall through find something you love and take that time to do that.

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.