11.07.05 - Practice Out of Class
Met at Alex’s Home in Durham
The purple belts from class and I met at Alex’s house for practice this week and Marty joined us briefly as well. He was just getting over a cold and didn’t want to push it, so he didn’t actually participate in the work out but we all chatted for a few minutes before we got started.
We did some basic warm-ups and the like as usual – blocks, maneuvers, kicks, etc. From there we did some light ‘multi-man’ sparring. I myself participated only on the level of an attacker although the other three took turns defending. It was interesting to see the different strategies of the three of them; Walt constantly repositioned himself to the effect of placing 2 attackers in line so as to eliminate the effectiveness of one of the attackers. Alex tended to get in close to the lead attacker and muscle him around and into another attacker, essentially accomplishing the same thing as Walt but expending much more energy to do so. Phyl seemed at first to get easily backed into a corner and Walt & Alex quickly called him on that. He then decided to explode into the lead attacker and move through the group forcing everyone to reorganize and chase him down. All very interesting, but the adrenaline and high emotion that so lends itself to that ‘pack mentality’ were missing.
Following the ‘multi-man’ drill, we did technique lines starting with Orange belt and working up through Blue. As before, I did the techniques I know and then dummied for the rest of them. We just did the base techniques this time so we got through them relatively quickly compared to the last time we were at Alex’s house.
After the lines we did some sparring. We just broke into pairs and went for a few minutes at a time and then switched off. I started out with Walt, and as usual, he came right at me with those long kicks so I just did what I usually do – moved in and took his center. He went down a couple of times before he switched tactics and started to be more technical. Once he switched off, it was much more interesting and he was getting inside me like crazy. I definitely needed to tighten up and wound up being more defensive in order to keep him out.
Next was Alex. I always have a difficult time with Alex. We both went to more of a grappling type of confrontation and he definitely rooted better than I did, although I was able to unroot him once or twice. His experience on the ground is much better than mine and he was quick to take advantage. It didn’t take long wrestling and I was nearly spent, at which time we broke off. We did some light sparring then, but I was so tired I was basically just defending.
By the time we switched again I was finally getting my wind back. Phyl and I squared off and I could see that he was frustrated a bit from his bout with Walt. We started out slow but then he started coming in faster. I wasn’t quite ready to start attacking yet so I just studied him a bit and realized he was telegraphing. When he was coming in with a lead right, his shoulder moved first. I just stuck my arm out and placed it on his chest before he got to me, stopping him cold. I did this several times from different angles and sides and realized it had psychologically taken a toll because now when he started to move, I just had to flinch and he rocked back onto his heels – rooted in place and slow to respond. He was obviously distracted and frustrated and I just moved around him and took advantage.
We wrapped up after the sparring and started to get ready to head out. After dusting each other off from rolling around in the dirt, we all took off. It was a good workout tonight and I think I’m going to have a couple of bruises to show for it.
The purple belts from class and I met at Alex’s house for practice this week and Marty joined us briefly as well. He was just getting over a cold and didn’t want to push it, so he didn’t actually participate in the work out but we all chatted for a few minutes before we got started.
We did some basic warm-ups and the like as usual – blocks, maneuvers, kicks, etc. From there we did some light ‘multi-man’ sparring. I myself participated only on the level of an attacker although the other three took turns defending. It was interesting to see the different strategies of the three of them; Walt constantly repositioned himself to the effect of placing 2 attackers in line so as to eliminate the effectiveness of one of the attackers. Alex tended to get in close to the lead attacker and muscle him around and into another attacker, essentially accomplishing the same thing as Walt but expending much more energy to do so. Phyl seemed at first to get easily backed into a corner and Walt & Alex quickly called him on that. He then decided to explode into the lead attacker and move through the group forcing everyone to reorganize and chase him down. All very interesting, but the adrenaline and high emotion that so lends itself to that ‘pack mentality’ were missing.
Following the ‘multi-man’ drill, we did technique lines starting with Orange belt and working up through Blue. As before, I did the techniques I know and then dummied for the rest of them. We just did the base techniques this time so we got through them relatively quickly compared to the last time we were at Alex’s house.
After the lines we did some sparring. We just broke into pairs and went for a few minutes at a time and then switched off. I started out with Walt, and as usual, he came right at me with those long kicks so I just did what I usually do – moved in and took his center. He went down a couple of times before he switched tactics and started to be more technical. Once he switched off, it was much more interesting and he was getting inside me like crazy. I definitely needed to tighten up and wound up being more defensive in order to keep him out.
Next was Alex. I always have a difficult time with Alex. We both went to more of a grappling type of confrontation and he definitely rooted better than I did, although I was able to unroot him once or twice. His experience on the ground is much better than mine and he was quick to take advantage. It didn’t take long wrestling and I was nearly spent, at which time we broke off. We did some light sparring then, but I was so tired I was basically just defending.
By the time we switched again I was finally getting my wind back. Phyl and I squared off and I could see that he was frustrated a bit from his bout with Walt. We started out slow but then he started coming in faster. I wasn’t quite ready to start attacking yet so I just studied him a bit and realized he was telegraphing. When he was coming in with a lead right, his shoulder moved first. I just stuck my arm out and placed it on his chest before he got to me, stopping him cold. I did this several times from different angles and sides and realized it had psychologically taken a toll because now when he started to move, I just had to flinch and he rocked back onto his heels – rooted in place and slow to respond. He was obviously distracted and frustrated and I just moved around him and took advantage.
We wrapped up after the sparring and started to get ready to head out. After dusting each other off from rolling around in the dirt, we all took off. It was a good workout tonight and I think I’m going to have a couple of bruises to show for it.
posted by Bonzai at 11/07/2005 11:00:00 PM
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