01.07.06 - Saturday Training

New Items Today:

1. Front & Rear Crossover
2. Returning Student: Khedron

Reviewed other items:

1. Yes-No Drills
2. ¼ Speed sparringTechniques

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Returning Student: Khedron
We were joined by a student returning to training today by the name of Khedron. He is a fellow White belt and had trained for several months before relocation took him out of the area and away from the group. Today was the first that I met him and enjoyed the time we spent working out. Perhaps he will be joining us regularly from this point forward again as it would seem that he has returned to the Raleigh area again.

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Front & Rear Crossover Stance
Sifu spent a chunk of time in class today to discuss the crossover stance with the entire group. I appreciated this because I had just spent a lunch hour on Wednesday previous with him and we discussed some of the same details; specifically as they related to exiting a technique. It started when I asked him about how the purple belts “cross out” at the end of their techniques.

At the end of Escaping Ram, I was developing the habit of stepping forward and across with my kicking leg and turning around to face the attacker – exposing my back to him in the process. Sifu introduced the crossover stance and showed how I could go into it after the kick and then “uncoil” into a neutral bow without ever losing sight of my attacker. Good stuff! The only part that I was struggling with a little bit is that I wasn’t going deep enough into the crossover stance. This caused me to be too tight (feet too close together) when I came back up into the neutral bow. I need to practice this one some more.

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Yes-No Drills
We have done these before but they are always fun. Working with a partner, he calls out a somewhat random three-count, such as “Yes-No-Yes” and I punch the focus mitts with right-left-right combinations. Each “Yes” is a strike to the mitt, each “No” is a thrown punch stopping short of striking the mitt. These are interesting because the more you think about what was said, the slower and more inaccurate your punches seem to be. This really works best with an “empty mind” so to speak.