11.18.06 - Saturday Practice

New Items Today:

1. Drills (Attacking Warrior)
2. Ground Fighting – Kimura Defense & Reversal

Reviewed Other Items:

1. Warming up with Basics
2. Mat Work
3. Techniques

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Warm-ups
We began with our normal warm up and stretching today with some additional drills and exercises targeting the basics, such as kicks, blocks and foot maneuvers. It was rather aerobic today and we worked up a nice light sweat right away.

Immediately following the warm-up drills, we started in with a series of moves that essentially became the Blue belt technique Attacking Warrior. I worked with Marty for this portion of the class. We squared off facing each other in a right neutral bow. Taking turns, we first started by exchanging a simple right handed back fist intended for the right temple of our training partner. We took turns, making sure we had good control and proper range. The next step in the sequence was to have the defensive partner intercept the back fist with a right outward block. Adding to this sequence, the ‘attacker’ follows the back fist with a right replacement roundhouse kick to the lower abdomen. Still adding to this series, the next movement was a lunge punch to the ribs and then a final variation took this lunge punch to the head. For the most part, we focused as a class on the gross movements of this technique. Toward the end of the exercise, Sifu went through some additional fine points with the Blue belts in class.

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Mat Work
The work we did on the mats today was largely review and practice of previous items. Starting out we did forward rolls, first staying down after the roll and then coming back up in a neutral bow to face our would-be assailant. I did relatively well today on the mats but am still a little weak on my left side. I feel that I am improving but it is taking longer than I would like, probably because this one is difficult to practice at home. We wrapped up the mat work with some ‘push drills’, for lack of a better term. We’ve done this before; basically we line up and Sifu attempts to distract us with some sort of engaging conversation while the person behind us pushes us forward at some random interval of timing. Of course, this is only a marginal surprise at best since we all know what is coming but it still allows for a little bit of practice at being pushed while off guard. Besides that, it’s fun.

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Ground Fighting
Marty took us through some exercises in ground fighting today that were a bit different from what we have done in the past. Reflecting back in my mind on what we did, I’m having a hard time thinking of a good way to put it into words. We started off by very quickly reviewing the Kimura as the focus today was to learn a Kimura defense and a counter defense. There were a couple of things that I kept thinking about as we were doing these exercises. Everything on the ground is about leverage but sometimes you can cheat the leverage with strength if you find it impossible to get the correct position. Of course, with your opponent on the ground fighting you every step of the way, this can be quite strenuous and if you come to rely on strength instead of technique, I can see where you would quickly tire and be injured or submitted. Angles and positioning seem to be everything in this game.

The other item we covered today with Marty was reversal using a sort of “scissor kick”. This takes you from your back on the bottom to a better position on top. This one is particularly hard for me to describe, and quite honestly, I don’t know if I could remember how to do it. As with the other items, it is all about leverage and position. As we were practicing, I wasn’t getting it right and Marty offered some corrections. When I finally pulled it off, I realized that it was the subtle moves that I was missing that made the difference. That doesn’t mean that the other movements required weren’t important, just that without everything working together it is very difficult to make it work at all. When all of the pieces come together correctly, it’s like a key turning smoothly in a lock. Otherwise, it’s like using the wrong key – and that is where the experience comes in.