12.30.06 - Saturday Practice

New Items Today:

1. Parry Drill
2. All Direction Throw

Reviewed Other Items:

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

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Warm-ups
Our warm-ups today had some additional stretching added on to the usual regimen. We took extra time to stretch the wrists, as well as some time stretching our legs. Other than these areas of focus, the warm up was pretty typical.

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Parry Drill
Sifu split us up into pairs for a new drill today, or at least new for me. I have missed a couple of weeks and Jeff states that we did this drill in class while I was gone. I was paired up with Alfredo and this was the first time he had seen this as well. Facing each other, one person was throwing straight punches and the other was using a parry movement to parry the strike off to the side. We were not blocking – the parry redirects the force of the punch along an imaginary line that takes the strike off the line of attack, in this case across our own center line. As his straight right came in, I was using a double-factoring parry to intercept and deflect. The first movement was to parry across with my left hand with sort of a ‘wiping’ motion. My right hand comes in behind and continues the motion of the parry and allows the left hand to return to a checking position.

As when GM Vic LeRoux was here last year at the seminar, he described a sort of wedge that starts with the point or edge directly in front of you and angles off past either side moving past your shoulders. This imaginary line is the same line of motion that the parries in this exercise follow. The movements described above are mirrored and repeated for the right side. This parry exercise ultimately led to another exercise later this morning.

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Mat Work
We pulled the mats out and practiced some rolling. We connected the two mats together for a 10’ x 10’ surface and we rolled from corner to corner. For the most part, we just got comfortable rolling and sort of got warmed back up after the parry exercise. Sifu took up position at the opposite corner of the mat and simulated the presence of an attacker as we rolled forward. We practiced coming out of the roll directly into a defensive posture, bringing our arm up into a quasi blocking position while drawing the legs in for protection. We also maneuvered in this ‘guard’ position while Sifu simulated an attacker trying to get around these defenses.

Next, we split up the mats and broke into pairs so we could learn the “All Direction Throw”. This was broken down into 3 phases. I started out working with Jeff on this one and since he had worked with this the week before, he was very helpful in teaching me how to do it. I’m not sure I can put this into words very effectively but here it goes. We started out facing each other I grabbed Jeff’s right wrist with my left hand while at the same time deploying a “distraction technique” (claw to the face). I then brought his right wrist to my right hand while stepping between us with my left foot to my right side. While all of this is going on I am continuing an arc or “circle” with Jeff’s wrist up and over our heads. The space between us is minimal. I then step back in the direction that I just came from but now facing that direction as I continue the arc of the circle with his wrist. The result is a collapsing of Jeff’s body to his back. I am still in control of his wrist and plant it on the matt beside his head. I can then use his elbow that is now pointing up as a lever point and change my own body position to take advantage of Jeff’s mostly helpless state.

I can see the motion clearly in my head but this sounds very unclear on paper. The key points to this throw are to maintain a close distance between you and the attacker while going through the motions and maintain a circular motion with a straight arm. The more we practiced this, the more evident these points became. If you allow too much space between you and the attacker, you lose your leverage and are in trouble. If you bend the elbow or allow for the circle to collapse, you also lose your leverage and are in trouble. When proper form is maintained, it seems almost impossible to beat this throw.

The next step of this throw was to skip that first step and simply pivot around instead. Doing so makes the movement much faster and reduces the chances of escape by your attacker. All of the same principles and rules still apply though as it is still the same throw. I practiced this with Walt and we both found a comfort level in our practice and he asked me to take it up a notch by “doing it as fast as I can without losing control” so I did. I was surprised at the force that Walt landed with, and I think he was too as he had the breath knocked out of him a little bit. There is something about the circular motions that I can just see in my head as we go through these. I wish I could pick up some of the Kenpo principles as easily as I seem to be able to do some of these Hapkido moves.

The final phase of learning this throw was to combine the parry drill that we learned earlier in class today with the ‘all direction throw’. This is actually very cool. As the attacker comes in with a punch, you can parry the blow and direct it right into the movements of the all direction throw and plant them nicely on their back while maintaining control. Very cool. I need to practice this set of moves together more as I wasn’t quite as comfortable with them combined as I was individually but I can certainly see how effective they are when combined.

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Techniques
We finished up the day reviewing technique. It was a quick review and really just gave us a chance to work through them a bit. I need all the time I can get practicing my Purple belt techniques on body as I have very little time in with them so far.

12.09.06 - Saturday Practice

Reviewed Other Items:

1. Warming up with Basics
2. Techniques

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Warm-ups
We started with a solid warm-up today. Aside from our usual routine, we did some additional stretching, especially with the legs. We also did some additional joint stretching, particularly the wrists, which usually means we are going to be doing some Hapkido or joint manipulations but as it turns out we didn’t go in that direction today. Today was solidly rooted in basics starting right from the warm-ups.

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Techniques
The day was spent pretty much on technique today. There was much I was given to work on in order to tune up my form. Following was the feedback I was given regarding corrections or items to consider when doing my techniques:

Returning Serpent

• The trajectory on my whipping back-fist was a bit flat; be sure that the back-fist is on a rising trajectory to the attacker’s right temple.
• Maintain proper stance and be mindful of the stance changes.
• Be sure to torque the punch. I have a tendency to hold my rear fist flat against my body which robs the punch of torque when it is thrown. Focus on holding the fist in a “palm up” type position allowing for the torque in the lunge punch to the ribs.
  

Beheading the Dragon

• Keep the checking hand vertical. My tendency is to allow that check to match the angle of my arm, creating a complementary angle of entry for my attacker. Not good. Keep the checking hand vertical.
  

Stopping the Storm

• Keep the elbows tight (anchored) closer to my sides.
• Punch accurately to the targets and be mindful of where the targets are going to be. When working with a partner, you obviously can’t punch through them with the stop punch, but it is important to remember what their body position will be if you do.
  

Hidden Wing

• Keep the knees bent. I have a tendency to straighten them which will rob balance and perhaps some mobility.
  

Circling Serpent

• Anchor the elbow! Doing so aids in marrying his core to your own as well as controlling his movements, basically a sort of check.
  

Clapping Tiger

• Get a good grab on the wrist. Optimally, grab the garment at the shoulder as well.
• Get close to the attacker when moving in for the throw. If you allow a gap between you and the attacker, there is a chance he will be able to pull you off balance and disrupt the technique. It is also a vital point in establishing the base for the throw.
• Be mindful of three points: The wrist, the shoulder, and the butt bunk. These are the three control points.
  

Hooking Thunder

• Get into a solid cat stance! My tendency is to have the back foot angled more at a 45 than at 90 degrees.
• You are disrupting 2 points of the attackers balance: Height and Depth. Don’t forget to not only capture the kick at it’s apex, but to also pull it in slightly past you as well.
  

Captured Wing

• Throw the initial elbow straight back. It is not an upward elbow but rather goes straight back.
• The final elbow strike to the spine should be a circular motion originating from an orbit at the release of the hand. It should be a smooth circular motion.
  

Raking Hammer

• Drop into position at the first block! I should be dropping into a neutral bow. This will correct a range problem I am having with this technique.
• Transition low into a horse stance when delivering the hammer fist to the groin. The feet should be flat.
• The final elbow is a point of origin strike directly to the chin. This can contour up the body. It is also possible to get a ‘bonus’ strike to the sternum depending on the body reaction to the to hammer fist to the groin.

I ultimately have the gross movements down for the techniques but need to work on refinement. There are some issues I am having with these techniques when I work them in the air versus on a body. Visualizing the targets seems to be my weakness when I’m doing them in the air.