01.06.07 - Saturday Practice

Reviewed Other Items:

1. Warming up with Basics
2. Techniques
3. Sparring

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Warm-ups
We did some additional foot maneuvers today along with our usual warm-up routine. After our normal stretching, we lined up along the mat and went down and back with several foot maneuvers, such as step-drags, step-throughs, covers, switches, and forward planting roundhouse kicks. Sifu also switched things up a little bit by calling out several different maneuvers in no particular order and we all progressed down the mat with them.

After the initial warm ups, we broke out the focus mitts and did some lunge punches. I was working with Walt for these. Next up we did some “Yes/No” drills. It has been a while since I have done these but seemed to do okay. There was only one time that I got tripped up and punched on a “no”. Overall my control seemed to be good.

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Technique
Next we worked technique. We had some visitors in class today and one of them, Brandon, came dressed and was participating in some of the exercises. Sifu took Brandon and the White belts off the mat and worked with them on some techniques. I worked with the Blue belts on the mats, starting with the Orange belt techniques and working our way up through their material. I was mostly comfortable working the Orange belt material but I haven’t had much time working the Purple belt techniques on a body. Phyl, Alex, Walt and I all rotated around and worked with each other on the different techniques. They all gave me some great advice on tweaking my Purple belt techniques.

When we got to Clapping Tiger, I happened to be with Walt and we stepped onto the padded mats for the throw. Walt seemed to think I had the throw down pretty good and asked me to throw him a couple of times. The next thing I know, Phyl and Alex are lining up for me to throw them too! Apparently this caught the attention of Sifu and he came over to give me some additional pointers. I wasn’t having any problems doing the throw with Walt or Phyl, but for some reason Alex kept coming around my side instead of going over the top. I asked Sifu why this was happening and he said “…because that’s where you are putting him.” Sifu showed me the trajectory I was using and then showed me an adjustment. On the next throw, Alex went over the top like he was supposed to. The adjustment was in the grip and in the height of my stance. One of the critical factors in this throw is to get my center below his center. One of the easiest ways to think of this is to get my belt below his belt. Another pointer he gave me was to be sure to use the ‘butt bunk’ to get the motion started in the throw. That helped a bunch. Putting all of this together really made this a nice, tight, controlled throw.

Another pointer that Alex gave me for this was the position of the shoulder. He showed me that if I planted my shoulder right in his armpit as I was coming into position, it dramatically increases control of that leverage point. I tried it a couple of times and it really did help. In fact, it seemed to help so much, I did it one time without actually holding that shoulder with my right hand and the throw still worked. Great tip, Alex – thanks! Reflecting back, I believe there was a gentleman from Milwaukee that was giving Phyl the same or similar advise on the mats when we were at the Kenpo in the Carolinas 2006 seminar. I looked back at the pictures and I think they were actually doing the same technique.

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Sparring
After we worked through our techniques, Sifu had us pad up for some full speed sparring. I was surprised to see that everyone had recently purchased head gear! Up until now, nobody was wearing it. Sifu stated before we got started that the head gear didn’t negate the need for control and warned us to maintain control and accuracy while sparring. Walt and Alex paired up on one side of the mat while Phyl and I paired up on the other side. Sifu said “go” and we started in. It was all of maybe 15 seconds and we all stopped due to injury! Walt caught Alex with a hooking punch to the nose and Phyl caught me with a fore-knuckle rake to the nose. Sifu just sort of looked at us in disbelief for a second as this is not the norm.

He came over to me and told me to come with him to the bathroom. I figured I must be bleeding if he wanted me off the mat. I looked in the mirror and saw that I had a small cut on the bridge of my nose, which didn’t really surprise me based on the force of the blow. I immediately felt for separation of the cartilage and didn’t feel any so I didn’t think it was broken. The blood was minimal and I went back out to the mat and waited for my next turn.

My next sparring partner was Alex. He was a little off his game now too so it was sort of a slow match. My nose was swelling from the inside and I couldn’t breath so I was getting winded way too fast. I almost ditched the mouth-piece so I could get some air but I realized Alex was probably having the same problem so I just pushed on. It looked like he took a direct hit and was probably worse off than I was as he had a small trickle of blood coming from the nostrils. Sifu called for a break and we both spit out our mouth pieces for some air.

My last sparring partner for the day was Alfredo. Alfredo has some big guns so I tend to angle off when he lines up. I’ve watched him connect with Walt and I would rather avoid that. When we started, I noticed that he has a tendency to come straight in but throw round punches. Cool. I can deal with that. I started angling off as he came in and was able to tag him with either straight punches or back-fists to the head in some cases and in others I was able to come up with a pseudo roundhouse kick to the ribs. He tends to be well protected from the front so I was forced to attack from the sides. It wasn’t long and I was sucking wind again because of my restricted breathing. I had to slow it down and go more on the defensive which had an interesting effect on Alfredo. I got the feeling that he thought I was setting a trap for him or something because he slowed down as well – and I know he wasn’t tired! He did get a couple great shots in on me, particularly a left hook to the ribs that caused me to step back. When he starts putting combinations together, he is going to be a real force to reckon with.

After the class, Phyl and I figured out what happened. We both angled off in the same direction and he changed his strike from a punch to a rake, coming in from my left side. I never even saw it. He apologized and I told him there was no need. I walked right into it.