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Last nights class was fantastic. I learned some new drills in the first hour, as well as reviewed some drills that i had forgotten about during my two week absense. Working the Pak Sao Lop Sao into hubud was a little awkward, but I eventually started to get the hang of it.

The 2nd hour of class, groundfighting, was actually the highlight of the night for me. I was actually going to go home after the first hour, but Benny talked me into staying.

We started out with I tap You tap, which should be self explanatory. I was paired up with Instructor Chad, who’s a ground guru. It became apparent after my first tap that I had no clue. I didn’t know what to do to make Chad tap. Chad showed me several ways to ‘bring the pain’ in this drill – it was VERY helpful.

After the easy drill was over, we did the gauntlet. I’m not going to explain it, but essentially everyone rolls 4 rounds in a row, plus one roll with each of the other students. So i went 7 rounds last night (i think). I was a little nervous going into it.
I know that Chad is seriously good, and Rick is really good (and really quick) too. I had rolled with Benny before, so I was already a little familiar with his style (although he’s gotten A LOT better in the last 2 weeks, amazing).

It was impossible for me to gain any control with Rick. He’s just too quick. All of my effort went into making sure he didn’t get me into a submission hold. Nik was coaching from the side, so that helped immensely.

Chad got me to tap a couple times, but on the bright side i DID escape several of his chokes and arm bars. I’m not sure if it was luck, me being sweaty, or if Chad was just taking it easy on me – but it felt great anyway.

Benny got me to tap with some move i was unfamiliar with. It didn’t hurt all that much, but i couldn’t breathe and i was seriously out of breath. Good job Benny.

Overall, it was a great experience. I feel that i learned a lot last night, and i definitely became more comfortable with groundfighting. Thanks to everyone in the class, especially Nik for all the great advice and coaching.

I haven’t been to class in two weeks – that makes me a sad panda.

The reasoning isn’t so much related to Nik and Kevin teasing my pink footwrap…or even Nik and Kevin demonstrating their groundfighting authority on me. I’ve just be crazy busy. There’s so much going on with the holidays, I can’t even find free time to catch up on my TV (house, the office, *cough*Project Runway*cough*)

I imagine class has been a little more thin than usual. I plan to return to class this week.

1. What: With the holidays fast approaching and before we all get in the typical holiday rush – I thought it might be nice for an end of the year adult?s night out.
2. Who: EDS Adult students (spouses/significant others or just friends included!)
4. Where: Here?s what I was thinking – let?s meet up atCousin?s Bar and Grill (Perryville and E. State St-Rockford)
5. When: Saturday 12/1 at 6 p.m. for beverages and possibly dinner.

1. If you are interested please respond to this post or if you see me at class let me know. I can make the arrangements with the restaurant after I find out the numbers of attendees. I?d like to have a count of those interested by November 23rd.
2. Thanks.
   JT

After my 2nd ‘real’ ground fighting experience last night, Nik asked us what we learned. I was too sore and beat up to even think. But when i got home i put a little more thought into it. (I was too sore to type this last night)

Last night, I learned how to tap.

I learned the slow half tap – which means “this doesn’t hurt extremely bad, but i know i can’t get out of it…so let me go”.

I learned the finger poke tap – which means “my hands are in such a twisted up position that I can’t possibly make a patting or slapping motion, so a quick burst of short finger pokes will have to get the message accross.”

I learned the two handed clap tap – here you slap your opponents back or sides with both hands. Typically your head will be buried in your own groin or abdomen. Use both hands as an ‘insurance policy’ – in case one hand can’t actually reach his or her body, the other will (you hope). If both hands make contact, you get a cool clapping sound.

I mastered the vocal tap, which is where you verbally say “tap”, or sometimes in my case, “OK OK OK OK” or “OWWWWWW”. If i would have been a little more calm, i would have thought to say “uncle” – but i haven’t developed the ability to think while rolling yet.

My favorite tap was the ‘no tap neck crack’. This is when my neck gets stretched so far that the loud crackling noise convinces my opponent to let me go. I hope to someday be able to make my neck crack at will, without having to let it get torqued 165 degrees.

Other things I learned:
? Face your opponent, them being on your back is NOT good.
Any appendage can, and will choke you – or at least crush your throat until you tap

? Sweat can be an advantage – I escaped several near chokes and an arm bar because i was all sweaty.

? Don’t try to over-power an opponent that is being a ‘turtle’. Instead, wait for him to make a move – think about what he’ll do. Take advantage of the time and catch your breath.

? Pay close attention to what your opponent does, especially when he’s getting you to tap every few minutes. Learn from it.

I’ve made it clear, to any readers here, as well as the EDS instructors that I’m simply not comfortable with ground fighting.

Today, however, felt different. We were downstairs, it was a small group, i was still half asleep.
We were just learning and practicing moves…but it was 100% effort. My first time actually rolling around the mat.
I think the most awkward part of it was getting into ‘position’ to start ground fighting.

It’s a milestone for me. Thanks to Beny for taking it easy on me. And thanks to Joe and Kevin for encouraging me.

I recently started doing some training at home. I figured it would be a fantastic way for me to get some exercise at home (other than bringing in the groceries from the car and carrying a sleeping toddler upstairs to her bedroom everynight).

I bought a 100lb heavy bag and hung it in the basement (which was a really good workout too).
I have yet to really figure out the best way to beat up the bag though. I can practice my RAT program on it over and over again – which is fun and a great way to work up a sweat. I can also practice some of the escrima techniques on it. I don’t know how to do any real boxing drills though. Should i just be punching this thing randomly? Or should i follow certain combos? The jab-cross-hook-cross feels great for the first 20 times, but then it gets boring.

Any advice?

ps. don’t forget to ask me some questions and get a free month of lessons (for non students).

This week I got to try two new things. The first – Escrima.
Escrima (or eskrima) is a class of Filipino martial arts that focuses on stick and sword fighting. I’ve been a long time fan of sword and stick fighting. I did some very minimal training in kendo about a decade ago – plus some very untraditional bojutsu around the same time. Not to mention all the make-shift stick weapons i wielded as a kid
Enough of the runaround though – I was really excited to finally sling some sticks in class. It was really awkward at first using two sticks at once. It doesn’t help that my left arm just doesn’t listen to me.
After some very embarassing two stick carrenza we finally got into some drilling. Within minutes I had already crushed Kevin’s fingers (sorry again man). Kevin is an excellent teacher – within 5 or 10 minutes I had finally got into a rythym.
Holding back that proud smile was just as odd feeling as the two stick carrenza though.

Tonight, the Ground Fighting.
Here’s the deal – I’m NOT comfortable with it. It’s not so much of the fear of it…or even the man to man lack of space (aka, rolling around with another guy on the floor) – it’s the visual. I’m simply not happy with my own appearance. I can usually put these issues aside and not care, but for some reason ground fighting is a little bit tougher to ‘jump into’ while ignoring the spectators. Anyhow, I had put it off long enough. Joe was gentle. He taught me the basics and the different positions without ever pulling my shirt over my head and showing the class my belly. Thanks Joe. Someday soon I will be able to give 100% when rolling.

In other news, I managed to lose another few pounds over the last week. It would have been more than a few if it wasn’t for the Pumpkin Pie blizzards being in season at DQ.

After Matt’s entry about the best weapon in self defense being awareness, I thought it’d be good to share this with everyone.

Today I was downtown. Not in a scary area, but it was definetly a ‘lock your car’ zone. I was standing with a friend discussing career changes when i noticed three not so friendly-looking guys walking towards us. I didn’t feel any direct threat, but within a second or two I had already subconciously thought out several different scenarios in my head. I took a couple casual steps to the right to get a head start on zoning if a mass attack were to occur.

I visualized the verbal de-escalation, the eye jab and then a right elbow and headbutt. I planned to use the first attacker as a shield from the other two.

I’m certainly glad there was no real threat, they just walked right by. But I felt confident. I felt aware.

It felt great.

I realized something last night after class. As I closed the door of my car and contemplated taking a little nap right there in the parking lot, I thought back to the extreme physical workout I had just endured.

What made it more intense than the exercise I get in the gym?
Why am I this exhausted?

I’m hot and sweaty when I leave the gym, but I never feel THIS way…and I’m rarely sore the day after a gym workout.

But then I looked back at my average gym workout. It takes me about 8 minutes on the elliptical trainer to get my heart rate up and get me to start sweating. Then I maintain that speed and intensity to keep my heart rate up. Sometimes I slow down if it gets to be too much. And thats the difference. That elliptical machine doesn’t push me harder. It doesn’t give me any real reason to go faster. The elliptical machine will accept however hard I push my own intensity, but it will not convince me to try any harder than my preset ‘gym workout threshold’.

The JKD workout on the otherhand…is a totally different workout. Going through some of the intense drills that we went through last night really shine some light on reality. When you’re being pushed to beat up on bags and do drills for 5 minutes straight, you realize that a fight could easily last this long. If you’re out of breath and can’t get your body to keep going after 2 minutes – what will happen those remaining 3?

I pushed myself harder than ever before. I was breathing so hard that today my throat is a bit sore. The best thing about it is that I NEVER thought about slowing down or giving up. That ‘gym workout threshold’ just doesn’t exist while doing the JKD conditioning. With the instructor and your partner pushing me harder and harder, how could I even think of slowing down. Three months ago, I would have been embarassed by breathing THAT heavily in front of anyone.

Oh, and on top of the killer workout I survived last night – I also learned a lot. 9 arm locks, and a new (to me) punching drill. I also experienced my first ‘ground and pound’ – which was my first time EVER for ground fighting activity (even if it was just a peanut bag).

For the record, I wanted to type this up last night – but I was too burned out. I couldn’t even dry myself off after my shower.