Wicked Tuesday

You guessed it, first day back from a long and merry Easter
holiday and Sensei Garth tightened the screws on us... Body conditioning.

We were a medium size class last night with about 7 students
and with winter’s grip definitely crippling the weaker resolved students we steeled
our midsections against the gruelling, but necessary, training.

We did quite a bit of bag work to hone our striking and
kicking skills after witch, with heaving chests some took a water break before
we moved on to a bit of 6^th kyu. We started off with the praying
hands technique. This technique is very effective when grabbed by an opponent
by the wrists. By simply bringing the hands together and close to your
midsection and then turning your pointed hands upwards and lifting them higher
to your chest, the grip is easily broken and you can then follow up with a stab
to the Addams apple, or a knife edge strike to the side of the neck to mention
a few.

We also practiced grabbing the opposed wrist of the opponent
with a kind of a slapping motion as you bring your hands together, after being
grabbed by the wrists, followed up with an away wards jerk movement to take the
opponent’s balance. This is a good set up for a bar arm strike to the head as
your opponent will be moving in the opposed direction when you bring your stiff
arm up to his face while stepping past him.

Lastly we did what is called pointing. Starting off in the
same wrist grabbed position, you can point with your one hand over (pointing
High) or under (pointing low) the wrist of the other hand to break the grip of
your opponent. This can be followed up with a reverse elbow strike to the nose,
jaw or Addams apple.

Thank you Sensei Garth.