Hapkido Session 8, May 30th 2006
I got there pretty early today and did my usual warm up. I finished this quickly but there was not really anyone there early yet, so I did a lot of break falls. Mostly flip falls without the big mat because I want to get those down really good. I worked on shadow kicks a lot as well. At about 4:30 Master Lee asked me to help him do belt promotions for the kids class until about 5. Since I had gotten a decent amount of stuff done, and I was already covered from head to toe in sweat I figured why not.
So I go into the class with him and he instructs all of the kids to form 3 straight lines. Each one was called up and told if they passed their promotion test or not. We both were sitting on the floor legs crossed next to each other. I had a stack of promotion tickets that had to be filled out accordingly. So as each kid was called up by Master Lee I would fill in their name, the date, and their belt color. This was done two times per sheet because one copy was for their records, and one was torn off and given to the child to give to their parents (whom then give to grandmaster with a $25.00 fee for their new belt). After this is done the whole class has to clap and go “YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”(This is specifically what Master Lee instructs them to do). This was making me laugh but I can’t really laugh at the kids. Sometime it is really hard not to.
I was also sweating so bad that it was dripping all over the promotion sheets. I also had to keep wiping my arm that I was writing with. And when I got up for the next portion of the kid’s class there was a perfect outline of my ass and thighs from where I was sitting. Really gross, but I feel it’s important to mention this. I had to supervise and instruct the kids for a game of dodge ball. They flip out and get really excited at this, running all over the place etc…
So I made them into two teams, explained rules and then they went nuts for about 10 minutes playing. You wouldn’t believe how many kids try to cheat. For example: Coming back in after being tagged out etc….You have to yell at them right away and correct them or they will walk all over you. Is this what parenthood is like?
After their game was over I had to read an article to them (this isn’t the first time I have had to read to the class) about “conflict resolution” and how it pertains to martial arts, and in real life. You would think when I do this it would bore the shit out of them and they would not pay attention. However; this is never the case. Every time after I have to give a q/a session about the subject matter and a lot of the kids raise their hands and have the correct answer or ask questions. It’s surprising.
It was about 5:00 and Greg was there so we went into the practice room and worked on a few combinations/strikes. Even though we didn’t get a lot of them done, I was sweating so bad because of how hot it was in there I honestly started feeling weak. Greg had told me he felt the same way.
- Crescent combination (outside, inside, spinning, tornado, jump spin) x5 each leg
- Basic Roundhouse x10 each leg
- high/medium/low spinning hook kick x10 each leg
- Axe Kick, Tornado Roundhouse, Spinning hook kick 10x each leg.
After this point it was about….5:45 and I had to go back into the kid’s class again and basically an exact repeat of what happened at 4:30. This was with different students; otherwise it was the exact same routine. Except I was sweating even worse. And…the kid last week that ran out crying because he missed his dad started crying again today and had to use the washroom.
So at around 6:15 I was done and explained to this chubby little white belt girl what the “red dots” were on the diagram of the man that is in the beginner room. Explained to her they were pressure points and strike points via a visual diagram. She had asked me in class what there were and I told her after he class I would explain it. The thing is I had forgotten about it and she came up to me and reminded me, so the kid really wanted to know this for some reason.
Our class session was pretty awesome, lots of new challenging stuff.
My partner was Andrew [Red belt]. He is really good and is testing for his black belt in October. He tells me I have really good kicks. In between each drill he was doing front flip falls onto the mat, which rules.
We started with around x6 of each of the break falls in rapid succession (front/back/left side/right side).
- Attacker throws two punches while Defender is holding two small hand targets (left jab, right cross). Defender hop steps back and Attacker does three more punches (left jab, right cross, left uppercut). Defender hop steps back again and Attacker does 4 more punchers (left jab, right cross, left uppercut, right hook). Defender stays in place and lowers hand targets on top of each other (one hand over the other), and the Attacker grabs the back of the neck of the defender with both hands and pulls it down into a rear knee strike. Attacker switches feet and does another rear knee strike. Attacker then pulls their front leg in an 180 degree sweeping motion while simultaneously pulling on the neck of the defender in the same direction. This whips the Defender around 180 degrees and throws them off balance. Once this is done, one final rear knee strike to the face of the Defender is performed. At this point you are on the other side of the room and in a reverse starting direction. Because of this, you are able to work on your other side/starting directions for strikes on the way back. We did about x5 of these back/forth for each of use.
- Attacker throws a mid-range punch to the chest. Defender steps to the side(not angle) and does an out side open palm block (rear hand), then a front hand knife hand strike (half power, not full), and quickly into a back fist with the same knife hand striking hand. This was awesome and had interesting timing challenges.
- 4 new kicks. The first two were all variations on ones we already knew, but using different striking points or striking styles. The first two were primarily for blocking or deflecting, so you didn’t perform them for power or as you would normally do the standard version of these kicks.
A) Attacker does a stabbing motion going from the back of their heads DOWN towards you. You have to time a high side kick to deflect it. It was not like a normal side kick at all; you used your rear foot, pivoted and kicked in a popping motion to deflect the attack. We did about x10 each leg.
B) The second was a crescent kick done in a very similar style. Its primary goal was to knock something out of the hand of the Attacker who moved in on you in a 45 degree angle stabbing motion, as if you were slicing instead of stabbing. This was challenging to get the timing right but I enjoyed it. About x10 each leg
C) A front snap kick with the striking point being the BALL of your foot rather than the top as usual. You have to have your toes totally curled back and this really felt weird/uncomfortable at first but was great to learn a new strike. I only did about x4 each let because we were running out of time. Master park always screams “ONE MINIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUUUUUUUUUUUUUTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” when we are about to change drills.
D) This was a roundhouse kick with the striking point being the ball of the foot. I failed miserably at this, hopefully will be better by the end of this week. It was extremely challenging. Only did about x4 per leg because time was running out for the final drill.
- This was our final drill of the evening and I may have to reword it later this week. Attacker throws a rear hand punch and the defender steps in with a front hand “X” block. The front hand (blocking hand) is to the inside of the attacker for the X block and the rear hand is on the outside. After the block is performed to the punch, you have to slightly move in a circular motion (clockwise) sliding your out side hand into a three finger grab, and releasing your left. By the time the circle is finished you reattach your blocking hand to double up the three finger grab and pull the attackers momentum/punch towards you. This is really challenging to describe. We worked on this for about 10x each side and then class was over.
Ari, the kid whom invited me to his birthday party got promoted to blue belt today. I congratulated him and then realized how lucky he was to be doing martial arts at that age in his life. I wish I would have/my parents would have made me.