Posted 11:28 PM by spitgirl
DON'T BELIEVE THE MOVIES

So we did free sparring and dagger defenses today in our advanced workout. Okay, so I was really looking forward to advanced workouts when I was a lower belt - I still look forward to them now, but for other reasons. The class is fairly intimidating, but the people are all really cool about it. Okay... so stuff I learned today.

While free sparring:
1. Keep torso up
2. Don't raise hands while kicking
3. Watch that front leg (Raymond: 6, Elaine's knees: 0)
4. Work on foot work
5. Kick through while free sparring with Vera (or anyone, I suppose)
6. A bruise to the inner knee heals very slowly (injured last week, still tender, Raymond had nothing to do with it)
7. Watch that head (Raymond: 4, Elaine's head: 0)

While working dagger defenses in 16-step, the only rule was that only the point mattered in this exercise. So, as Steve Brown put it, "a screwdriver defense."
1. There is no such thing as a dagger defense.
2. If you're open handed against a dagger, you'd better run because survival rate is very low.
3. If you're open handed against a dagger, you'd better expect to get cut.
4. While throwing people with a dagger in their hand... be very careful, because you can slit your own wrists.
5. While throwing people with a dagger in their hand... be careful, because you can slit your own throat.
6. While throwing people with a dagger in their hand... boy, this is dangerous.
7. screwdriver << knife with one edge << knife with two edges << knife with two edges and two points << knife with two edges and two points and a blade out the other end.
8. This means, therefore, that the more complicated knives that you see out there are to prevent people from grabbing wrists.
9. Don't block a knife straight into your opposite shoulder.

Conclusion? I know nothing. I'm a clumsy little kid, toddling along with the big kids in workout. But it was so much fun!

Went climbing afterwards on Kevin's membership (one free pass a month). Got my butt whupped on a couple of climbs, and again figured out that I'm just short and so not everything's going to work for me. But it was a nice evening overall with Kevin and his friend Mike.