Hankido

Posted 10:24 PM by spitgirl
SECOND WIND

Current tally of injuries:

Nicely bruised right shin, coverage about 35-40% of entire lower leg. Some of it is even purpling nicely.

Healing right pinky finger.

Assorted bruises on the left shin.

Stiff neck.

A good case of the giggles.

Current status of injuries:

For some reason, just can't stay off of that shin. But managed not to get it whacked too hard. Sometimes still tender to the touch. If whacked hard, will lose function of leg briefly.

I stopped taping it this week. Snehal was showing me a finish off and reached for that pinky. Before he got his finger around it, I started yelling.

Just nice to look at.

I smell like Bengay.

No response for a good case of the giggles.

So, I did another double workout today, and we worked finish-offs. Wow... I'm glad I did two workouts, and at the same time... it was exhausting! Something in my diet-sleep ratio is a little off, and I'm going to see what vitamins will do for me.

The first workout, led by the inestimable Steve Brown, started with a warm-up of one person on the ground fending off another person standing up and trying to reach in to touch their head. Each successive round got progressively more difficult, as new rules and techniques were added in. At the end, we were supposed to try to stand up without the person touching our heads. If we got tapped, 10 pushups. If we got up, the other person got 10 pushups. Speaking of pushups, I've finally decided that instead of doing dinky pushups from full position (toes and hands), I was going to do deep pushups from half position (knees and hands). I think it's probably much more productive for me at the moment... but enough about that.

Steve went on to talk about different strategies for defenses from the ground, such as being able to roll over, kicking at knees while hooking ankles, shoulder-plowing into a knee to get someone down, etc. We also covered a few minutes on pressure points, which was very fun. I had a white belt who spent time trying to find pressure points on me. I have them, he just wasn't finding them or hitting them with the right part of his foot. It was very fun for me, though, since it was like the anti-massage. With massages, you want to avoid really nailing the pain pressure points... and with this, I was grinding my heel into probably ten different pressure points on the outer leg alone. We also did one fairly nice escape from a behind the body grab. Paul's first attack on me was to completely lift me up off the ground. (I squealed. Darn it, I hate it when I do that. He was nice enough to give me second and third chances, though.) Paul's first defense on me was to grab my dobok pants and accidentally pinch me. (I squealed again. Darn, I can be really awfully loud when I get hurt.) Lisa, my second partner, is about my size and so that didn't work quite as well, but we worked it nonetheless. I grabbed her, and she kept on grabbing for my uniform pants (you were supposed to grab near the knee) and missing (she ended up with a couple of fingertips grabbing much higher up, but finally saw where my knee was and grabbed the uniform there)... and we started giggling and couldn't stop. Reminds me of when I work matwork with Lucille, because all of a sudden both of us can crack up spontaneously.

After some finish-offs review, it was time for the next class. Though it was finish-offs, the first hour was all about kicks. I was so stiff and pretty tired at that point in time, but I persevered and found my second wind sometime about a half hour of slogging through various kicks. We brought out the paddles, and it was time for paddle practice! I still have issues with my spin heel kicks, but I'm at least touching the paddle with them... we also worked some narabangs (jumping turning roundhouse) and played around with various kicks in our grouplets of five. Note to self: if I really want to spend money on martial arts equipment, I should buy a paddle and some shinguards. Mmm... paddles. Oh, right, can't forget the mock clubs.

So, yes, back to finish-offs. Dr. Link taught (reviewed) some basic finish offs... and used me as a dummy. Oh yes, I love being a dummy. Especially when it hurts. Dr. Link was lecturing on various finish-offs, including an arm bar technique (working against Snehal... my hands are too small! argh!), a wrist technique, and a shoulder technique. My uniform is now officially smelly, and it's time for me to laundry right now...

Oh yeah... I got a neck rub today as well. Thank you, Kevin.