Sunday At The Park

http://www.itsyoboyflex.com/2014/03/31/sunday-park/

Twas a good day today. Had a little bit of a late start. When we got there Bernie and Ed had the group going over hand switches from each of the 12 strikes from 1-12 of 64 Stick Form. What was nice about this drill is that it showed how you can do each strike with either hand and also how to switch to either hand doing the same strike. Very much like what James and I worked on the other weekend with hand switches from the basic strikes. I like this drill a lot because it also works my left more which is my bad hand. Though I must admit that my left is starting to get better now, but it definitely still needs a lot of work.

Next, Ed had us work on Hubad, but incorporating a draw of a blade or two. This was fun. It helps show and build muscle memory on how, when, and where to delpoy. It also helps the feeder see what targets are available and which target might be a little better depending on what grip was used to deploy the blade, at what point it was deployed, and from where it was deployed. I noticed that no one was doing any low line cuts so I threw in some cuts behind the knee on my partner to show that there are a lot more targets available.

Then we went on to Knife Tapping. Ed had us partner up according to level so we could practice on our respective level of Knife Tapping. This is good because I need more practice on Level Two Knife Tapping. Ed decided to partner up with me so that he could break down Level Two Knife tapping to me. He broke down each little movement so that I could have a better understanding of the moves and to pick out the little mistakes that I would make right off the bat.

Bernie had us work on Mano Mano Template after that. He walked us step by step from both the feeder and receiver perspective so that each person would have a chance to feed and receive. He also showed us how we can change the role and become feeder from receiver. This can be done at pretty much any point during the drill. I really like these types of drills that teach us how to become the feeder because if you stay the receiver you will eventually get hit, or cut. How many times have we seen on UFC or in a boxing match where one fighter throws a barrage of strikes while the other fighter just tries to defend? The person trying to defend might be successful with the first set of strikes, but eventually the strikes will start to land.

To continue on from that Bernie had us work on Knife template. The movements from Mano Mano Template and Knife Template are very similar. Again he walked us step by step from both the feeder and receiver perspectives. From there he went on to how to change roles. That's pretty much where we ended today's practice.

It was a lot of fun today. The weather cleared up nicely, we had a good size group, and we went over a good amount of material. I'm going to try to be better at remembering to take some pictures from our Sunday practices so that I have more visuals for everyone to see on this blog. Anyway, happy training everyone and till next time, ItsYoBoyFlex and I'm out.

http://www.itsyoboyflex.com/2014/03/31/sunday-park/