Thursday Sensei Maria

1. 1-2 Punch
From a fighting stance jab ( and drop hips ) with lead hand to the solar plexis follow up with a punch from rear hand to the same place.

When performing this drill I really try to give it my all while maintaining form in my wrist and hips, I have a tendency to let my wrist come in at an angle, by keeping it straight it affords me a much more powerful punch. By exerting myself, it gives me an extra workout that I need.

2. 1-2 Punch Block + Kouchi Gari
When recieving the punches, parry the blows and step to the inside to deliver a Kouchi Gari ( small inner reap )
When delivering the sweep, use the bottom of your foot to cup uke's achille's tendon, by moving to the inside uke should already be off balance, the sweep is a garnish. I noticed if the sweep fails there is a straight shot to the groin with the sweeping legs knee.
In Sensei Coleman's class we tend to do this as a combination of 1-2 punch + Kouchi Gari, I learned that in boxing and kickboxing this technique is called "swarming." The ability to deliver attacks to your opponent in a spherical fashion. That sounds super cool.

3. Hitch step + Drop
A shortened from of the drop, hitch step, creep up back, rotate uke to off balance point and drop hips. Elizabeth said she liked working with me because of the thud I made when I dropped. I noticed something funny about this technique, the more I thought about it, the worse it became, I'll speak more of that later.

4. Katana-nage(?)
Hitch step, lead hand is placed above elbow, non-lead is placed on wrist. Hyper extend uke's arm and cut like you were slashing a sword.

5. Kotegaesh
From straight thrust or straight punch, move laterally taking uke off balance, pivot hips and apply lock.
I had a lot of trouble with this movement, I attribute it to me moving back instead of moving to the side. When moving back it seems that the knife went right into my face, ouch.

6. Sparring
I like sparring, but I think I need to be more assertive when sparring. With Dixon everything was reactionary I would see his hips turn and say to myself “hey he’s gonna kick!” but for some reason I have difficulty adding a solution to the problem. On the “Ali” dvd commentary filmmaker Michael Mann said that Muhammad Ali would have conversations with himself while fighting, for example he would say to himself “ ( My opponent’s )Right hip dropped, move left, MOVE!” I wanna get here.

Throughout the class I noticed the more I think of a technique the more I screw it up, probably over complicating it’s simplicity. Who know?.
Maybe it’s being able to move with confidence.