The pieces are finally coming together

August was pretty much a wash as far as training went. My sprained finger on my right hand prohibited me from paricipating in boxing and kickboxing class, but I still did combat fitness class and spent more time on cardio. Oddly, though, having time away from boxing and kickboxing actually made me better. Last week I was able to start taking classes again and during sparring at the end of kickboxing class I felt really good. I started to do things instinctively: I'm stepping offline without thinking about it, I cover up on every punch I throw, my head moves side to side as I punch and ... dare I say I almost have a decent entry that allows me to close distance.  It's almost as if having time off allowed the knowledge in my head to congeal, ferment, age, whatever you want to call it, but it's no longer purely intellectual knowledge; now that knowledge lives in my arms and legs and hips.

Last night's boxing class (9-4)  was large, many new faces and many young guys who had no clue about what they were doing. Seeing them go through the drills made me realize just how far I have come in my training. September makes it eight months since I started learning boxing and kick boxing and it's only now that I'm starting to feel like I'm putting all the pieces together. This should be good news for the newbies. The stuff that seems impossible now will become second nature. If the mechanics of throwing a proper punch mystify you now, in a few months all will be revealed. And if you get injured and are sidelined for a few a weeks, know that your training doesn't come to a stop. Just because you can't punch bags or people doesn't mean you can't learn and build on your knowledge. Get in front of a mirror and practice your movement and combinations, envision yourself sparring and think about how you would counter or enter. Keep at it and in eight months - maybe sooner - a new guy will come to class and it will make you realize how far you'e come.

Learning good things from bad boxers

Having a finger splint on my right hand has significantly reduced what I can do. No punching. Lifting weights is pretty tough. So that means I'm doing lots of abs and legs.

An x-ray determined that my right hand pinkie finger is not broken, just badly sprained. And I guess if there was a time for an injury like this happen, now is ok. I had more time to watch the Olympics. Watching countless hours of boxing taught me some important info., especially the early, preliminary rounds where some of the fighters seemed to have only a smigden more skill than me. I was able to learn more from watching bad fighters than I learned from watching good fighters. A bad fighter's mistakes are very easy to see, whether it's their lack of movement, not using the jab, too much movement .... it's basically easier to see what makes a bad figher bad than a good fighter good. A good fighter's movement is very fluid, it's fast and concealed and their punches and steps all blend together.

Teddy Atlas, one of the announcers, while criticized by many for bad coverage, taught me some important rules. Atlas had no problem pointing out what a fighter was doing wrong, and many times I  could relate because I know they are things I do wrong. During one fight, one of the boxer's was just bouncing up and down. Sure, he was moving, but there was no point to his movement. He wasn't moving forward, or offline, he was just bouncing. All the bouncing was doing was wasting his energy. Atlas had a field day ripping this guy apart. His critique solidified in my mind a few things that have been taught to me: you can't punch and move at the same time and you can't avoid a punch when you're bouncing up and down. Your feet have to be on the ground to do anything. This was pure gold to me and gave me a much greater understanding of what I should be doing with my feet.

My pinkie hurts. A better punch will end the pain

I haven't gone to a doctor, so there's no official diagnosis, but I definitely screwed up my little finger on my right hand. It's not broken 'cause there's no serious swelling and it's not black and blue, but heavy punching is definitely off the table for a while. What I have is a lite version of a boxer's break. A boxer's break is damage to the 4th and 5th metacarpals, or the ring finger and pinkie finger.

What happened is that over the course of a few weeks I was consistently landing my right crosses on my pinkie finger. After these repeated strikes it just gave out, got sprained, cracked or something. So no punching for a while ... sort of. What I need to do is improve my strikes so that I'm landing on the larger knuckles. I'm spending time on the double-end bag throwing soft punches to try and improve my form. I'm only wearing wraps - no boxing gloves - when I do this so I can see where on my hand I'm impacting the bag.

A guy in the gym suggested using a Muay Thai punch to eliminate the possibility of landing the punch on the small knuckles. This punching style requires rotation of the arm so that on impact with the target your thumb is facing the ground. Make a fist and hold your arm so that your thumb is facing the ground and you'll see that this position forces the two larger knuckles to be in front of the smaller knucles.

There's no substitute for real

Haganah instructor Dave had me doing a cool drill on Saturday morning. With time to kill between combat fitness class and FIGHT class, Dave asked,  "Want to do some knife sparring?"   Don't ever pass up the chance to train one-on-one with someone who knows their shit.

We got two rubber knives and started sparring in the boxing ring. Time after time Dave was connecting to my shoulder with a slow straight stab (while sparring, we use the shoulder as a target in place of the neck for safety purposes). OK, so he got a lethal stab in. I won't let that happen again, I thought to myself. And then, in another minute he got me with the same move. In hindsight I understand what he was doing. Dave was able to read my attack and change the rhythm of his own attack to score the lethal stab. Every time he got me with the straight stab it was after I had done an angle 1 attack (slashing from my right shoulder to my left hip. When my knife was at the bottom of the slash, in came Dave's blade. It was not a fast attack, just a well thought out and properly executed stab that was able to penetrate because he read my rhythm.

After Dave "killed" me several times, he changed up the scenario to incorporate open hand knife defense. We would start knife sparring, but on Dave's command I had to drop my knife and deal with his knife attack while unarmed. This added a nice element of realism to the training. It would not be unusual to drop a knife during a knife fight and have to continue to deal with the attack.

With any training, the more realistic you can make it the harder it becomes to perform. I know the various open hand knife defenses. I can recite each step. I can visualize every move. I can perform every move .... that is, until the situation approaches real. Once the situation becomes stressful and pseudo-real, my  intellectual understanding of the techniques does me no good. My reactions must be based on muscle memory and impulse, there's really no time for thinking.  This is a critical lesson I'm really starting to appreciate.

Like a real knife attack would be, once I dropped my knife and had to switch from attack to open hand defense, I had no clue as to what angle Dave would be attacking from and I had to execute my defense in real time. This meant that my grip used to seize his arm was sometimes wrong - not using positive and negative grip, and on an angle two attack, once I seized the arm I did not transition it properly so I ended up in the incorrect point of reference (I was behind him instead of being squared up in front of him). There were also moments when I realized I did something wrong and I hesitated. While it's good to realize a mistake, it's bad to hesitate. No matter what position you find yourself in, you just have to work with what you have.

It was only 30 minutes that I got to spend training with Dave, but those 30 minutes taught me more than weeks of regular training could.

Bloody knuckles indicate bad form

This aluminum knife is what we use
for training. There is no edge or point.
For sparring we use flexible rubber knives.

I've been dedicating time this week to some knife work, practicing box drills on a heavy bag. Practicing the slash-stab on a heavy bag helps me determine my ideal range and it's also helping me adhere to proper form when performing the slash. Bloody knuckles on my knife hand were a clear indicator that my slashing needs serious improvement. Bloody knuckles tell me that my wrist is not bent properly and I'm not turning my shoulder properly, so instead of the blade making contact with the bag, I'm first contacting the bag with my knuckles and only making contact with the blade when I'm almost at the end of the slashing motion. This is no good. What's the point of fighting with a knife if the knife isn't contacting the target? The blade should be doing all the work, not my knuckles. I would have never discovered this poor form if I wasn't practicing on the bag.


Boxing Class
We're reviewing basics this weeks: proper punching form and proper power blocking for head and body shots. I'm good on punching form but  my power blocks need some help. The key to power blocking is to block with the same side of your body as your opponent is using. So if my opponent throws a left jab, I'm blocking it with my right hand. He throws a right, I block with my left. The reasons for matching your block to your opponent's punch are simple: if I block a left jab with my left hand I'm twisting my body to the point where I'm turning my head to the side and losing visual contact of my opponent. It also screws up my distribution of weight on my legs. A power block requires your weight to be shifted to the leg - if I power block with my left hand, my weight should shift to my left leg. This becomes more important when countering your opponents punches. If I power block with my left hand I should be immediately counter punching with that left hand. The thinking is that you don't want your opponent occupying your weapons (your fists) with his punches.

My major malfunction with power blocking is using the wrong hand to block with. My blocking form is OK, but I'm still using my left hand to block a left punch. This needs practice, mental awareness and the ability to read my opponent's punches.

Working the heavy bags during knife fighting

This week’s I.P.T.T (Israeli Professional Tactical Training) knife class (July 7) was small, only three students, so we got some very personal attention and the chance to work on movement with the heavy bags. And movement, whether it’s in boxing, kick boxing, knife fighting or pillow fighting, is the key to being good and not getting hurt. So after we did our basic box drills - slashing and stabbing from different points of entry - we moved over to the heavy bags and worked on how to shadow our opponent, closing distance and attacking on angles. While movement in knife fighting is similar to that in boxing – rear foot propels the body forward, never cross your legs, etc. –  the difference is that your stance is reversed. In boxing, since I’m right handed I stand with my left foot out front, but in knife fighting, since I’m right handed and holding the knife in my right hand, I stand with my right foot forward.

This was the first time we got to use the heavy bags in knife class and I’m glad we had the chance. We practiced taking two steps toward the bag with our second step moving us offline and to the right of the bag and then we would pivot in, slash and stab and then keep moving.

At the end of class we practiced a little bit on timing the entry of our attack by reading the rhythm of our opponent’s attack. Here’s how we did it: my partner would stab at me, I would blade my body (turn it sideways to create a small target in case my block fails) and block his stab by keeping my knife at a 90 degree angle to my wrist and driving the blade, just above the hilt, into his forearm. On my opponent’s second stab and after my block, I would immediately go on the attack by grasping the forearm of the hand my opponent’s knife was in, stepping in then slashing the arm and continuing the slash across the mid-section, stab to the ribs, push his arm away and slash the tendons behind the knee. This is a standard block and entry we practice all the time. However, since it was a small class, the instructor, Victor, a former Marine fighter pilot, added another move. Once you slash across the mid-section and stab to the mid-section, before pushing the opponent’s knife arm away and slashing behind the knee, since I already have a hold of my opponent’s arm, it’s a simple step to force the arm backwards exposing the armpit and driving the knife upward to slash the armpit and then slash the knee and pivot.

I know it's really hard to visualize this stuff unless you’ve done it before, but the armpit slash is a nice little addition to that attack. While I can sit here and write about how to do it, actually being able to do it properly still eludes me. To practice this, Victor suggested hanging a towel in a doorway and pretending that the towel is my opponent’s arm. I did this when I got home and it totally works.

Beach Burpees

I'm taking it pretty easy this week since I'm on vacation down in Cape May. I've been laying on the beach for about six hours each day, reading, floating in the ocean, stuffing my face with seafood and drinking about six pack of Victory lager a day, however, despite my week of leisure, this past Saturday morning just didn't seem right without some combat fitness.

The place I'm staying in is close enough to the beach that I could a throw a medicine ball and hit it,  so it was only natural to hit the sand for some beach burpees. I did a leisurely 1-mile barefoot run to an isolated part of the beach where signs warn you not to proceed any further. Beyond those signs is a live fire range used by the  Coast Guard.

Since sprints have become a regular fixture at Saturday classes, I couldn't resist sprinting on the wet sand. Then I did our basic stuff: squats, jumping jacks, push-ups, burpees ... all while facing the distant horizon where the Atlantic and the sky merge.

Despite the pleasant setting, doing this stuff on the sand adds a little bit of difficulty since it gives way beneath feet and hands, but the sand also temporarily kept the record of my workout in the burrows dug from my burpees and the divets cut by my sprints until the next high tide wiped it away.

When I was all done, dripping sweat and breathing hard, I only needed to take five steps before I was submerged in the cooling ocean waters.

I'll close out this blog post with a modified version of how we end each class: Heroes don't quit! - but on occassion they do go on vacation.

Happy B-Day Sir

We were warned that Wednesday's combat fitness class would be challenging. "You're gonna hate it," Mr. Stuart said to us at the end of class on Monday night and pretty much told us how bad it would suck and how hot it was going to be.

It was hot, but the air conditioning was on, it was mild in the gym and combat fitness, while it involved some tough sets, I don't considered it one of the hardest classes I've been through... at least not physically. However, it was tough psychologically. You see, at the beginning of class Mr. Stuart announced that it was his 53rd birthday and then, as is the case in every combat fitness class, he went on to out perform everyone, even 19 and 20 year olds who are in very good shape.

While that can be a bitter pill to swallow - seeing a man twice your age kick your ass - it offers hope to a guy like me who's 39. It offers hope because it says you don't have to get old if you don't want to. It says that fitness can be yours as long as you never stop. It says that even when the muscles and tendons and joints cause you pain and try to limit your performance, experience, will and sheer determination will defeat youth.

Action is faster than reaction

Last week's boxing class had us focussing on breaking our opponent's rythm. Letting your opponent build rhythm is bad. When your opponent builds rhythm you become the bass drum they're beating on.

The main drill we worked to break rhythm was jabbing our opponent the moment they reached their set line. Set line is the point at which your opponent can reach you with their weapons. Set line is different for everyone because it is dependent upon size and reach. The drill involved starting in no man's land. No man's land is where you cannot reach your opponent with kicks or punches and your opponent cannot reach you with kicks or punches. From no man's land we would step to our firing line. The firing line is the point where you are just out of punching distance, but one more step will get you to your set line and close enough to connect to your opponent. As soon as our opponent reached their set line, BLAMO, we would fire a  jab to break their rhythm and disrupt their plans.

This technique is cool because it's prempting the attack. You're not waiting to slip or sit, you're jamming up your opponent so that the attack never materializes. It's like being in a battle and letting your enemy's jet fighters taxi out of the hangers and while they're idling on the tarmac waiting for takeoff you fly by and straff them. Don't let them get off the ground and then rely on evasive maneuvers and chaff to avoid their rockets. Kill 'em before they ever take off, or jab 'em before they can throw a punch. Just like you have to let the jets come out of the hangers and into the open where they be can be seen before being destroyed, you have to let your opponent move closer to you and reach their set line before you can break their rhythm.

I really dig the idea of stiffling the attack instead of responding to the attack. It might sound dumb, but it was a revelation to me. It was one of those AHAH moments. I thought to myself, I don't have to wait until my opponent punches and then react. Matter of fact, I should never really be reacting to my opponent's moves unless I'm reacting offensively, like if they drop their guard and I can fire in a punch. My opponent should be reacting to my moves. Action is always faster than reaction.

The same thing applies to a slip. I dont' have to wait to see the punch coming and then decide to slip it. I am slow and not very good at slipping once the punch is on its way. But, if I see my opponent moving and getting ready to reach his set line, I could slip, step in and deliver some hooks to the body, or I could jab and then slip and step.

In my totally unprofessional opinion, I think it's important to note that while our intention is to break our opponent's rhythm with a jab, that moment doesn't exist in a bubble. Keep in my mind that the jab's job is to stabilize your opponent in order to land more punches. Always punch in combinations. Don't just jab and let them restart their attack. Jab, step in and land some body shots.

I thought I had the breaking rhythm thing down, and then in our next class Mr. Stuart turned that thinking on its head. He had us practicing moving from no man's land to our firing line, then our set line, but we were doing it with the intention of drawing our opponent's jab so that we could slip and step in to land hooks to the body.

This is getting into the chess aspect of boxing where you're thinking a few moves down the road to lure your opponent into a trap. It's way too advanced for me. I would just end up creating a trap for myself.

So, while it's good to break your opponent's rhythm by jabbing when they reach their set line, you could be walking into a trap. That said, it doesn't mean you don't jab to break the rhythm, it means you have to be aware of what might be coming at you once you jab.

Self destruction is reconstruction

Rare is the time when some part of my body doesn't hurt. My hips are sore just about every day and for the last week there's been a small spot on my left elbow that reacts dramatically from the slightest touch. The top of my right foot hurts, a sharp, sporadic pain right at the base of my toes. And my left quad has a knot, or a tear, or whatever goes wrong with a muscle being called on to do sprints at 8:40 on a Saturday morning.

Not working out, just giving up isn't an option. And really, it's only during class that the pains go away. When my body is moving, jumping, running, punching it doesn't hurt. It's sitting at my desk at work when my hips scream out to be stretched, or my elbow bangs into an open drawer.

So it becomes routine to use the foam roller after class, apply ice packs, wraps, drink ginger tea and for the most part just become accustomed to to constant, mild discomfort.

The exercise is the cause and the cure. I'm sore because I exercise and I feel better because I exercise.

There is a certain element of self-destruction to taking classes five days a week. But this self-destruction is more in line with reconstruction. In order to renovate an old house you must first strip it to the bones and go from there.

Get the drop on your opponent

A boxing/kickboxing class doesn't go by without the importance of changing levels being stressed. Switching up your attack from head to body, or head to legs if kickboxing, is critical in mounting an effective and damaging attack on your opponent. The idea behind it is simple: if you get punched in the face, all of your attention goes to your face and not being hit there again. Your mind says, "That hurt. Don't let it happen again," so you cover up for the anticipated follow up punch to your face. That's a basic survival instinct hardwired into your brain and it's also an instinct you have to try and overcome because with all of your attention/defense focused on not getting hit in the face again you leave the rest of your body open for attack.

This shows the drop right. The fighter
on the right as avoided the jab by sitting
and then he fires the drop right.

Going upstairs then downstairs with your attack creates unpredictability. In classes this week we have been practicing the drop right and the left hook to the body with an immediate left hook to the head. The drop right is simply a straight right handed punch thrown to the stomach from a crouch or sitting position. Your opponent fires a jab, you avoid the punch by sitting and then blasting them with a right to the gut. The mechanics of the drop right are the same as throwing a right from the standing position - generate torque by pushing with your legs and rotating your hips. For the left hook to the body and head, we practiced this by avoiding a left jab thrown by our opponent by stepping to 11 o' clock. This closes distance, gets you inside the pocket and in great position to employ the left hook to the body followed by an immediate left hook to the head.

Switching levels, going upstairs then downstairs, whatever you want to call it, it works. And it works defensively as well as offensively. If I get punched in the face I'm thinking about avoiding another punch to the face. I'm not thinking about my exposed midsection. Likewise, if I'm attacking the head, my focus is upstairs and therefor an effective and surprising counter from my opponent would be to go downstairs. This is where the drop right becomes a sweet, sweet move.

Although I've not used this combo in sparring, just during shadow boxing, it seems that using a combo of jab-right-jab-right-jab and then throwing in the drop right is good way of lulling your opponent into a rhythm and then breaking that rhythm of working upstairs by going downstairs with the drop right.

Would you rather face a big pistol, or a little pistol?

If given the option of having to take a bullet fired from a .22 or a .45, there's no question I'm going to prefer being shot with the .22. However, if facing an attacker armed with a pistol, I want him to be brandishing a monstrous handgun, think Dirty Harry or Desert Eagle. Reason being is that it's way easier to grab a large pistol than it is to grab a small pistol, there's just more of the weapon exposed when it's large. Small pistols, like snubnose revolvers and .380s, get almost entirely concealed by the hand holding them, leaving very little surface area for grabbing and ripping.

We've been practicing our handgun disarms with three different pistols: a large frame Glock, a snubnose revolver with external hammer and a tiny, pocket-sized .380. Without a doubt, the Glock is the easiest pistol to take from the attacker because it presents a large surface area to grab because so much of it protrudes from the hand, and for that same reason it also offers leverage points when wrenching it from the attacker's hand. The tiny Keltec .380 is very difficult to grab, and due to its short length it is very common to place a finger or part of your palm directly over the muzzle. That's not where you want your hand to be. The small revolver is also tough to grab without a part of your hand being in the line of fire.

So, while a larger pistol might look intimidating and pack a larger caliber bullet, it's actually easier to take away from the attacker.

Is it a plateau or a rut?

Saturday’s combat fitness class was another doozy. No sprints or split sets at each station of the circuit, but there were hundreds – literally hundreds – of crunches. So many crunches that, besides my abdominals hurting, the front of my neck hurts from holding my head off of the mat for so long. Jumping rope replaced the morning run and the typical circuit was thrown out the window. Instead of 10 or 11 stations on the circuit, there were only 4 on Saturday: pull-ups, hanging knee lifts, dips and tricep raises (hands behind your back on a low wall, legs straight out in front of your body and resting on heels and you raise and lower your body). We split into groups of three and all three people had to complete three sets at each station before moving on to the next station. Our first set was 15 reps, second set 12 reps, third set 10 reps. It was tough, especially the pull ups. Fifteen is about the most pull ups I can do on a good day, so trying to do 12 after doing 15 is next to impossible for me.

I haven’t been pleased with my fitness performance lately. Mr. Stuart says I’ve hit a plateau, but I feel like it’s worse than a plateau. I feel like I’m regressing. While I’m seeing improvement in my fighting skills, I’m not seeing improvement in my fitness. This is frustrating. Two elements from Saturday’s class highlighted my fitness stagnation: push ups and pull ups. The amount I can do really hasn’t increased in months. If we use these two exercises as a way to measure overall fitness, I’m standing still. I guess I need to start pushing myself harder and always try to do one more pull up than I could do the week before. Actually, what I need to do is a fitness test so I know exactly what my max is for several exercises. I wish I did this when I first started class more than a year ago, that would have given me a much clearer picture of progress. I can say without a doubt that I’m way more fit than I was when I first started, but just how much I can’t say.

Almost six months of boxing and it ain't getting no easier

June will mark six months since I started learning how to fight. And while I've learned a lot in that time, I'm constantly aware of how much more there is to learn. It's not like when I started that I thought I'd become a fighter after two months of training, but I didn't figure on it being this difficult, either. But the other day it occurred to me just how much of a challenge it is to learn a combat sport, much more of challenge than learning golf or tennis. I'm not saying golf or tennis are easy to learn, but the non-contact nature of those sports does make them easier to learn than fighting.

Maybe I'm just looking for reassurance or excuses to make me feel better, but learning how to punch and block is tough. Let's use the seemingly simple task of blocking or avoiding an opponent's punch and then counter attacking from defense. On paper this is a very simple process: opponent throws a left jab, I power block with my right hand counter with a straight right, a left hook to the body and then a right hook to the head. Simple, right? Not at all. Within these moves are numerous variables and skills within skills.

Let's break it down. My opponent throws a left jab at my head. Right from the start I'm faced with numerous decisions to make on how to avoid this punch. I can slip, power block, sit, shoulder roll, weave or lean back. Anyone of those six options can take weeks to properly learn and whichever method I select will color how I counter attack. So let's say I power block the jab, this is probably the easiest method for me, and counter with a straight right. If I properly do the power block (fist on forehead, wrist rolled out, elbow tucked to body) I can immediately throw the counter with my right. Now a whole different set of skills comes into play when I punch: Did I step in properly? Did I align my shoulder with the target? Did I get enough rotational torque into the punch by using my legs to push backwards and forward? Did I cover my face with my left hand? Did I move my head offline by shifting to the left?

Let's assume I've done everything correct. I blocked the punch and landed my counter punch. Now I want to throw my second punch (always counter with three punches). Since I threw a straight right and properly moved offline I'm in position to close distance and move close to my opponent so I can land body punches. Now I have to employ a skill different from blocking and punching, I have to step in and to the side of my opponent and let loose a left hook to the body. Throwing a left hook is way different than throwing a straight right, so this punch requires a whole different knowledge base and muscle memory. And if I land my left hook to the body I still need to throw one more punch. This could be another left hook to the body or head, that would keep it simple, or it could a jab or another straight right if I decide to pivot out. And if I decide to pivot out I'm using another entirely separate knowledge base and muscle memory to accomplish it.

Performing this action of blocking a punch and counter attacking is difficult enough with a compliant partner. When your opponent is not being compliant and is actually being the exact opposite of compliant and trying to punch you in the face, performing these actions grows in difficulty ten fold.

The point is: don't get discouraged. It can take people years to perfect their golf swing and that's without having to avoid punches flying at their face. Learning how to fight is a long, hard road that requires physical stamina, learning proper form, learning tactics, making split-second decisions, employing and controlling aggression and breathing and doing it all properly while another person is trying to hurt you.

The burning in my legs

May 26 is a day that will live in infamy. It's now May 29 and my legs have still not recovered from the sprints we did during Saturday's class. That's with two solid days of rest and still I grimace getting out of a chair.

Saturday's class started with the usual run, but instead of boxing drills we did up-hill sprints in the parking lot and then moved inside for the circuit of split sets. It wasn't enjoyable. I struggled just to get through it. The split sets meant that each station of the circuit was two exercises in one. Example: when  we were hanging in the stirrups and just finished doing knee raises, we immediately started doing toe to bar leg lifts. When we were doing seated curls and finished them, we immediately started doing dumbell shoulder press ...

As you can see, it's been two weeks since my last post. Bad, bad, bad. Work at the paper has been non-stop and leaving me less than enthusiastic to spend any more time in front of a computer than is  absolutely necessary. Sorry for dereliction of duty. However, my slacking on the blog did not carry over to slacking on training. I've been hitting the gym five days a week for combat fitness, FIGHT, boxing, kickboxing, knife fighting and I even got in to the gym for some weight lifting on Sunday.

In no order of importance, here's what's been happening:

Last week's combat fitness (5/14 and 5/16) devastated my legs. Thanks, Matt. On those two nights Mr. Stuart had Matt create some of the stations on the circuit. Matt takes great delight in this because he's in phenomenal shape and can smoke just about everyone in the class. In one night we ended up doing squat jumps, burpee frog jumps up the ramp, Bulgarian splits and Iron Mikes. This was followed up by more lower body destruction in Wednesday's combat fitness class with suicide sprints and midget jumping Jacks (you do jumping Jacks while in squat position with your thighs parallel to the ground). I walked around for a few days with a hitch in my giddy up.

*****

After several people told me I looked too skinny I have started to hit the weights. During the 17 months I have been doing combat fitness I haven't done any lifting. I'm trying to lift three days a week. I'm limiting the weights to mainly work my chest by doing bench press, dumbbell flies and dumbbell press. I'm doing this after boxing and kickboxing class and on Sundays if I can manage it.

*****

It was no great revelation. It was no ephiny precedded by the parting of clouds and rays of sun falling upon me. My understanding came by simply watching some guy in kickboxing class. This understanding was all about movement, specifically head movement and moving offline while throwing punches. This dude, I think his name was Adam, was doing it spot on. Every alternating punch had his head swinging side to side. If he threw a left jab, his head was far to the right. If he threw a straight right, his head was far to the left. When he was throwing jab - straight combinations, he was blur. He would jab (head to the right), sit, and then pop up and throw a straight (head to the left). It was like he was always offline. He was never static. Had I been trying to hit him instead of just offering my hands as targets while I coached, I would have been hitting nothing but air.  I have to thank this guy for showing me what being offline  really looks like. I will try to mimic him from here on out.

Last week, Mr. Stuart doled out one of his best pearls of wisdom to date. I paraphrase: Someone once told Abraham Lincoln he had an hour to chop down a tree and they asked him how he would go about accomplishing the task. Lincoln responded, I'd spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my ax. Brilliant stuff. Preparation is key.

This isn't words of inspiration, rather it's a question Mr. Stuart poses to us every once in a while. And it's a question, that for me, depending on my mindset at the time, could be answered in a sentence or in an epic novel. So I'll sign of this blog post with this simple question: Why do you train?

Faster than a speeding bullet? Doubt it

So here's the scenario: Somehow you wind up in the very delicate situation of having a person standing in front of you holding a pistol just inches from your face and pointed right between your eyes. What do you do? The first thing most of us would do is crap our pants. So, more importantly, what's the second thing you would do? Most people would comply with the gunman's demands: give up money, get in a car ... whatever they say. This is the scenario we worked on in last night's FIGHT class (5/7). FIGHT training conditions us to have the mindset of "I'm taking that gun out of that guy's hand." This doesn't mean that we are taught to be faster than a bullet. That's impossible. But you can become faster than the gunman's trigger finger.

Having a pistol held inches from your
face is not a very comfortable situation to be in. However,
FIGHT training teaches us that it's better for the pistol to be
only inches away, rather than feet away. When it's inches
away it's within range for us to snatch from the gunman. 

The primary danger is this scenario is being in the line of fire of the gun. So, the first thing you do is remove yourself from the line of fire. Two moves accomplish this: your hands thrust upward to grab the pistol and push it higher than your head while at the same time you are "dropping base," or quickly dropping your height. The two moves are done simultaneously.

Usually we train this scenario with dummy pistols, but last night one of the instructors was using his Glock. After going through the process of clearing the weapon (this is a very systematic method we are taught that ensures there is no way a round is chambered) we used the Glock in place of the dummy. This gave us a glimpse of how fast we actually need to be to get out of the line of fire because the gunman was pulling the trigger in response to our moves. This was a great training aid because it added realism to the scenario. Three us were practicing with the Glock and all three of us would have taken a bullet to the head, or at least have been partially scalped by the bullet grazing our skulls.

Using the real pistol and hearing the pull of the trigger taught us all how critical it is for your hands thrusting upwards to be complemented by dropping your height. Actually, dropping your height is probably even more critical to getting out of the line of fire and the best part of that is gravity does all the work.

The only way to more accurately train this scenario would be to use a loaded BB gun. One of the instructors said he has done that. That's pretty realistic training, but even that falls short of what the real thing would be like because with the BB gun there is no bang, no fire coming out of the barrel, no powder coming out of the barrel. I'm not suggesting we throw firecrackers into each other's faces to prepare for those conditions. I'm just saying keep it in mind that if a gun goes off in front of your face, be prepared to be temporarily blinded and deaf.

Getting academic with street attacks

Being the center of attention during a FIGHT class stress drill is not a place I want to be. Talk about being put on the spot ... Being confronted with multiple unknown attack scenarios in rapid fire succession is a pretty tough test to go through. The stress drill forces the person in the center of the circle to recall and execute almost everything they have learned in FIGHT class - while everyone is watching.

Watching Amy go through the stress drill on Monday night (4/30) made me realize that I have a lot of learning to do. I'm making progress on the physical side of learning the various street attacks, but now I need to apply an academic approach to solidfying the knowledge in my brain. It's time to go back to college and create notes and bulleted lists of every move involved in each street scenario. I want to be able to pick up a flash card that says Straight Punch and be able to rattle off the proper response: Step to 11 o'clock, left hand blocks face, right hand punches to body, left hand pins elbow to body and right hand grips shirt and elbow forces head away, three knees, break the ankle.

Calm after the storm

I've done some more sparring, this time with a guy in my weight class, and while it's fun to do, there's also a small amount of fear and nerves and other non-fun aspects involved.  Taking shots to the face is never fun. Seeing how much of your boxing training you completely forget when you step into the ring is never fun and pushing yourself to the limitations of your physical conditioning is quite taxing on the body. For me, the real enjoyment of sparring comes the next day, when it's all over and I've I had a night to sleep on it. My sparring is always done at night and as soon as it's over my mind tends to be confused, quantifying what I did right, what I did wrong, and so on. But when I wake up the next morning, I am the living embodiment of zen. I'm subdued, calm, peaceful, impervious to stress. Tasks at work I usually dread become simple. Everything is easier when someone isn't trying to punch you in  the face.

Combat fitness students are fit. Others, not so much.

Target selection was something we worked on in last night's boxing class (April 24). Our partner/coach would present targets with their hands in a random order and we had to react. This is good training because too often we are throwing punches at static targets, and while this helps build good punching form, it's not realistic and can even become detrimental to learning proper boxing technique.

We also worked on our firing line and set line. Firing line is the distance from your opponent where you are just out of your range to land punches. Set line is the few inches forward of your firing line where you can now reach your opponent with your strikes. These lines are different for everyone because it depends on size, reach, punching style, etc.

Going to combat fitness classes
is really paying off now. Sparring
is showing me how crucial
 conditioning is. Even the exercises
we do between drills in boxing
class clearly shows the divide
between who goes to combat
fitness and who doesn't. 

It was a good class for me. It  built confidence in my skills and fitness. I'm really starting to see an improvement in my stamina. We did a two-minute punching drill and I feel like I was pretty strong throughout it and when we had to do exercises  between drills, I felt good doing them. These exercises between drills is when it becomes very obvious as to who participates in combat fitness and who does not. Example: we had to hold the high plank position for one minute while holding one arm straight out in front of our heads, then we would switch to the other arm. This exercise is all core. All core. You're not supposed to shift your hips or arch your back when you elevate the arm. Combat fitness classes focus a lot on the core. People from combat fitness didn't have a problem holding the plank straight. Others, not so much.

When class was over it was time to get in the ring and do a few rounds of sparring. More on that in another post.

Closing the distance

In last night's boxing class we practiced closing distance on our opponent. This is basically the process of  moving closer to your opponent to be able to hit them. Sounds simple, right? Well, nothing is simple when it involves hitting and avoiding being hit.

Properly closing distance requires you to know what your reach is and what your opponent's reach is. If your reach is longer, than you're in luck. If your opponent's reach is longer, you have a lot more work to do. We practiced closing distance by taking three steps toward our opponent until we reached our firing line. This line marks the spot where we are just out of our range to be able to land punches. From this spot, one more step forward will put us at our set line and from here we can connect with our jab. I was having trouble reaching my firing line, it tended to be too close so that when I stepped to my set line and threw the jab I wasn't able to extend it fully and I had placed myself well within the range of my opponent. This problem can be remedied with practice on the bag.

After class was finished, I continued practing closing distance in the ring with a partner. We drilled the same stuff we had just learned in class. Close distance, fire the jab, step in and to the left and fire the left hook, pivot out and throw the right. Doing it at full speed seemed a little easier than practicing it slow and having my partner punching back really showed the importance of head movement and stepping off line. I need to do some work in front of the mirror to nail this down.

P.S.: I must look silly as I write this at work because I just realized I'm moving my head and shoulders to the left and the right as I think about stepping off line.

It's not called Häagen-Dazs

People who have never done the type of training that we do at the FIGHT Center have no understanding of it. Even after explaining it in detail, some people seem to think that what we do is humorous or even silly. While we have fun doing it, I assure them that it's no joking matter, and if they like I'd be happy to show them the utter lack of humor involved in the uppercut elbow, or how there's absolutely no punchline to a couple of knees to the thighs.
I guess people have always made light of things they don't understand. So lately I'm hearing this, "Do you have your Haagen-Dazs class tonight?" The first time it was funny and I replied, "Yeah. I'm heading to it now. We're gonna sit around and eat gourmet ice cream." After the third or fourth time of hearing it I imagined myself punching the guy in the liver, and as he lay moaning on the ground ask him if he liked that flavor of ice cream, 'cause if not, I've got plenty more flavors to choose from. There's the always popular Super Chocolate Schlock Out. Peaches 'n Knees. Eye Gouge Fudge Sundae. Butter Pecan Throat Strike. Crushed Ankle Cherry Vanilla ....

The heat is onCome August, yesterday's temperature will almost seem chilly, but it felt pretty damn hot during Monday night's (April 16) combat fitness. Doors closed, no fans on, it was steamy inside the gym and it made the circuit a little harder to do. After a few days of temps in the high 80s my body will acclimate, but that first day of training in heat is always a tough one. Even with a shirt change, I was drenched for Haganah class.

Weakness has infected me

I have become a big fat one of these
this week. Need a hint? It ryhmes with
wussy.

Tuesday night I missed boxing class because I was getting tattooed. Wednesday night I missed combat fitness and Haganah class because I had been tattooed the night before. Thursday night I missed kickboxing because I have become a wuss. Weakness has infected me. I need antibiotics derived from Crazy 8s and burpees to kill the bacteria, but I don't think I can wait until Saturday morning. One more day of inactivity could have serious repurcussions for my mind and body. I will make it to the gym this afternoon and kill the voice inside that whispers, "What's another day off gonna hurt? Come on, it's Friday, you deserve another day of rest." Die weakness. Die.

The similarities of combat fitness and getting tattooed

I missed last night's boxing class (April 10) and will miss tonight's combat fitness due to getting tattooed on Tuesday night. I've been getting tattoos for 21 years and even after all  that time the process is still god damn painful. As I laid on the table last night in X-Treme Ink in West Chester while Keith, the artist, etched a scorpion just below my armpit on the inside of my bicep, I couldn't help but think of the similarities between getting tattooed and the combat fitness circuit.

The circuit is 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, or 30 seconds of pain, 30 seconds of recovery. This is just like a tattoo. The needle is never on your skin for more than 20 seconds at any given time. The artist has to keep stopping to wipe away blood and ink and this becomes your recovery period. It might only be 5 seconds of recovery, but it's 5 seconds that steel isn't stinging your flesh. And just like during the circuit, it's a mental game of telling yourself to just get through the next  few seconds and you will be rewarded with rest, or lack of pain.

The combat fitness circuit and getting tattooed both have the ability to slow time down. This is a peculiar influence of pain and duress. It's just 30 seconds, what's the big deal? I've spent lifetimes of agony lived in seconds. Whether it's hour two of getting inked, or doing jump squats during your second lap of the circuit,  seconds can stretch into hours.

The similarities don't end there. The act of getting tattooed sucks, just like going through the circuit sucks. The enjoyment of both only begins when it's all over. I hate life in the midst of the circuit when all that's before me are burpees and dips and mountain climbers and I hate life in the midst of getting tattooed, I curse myself for volunteering for the pain. It's only once I'm showered and have eaten and I'm sitting down and ease into the wonderful state of relaxation that the stress of the circuit gains its value. It's only after  the tattoo gun goes silent and a few days have passed and the pain of the new ink fades away that I actually begin to enjoy my new art.

We are not full of S#*@

Saturdays rule! We did the Crazy 8 workout on Saturday morning and the few of us who were there definitively answered the question, Are You Fit or Full of S#*@?  Not only did we get to do Crazy 8s, we got to run outside for a warmup. I like that, there's just something cool about running in a group down sidewalks.

The Crazy 8 circuit involves going around the circuit in a ladder down fashion. Eight reps at every station for the first lap, then 7 reps at every station for the second lap and so forth until you're down to one. This means you end up doing 36 reps at each station. With stations like dips and burpee pullups, it becomes a challenge.

Once everyone was down to only one rep, we took a rest, lined up and did the final lap of the circuit one person at time. To make it fun, we were timed. Almost everyone finished at the 35 second mark, except Greg, he finished a few seconds faster because he cheated and skipped a station. Just kidding Greg, don't hurt me.

Easter Sunday

What should have been my day of rest became a day of playing soccer and basketball with my 11-year-old nephews and eating my body weight in deviled eggs.  I try to not even walk up stairs on most Sundays, but yesterday involved much unwanted physical activity. It also involved unwanted questions from my mom. "Is your nose black and blue?" she asked. It is, I replied. "Why is your nose black and blue?" she asked. Because I got punched in the face, I said. "Why do you want to do that fighting stuff? I can't understand it," she said. I shrugged my shoulders, I don't expect a 70-year-old woman to understand such things.

Lessons learned from sparring

So I got my first taste of some real sparring and it didn't taste so good. Don't get me wrong, it was fun and I learned from it, but what I learned wasn't all that encouraging. Keep in mind that the point of sparring isn't to win, it's to learn. However, if the point of sparring was to win, I lost horribly.
My sparring partner was Earthquake Jake. I call him that because one of his punches, I think it was a right, landed dead center on my nose causing me to see a flash of white light while my legs turned to jello as if the ground beneath my feet was moving.  Jake stands 6' 3", 204 pounds and has skills. I stand 5' 9", 165 pounds and pretty much have no skills. In hindsight it wasn't such a great idea to go that far outside of my weight class, but now when I spar someone my own size it might be a little easier when I don't feel like I have to stand on my toes to try and hit their face.

The worst thing I learned during the few rounds of sparring is that my conditioning blows. I've been doing combat fitness for well over a year, but after two minutes of sparring I was so out of gas that I couldn't defend myself anymore. That sucks! That more than sucks. It's kind of horrifying to realize how much more conditioning I need. Breathing with a mouthguard in didn't help, but even without the mouthguard I would  have still been drained. And we were only throwing punches and kicks, we weren't going to the ground.

Another thing that became clear, and Mr. Stuart has mentioned this often, is the bad habit of "I go, you go." This is when sparring during class and we seem to take turns with our partner ... my partner hits me and then it's my turn to hit him and back and forth. So when Jake would throw rapid combinations, most of which landed on me, I kind of expected him to back off, let me reset and then continue. That ain't the way it works. He would land a combo and immediately move in and keep throwing. That was tough to get used to. And to his credit, he held back, he showed restraint. He could have really hurt me anytime he wanted to but he didn't.

My lack of movement was another lesson learned. My movement isn't good at the best of times, but in the ring, I couldn't get used to the canvas surface. It's almost slippery. Add to that how fatigued I was getting and I became a sitting target.

Back to that punch that landed on my nose. I have a big nose, or as I like to think,  I have a nose with character, character that came by way of getting broken by the back of some guy's head while playing soccer years ago.  Whatever you call it, I have a nose that's just begging to get smashed. When Mr. Stuart told me I was ok to spar and gave me my headgear, the first thing he said was, "Watch your nose." True that, sir. True that. Your words were prophetic.

Start sparring. There's no substitute for it. It's the only way you'll  learn where you stand with your conditioning and your skills.

I can't hold a bag of ice on my nose and write

My hands were occupied last night holding a bag of ice to my nose, so I couldn't write, and this morning I have too much work to do at the paper.  Tomorrow, I promise, I will detail my first real sparring session I had. If the fact that I had to ice my face isn't ominous foreshadowing, this will do the trick: Me: 5 ' 9", 165 lbs, training to fight for three months. Opponent: 6' 3", 204 lbs, training to fight for two years.

Stop getting punched by punching back

Well, last night's boxing class didn't exactly boost my confidence. It's not like I got my ass handed to me, we didn't even do light sparring, it was just one of those classes that reminded me how little I've learned in the three months of taking classes. My punches felt weak. My footwork was ... I can't even find a word for it. I'll just say that at times I was stepping forward with my rear foot. My rear foot! And my partner wasn't any help either. Not because he didn't know what he was doing, quite the opposite. I was partnered with a guy who shall remain nameless (he has a Russian accent) and is way better than I am. Running through the drills with him made me feel like I was a little child who just stumbled out of his sandbox and into boxing class.

This illustration from Wikipedia
 demonstrates the counter punch
without blocking first.
Boxer A's left jab is countered with
 Boxer B throwing a right straight
 punch to the head.

We practiced countering for the entire class. Partner throws a left jab, I block it with my right arm and counter with a straight right; partner throws a straight right, I block with my left and counter with a left hook. It feels incredibly weird to counter with the same hand I'm blocking with, but it makes boxing sense. When you block a punch with your right arm, you have shifted your weight to your right leg, and we all know you can only punch from the side of your body that your weight is on. While this makes boxing sense it does not feel natural at all. In my mind, when I block a punch I want to keep that hand covering my face. My thinking goes like this: Holy crap, I blocked his punch. I can't believe that worked. Well, that hand did its job, I'm gonna keep it there where it's protecting my face. Wrong, wrong, wrong. When your opponent punches, it is a great time for you to punch back. Problem is, I want to counterpunch with my non-blocking hand.

Another issue I have with the counterpunch is a mindset problem, one I touched on when I first started the boxing classes. I am not attack oriented. I'm defense oriented. So when I block a punch, I fall into the trap of thinking that I can just keep on blocking punches, as if my opponent will grow weary of hitting me and give up. But blocking punches isn't going to win the fight. Blocking is only something you do when absolutely necessary and when you are not punching. The only way to stop getting punched is to punch back. Since I am defensive minded, the counterpunch should become a move I like because it relies on my opponent committing and me exploiting his opening.

Warming up. No chit-chat. Consistency

After Saturday's circuit with burpees, Monday's combat fitness (April 2) was toned down. And I was happy for that because a gluttonous Sunday of eating and drinking and more eating had me feeling sluggish at best by the time Monday evening came around.

I made sure I got to the gym well before combat fitness started so I could get really warmed up. I'm finding that my warm up takes longer now. I like to already be sweating when class starts. If I'm not already sweating, it takes me too long to get in my groove. Foam roller, jump rope, some pull-ups and a few minutes hitting the bag and then I feel ready to start combat fitness.

Haganah class
There's a time and place for conversation. Haganah class is not one of them. My first partner last night was more concerned with chatting than he was working the drills. You can't talk and throw knees at the same time.

Consistency
I've been good about making it to all of my classes. I've missed one in the past three weeks. I'm averaging about 10 hours per week in the gym. That's five days a week. I feel great when I can be that consistent and I need to stick with it because stuff is happening in April that might cause me to miss a few classes. It's been more than a year since I was last tattooed and that's too long in my book. I have an appointment next week to get some work done on my right leg and it might cause me to sit out a couple of days and a camping trip toward the end of the month will mean missing a Saturday. Saturday's are my favorite day in the gym and I don't look forward to missing even one.

Burpees replace the bun

Code what?

Well, just when it seemed that Saturday morning combat fitness had become really tough with the addition of Code X (exercise in between each station on the circuit instead of rest), it just became tougher. Lots tougher. How tough? Take the dreaded burpee, an exercise I loathe but have come to embrace for its effectiveness, and make that the exercise in between each station of the circuit. That’s what the March 31 class entailed.  Bad enough on their own, burpees between stations is almost cruel. If I wasn’t such a glutton for punishment I’d rethink my Saturday morning routine of working out at 8:30 a.m. But, as it is, I’m sick in the head and enjoy physical abuse at an hour when most people are only beginning to get out of bed.

Code B, or Code V (that’s V for vomit), whatever you want to call it, reminds me of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s double down sandwich, the one that replaced the bun with pieces of chicken. The double down was an attempt to squeeze more food into the same amount of space that a normal sandwich occupied. Between-station burpees does the same thing, it almost doubles the amount of work you do during the circuit. Code V does away with the bun and puts in its place a sandwich that’s nothing but exercise.

It’s a sick world we live in when burpees are considered recovery between stations. Mr. Stuart has upped the ante and I fear to see what else he has up his sleeve for Saturday mornings. I think, though, at some point the laws of physics get involved here: there is a finite amount of exercise that can be squeezed into a circuit.

Haganah class

The fun didn’t stop when combat fitness ended. Saturday’s Haganah class was a bit of an ass kicker, too. Although we always keep partner preservation on the top of our list, that means don’t hurt your partner, I was delighted to see my partner grimace during our Haganah punching drill. The punching drill involves your partner holding a pad up to their chest while you throw a three-punch combo of straight punches. Mine were landing with some weight behind them and every time my partnered showed his displeasure I tried to hit harder. Sorry to take joy in another’s discomfort, but it is motivating to see that your punches are effective.

I Received some great tips from the instructors on various aspects of my technique during Saturday’s (March 31) haganah class. I have completed three full months of Haganah, that’s three classes a week, and while I have learned copious amounts of information on inflicting pain, all it takes is the discerning eye of an instructor to show me how much more I have to learn. Thanks go to all who correct me consistently.

The Pivot: the door opens; the door closes

Last night’s boxing class (March 27) featured the use of the pivot. Unlike slips, ducks and rolls, which feel rather foreign to me, the pivot feels very natural. Since the pivot involves swinging the entire body, either forward or backward, I liken it to a door swinging on its hinges. And just like a door can open or close, the pivot can open up a new avenue of attack for you, or it can close off your opponent’s avenue of attack. It seems like a great way to flank your opponent when you’re attacking because you quickly take your attack from  their front to their side. When your opponent is executing a good attack and closing distance on you, the pivot can slam the door on their advance because you move from a position of defense when you’re in their line of attack, to a position of offense when you swing to their side.

1 more thing about shooting

After ICS training, the pistol feels like
an extension of my hand hardwired to my
own nervous system.

One more thing to say about the Israeli combat shooting (ICS) instruction I received from Mr. Stuart …. Despite owning handguns for a longtime and shooting them every few months, I never developed the relationship with the pistol that I now have after only a few hours of professional instruction. It’s hard to describe, but the pistol no longer seems like a piece of external equipment that I pick up and try to manipulate. The pistol now feels like an extension of my own body, as if it has been integrated into my own nervous system and does what I tell it to do, not like in the past when I would have to ask it and coax it to do what I wanted.

Fitness training as a full-time job

Sitting at my desk for eight hours a day makes me wish I could make physical training my full-time job. I don't want to become a trainer and train others, and I'm too old and lack the skill to become a professional, or amateur, athlete, I just want to get paid for my own training. Oh, and I want to have health coverage, too. 
It's not that crazy of an idea. When I used to workout in "normal" gyms with their rows of stationary bikes, treadmills and nautilus machines, I always looked at the wasted energy. What I mean is that there were a dozen people expending their caloric energy for their own health beneftit when at the same time  they could have been creating electricity. Creating electricity is a fairly simple process: according to Wikipedia,  "electricity is generated by the movement of a loop of wire, or disc of copper between the poles of a magnet."

Imagine this: we give up fossil fuels and rely on people power. Huge hangers filled with stationary bikes, treadmills and other types of equipment that could be used to create electricity  become the new power plants. In a heartbeat I would apply to become a energy producer. What a great job that would be. Ride a stationary bike for hours and read a book, listen to music, or watch TV and get a workout while I create clean engergy.

Essentially what I want is to kill two birds with one stone. There are days that I don't feel like going to the gym after a busy day of work. On those days I want my job to be my workout. This isn't hard to accomplish. There are plenty of jobs that provide incredible workouts. Several weekends during the year I'll do weekend work with friends who are landscapers, concrete masons and hardscapers. Those are jobs where you get paid and get fit at the same time. Run a jackhammer for two hours breaking up an old concrete sidewalk and then toss the broken pieces into a dumptruck. It willl crush you. Or, do the digging required for a dry-stack stone wall. That's a core workout from hell. Dig, dig, dig and fill up a wheelbarrow and then push the wheelbarrow thirty yards and dump it. Then move the stones for the wall. You could also work with a guy setting a brick patio. This will require an enormous amount of digging, pushing wheelbarrows filled with screenings and crushed stone and carrying 10 bricks at a time.

Maybe I'm on to something here. I'll bet there are fitness nuts out there looking for a way to change up their workout who would do some of these jobs for free. Their payment would come in the form of sweat, lactic acid and shredded muscles. If you want try some working class fitness, I can set you up with my buddy who pours concrete sidewalks. Come to think of it, I should I take a day off from working at the paper and go work with him. It only takes a day of hard labor to make me thankful that I can sit at a desk all day and get paid for it.

Home on the range with Israeli Combat Shooting

There was blood on the gun. It was my own blood. A circular patch on the second knuckle of my right  thumb was raw, worn by the deathgrip I had been clutching the pistol in for the better part of an hour. It was well over 100, the amount of times I had racked the Glock by that point, and now my skin and a smear of red were spread on the top of the grip of the gun. I put black tape over the raw patch on my thumb, just like I had done to my index finger on my left hand earlier, stood in ready position, loaded another magazine and waited for the command to fire.
I was having fun and I was learning, too. Even though I've owned handguns for more than 15 years, I never had any professional training on their proper usage. Now I was getting it. It all felt pretty natural and, like just about anything taught from the Israeli perspective, made tons of practical sense. While I've always been comfortable around guns, I feel even more so after the Israeli Combat Shooting (ICS) class. And after shooting without really using the gun's sights,  I don't think I'll ever waste the time to stand in front of a target and line up the sights. That seems almost silly now.

I own a .40 Ruger and I welcomed the lower caliber and lower weight of Mr. Stuart's Glock 19, a 9mm, that I was using. This was only the second time I had fired a Glock and I couldn't seem to catch on to the trigger reset. This came into play when I had to fire three rounds in rapid succession. Here's how it worked. Two targets were set up, one on top of the other. The bottom target was the body, the top target was the head. On the command of fire, I had to assume the firing position, rack the pistol and fire two shots to the body and then one shot to the head. The two shots to the body should have almost been simultaneous with a slight pause between the second and third shot as I acquired the new target. Sometimes I was getting the two body shots off pretty fast, but several times I was too slow. This had to do with me not fully understanding the trigger reset on the Glock. I was letting my trigger finger move too far before squeezing off the second round.  I shouldn't have been letting the trigger come out as far as I was so I was losing valuable time measured in hundreds or thousandths of a second.

After ICS, I have more confidence with a pistol,  more skill with a pistol and had a boat load of fun  being trained. Considering how much I love being trained, I would make a great dog. Ruff, Ruff. More training, please.

Using deception to attack

We channeled the wisdom of military strategist Sun Tzu in last night's boxing class. Sun Tzu stresses the use of deception when attacking an enemy. If  the main target of your attack is the enemy's water supply, first attack his ammunition supply with a diversionary force. Once the enemy's forces are busy protecting the ammunition supply, then you attack the water supply. In boxing class we practiced jabs to the body. It's not a great punch, but it is a great diversion. Our main target was the head, so following Sun Tzu's advice we first attacked the body, drawing the enemy's attention low and then attacked the head with a straight right.

Born around 544 BC, the knowledge
found in Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"
is still used today by modern military powers.

I say the jab to the body isn't a great punch because it leaves you wide open for a counter. When throwing the jab to the body it's important to keep your chin tucked in and for the right hand to cover your face. Now, that said, the fact that jabbing to the body leaves you wide open for a counter is also one of its strengths. The counter is predictably going to be a straight right from your opponent, so by throwing the jab to the body your setting up your opponent for two things: your straight right to the head if they drop their guard to protect their body, or, if he counters with  a  right, you're countering his  right by using a shoulder roll and pivoting right which places you in a position where you've now outflanked your opponent and are facing the side of his body where you can deliver blows to his kidneys and head.

This idea of setting up your opponent for your future moves is like, as Mr. Stuart says, "playing chess." This is entering a realm of advanced strategy and it will take me a while before I can fully incorporate it. For the foreseeable future I'll be sticking to the game of checkers.

Need some aggro? Books and movies to quench your thirst

Allergies rendered me into a snot factory on Sunday and Monday and made it impossible for me to attend combat fitness and Haganah on March 19. So instead of working out, I watched “13 Assassins,” a movie loaned to me by a friend at the gym. It was a pretty cool Samurai flick with some good sword play and the always compelling code of the Samurai, or bushido. After watching Assassins only a day after the season finale of “The Walking Dead” that featured a hooded, sword-wielding stranger  decapitate a zombie, I have a strong urge to learn how to use a Samurai sword. But that urge will have to wait, first I’ll get proficient with just a knife, then I’ll  move onto bigger edged weapons. What doesn’t have to wait, though, is the watching or reading of fictional characters whoop ass with their fists and feet and all types of weaponry. If you have the urge to watch or read some good agro, here’s a short list of my favorites in no particular order:

Hannah - This movie came out in 2011 and features some awesome hand-to-hand combat between a teenage girl, her father, neo-nazis and covert government henchmen.

This is One-Eye from "Valhalla Rising." Think you could
beat a guy who is tied to a post? Think again.

Valhalla Rising – Weird. Violent. Beautiful. Meet One-eye, a slave used to fight other slaves in the Celtic Highlands way back in the day. Chained to a post and sometimes fighting two men at once, One-Eye comes up with creative ways to kill with rope and arrowhead.

Any of the Jason Bourne movies – Yeah, the storylines get a bit unbelievable, but the one-on-one fight scenes are still good.

Eastern Promises – Good flick about the Russian mob featuring Viggo Mortensen. The fight scene in the steam bath is great, and not because Viggo is naked. But the idea having to fight naked on a wet tile floor against two dudes with blades is absolutely horrifying.

Those are the only movies my brain can think of at 9 a.m., but here are a few books:

Anything written by Cormac McCarthy – This is the guy who wrote the apocalyptic tale of survival “The Road” and the narco-thriller “No Country for Old Men.” But these two books, which were made into movies, pale in comparison to his work “Blood Meridian.” If you like blood … lots of blood with top-notch writing, go get this book today. I shouldn’t even call it writing. This book is literature at its finest and yet it’s so chock full of scalpings, beheadings, shootings, neck breakings and skull crushinings, that you don’t go more than five pages without something horrific happening. This story is based upon factual events that transpired in the mid-1800s with a group of scalp hunters commissioned by the Mexican government to rid their land of Indians. Here’s a sample of the McCarthy’s writing from page 4 of “Blood Meridian”: “They fight with fists, with feet, with bottles or knives. All races, all breeds. Men whose speech sounds like the grunting of apes. Men from lands so far and queer that standing over them where they lie bleeding in the mud he feels mankind itself vindicated.”

The Dune Series – The first six books of the Dune series will change your life. If you ever feel like you’re straying from the path of constant training and physical improvement, these books will set you straight. Taking place thousands of years in future, you meet Paul Atreides, heir to House Atreides. In this society full of double crosses, palace intrigue, espionage, traitors, poisons and assassins, danger lurks everywhere. The writer, Frank Herbert wrote the first book in 1965 and spares no details in the relentless physical conditioning and combat training that the main characters undergo to be able to face an attack at any moment. If you are a guy, you’re going to wish that you could be House Atreides swordmaster Duncan Idaho. If you’re a girl, you’re going to wish that you could join The Bene Gesserit and learn their finely tuned killing skills that are matched only by their cunning and physical beauty.

Shogun – this epic novel by James Clavelle takes place in feudal Japan during the heyday of the Samurai. This was a time when Japan was virtually closed off from the rest of the world and the only contact they had with Europeans came by way of Portuguese missionaries, until Blackthorne, an English captain of the sea becomes shipwrecked with his crew. This book is so detailed you’ll learn some Japanese and learn lots about the Samurai. It’s long, around 1,400 pages, and it is very slow in some spots, but if you can power through the lulls you’re rewarded with some sweet sword fights, ninjas, and even some good sex scenes. Seriously, if you like Samurai and their code of honor, this is a must read.
Fight – this book by Eugene Robinson is so well written it’s hard to believe that the writer is also a fighter who has been hit repeatedly on the head. The real title of this book is Fight: everything you ever wanted to know about kicking ass but were afraid to ask because you thought you would get your ass kicked. It is a non-fiction account of Robinson and how he got into fighting through underground boxing clubs, his band Oxbow and the early days of MMA. It also includes interviews with famous fighters, killers and jailhouse assassins. Did I mention that it’s incredibly well written?

Just relax. That guy's only trying to kick you in the head

There are a couple of things that seemed illogical to me when first learning to fight: you move toward your opponent's punches, not away from them; you punch with your feet and legs, not your hands; you have to stay relaxed in order to fight effectively. This last one has been the hardest for me to wrap my head around. Stay relaxed while fists and feet and knives are moving toward my face at great speed? Are you nutso?  I'm high strung. I'm a worrier. Relaxation at the best of times is a foreign concept to me, so the idea that I could stay relaxed when someone is trying to hurt me seems kind of silly. But, like many other seemingly illogical ideas surrounding fighting, I'm starting to see the light on this one, too.

The simplest reason for staying relaxed while fighting is that tension makes you slow and vulnerable. Example 1: When in your fighting stance, don't ball your hands into tight fists. This contraction of the muscles and the tension it creates slows down your punch. Only turn your hands into tight fists the moment before your hand hits the target. Example 2: This might only apply to me, but tension sort of gives me tunnel vision. If I'm tense or nervous I tend to become fixated on one particular threat. So I might only focus on my opponent's punch and not his kick, or I fixate on trying to hit him with a kick when he's really inviting me to hit him with a jab. Example 3: You can't be tense and also have fluid movement and if you don't have fluid movement you ain't dancing and if you ain't dancing you ain't fighting your opponent, you're fighting yourself.

Movement is critical when fighting. I'll say it again, movement is critical when fighting. I'm just starting to grasp this concept but it's importance isn't lost on me. The first few weeks of doing the light sparring in boxing class was reminiscent of the way naval battles used to be fought when the ships would pull up broadside to one another and start firing thier cannon from a static position until one ship couldn't fire anymore. Incorporating movment into the fight eliminates this squared-off style and creates a style where you're keeping your opponent wondering, forcing him to move where you want him to move and as he tries to follow you, opportunities are created where you can strike.

I know that my footwork now is anything but graceful, no floating like a butterfly yet, because I've yet to learn how to properly relax and rid my body of tension. I know that I can amass all the skill in the world, but if I can't stay loose during a fight that skill won't do me any good. So this week I will keep one thougth in the forefront of my mind, I can see it there in blazing, neon orange letters: I will stay relaxed and loose and I will not remain static.

Corporeal dyslexia & thinking with my feet

Corporeal dyslexia. This is my own homemade term to describe my predicament of how I can perform a certain combative when the attacker is on my right side, but cannot perform it when the attacker is on my left side. Same attacker. Same attack. Different result, with that result being failure. I call it corporeal (body) dyslexia because I tend to reverse my movements when facing an attack from the side I’m not accustomed to. Here’s an example: last night we practiced avoiding the right-handed straight punch. To avoid it, we step to our left and punch to the body with our right hand. OK. All well and good doing that. I’ve been doing it right for three months. Then, we switched to avoiding a left-handed punch. We’re supposed to do the exact same thing, move to our left and punch to the body with our right, except that I couldn’t convince myself to keep stepping to my left. Over and over again I continued to step to my right and found myself in a no-man’s land where I was entirely out of position and had no clue as to what I should do from there. Had I done that in a real fight, I would have to call a mulligan and ask the guy to please try and hit me in the face with his left-handed punch one more time.

In this instance I have an idea why I was getting it wrong. Dodging the left-handed punch Haganah style conflicts with dodging a left-handed punch boxing style.  In boxing, avoiding that left hand would mean slipping to my right. I can understand why I’m getting backwards, I’m confusing the two fighting styles. But with the other moves I get backwards … that’s just me being confused.

One thing I’m not confused about anymore (OK, really only less confused about) is how to maintain proper form when punching rapidly. “Think with your feet.” This sage advice from Mr. Stuart has greatly simplified the process. Punches start in your feet, so let your feet guide you. Punches don’t start in your hands, so just keep the hands out of this.

Cleared to spar

I might come to regret it if I get my bell rung, but I've been given the green light to do full-on sparring and I'm pretty excited about that. It'll mean getting to the gym on a Friday or Sunday, typically my days off, and finding people around my same weight who also want to spar. The idea behind sparring is you want to go against people better than yourself. That shouldn't be difficult for me.

Last night's boxing class (March 13) was a good one. We spent more time on head movement and punching form. The most memorable thing from last night was the extended "rest" period we had. "Rest" tends to have a different meaning in boxing class than it does in the outside world. "Rest" during boxing class means that in between a round of throwing and blocking punches you get a break by assuming a squat position so your thighs are parrallel to the floor, back straight, butt out and arms extended straight out in front of your chest so they are also parallel to the floor. Then you hold it for a minute. It burns. It really, really burns.

Dialing up the speed keeps it real

Last night’s combat fitness (March 12) featured another round of code x. This is when our normal rest period between stations on the circuit gets eliminated and replaced with more exercise. Hooray for more exercise!

Haganah class focused on proper punching technique. I could practice this for 8 months and still not get it down completely. What I can do slow, I cannot do fast. I understand the mechanics of the jab and straight right, but when it comes time to start throwing them fast, my form deteriorates.

Staying with the same concept of being able to do things slow but not fast, I’m trying to make the Haganah drills more realistic by speeding them up. Last night we practiced avoiding a slashing attack from a knife. To avoid the attack you step to the side and seize the attacker’s knife arm. Practicing slow a few times is good, but to keep doing it slow doesn’t teach much. One of my biggest deficiencies is speed and speed and accuracy are certainly needed to seize an arm bearing a knife. My partner was up for it so we started slashing at each other in real time while not remaining static. We circled each other, threw some faints in and then slashed with speed.  It was realistic and way more fun than doing it slow.

Just how doing the drills in real time helps develop speed, the accuracy of punches does the same thing. When we’re practicing avoiding the straight punch, it doesn’t teach us much if our partner isn’t punching fast and directly at our faces. Yeah, you might get punched in the face if you’re not fast enough, but it is a fight class. If you’re taking a cooking class you can expect to cut yourself while chopping onions and burn yourself on the stove. If you’re taking a fighting class you can expect to get hit in the face. Partner preservation is always a top priority, but that doesn’t mean we need to sacrifice reality. You’re doing your partner a disservice if you’re throwing fast and accurate.

P.S.: Based upon the reactions of my friends in the gym, shaving my beard was a bad decision. I pretty much realized it was a bad decision as soon as I did it.  Fear not, the beard will return!

Medicine ball babies & softly spoken attack commands

During Saturday's knife fighting class we tried to stab babies ... sort of. Ok, there were no babies in the gym and no babies were stabbed in the making of Saturday's knife class. Allow me to explain. During some of our sparring sessions one person had to hold a medicine ball and shield it from their opponent as if it were their own child they were trying to protect from a knife-wielding maniac. Believe it or not, I performed better while I was holding my baby. I guess it had to do with staying on the defensive and only countering when my opponent committed himself to an attack. When my opponent held the baby, he tore me up, filleted me. It was like I became so intent on trying to stab his medicince ball baby that I forgot all about defense. I think the medicine ball baby demonstrates two things: one, when we have  a little bit of motivation, even made up motivation of protecting a medicine ball, we perform better, sort of like the momma grizzly coming out in us; two,  having a more defensive-minded approach to the fight makes you more cautious, less willing to attack, but ready to exploit your opponent's mistakes.

This was my bouncing baby boy during
knife sparring. We had to cradle  the
medicine ball as if it were our own child
while fending off an attack.

Knife class also featured the use of voice commands and conditioning. This is how it worked: We had color-coded commands. Yellow meant do nothing. Red meant slash the hand and stab. Green meant push and slash. When the instructor said a color, we had to perform the appropriate action. Sounds easy, right? It is pretty easy when you pay attention and the volume of the commands stays consistent, but just when you become accustomed to the commands being yelled, the commands would be given at conversation volume and then at an even lower volume. The idea here is to be prepared to fight even if your sensory input does register threat. Your opponent probably won't announce his attack with a war cry and his attack may even come during a seemingly benign interaction when there is no yelling. For example, a guy might stop you on a street and ask if you have a light for cigarette. He's not yelling, the tone of his voice is neutral and the volume is low and then he's coming at you. So the varied volume of the instructor's voice commands forced us to ignore yelling or softly-spoken commands and focuse on what the color meant we should do. Just because there's lots of noise in a certain situation doesn't mean you lash out with an attack, and just because there's no noise it doesn't mean that all is ok.

Combat Fitness
There's code blue - 15 seconds rest during each station on the circuit. There's code red -  no rest between stations on the circuit. Now there's code x - exercise between stations on the circuit. Saturday's combat fitness (March 10) class debuted code x and it injected the circuit with a heavier work load. So instead of having rest or no rest between stations, we did mountain climbers, jumping jacks and a bunch of other exercises for 30 seconds between each station. It sucked while it lasted, but it made finishing the circuit all the more gratifying.