Larptastic

Did some stretching and ropes to warm up, then swung the sticks around for a while. I focused on swinging them without stopping prematurely, and spent a little time on reverses.

I also did a bit of combo work on the bags and some kicking. A classmate helped me tighten up my technique on my kicks. Apparently I've been bending my leg too much at the knee and robbing them of power.

Kick Tips
* Rotate hips
* Keep leg straight and power through with hip

Did a light warmup, some bag work (kicks and combos) and then spent some more time with the sticks. Coach came over and gave me some tips:

* Don't stop the swing early, follow through with power till the end
* The stick will stop where it's supposed to stop

Reverse 2
* 2 should end in the 1 starting position, bring the butt of the stick across face and down in the angle of a 2, but coming from the 1 side of my head
Reverse 4
* *4 should end in the 1 starting position, bring the butt of the stick across face, then rotate it around back to 4 position and swing

Didn't make it to MT so I stayed for JKD, which is a bit earlier than it used to be since Judo is on hiatus. We started with some pummeling exercises up against the wall, then did some basic stick drills.

I worked with someone near my size (70kg or so vs my 58kg) and on the second round we went a bit harder with an effort to throw/trip/takedown our opponent, or let them know we had them then release. On a failed takedown I got reversed, went for a guillotine and ended up someone banging up my right knee. Had a nice goose-egg on the side that I had to ice when I got home.

Pummeling
* When going for a trip, try getting the outside leg to opposite side to trip them at an angle
* Pivot them towards the foot that is caught

Sticks
* Once I have the basics of 1, 2, 3 & 4 down start doing them in patterns, such as 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-1, 3-4-1-2, 4-1-2-3, 4-3-2-1, etc.
* Reverse 1 should be pulling the stick up as if "drawing a sword" (no comment) and then back down at the same angle as a regular 1
* Reverse 1 can come from the left side of the head if I put a bit of a lean on it
* 3 and 4 seem to get more hip power if I lean back the slightest bit

Missed MT due to work, so I came in for the later JKD class. We got a nice run in for a warm up, then did some basic stick work.

Basic Stick
* Hold the stick at least a hands width up from the bottom
* Don't stop the swing, swing through all the way
* Stance is right foot forward
* Should be body rotation and foot movement
- when swinging to the left, left foot on ball of foot, bringing left foot down and right foot up onto ball as you swing
- when swinging to the right, right foot on ball of foot, bringing right foot down and left foot up onto ball as you swing

Basic Stick Swings
One
* Stick on right shoulder
* Diagonal down to left hip
Two
* Stick on left shoulder
* Diagonal down to right hip
Three
* Stick against right bicep
* Diagonal up towards left shoulder
Four
* Stick against left bicep
* Diagonal up towards right shoulder

Reverse Stick Swings
Reverse One
* Stick on left shoulder
* Bring horizontally across and rotate to the right
* Diagonal down towards left hip
Reverse Two
* Stick on right shoulder
* Bring horizontally across and rotate to the left
* Diagonal down towards right hip
Reverse Three
* Stick against left bicep
* Flip over with left hand to contact right bicep
* Diagonal up towards left shoulder
Reverse Four
* Stick against right bicep
* Rotate to the left
* Bring stick across in front of you
* Slide down to left bicep
* Diagonal up towards right shoulder

We did some more boxing, refining what we had done earlier and bringing the intensity up a bit. Coach told us to not lose technique when drilling, slow and right is better than fast and wrong. A few notes :

Boxing Stance
* Lead hand is slightly in front of face rather than against head on temple.
* This allows for quicker jab and a quicker defense

Jab/Rear kick combo
* I can do this one pretty quickly, after the jab the natural rotation of the body swings the kick right into them

Cross/Lead kick
* This one is a bit tougher, due to the footwork required for both the cross and the lead kick
* Should step out for the cross
* Feet should do a shuffle-step in order to create the correct space for the kick.
- Lead leg goes back while the rear leg goes forward.
- Shouldn't have a bounce, head should stay level.

Trapping
* We worked a trapping drill with a partner.
* Coach emphasized that it was designed to help us increase our hand speed.
* It is not something we'd use in a real fight.