Week 13

Against the fully covered head:

The opponent is standing and holds a classic protective head posture (you have already thrown a left right combo to encourage the cover up). Take a lazy lap and use this to turn him as you step around and hammerfist to the back of the head. Use repeaters and following footwork to complete the motion. If they stay in posture but do not fight back, give them a double palm push to move them away and escape.

If they take a very low defensive posture, step deep into the armpit and heel palm to the back of the head. Ensure the fingers are facing down the head to secure more of the hand landing. In addition, the elbow can strike the spine. All of these 3 moves work most effectively with sinking the weight as the hits goes in. Another attack when opponent in low posture is to kau sau the elbow and uppercut. Martin labelled this as the ripping uppercut move. It felt crisp and nasty.

We then looked at 2 methods when the opponent has the same guard but is standing up tall after the initiating punches. Firstly was using the lifting elbow after the 2 hits, this opens his guard and will startle, follow up with lop and hit to head. Secondly we looked at doing first 2 punches then following up with a right left hooking heel palm to ear/jaw area. As a loosener, worked this combo on the pads.

3 drill: cheeky hits of the backfist:

Sinking and dropping the weight to hammerfist the groin. This can be done in 2 subtly different ways. The first sinks down and hits through the guard, the second involves lifting the arm and coming under for the hit to the groin.

Thirdly is circling the hand down and to the solar plexus.

Fourthly, rotating the fist back and up to hit to the chin.

Finally, lifting the arm held and hitting to the ribs.

Sparring:

Worked in several incremental ways.

1: one defend and other attack
2: both attack and defend freely
3: one attacks as the other aims to spoil.

Really enjoyed sparring. Felt relaxed and looking to work consistent energy. Was a bit naughty in spoiling Giant Nathan's sparring by closing the distance and tying up and head clinch range. Enjoyed the close range grapple and the brief chess match that ensued.

Ended with a pyramid session to 7