I just posted last night about my most recent Krav class. I referred to the class where I got kicked in the head, but now see that I didn’t post about that. I probably wrote some lame tweet about it, and figured that was good enough, since everyone reads my twitter.

Anyway, it had been a coulpe of weeks (Apr 13 - Apr 26) since the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fiasco and I was feeling weak for missing another class, so I went in, even though I wasn’t feeling my best.

We learned some really useful defenses like if someone tries to kick you in the groin, or kick you while you’re getting up. We also did kick to the body and kick to the head defense.

this was all great, but what I didn’t know then, and have since learned, is that when you put the gloves and headgear on, things start to get mean.

Sparring is supposed to be fun, and it can be, but nothing is fun about being socked right on the nose 3 or 4 times, and as I learned, a high kick to the side of the head is just downright unpleasant.

I recovered well enough to not take any more really bad shots, except for the end where Paul yells “all out” and my partner flips out and starts dirty boxing me, not really landing much, but DANG! Talk about commitment!

it would be just over a month before I set foot in that gym. I’m not sure how much of it was burnout still from the previous months of hard training, how much was me just being lazy and not doing much besides playing xbox after work, and how much was actual fear of getting kicked again. I think taking that shot, and seeing some birds taught me a lesson. I need to be IN THE FIGHT. This is good advice for fighting life. And I’ve started stretching, in the hope that someday I can return the favor.

After taking a much needed break from the hectic life I led for 3 months while working toward Krav Maga Level 2, I am back to the Krav dinner table for another regular diet of elbows, knees and suicide pushups (the way we do them is you have to go to full push up position, then down to your elbow/forearm (plank position), and then back up to push up position. The trick is that in Krav we don’t do them fists to the mat, we do them fists to your parter’s stomach. That hurts.

After about 15 minutes of isolating our abs and making me cry insdie–We did so much core workout, you wouldn’t even believe how much core workouts we did–

Anyways, on to the class.

We did something that is totally new to me. Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu. I guess I shouldn’t say totally new cause there was that one time where we did this thing called buck and roll at the John Whitman gun seminar, in which we did this roll thing and destroyed your elbows against a concrete floor. That was awesome.

Anyway, I’m not going to describe BJJ because I don’t really understand what we did. What I did understand is that it would not take long to make someone pass out if you put their head in a certain position, and your legs in another certain postion and started to do the anaconda squeeeeze.

It was a great class, and I’m looking forward to more brutality. Oh! speaking of which, right when I got there they were still doing the Level 1 class (aaahhh suckers!) and it was totally packed. Right toward the end they did this lights out drill where it was dark and people were sort of moshing around, and this hipster looking girl must have gotten hit in the face, cause she ran out crying, and her skinny-jeans beau went out after her. I hope she’s okay.

You gotta be tough in Krav, but this looked like this was probably that girl’s first (and last?) time at Krav. I hope someone told her coming in that it was likely that you get an elbow (if you’re lucky) to the mouth (if you’re lucky). Sorry girl, I hope you come back, Krav is really awesome!

So the cut in my mouth is about halfway to being a full on canker chain. I also caught a cold, but its nice to know that at least I’m a level 2 now with a cut lip and a cold. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.

That test was probably the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever put my body through. Ironman was long (140.6 miles in almost 16 hours), but I was well prepared and was able to set my own pace. Endurance sports are a training/pacing game.

Krav isn’t like that. If you get jumped in a parking garage or end up needing to protect your wife or kid, there isn’t really a ‘your pace’ there is only ‘their pace’ or ‘all out, ballistic, decisive, make them understand they picked the wrong guy’ pace. Those are the only options.

Krav is all about agression and getting into the fight. That doesn’t mean I’m walking around pushing people for no reason (if Krav has taught me anything, it’s ‘don’t fight people you’ve never seen fight before because some people can mess you up’). But if you know something is going to happen, it’s up to you to decide how it’s going to play out.

In training and especially in testing, this equates to a much overused sports cliché ‘leave everything out on the field.’

That’s what we were up to on Saturday, and now Im looking for a good sports massage therapist. Know anybody good?

I did pay up, and now have some one on one lessons to help me in my quest for self-defense/close combat awesomeness.

I’m really hoping that my body starts to get used to this training. Cardio-wise, I’m starting to get there. Paul has upped the ante a bit, however, which keeps me from getting complacent. Last Wednesday I went to the Krav Level 2 class, we did an extremely hard warm-up (can’t really remember what it was, maybe it was Bas Rutten’s CD for 25 minutes) and then nonstop drills with kicks and knees. I estimated I probably threw about 200-300 kicks in that hour.

At one point, I had to sit down halfway through holding the pad for Pedro, who is big and kicks really hard, because I had pushed my cardio system too far, and couldn’t breathe. Holding is not tons easier than drilling, because you’re bracing for impact, moving around, trying to yell at the guy to kick harder, be more aggressive, whatever.

Anyway, by this time I had payed for the year. And its a good thing too, because by the end of the next hour (the level 1 class) I was seriously considering if this is something I wanted to do. Maybe I would enjoy myself more if, rather than become a Level 3 Krav practitioner, I spent that time getting to climb 5.13, something I always wanted to do when I was younger, and never had the discipline to do.

I’m glad I committed to the year, though. I should have time to make Level 3, and at that point can decide if this is a long term lifestyle thing, or a 1 year learning experience, after which I can move on to the next adventure–maybe send that 5.13.

I just found out on Thursday that I’m past my due date for my initial 3 month Krav sign up. I thought I had till the 5th of March, but it turns out that’s Ethan that has that, and I’m already over a week past due. So now I have to make a decision.

Am I ready to commit to Krav as a way of life for the next year? Is this something that I want to spend a fair amount of my free time for the next year? I already know that I enjoy it, and I like to progress, but there are a few other things that I love in the summer. Riding my bikes for one. I know I need to do more running this year. And I sort of wanted to get into Climbing again.

Well Climbing is out, because you need someone to go with, and so far, I got nothing. Krav is good, cause you just go on the certain nights and there are people there ready to swing at you.

So I’m going to do it. Maybe I’ll do less biking, though I’m sure I’ll have a chance to commute to/from work still, and that will help with my cardio. Running will happen if I make it. But Krav requires a commitment. I want to reach level 3 this year, at which point I will decide whether or not I want to pursue the coveted Level 6 (which is probably more like a lifelong commitment).

Last night I rekindled my graphic and quite physically demanding relationship with boxing. Now I’m not a great boxer, but working on combinations and avoiding taking a catchermitt to the mouth makes for wicked incentive to get better. That’s some game theory right there.

We also did some sparring (open hand slaps, light puches and kicks to the legs/body), and I punched a guy a few times in the gut pretty good. Need to work on my aim, and get that solar plexus. This kid Judd checked a kick shin to shin, and it was just like skateboarding, except the skateboard seems intent on making your ears ring. SLAP!

Confession time. I sometimes have little flashes of boredom during Krav. When I got like this with triathlon, I just signed up for a longer race. This worked until I did my first Ironman, at which point to move up a distance would require something contrived, like back-to-back iron distance races, and that’s just jacked. The lack of a good step forward from Ironman is a primary reason this blog is not called Ironaut or something lame like that.

Then something fortunate happened: I got confused. This, while not infrequent, usually only happens when I’m trying to navigate a city I’ve only visited 10 or 20 times, or watching a Victorian Era period film with Colleen.

The reason I get bored is that we go over the same stuff a lot. Like I’ve done all of the different techniques we’re supposed to know like at least 3 or 4 times. And some of them are not complicated.

Here are the techniques we’ve gone over:

• groin strike
• offensive front kick
• round kick
• knee strikes
• 360º defense
• inside defense
• back position ground
• side position ground
• front kick from ground
• round kick from ground
• tons of different gun defense stuff

The only things in that list that I haven’t done at least 3 times are inside defense and round kicks. Those are the only things that I don’t internally think, eh, done that already. I know I’m not perfect with any of these techniques, but I get bored during the instruction, and would like to be able to just work on the moves, and have them explain what is wrong. However, I’m not the only one in the class, so I have to sit through it.

Paul changed the schedule to include some extra MMA classes (which I am not deluded enough to think I could last 1 minute in an actual MMA fight) and for whatever reason I thought my classes on Wednesday started at 7. But it didn’t. It started at 8. So I’m an hour early. The Krav level 2 class. It worked out though, because I’m getting ready to to test into level 2 and the test is supposed to suck. 3-4 hours including like an hour of warmups.

So level 2 class was really great. We did knife defense. And while it was basically 360º defense, there was some rad stuff in there, like if you’re sitting down and someone points a knife at you, or someone holds a knife under your chin pointing up, you know like they do in movies?

I see a lot of promise in the world of Krav for me, and fighting in general. I could see at some point doing an MMA fight. Or at least training for one. An actual fight seems a little more in the realm of fantasy. Its not like Triathlon where you can totally suck at it, but still be smiling at the end.

Also, I’m going to start running, I think. I just payed $220 for a pair of running shoes for Colleen that are supposedly going to last a year. We’ll see.