Kirian stopped the class in the middle to have a guy go with a girl. After the girl popped the guy a few times he started throwing harder, and she proceeded to light him up. For whatever reason, the coach wanted everyone to see a girl kick a guy’s ass.
“Check the kick with the other leg. If you use that one someone will break your shin” my sparring partner observed. I hadn’t realized I was blocking low kicks incorrectly, using the same leg to check kicks from both sides. I guess I’m used to having the luxury of shinguards (having not yet followed in the footsteps of Jean Claude Van Damme and made the trip to Thailand to kick trees) like I’m used to having electricity, water, or internet.
When I myself got lit up, I didn’t like it. See, when you watch boxing or mma on TV one of the reasons why you only see people throwing up to a few punches at a time (and not unloading flurries on their opponent) is because (1) peoples’ defense tends to be good and they don’t just let the other person fuck them up, and (2) everyone is looking to counter, so as the attacker when you engage, the defender can catch on to the tempo and throw back.
At the end of the hour I went with the same dude and remembered to duck. “Thank you, brother” he told me at the end of the round.
What a great crew!
I learned that Kirian used to run a company that did dignitary protection (bodyguards for foreign royals and embassy officials). He had started training fighters instead when he felt that they were “protecting people who didn’t deserve to be protected.” (a matter of opinion, I suppose) Along with not taking any cut of his fighters’ purses and having everyone train together… for a guy who called Outside Lands “some beatnik, hippie thing” he seems to be pretty liberal in actuality.
