Taijutsu/Strength Training

With sensei's approving nod, I'd smile at his approval. "Next, we are going to learn how to block both outside and inside attacks." he'd tell me as I nodded. Watching sensei first get into his stance, he'd motion me to send a barrage of punches at him alternating between attacks to show each defenses strengths. Nodding, I'd learn through practice against the defense. Starting out softly, I'd smile and throw some light punches at first to get a feel for how they were blocked. Starting with two punches in succession, one from the front and the other from the side, sensei would flawlessly block them. Taking note of how he did, I'd notice that he used the principles of the 360 degree defense but not the Inside defense which baffled me. Trying it again, I'd throw a side punch with my left and an uppercut with my right. Noting his style, he'd shove off my uppercut with his left arm and block my hook with his right. That was a combination of both, but it wasn't much.

Speeding up, I'd throw a punch every two seconds. Seeing sensei's defense flow smoothly, I'd get the pattern for how he defended. Sending in a flurry of punches, I'd watch intently at sensei's defense system since that was my main objective. The mix of the two types of blocks were evident in the freeform low of sensei. With a smile, I'd slightly increase the attack speed to about once every 1.7 seconds to see how he'd react. His flow of defense was not disrupted which I hoped my form would be like when it came time for the true test. However, I needed to see how good sensei was to gather more data. Mixing it up a bit, I'd throw in two low punches simultaneously to see if he would dodge how he told me. Deflecting my left punch with his right elbow, he'd twist to the right to dodge the other one.

Thinking that I could disrupt sensei's flow, I'd increase to about an attack every 1.5 seconds. However, sensei was good and kept up with it. Needing a sudden change to be able to see if sensei was as great as I thought he was. Increasing it to a punch per second, I'd smile as I saw sensei's flow wobble for a moment. It then began to fluctuate between stability and instability. With a smile, I thought I could break his concentration as I began to increase it a bit to 0.7 seconds and noticed him wobble more. With a smile, I'd notice him wobble until it turned to a frown when he started to regain control. I wanted him to give in first as I increased it to two punches per second, about 0.5 seconds per punch. With a smile he'd begin to wobble however, he seemed to be giving up as I hoped with this next few punches he'd break as I saw an opening.

With a smile, I'd stop my fist an inch away from his torso while noticing sensei's stern face. Retracting my fists and bowing, he'd return the bow with his own. "Sensei, may I see you and another person spar like the way we did? I think it'd do me some good if I saw it from a third party's perspective." I'd ask as sensei nodded and motioned another student over. As they both got into stances, the student would initially start with simple attacks against sensei. With a smile I'd watch intently only about a foot away. Watching the slow start, it would only add to the excitement and knowledge I hoped to gain from watching this semi spar. The female student then stepped it up, striking slightly faster with each soft punch she threw at sensei. With longing eyes, I'd watch the spectacle that was playing out before my eyes.

The flurry of strikes flew at sensei as I took mental notes in my head as I watched sensei's defense flow like a stream without anything blocking it. She tried to stop the flow of the stream but it was too strong of a current to be stopped. All the strikes were rejected almost instantly. To try and stop it, she sped up to about one attack per second. However, sensei learned from our spar and blocked each with fluidity. With a smile, it'd turn to a puzzled look as she slowed to a halt. They nodded to each other after the cease fire before sensei started to attack his student. Realizing that they swapped it up to show me two different sides of it, I'd see how she did it. After a minute, I'd see that, compared to sensei, her form was rather sloppy but better than mine.

Watching sensei throw soft punches, I'd notice he was trying to build up her rhythm. After a few minutes, I'd notice her change into a fluid motion of blocking. Sensei then sped up his assault and her rhythm faltered. She struggled to block it all but I'd see her improvement and form that was used. Taking note of how she gained the fluidity of defenses, she conformed her body to a better position before adjusting her arms. Sensei did it the opposite way from what I saw in our spar and the spar I was watching. A good balance of both, from what I thought, would be the best solution and way to integrate this kind of defense into battle situations. With a smile, I'd see sensei increase his flurry to a strike a second. Her defenses faltered quite a bit, but I saw her fluctuate between getting better and worse. Wondering if she could pull off a stable return to defense, I'd watch intently, learning with every punch thrown and punch blocked.

With one last block, her defense was shattered as sensei's next strike broke through her defenses. Sensei stopped about an inch from her gut before retracting his fist and bowing to her. Nodding at sensei, I felt like I was ready. "Sensei, please allow me to try it." I'd tell him with enthusiasm as I got up from my kneeling position. With his nod, I'd get into the proper stance and prepare for the flurry. As sensei started off, he'd send a punch every two seconds to allow me to get my flow. It all seemed like it was hard to start with, like everything, but gradually got easier with each punch deflected. My eyes were getting used to predicting and then defending against the attacks. After about a minute, my peak flow had been reached and deflecting the mixed flurry came second nature to me. It was like taking candy from a baby it had gotten so easy.

However, just as I had gotten used to the rhythm sensei had, he stepped it up a bit to throw punches at me faster using a more random pattern to strike. Was this a test to see how well I could adapt to such a changing format? Or was this to get me ready for real combat? Both of these questions went through my mind as I lost concentration for a bit, slowing down my reaction time. Trying to regain it as well as my focus, I'd watch his movements carefully in order to use the correct block. With a smile, I felt myself regaining control over this little exercise as his attacks were once again melting away into my quick adjustment to my defense. I felt like I was regaining control over his attacks as another trick was pulled from his sleeve. He attacked faster and aimed for visible weak spots.

The new attack pattern was about once every second and slowly going faster. It was enough to make me lose my focus as well as lose my concentration with the attacks made for my weak spots. Sensei was trying to get me to be able to withstand any barrage. My body flowed out of my control into a more focused flow from what it seemed like. With a smile I'd wondered how this was possible as I regained control but not focus or concentration. Building up my concentration, I'd focus on trying to see his attacks before they came after me as I smiled. I was gaining both concentration and focus simultaneously as I felt his attacks becoming slower than my reaction time. However, my joy was shortlived as he went into overdrive to try and get me to be knocked over. With a nervous smile, I'd try to compensate for the difference in our speeds with multiple blocking, however I was losing. I needed to pull it together as I noticed a few attacks headed for my blind spots.

Stopping his last blow, he'd smile and stop the flurry. As he nodded at my success, he'd waste no time moving on. "Next, you must learn to escape from a wrist grab of the mirrored side. Come, try and grab my left wrist with your right hand." sensei said as I shrugged before doing so. As I followed orders, I'd grip his wrist with my mirrored hand. Almost immediately in the blink of an eye, sensei had escaped my grasp. My hand was floating there and I looked like an idiot with his hand out. Wondering how he did it, I asked for a step by step demonstration after I tried to mimic what I could see. Nodding, he'd grip my left wrist with his right hand. Trying to just yank it out, I saw it wouldn't work so I tried doing what I remembered and twisted my elbow towards his. As I did I felt the grip loosening as I took a step forward with my left foot to fully escape it while I punched my chest. Wondering how that works, I'd wait for the explanation.

As I gripped his left wrist with my right hand, I'd wait for his step by step explanation. "If you grab my wrist, I am limited by what I can do right? I can't really make hand seals or punch you or whatever. It causes a blind spot in my performance. To escape this situation, however, I want to make sure I have more power pulling away than forward." he'd say as he twisted his elbow towards mine. "Here, I can move towards myself instead of towards you. Most people will let go if you put enough force since they may think you will punch yourself. However, you avoid this by controlling your strength. It also puts less pressure on your wrist to allow for more flexibility." he'd tell me as he could wiggle his wrist in my grip now before pushing towards himself, breaking my grip. "Now, try it slowly by going through all the motions." he'd tell me as I nodded.

Holding out my right wrist, he'd grip it with his left. Remembering the explanation I just heard, I'd go through it step by step first to remember why it went that way. "First, I loosen the grip or pressure the opponent has on my by pushing towards him with my elbow. If I need to I could step forward with the same foot to give myself more maneuvering room unlike if I used the other foot." I'd say in my head as I slowly performed the first step, moving my elbow towards his as I felt the grip loosen a bit. On my way to his elbow, I'd review the next step. "With my wrist loosened, it doesn't guarantee I'll have an easy time escaping, but it gives me a better shot." I'd say in my head again as my elbow was an inch away from his with plenty of room to maneuver my wrist in. Pushing towards myself with my whole arm, I felt like I could power through his grip as the seconds passed by, the moment of truth arriving.

With a smile, I'd free my wrist with ease before backing up so I didn't hit myself. Sensei gave an approving nod at the end of my slide as I smiled. "Alright, now you must learn how to escape from someone grabbing the opposite side. Grab my left wrist with your left hand." he'd tell me as I approached him following orders. Watching him intently this time, I'd blink once and he was free from my grasp. Shocked, I'd look at my hand and his arm to notice any differences from when I grabbed it. I saw no differences in the way he had his arm to the way I gripped it. However, the simplest thing was off and I couldn't recognize it until I looked carefully. Instead of his fist being horizontal, it was now vertical. This subtle change baffled me, but to get a clearer understanding I'd ask sensei to explain it.

"Sensei, mind explaining what you did while you do it like last time?" with a smile I'd walk over to him as he nodded to my question. As I gripped his wrist like before, he'd begin to explain."To escape this, you can't pull the same trick since the elbow won't reach that far in this far of space. You use your thumb in a hitchhiking motion to escape." he'd tell me as he pointed out his thumb and moved it across to under my wrist. "You go for the weak point in the grip, usually the opponent's wrist, to be able to give enough room to escape as so." he'd say as he escaped my loosened grip. Wondering how that works, I thought about what it would do. Perhaps it would make the opponent arc their wrist to not be touched. That way, the grip would be loosened just enough to escape. Nodding, I'd be ready to try this out on sensei.

"Sensei, I'm ready." I'd tell him holding out my right arm for him to grip. He gripped it with his right hand and I'd go over the steps and think of an easy way to remember them. "So first I need to give myself breathing room. To do that, I 'hitchhike' with my thumb to give myself room." I'd say as I stuck on my thumb, rotating my fist and thumb to under his wrist. As I did, I'd put into my mind that this is the hitchhike escape. "Next all I do is pull out in the room I created, but how do I do it without him regaining control. Perhaps my thumb comes out last." I'd say to myself as I slid my arm towards myself, keeping my thumb up to allow myself to keep this loose grip he had on me. With a smile I'd see it coming but I was slowing down. Perhaps he was regaining his grip as I gave it one quick jolt back, hoping it'd free me from his grip.

As I slipped my arm from his grip like slipping out of a bottle, I'd smile at how easy it was in the end. However, training would roll right into the next technique. "Alright, now you will learn to escape from someone who holds both wrists, at least one way. Hold my wrists up." sensei would say as I nodded and followed command. Holding his wrists up, I wonder what sort of special way he would escape. Perhaps just like the same side escape? Or maybe a mix of both ways. However, I'd be dead wrong as I noticed him rotate his arms, his left clockwise and his right counterclockwise. As he did that, he lowered his head and I thought he was going to headbutt me. Not wanting that, I'd release his wrists and skip back, wondering what the technique was here. Perhaps headbutting the opponent was right, but I needed to ask.

"Sensei, how exactly does one escape?" I'd ask as I repeated my earlier actions to hold his wrists up. "Weren't you watching? I just showed you but I'll go through it once again." he'd say sighing as he looked at me seriously. Was there something I missed? Or maybe he did it and I wasn't really looking for what he did. "First, you rotate your arms inward. Meaning your left arm goes clockwise and your right goes counterclockwise." he'd say as he slowly rotated his arms inwards and down. "As you do that, you drop your head down to your chest to make it seem like you may headbutt the opponent. If he's close enough you will end up headbutting him." he'd tell me as he made the motions. So that's what the secret to it was. I was scared that I was going to be headbutted that I stopped and backed up. However, I knew sensei wouldn't allow it. Nodding, I'd think of a way to escape as we swapped positions, him gripping my wrists high.

Wondering how I would, I'd concentrate for a second on how to get him to release me. A headbutt would be too extreme, but perhaps I'd be able to hit somewhere else. Thinking of where to hit, I'd begin the starting movements of rotating my arms. In the time it took them to get below the mark for the next step, I'd search for a weak spot, a kink in his armor. Spotting a potential spot, I'd smirk on the inside as my arms kept turning. When the next step came, I touched my chest with my chin hoping he'd release me, but he didn't. I needed to go for somewhere I knew I could hit as I thrust forward, my head aimed at his chest to knock him off balance to release my wrists. This was a gamble on my part as I made contact with his chest. Hopefully the blow would make him release me.

As I hit his chest, I knocked him off balance just enough to free my hands as I jumped back a foot. With applaud, sensei smiled at me and I returned it. "Good. Now I will show you the proper way to escape someone holding your hands down via your wrist. Come, hold my hands down." he'd tell me as I complied. Holding them down below his waist, I'd wait to see the response I got. In the blink of an eye, sensei started to move faster than I could track. When he finally stopped after taking a step back, I'd wonder how he did that. From the blur that I saw, he had done the exact opposite of holding them up, but I needed to clarify this with sensei. Could it be possible that simply doing a reverse motion could allow one to escape such a grip? It didn't seem like that was all to this escape.

"Sensei, please repeat the gesture with pointers and explanations please." I'd say as he acknowledged the request and accepted. Going over to him, I'd hold his arms down with a puzzled look as I glared intently as his movements. "Remember that to escape the previous type of hold, what did we do?" he'd ask me. It was a simple question, so he responded immediately. "We rotated our arms inward and down while using our head to intimidate the enemy a bit to release us." I'd say as he nodded before beginning to move. "The last one, we had our hands held up instead of down like now. To escape this one, one must do the opposite of the hands held up release. You rotate your arms inward and upward in a mirrored motion." he'd say as he slowly began to do so as my arms got closer together. He then curled his fingers so he wouldn't poke his eye from observation before my grip got too far away to hold and I released him. It seemed easy enough.

"Sensei, its simplistic nature seems simple enough to do. I'd like to try." I'd say as he sighed before grabbing my wrists and holding my arms down. With a smile, I'd remember how simple the instructions were as I reminded myself in my mind. "Okay... So I mirror the last technique so instead of rotating inwards and down, I rotate inwards and up." I'd say as I slowly took a few practice rotations before I felt I was ready. After, I did a few quick snap rotations to increase speed to see if it helped any, and it did. Taking a few deep breaths, I felt confident in it as I then started to try to escape for real. Snapping my arms inwards and up, I'd almost forgot to curl my fingers so I don't harm my eyes as I jerked my arms feeling his grip loosen. I then tried to jump back hoping I was free of his grip.

As he loosened up, I'd free myself and make sure he couldn't get me by stepping back a bit. With his smile and nod, sensei would be ready for the next escape as I was also ready. "This is the final basic one for your belt. Grab one of my wrists with both hands." he'd say as I nod getting closer and grabbing his left wrist with both hands. Watching his movements to see how he'd react to this type of situation. He couldn't really just escape using the trapped arm, so I wondered how. Getting my answer, he'd reach over with his right hand. Not noticing his left hand had been made into a fist, my attention was fully on his right arm. He then grabbed his left fist as he quickly rotated his left elbow up. Wondering how this would work, I'd notice how it did but not sure why it worked like that as I watched sensei escape.

Sensei knew the drill as he beckoned me to grab his wrist again like I did. Waiting for him to start, I'd take a deep breath in the meantime. "As you already noticed, you can't simply escape this with the caught hand. Therefore, you use the other hand..." he'd stop as he moved his right hand to cover his left fist and hold it up. "to grab your caught hand which is turned into a fist. You then raise it above the wrist line of the opponent. After that, you rotate your elbow..." he'd say as he slowly rotated his caught arm's elbow 180 degrees so it faced upwards. With that, he then put it back down. "quickly to allow yourself time and room to escape." he'd tell me as he quickly snapped his arm up as I felt the rotation speed heat my hands and loosen them. He then escaped as he said previously. It is such a simple escape but the way it is performed is pretty complicated.

Sighing, I'd try to understand its complexity as I held out my right arm as he grabbed my right wrist. Going over the instructions and steps he just said, I'd take a few sighs before I began. Reaching over with my left hand, I curled my right hand into a fist as I grabbed it with my left hand. Raising it up above his wrist line, I'd try to get this next part perfect enough to be released by taking a few practice swings. Slowly rotating my elbow up, my right elbow would be getting used to the motion as I smiled. After doing this three or four times, I'd snap it up another three times before finally thinking I could get it. The snap use of my elbow was to gain speed so I could. With a smile I'd be ready as I snapped my elbow up, feeling his hands loosen their grip on me as I attempted to flee in my moment of chance.

After escaping, I'd wonder what we were going to do next as sensei beckoned me to follow him. He walked to a training dummy as I stared at him with a puzzled look. "Now that the defense portion is taken care of, we will move onto some combat. This is a basic attack so watch carefully." he'd say before turning to the dummy as he got into his stance. Noting his stance, I'd see how he was. His left side was facing forward closer to the dummy rather than his right side. Personally, I was stronger with his right hand but I needed to be ambidexterous I suppose. With a sigh, I'd only see his hand return to where I saw it before the sigh. Wondering what had happened, sensei noticed my cluelessness and reperformed this technique. His fast was too fast for my eyes but I caught a blur. His attack was so fast that I could only gather an outline of the technique he did.

"Umm... sensei. Mind giving me some tips on this?" I'd ask him as he was ready for this. "You only saw a blur right? Well its just a simple punch, similar to the jab boxers do. Just as fast as well. To make it faster, one must put his whole left side into the punch. However, this is also the body as well. It puts more power into the punch as well if you put your body into it. It also helps to curve your fist a little as well, making sure to make contact with the first two contacts of your fist. Also make sure to keep your head close to your chest and roll your shoulder to cover it as well. It helps a lot like so." he'd say as he slowly made the punch to the dummy. I'd watch seeing his body move with the punch as it flowed into the punch. The dummy bent back about ninety degrees before returning up right, sensei dodging its retaliation.

Nodding, I'd take sensei's position as the dummy stopped moving back and forth. Taking the same stance he took, I'd make sure my chin was against my chest and my arms were bent at the elbows to guard my face loosely. As I took a few practice punches, each one was a slow punch to make sure I would get the right motion down. Next, I'd take a few more practice punches, only this time adding in my body to add power to it as the dummy bobbed a little toward the left and right. Believing I got this punch down, I'd take a few deep breaths before finally being able to be ready. Beginning the motion, I'd throw the punch towards the punch, rotating my hand until the knuckles were horizontally aligned. Throwing my body as well into the punch to add power and speed, I'd make contact with the dummy hoping it was as powerful, if not more, than sensei's punch as I threw my body into the punch.

Approximate Word Count: 4500

4500/200=22.5

22 Stat Points

+22 Strength

Approved

+22 JP