Crazy Monkey Defense

We had 7 people who came today which bodes well for our growing CMD class! Have several potential regulars! Now just to get them to buy their own gloves so that we don't need to get 'sloppy seconds' :P.

Today Roderick and I moved on to some light sparring which represents the next level of sparring from 'tennis match' sparring where you each take turns to punch each other.

During my sparring session with Albert, noticed that i was still slightly panicking and expending a lot of energy to defend myself. The punches just seem to come so fast and i was just doing the CM1 movement without quite seeing what was happening. Was particularly uncomfortable when Albert moved forward towards me. Need to incorporate more circling around and using the jab punch to push him away. The jab push worked quite well in the beginning till Albert hooked his arm around my jab hand and then gave me one! Nice little trick to note and I guess stresses the importance of keeping your jabs quick.

I however didn't take too many in the face (and those I did were when I was punching) and I'm slowly building up confidence in utilizing CM1. The movement feels more natural now and smooth.

Another thing I noticed was my tendency to smack my ear with my shoulder when doing diving-board punching. This was rectified by concentrating on reaching out.

Today in my quest to get more people interested in CM, I posted a thread in Lowyat and someone asked me what was unique to CMD as compared to MMA? That got me thinking for a bit.

I don't profess to know CM or even MMA a lot, but I have never seen the CM1 movement or diving board punching anywhere else. But then it kinda dawned upon me that the techniques weren't just what made CMD unique. It was MMA for the everyday guy! Not too brutal, structured and with a strong focus on footwork, solid defense and easy to learn.

Anyway here's a quick vid of my friend Ida doing her 'crazy' tiger uppercut defense :P and followed by Albert working in slowly his punches with Riri, on his 2nd lesson.