Small class tonight; I did the warm-up with Mike and Trevor. Both were new students. The usual skipping, medicine ball, front kick and shin kick exercises in the warm-up. Went over defensive stance and how to get in it. Moving in defensive stance.

worked on parrying and side-stepping a straight punch and then getting into an arm lock:

Uke punches with right hand. Tori steps diagonally left and parries with the left hand. Right hand grabs uke's wrist and turns it away from uke to move elbow into the up position. left hand slides to just above the elbow. Left hand pushes down, right hand pulls up. arm bar. Transition into a wrist-lock to the front.

worked on 1 hand on lapel:

drop to defensive stance, slap to the face distraction with hand opposite to side being grabbed. follow thru and grab the back of uke's wrist and reverse, putting uke into a front wrist lock.

variation: get into defensive stance/shin kick/grab wrist with hand on the same side as the lapel grab. with free hand, execute a thumb lock.

variation: get into defensive stance/shin kick/grab wrist with hand or elbow on the same side as the lapel grab. with free hand, jugular notch take-down.

variation: shuto strike with hand on the same side as the lapel grab to uke's elbow to collapse the arm, step forward with left leg so uke and tori are shoulder to shoulder, right hand palm heel to chin to push chin up and head back. ears off the hips and step thru with right leg to perform takedown.

First class back after the holidays.

I worked about 10-15 minutes on the defensive stance: getting into the defensive stance, foot/hand/body positioning, and walking. Illustrated the stability of the defensive stance vs a horse stance and the arm bending demo of a punch with the fist sideways vs at a 45 degree angle.

Tied two skipping ropes together end-to-end and had the students work on walking and ducking under the rope while keeping posture and looking forward and keeping the hands up. After we worked on the jab and cross. some shadow boxing to work coordination with the hands and feet and then some punches to the focus mitts.

Techniques: Thumb lock from a lapel grab, thumb lock from a lapel grab turning it into an inner wrist-lock takedown and a control (student's choice).

I then reviewed bear hugs lifting off the ground from the front & rear, over & under arms and full nelson before fully applied, fully applied, and fully applied while pushing head down. We did a few basic escapes from each and then started working on variations.