Since I had to be in the big smoke last week for work, I missed out on Wednesday night boxing. So last night was my second round with the Sergeant Major (who keeps calling me Belinda. Which in a way is quite good, because it makes me want to hurt him).
Funny thing: we were going through some self-defence moves at the end of class, and he had another student on the floor as part of a demonstration. He told the student (Matt) to put his head on the floor before he (SM) kicked him (in the head). He explained that it's important for 'victims' to keep their head on the floor during this particular manoeuvre to lessen the impact (i.e. kick to the head = 1 impact; head to the floor = another impact). This seemed odd to me, that he was concerned for the victim, so I asked whether in a real life situation it would be better if the 'victim' kept their head off the floor, thus ensuring greater damage. SM looks at me and says: "you've got him on the floor with his right arm up around by his left ear, and you've kicked him in the head. Isn't that enough?" Which is a good point, but the funny thing is that I teach criminal law and thus the legal defence of self-defence. And I know that the force used in self-defence has to be reasonable in the circumstances (i.e. proportionate to the threat). And yet, put me in close combat with a potential attacker and I'm all KILL KILL KILL. Awesome Brenda. I mean Belinda. No wait. What?
Last night was fairly intense in terms of the techniques and this morning I have lovely bruises forming on my shins. But I had a blast kicking the shit out of people. And the best thing is that because I'm the only woman in the class I get to practice all my techniques on the men but they can't hit me back. Not because it's against the rules or anything but just because if they hit me I'd go flying. It's all about the physics people. The only downside is that the men? They sweat. A lot. I'm talking the equivalent flow of a small rapid here. Each. So the smell = not too good. But even worse was doing this technique in which I had to hold them around the neck, pull their heads down and knee them twice in the solar plexus, which I'm totally down with, by the way, but the touching of the sweaty necks and the droplets that fly off and hit you on the face when you push them away? Infinite ewww.
I'll be back next week though.
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