Three good things for the end of the semester

 Last kickboxing class of the season today, and although it was a high gravity day for me (I was tired and sloppy) three good things happened, that let me finish off the semester really feeling like I've learned a thing or two:

One: While we were all sparring, Sonia came over and said, "While I love to see you using your kung fu, don't stop there. Follow that up with a strike!" and I realized that I had actually been using some kung fu: essentially an outside block to tie up her arm. 

Sonia's said before that she loves teaching kung fu to kickboxers, because while a lot of kung fu practice is kind of theoretical (there's a lot of practicing forms on your own), kickboxers will look at the moves and techniques and think, wait . . . I can use that. . . And apparently I have started doing that, which is pretty cool. Like, I was doing a hooking sort of "dragon gate" block to catch her jab and move around to the side. (I've also tried using some kung fu moves with the SLA guys: still can't make dragon gate work with weapons involved but I did land one sword move, kind of.)

Two: Sparring with another girl, a tall girl with long legs, I noticed that she was keeping her hands up but leaving a perfectly framed window for me to come straight through and hit her in the face. And I'd seen her doing that with another girl earlier - and she got hit straight through the hole she'd left. I tagged her about three times in the forehead, then said, "you're leaving me a space to come right through there." She changed up where her hands were, and then said, "Thanks, I always learn something when I spar with you." (First time we fought, I pointed out how freaking long her legs are and how she could just get massive range with kicks: the next time, she was really hard to hit and she pointed out, after I had to jump back out of the way, that I taught her that.) 

I am pleased and kind of surprised that I can see things like that - this fighter's telegraphing her kicks, that one leaves her left hand down all the time, that one throws swingy big hooks - and sometimes I can even take advantage of them. I worry sometimes that I'm being a splainer; I worry that I'm being irritating or overstepping if I do something like that, some demonstration of where that opening is, and then tell the other girl how I did it. I try not to do it too much because I know explaining is a habit of mine. But I think in this class we do a hell of a lot of learning from each other while we're sparring, and it was nice to be told that sometimes the things I spot are helpful. (Now, if only I could see where my weak spots and habits and tells are. The only one I know for sure is that I'm heavy on my feet and I can't duck in and back out - so I tend to go for the pocket and just eat a bunch of punches.)

Three: On the last bout, at the tail end, I solidly caught a roundhouse kick, then moved up, caught the back of her neck with the other hand, stepped in and swept the remaining foot, and gently lowered her to the floor just as the bell went off, which felt pretty elegant and also on brand (see above, about how I'm always going in close and trying to grapple). 

It was a hot and sweaty class and I took a lot of punches what with feeling dizzy and heavy and slow and having an incipient back spasm coming on, but it was still good. I can't believe how much more confident I feel about sparring in general.

We're off for the summer, but might be meeting up informally in parks, just to keep the skills up. I hope so: I want to hang on to the skills I've developed over the last year. I don't know if I've ever felt like I improved this much at anything within a year. As we were wrapping up, one of the other students told Sonia what a great class this is, how much fun it is, how much we're learning, and how safe and supported and encouraged Sonia makes us feel, and I couldn't agree more.