Kick boxing - 101

Say kickboxing and u envision a young man with extra huge shorts (ah.. that's where they got the name - boxer shorts; u realise something new each day.. ha ha ha) and high flying kicks.

Well this image should be replaced by ladies of all ages & sizes at the gym, practicing the art of punching & kicking someone (usually their personal trainers ; holding some form of protection, I hope..).

Thus was my quote on a friend;s wall - " I punched someone today, and it felt good ;)"

LESSON #1

Preparation - my fingers & hand was carefully wrapped with a very long strip of cloth, so as to minimise injury to fingers. Btw, its the knuckles that hit the opponent. not the fingers. Clench it tightly, we must.

a) Boxer's stand - a sturdy pose so that when an opponent hits you or you punch him, you wouldnt lose balance so easily. Stand with feet apart. Front leg at 1pm position. Right leg stepped back 1pm position too.

b) Jab - hold clenched fists, close to face. And on the trainer's call, extend the left arm and punch trainers' (baseball-like) glove but thickly padded. Body slightly turned to the right. A thud sound indicates a direct hit, and the praise of your trainer :)

c) Cross - With right foot pivoting on the ball of the foot, extend out & punch to the left, twisting your body in the process.

An hour of learning these basic moves and I realised that FOCUS is most crucial or else you may accidentally hit someone or get hit. So this is as much a physical activity as is it a mental exercise too.

LESSON #2

Today I learned to :

Hook - left & right - This is where we bend our arm 90degrees and punch with elbows (left first, then right) higher than your knuckles. Done correctly, this gives a serious punch to an assailant's jaw, if he's the same height, or else.. pow! into the stomach.. Also good for the side obliques as you will be twisting left & right and using your core to stabilise while u have to remember to stand at 1pm (boxer's stand) for greater stability too.

Push - raise your left left thigh and use left leg to touch opponent's body with your ball of foot and then give a push to de-stabilise & push the opponent back. Land with left foot slightly forward.

Kick - this is immediately followed by raising the right leg that swings from back to front giving a strong kick to the opponent.

LESSON #3

Stretch the inner thighs -

1. Stand facing the wall. Left foot pointing, facing the base of the wall. Then my trainer raised my leg 90degrees while i leaned flat against the wall for support. Ouch.. 20 seconds. Then the other leg.

2. Squat down, legs wide like a sumo wrestler, body facing straight ahead. Extend left leg to the leftside and lean to the right, while palm of hands meet like in prayer but tips of fingers pointing to the front. Go as low as possible, then stay. An effective stretch is 20sec and stationary. No pumping.

3. Sit legs wide apart but bent at knees where both feet meet, pointing forward. Hands extended out, touching floor. Lean forward and try to extend the arms further and go lower & lower. Guess how far i got? Hardly able to bend 30degrees. Maybe i should stretch in Hot Yoga class first. The heat should relax the muscles and help it to extend.

DUCK - Even had to learn how to duck (squat) down to avoid a hand smack into my face.

Putting it all together :

2 jabs, 1 cross --> 1 jab-cross --> 2 duck s--> push & kick! Hooray!