Hitting the bag

Well last week's class was fun! I was given the opportunity to work with the senior student - it was probably the first time that I can remember where it was just me and others around the same level. Usually there's a mix of beginners and intermediates, but not this time.

So I thought to myself, why not take advantage of this moment? I had about an hour and a half with these guys so I thought i'd make the most of it.

We started out with chi-sao - a continuation of last class, where we worked on basic poon sau, but turning up the intensity a few notches and focusing on good structure or "keeping the body behind it" at every moment. I find it enjoyable to work with each partner, constantly changing up so as to keep the students fresh and maintain the "go-go-go" intensity.

This was a primarily warm-up exercise and by the end of it, you could see how everyone's body was moving differently. Shoulders, abs, legs all moved with the basic rolling positioning. The engines were nicely revved.


I had us bring the pads out - both kicking pads and focus mitts. When it comes to hitting the pads, it's generally chain punches or straight line punches. Not tonight I thought. Let's get to hooking punches and uppercuts, in addition to chain punches. We were broken into groups of three, one would be hitting the mitts and the other two positioning the pads.

We even worked on kneeing the kicking pads. Great way to get out all that stress! rather than having to hold back for the sake of your partner on usual days :)

To end, we stretched out, then did some drill training - HIIT Style. HIIT stands for high intensity interval training. We did 1 minute blasts followed by a 30-60 sec break. It was a great way to work up a sweat.

Finally, we worked on abs. Took a nicely weighted medicine ball and had us throw it as hard as we could to the partner's stomach. Lots of fun!

Boy was I sore though. A reminder of the fun.

Until then.