two words: Zombie Drill!!!!!

if i was to be rewarded for my tenacity and hard work from last night, then this was definitely it. ok, let me back it up first; i have an irrational fear of zombies. ambulothanatophobia if you want to get technical about it. not sure when or how it happened, but as a little kid, i was a bit of a weenie. too many horror movies plus an over active imagination, and well… you know. so, as i’ve gotten older, the phobia is more tongue in cheek now, but there is one thing i always do to the point where it has become automatic: whenever i go somewhere new, or look at a new home or apartment, i always check the zombie-proof-ness of said property. if it looks rickety or lacks proper zombie-security, they lose points. i know it’s absurd. but i still do it. i even do it when i’m on the bus or walking around, and i must say—San Francisco, you got some proper zombie-proofed buildings! pretty stoked about that.

but back to tonight’s class… the drill was this: 23 students in class, 7 at a time were the “humans” while the rest were zombies. humans had to stay out of the reach of the zombies and not let the zombies wrap their hands around the human throats. i think i got a bit too excited though. i seem to have been the only person getting into character and doing zombie groans, and throwing in the occasional “braaaaiiiiiiiinnnnnnnsssss” for good measure. oddly enough, the drill seemed to elicit a little bit of fear in some people, i could see it in their eyes. it was almost a panic. very odd how role playing can cause certain responses in those participating.

after the zombie drill, we did a few more drills to warm up, hammer fist strikes, groin kicks, knees, and a couple combos before we moved into the meat of the class. choke defenses. choke from the side, and the choke from the back defense. we worked these both last saturday and this last tuesday, but i find it beneficial that we keep going over this material. it seems just as i think i have it right, i find a flaw in my technique. as they say, repetition, repetition, repetition.

i think that is all for tonight. until next time.

(here’s some fun links, enjoy!)
http://www.johnjosephadams.com/the-living-dead/?p=66
http://www.fvza.org/zdefense.html
http://killerconcubines.com/2008/08/if-it-can-kill-you-the-fear-is-not-irrational/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie

ps. in light of the zombie talk, one thing that comes to mind is fear. we never expect to be attacked, and for those of us who have had the experience of being attacked, the body goes through “fight or flight” response, i.e. adrenaline rush. if you do not make a decision quickly about what you want to do, you freeze up. what krav does is it helps us take our natural, instinctive reaction and modifies it slightly to give us the upper hand in an otherwise scary situation. if you are like me and you are training in krav or some other self defense art, always make your training as real as possible without hurting yourself or your training partners. the brain does not distinguish between what is real, and what is thought up in the head.