Sanda: First time punched in the face.

You know the arcade game where two guys are fighting each other, and you press buttons for kick, punch, throw to the ground?...

Well that is Sanda.

There were three good looking guys there, and I felt that I was somehow going to take away from their class being a girl and my first time at Sanda.  The Sifu said he wasn't going to "dumb" things down for me, and I should try to keep up as best I could.

He paired us up to do fireman runs. And when it was my turn, boy, was everyone surprised. Even the girl working the desk started snapping pics of me, probably for their facebook page lol. Fireman runs are when you jog while carrying a person on your back/shoulders. Kori Wakamatsu's modern classes  prepared me for that moment, because on more than one occasion did I have to carry someone across  285 and 287 ;) So I dominated at the particular drill.

Then we all suited up, and the Sifu gave me a mouth guard. I have a horrible gag reflex and had to almost cut it in half before I could wear it with out choking.  He put protective gear on me, saying I looked like a chick from Battlestar Galactica...yeah I've never seen that show.

Sanda

Sifu told the other guys they would NOT be "beating" me up (hence the purpsose of the class).  Good thing though, because one drill had me continuously getting thrown to the ground, and I didn't have the landing softly technique down.  So I worked basic drills, just blocking and punching, and take down drills on the guys.

I realized, and it was pointed out, that I work too much with my distal edges (no they didn't say that). But it was taking so much energy to throw and block so far from my center, and after about 15 minutes I was dying.

Honestly I was pretty weak, in terms of punches and overall technique.  And I kept forgetting to block my face and was actually taken aback when one punch landed me square in the nose, thank goodness for gloves though.

I had some moments of success with one move though, The Slam Down. (haha I have no idea what it's called).  And I started to feel bad cause these poor guys were taking it over and over again.  And a few times I lost my balance as well and would fall really hard on top of them (bad visual hehe)

The whole time I was worried about getting injured too, but it was pretty awesome. I'll probably try Sanda again next week.