Adventures of HG at NRTI

Today was a DT day and was FILLED with lots of take downs, arm bars, pressure points and a few baton locks. It was a day of pain.

We started the day off by finishing what we started last week-ground fighting. It was pretty fun and we learned a few more techniques, including the arm bar. It's actually harder to do than it looks. People on TV like MMA fighters make it look so easy!

After we finished up ground fighting, we moved on to wall shoves. Basically we put padded helmets on, shoved each other into padded walls, kicked the "subject" (a.k.a. our partner) in the gut about three times, threw them on the ground, then jumped in the air and landed on their backs with our forearms. When you are the "subject," it certainly takes the air out of you.

After lunch we learned pressure points. One of our instructors told us to close the gym door so people outside wouldn't hear our screams. I thought he was kidding. He wasn't. Some of the pressure points were extremely painful and some weren't really effective, not on me at least. The few that hurt the worst were as follows:

1-Most painful: Baton pressed against the back of the calf muscle. We were all told to line up, lying face down on the mats, facing in a certain direction. I saw the instructor come up behind me really quick and knew it wasn't going to be good. Apparently no one else knew he was there because I screamed as he pressed it into my leg and they all turned around to see what was going on. Then they all got the same experience. We also had this done on the front of our shin, but it didn't hurt quite as bad.

2-Second most painful: We all got with partners and laid flat on the ground with one arm out to our side. Our partner was to strike the nerve in the middle of the arm where the arteries cross-as hard as they could. Of course I get stuck with the six foot something ex-Marine. This was very close in running for the most painful because the pain shot in both directions, up into my elbow and down into my fingers. Your whole arm basically goes numb for a minute or so and the tingling took a while to get over. Keep in mind that these are pressure points, and although they hurt for a couple of minutes, they aren't going to do any physical damage to me. (OK maybe a small bruise, but not much more.)

3-Third most painful: This would have to be the large nerve in your inner thigh. This one hurt pretty bad to. When we were practicing mounts, your partner would have to get you off from sitting on top of them. So they stick their elbow into your inner thigh, right on the nerve and push. For some people it takes hardly any pressure and for some it takes a lot. I don't need a lot of pressure on that nerve to quickly get off my partner. Believe me, it doesn't take any convincing at all.

I'm already a little sore from all of the wrestling around and what not. I'm hoping I won't be too terribly sore tomorrow, but we shall see. If I'm up to it, I'll either go for a short run or a hike. I'll take pics to share if I go hiking so stay tuned. :)

This was a hilarious video shared with us by our instructors. Get ready to laugh...


Some more stuff we learned...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nToJV7_shp8&feature=youtu.be