1st time for everything

We were pressed for time this morning. Bernie (the driver) had to take dad, my mommy and Bong to the hospital for dad's daily rehabilitaion, and then come back for me and 2-year-old Samantha to drop me off at my 10:00AM Street Fighting class, which was on the way to taking Samantha to school. I walked in and saw that their clock read 10:20AM.

RYAN: Sorry for the lateness. My driver was busy.
JOVY: It's ok, you're early.

His watch read 9:58AM. For some reason, Mojo Gym leaves their clock advanced by 20 minutes. Cool.

He asked me if I had any questions. I only had 1: What do you do if someone attacks you from behind while sitting down on a chair?

JOVY: Why would you be sitting down?
RYAN: Well, you know, you walk into a room and everyone's sitting down and if you don't you're weird ...
JOVY: Ah, like in a bar or whatever. You have to choose where you sit. If you can help it, try sitting where the wall is behind your chair (to limit an attacker's angles in jumping you) and close to the exit. That is called power of positioning.

But in case we have no choice:

• If someone tries to choke you from behind, pull their arm down enough by hanging with your body weight so that you can tuck your chin in to prevent suffocation. Then reach up to look for their face and try to gouge their eyes out.
• An alternate option to the above is, if you can get handfuls of their hair, pull them over (like pulling over the hood of a sweater) by their hair with your bodyweight.
• If they're bald, an alternate option to the above is to pull their arm down with your bodyweight and just fall over to the side to break the hold. Make sure to get back onto your feet a.s.a.p.
• If they strike you instead of grabbing you, the initial reaction should be to run to the nearest exit. Remember: 1st rule is to try to avoid having to beat someone up.

Luckily, my eyelids were closed when he pretended to gouge out my eyes, but I still had to fix my contact lenses afterward.

After cumulative review, the new moves today were: knee thrusting forward, knee jumping forward, inside parry and outside parry (drilled as a counter to the jab-cross) into hook the neck with multiple knees thrusting forward, knee and elbow thrusting forward, and grab and pull the face into flying knee.

Details to remember:

• Roll the lead shoulder so that it protects at least the jaw.
• When executing the knee and elbow thrusting forward, the body form is like the letter "K" while the defending arm is horizontal. Don't just connect with the point of the elbow, but with roughly the 2 inches above it.
• Point the toes down on the leg that's throwing a knee.
• When hooking the neck, the hook is like a cane handle around their neck, pointing outward. The hooking arm stays strong, while my other arm controls their elbow (i.e. my right on their left), and maintains forward pressure while delivering multiple knees.
• When grabbing the face and pulling it into a flying knee, you jump with both feet.

I almost pulled a leg muscle while drilling the grabbing the face and pulling it into a flying knee.

JOVY: What? Are you tired?
RYAN: No, just stretching it.
JOVY: [grinning] There's no stretching in Street Fighting.

Today's variation of the infamous front snap jab-cross was to follow it up with pinning their nearest arm and relentlessly beating them down with any punches, angling around to disorient them from retaliating, before finally retreating while watching your back. Next was throwing in an elbow before the relentless punches. The last drill was replacing the relentless puches, should they bend over, with hammer-fists or hammer-elbows to the back of their head, neck, and spine.

Unusually, we didn't end class today with push-ups or the 5-minute death march. But we're doing that tomorrow since it's my last day. I'm also supposed to remind him to teach me a head-butting routine. I asked him if he's ever seen Israelis fight. He revealed that he actually did study Krav Maga (Israeli fighting), but he only found 70% of it as practical.

JOVY: It seems to me you want to start a school.
RYAN: (considered revealing that I'm an Apprentice Instructor in FMA, but went with ...) That sounds like a good idea!

I told him about how Mark a while back asked me to teach him self defense after getting traumatized from seeing 5 guys beating up 1 white guy. He laughed.

JOVY: What time's your flight on Friday?
RYAN: Don't know. I just know it's Friday.
JOVY: Didn't you get your plane ticket? Who's going with you?
RYAN: My mommy.
JOVY: Ah, yes. Just let those parents handle everything. Spoiled kid, huh?
RYAN: She volunteered.
JOVY: [laughs] Good answer!

I arrived at Philip's government office at 2:30PM for a top secret mission. To avoid incriminating details, I can't even talk about it. Hint: The Philippines has been ranked as most politically corrupt in Southeast Asia. But I can say it involved discarding evidence. I've never done this before, but there's a 1st time for everything. It was FUN. Afterward, to a select few members in the know in that government office, I was the freakin' man!

More good news: Philip theorized that he must've accidentally left the 2 Manny Pacquiao shirts that he bought me last night (and lost) at this shop while he was buying shorts. He went back to look ... and he found my Manny Pacquiao shirts! Best cousin ever.

We ate dinner at Brasil Brasil. We said it was my mommy's Birthday since we were originally supposed to eat there last December 26. As per tradition, I ate everything. And then modelled my Manny Pacquiao shirts when we got home.