Sensei Brien had us spend most of the class working on spinning self defense movements.
It felt like the room was spinning…
We paired up and one partner did the attack, step in with front punch. The other partner blocked the attackers punching hand with the front hand, spun around and countered with a spinning back kick.
The next attack was the same with step in and front punch.  The defender blocked with the front hand, spun around into a horse stance and did a take down with a back fist. For this work, you need to drive the leg between the attackers into a front stance. Driving that leg backward allows the hip to take their leg out from under them.
The next attack was a shift in with a jab. The defender blocked with the front hand, pulled the front foot back then spin around and hook kick. You have to pull the front foot back to make the distance between you and the attacker otherwise you will be too close and the hook kick will not work.
Next came the same attack as above. The defender blocked with the front hand, did a hook kick with the front leg and then follow that up with a roundhouse kick. We did the same attack but this time we blocked and did a roundhouse kick followed up with a hook kick.
The last drill we worked on had our attacker shifting forward and throwing a reverse punch. The defender die a block with a reverse punch counter, then spin around with a fist into a horse stance. The idea was to end up behind your attacker when executing the back fist.
This was a really good class but I wish that my body would have cooperated a little better with the kicks. Sensei Brien told me that many of the spinning kicks can also be applied to sweeps and leg attacks.
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