Arkiv | KMG

Sneak peak of GIC2

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Food for champions – loading up for a weekend of fighting!

 

Two days of training. 17 hours of Krav Maga.

All I want is more.

It’s like I saw the gang yesterday. Like we’ve been home for a day or two since Oslo, and now it’s right back into the Krav bubble.

This time, it’s a lot more teaching.

Warm ups – from the beginning, we’re the ones doing them – what, you’re not prepared? Well, suck it up, you know what to do. We’re also teaching techniques in small groups from day one. It’s really neat, the way it’s made up – the whole system, the instructor course, everything just connects.

Except for my limbs.

We started with defenses against high roundhouse kicks on Saturday morning. And to be able to defend a high roundhouse, you’re partner needs to be able to kick a high roundhouse. Duh. This went pretty fine, apparently the stretching I’ve done has payed off. I just need to work on my balance.

But today we did defenses against side kicks, and my brain and my body are having quite a heated discussion about what to do, and in which order. I have a tendency to step too early. It’s like that with many techniques for me. I’m prepared, I’m ready, I’m waiting for the attack, so I step before it actually starts..

But hair grabs yesterday was a lot of fun (ouch my scalp), although shirt grabs today went both good and comme ci comme ca.

All in all – a super duper yabba dabba do weekend!! Good training, great instructor and awesome training mates!

I’m gonna miss y’all so much – it won’t be the same without Ingelas hugs, Nimas crazy eyes, Jarmos food and Lailas (aka Markus) sensitive nipples. I’ll also miss Marcus’ (with the proper spelling) clinches and Johns reports of todays crimes.

You guys are like family – a really fucked up, dirty minded and punch crazy family – and I’ll make sure I get to see (and kick) you as often as possible! Keep on fighting – you’re gonna do great in GIC2!

At Johns place – invasion, and Spiderman.

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We welcome Hugo (Sthlm) with some hard core cleaning.

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First day and the napping at lunch is already starting.

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I’m ignoring the apple and going nuts (!) with the Snickers.

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Evening grocery shopping in Gothenburg.

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Jarmo likes his onions.

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Ice cream buffé at John’s in the evening. Sugar rush? Hells to the yes!

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Bye bye gang – best peeps ever!

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From Krav to royals and back again

There can sure be huge differences one week to another.

One week I’m in Oslo, training Krav, fighting, kicking, punching, getting bruises in places I didn’t even know I could get bruised – and having the time of my life.

Next week I’m at a dinner with the Swedish Prince Carl Philip, and his newly wed Princesse Sofia. Sitting at the same table as Carl Philip, dining, conversing, drinking wine, explaining my bruises – and having the time of my life.

I could have chosen a dress with long sleeves, but why should I hide my Krav tattoes? It’s a great conversation starter!

Now why was I at a royal dinner? Well, I’m a Very Important Person. And I also happen to know the host of the dinner, the landshövding (governor) in my region Värmland, who is also chairman of the Donation Council in Sweden. We’ve been in meetings together, working together, and we’re striving for the same goal – more organdonations in Sweden.

And the prince is the Duke of Värmland.

So on his and princesse Sofias first visit to Värmland as a married couple, I was on the guest list for the dinner.

And now we’re back to Krav again. Right now I’m on the train to Gothenburg to take part in the first two days of GIC2 (I’ll be doing GIC2 in Scotland in October, this will be extra training for me) – and right now I’m super stoked about seeing everyone from Oslo again, to get to fight and kick and punch for a whole weekend – and that I’ve got my mandatory Snickers in my bag!

Plus – two training days with Tommy Blom, I mean – it’s kind of hard to miss out on that. But yeah, mostly stoked about the Snickers..

I’m pretty sure I’ll have the time of my life this weekend also.

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GIC1 Day 9: Part two – good bye gang!

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Day nine is officially over. I survived part one of the GIC. Yikes.

In many ways it has been harder than I thought, and in many ways it wasn’t that hard either. For sure it’s been a challenge. Although GIC2 will be an even bigger one.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’m a bit sad that the time in Oslo is over. You really get into the bubble of fighting, sleeping, joking, eating, fighting, sleeping, joking some more and eating even more. And I’ve made friends for life!

We’ve been seven people in one room – seven frickin’ amazing peeps! It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed this much. Imagine, seven people that you don’t know from the beginning (‘key, Dima and I go a little back) can become, pretty much, instant friends. We all have the same twisted (and dirty) humour and we haven’t got into a single fight.

Well, okey we’ve been fighting – really fighting – every day. So, yeah, if you were pissed at someone for snoring and keeping you up at night, you could easily take it out on them during the training. An extra knee here, a kick there, and so on. So in that way, the peace have been kept at home ;)

Every morning Rune put on a song to get us going – this was the song for the final day (let’s just say the moral was high, but the energy took a little longer to peak)!

It’s also been really great training with Rune Lind – having him as an instructor has been fab! And I know we’ve been making a lot of fun of the Norwegians and the Danish guys, but I gotta hand it to them – they’re a pretty cool gang!

I’m really going to miss all of them, especially since I won’t be joining GIC2 in Gothenburg. Dima and I will be flying to Scotland in October and do part two there instead.

This has truly been an awesome week!

Memories for life, professional training, personal progress, new skills, loads of stuff to continue to practice on, not nearly enough sleep, too many Snickers, a whole lot of fun, mainly inappropriate jokes, new bruises and tonnes of hugs. And a big goal.

To become a great and (hopefully) inspiring instructor!

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And some greetings from our roadtrip back home!

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Yeah, I’ll miss the gang, the snoring (and Marcus on the floor above) – but this is how you sleep the best!

Join me for GIC2 in October – 17th to the 25th. Scotland, look out!

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GIC1 Day 9: Part one – Hug me!

Oh. My. God.

Last day of the GIC1. My body is really tired, but after nine days I’m not surprised. My brain is also getting a bit fried. I don’t have the energy to write everything down today that Rune says, but we’ve started on headlocks (which I know quite well) and after lunch it’ll be bearhugs (FUN!).

It’s gonna be weird not wearing groin protection every day, and not putting on band aids on my toes every morning. But I absolutely love my new groin protection, that I bought here on the first day. All girls training Krav or other martial arts, I can really recommend a woman hockey protection! Compared to my old, white ”diaper” protection, this is heaven!

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Hehe, it looks like they’re just buddies hanging.
Todays first subject – headlocks (or ”giving head” as Jarmo would say).

This week would have been very hard without Jarmo’s cooking. He’s an excellent chef and being well fed has played a big part in keeping the energy up. I don’t really know what we would’ve done otherwise. Eating nutritious food and drinking lots of fluids is key. And sleeping. Gosh I haven’t really been sleeping that well these past nine nights, so that’ll be nice. Coming home to my own bed. To my cat. Not having to wear ear plugs every night.

But I’m also sad this first part is over.

I kind of don’t want to go home.

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GIC1 Day 8: Can you handle that stick?

Wow – eight days. Only one more day to go.

We’ve been out to dinner plus packing tonight so it’s pretty late – so this will be a short, short post!

Today we practiced defenses against different stick attacks – and we also did some two on one fighting. Of course my group had four people. So it was three on one. Jeesh, I really need to get more experience in this.. I tire very easily, and when I do I loose my guard, my techniques fail and I have a tendency of kicking a bit too hard.

Sorry Dima.

This evening we went to dinner with the entire group – Tasty Thai! It’ll be weird not going to GIC2 together with the rest of the group. But Dima and I will be going to Scotland for part two in October, so we can keep kicking each other!

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GIC1 Day 7: Just keep rolling and have a knife day!

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Gosh, is it really day seven already? Only two more days to go of GIC1?

Ha, honestly, after three days it felt like forever. And you know day five was not my day at all. Yesterday was awesome. And today’s been 50-50. We did falls and rolls in the morning, and I got frickin’ fuckin’ cock eyed furious…!

I’ve always rolled over my right shoulder, and never quite got the hang of it. Until this summer when I learned to roll over my left shoulder. Woha! What a difference! Suddenly I was gracious and rolling like a… like a… what is it that rolls graciously? A snowball? A nut? Markus’ nuts..?

Anyhow, today I felt like a hippo.

We were rolling over our right shoulder (well, we’re supposed to be able to do both), and then I just couldn’t do anything. I was face planting, my arms didn’t carry me, I placed my hands to close to my body, I was rolling to either left or right – and then backwards, gosh dang it… I never seem to be able to decide which way to go when I’m gonna roll backwards, so I end up rolling straight back – which kind of breaks my neck.. Ouch.. My shoulders are also starting to get a bit beaten up. And after a week of training, my arms are a bit tired.

So I got pissed.

I’m so glad that the GIC is not 23 days in a row anymore, but spread out. No way that I would be able to get all this into my head AND out into my body in time, in that case. I need some time in between the courses to practice, practice, practice (Martin, Matias and Claes – are you getting this?) – to get the movements to come more naturally – what is it again you say…? Muscle memory – that’s the word! There’s starting to be quite a few techniques that we’ve gone through, lots of angles to think about, analogies, problems, common mistakes we have to be aware of (and, of course, don’t do ourselves), so sometimes I get a little confused and stressed. Hopefully it’ll all come together when I go home, get some sleep and review my notes – if I can read them..

During lunch we went outside, and Ingela and I got some massage from Jarmo – it worked wonders for sore shoulders and necks!

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 Here’s Vegard working on reaction skills.
He’s Norwegian so he can’t help it, you know.

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And Dima – he doesn’t have much to put up against Rune.

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After lunch – much better! We did defense against knife attacks and knife threats. I got to hit, kick, bite and spank Dima. You know he just loves it. And voilà – my mood is much better! Nah, not just because I got to throw Dima to the ground, but because I like these techniques. There are still many things I need to practice on (Martin, Matias and Claes – still getting this?), but it’s a lot of fun. Loads of fun!

Apparently, there are also other ways to have fun.

Fork you guys.

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GIC1 Day 6: Part two – My first armbar!

Best day ever!

Okey, well, ”ever” is a strong word and really depends on what you compare it with. Being born, moving to France, surviving a riot in India, waking up with a new heart.. But yeah, I’m gonna stick with best day ever!

We did more defenses against chokes after lunch – mostly on the ground – and I learned to do my first armbar. It was an awful amount of fun!!

In the arvo we went outside to a nearby park and practiced to teach a new technique to some new ”students”.

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Above – problem. Then – solution.

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Okey Martin, please do not notice that I’m holding his arm in the wrong direction, I got him to tap out, ‘key?

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Marcus (with a ”c”) teaching defense against a straight punch.

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Nima teaching, I don’t know what, to Markus (with a ”k”) and Jarmo.

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My arms are a little marked and scratched, but not that much at all actually. I thought it would be worse. It’s not even close to the last time I was in Oslo, for the one day seminar last November. But still, I think I’ll go with long sleeves next week, when I’ll be dining with the Swedish Prince Carl Philip and his wife Princesse Sofia..

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GIC1 Day 6: Part one – Place your hands around my throat

Gooooooooood morning Oslo!!!!

Wowawewa – what a huge difference it can be, from one day to another. A good nights sleep really works wonders. Today I’m on the top of the world!

I feel a little like I did a couple of months after my heart transplant – like nothing’s impossible. This is a video I made two months after the surgery. The text says:

We don’t know why I got heart failure. We might never find out. But we know that I got worse. And worse. In the end I needed a new heart. This is me two months after the heart transplant.

 

This morning we’ve been working on defenses against chokes, some old ones that I know and some new ones – oh yeah, this is more up my sleeve – or, around my throat I should say. Come on baby, choke me, choke me real good!

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D’you know that I’m not the only one blogging? Nima is also putting his words out there, about his experiences regarding the GIC.

You can find him here: blog.toughtimes.se

He’s a tough little fucker, with a lot of good thoughts and tips – be sure to check him out!

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BONUS VIDEO – of our corky little gang:

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GIC1 Day 5: Break down

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It took half of part one. Four and a half day for me to have my first break down.

I barely slept last night. Don’t really know why. I was tired, but I just couldn’t relax. I was kinda wind up as well with all the nipples and groin kicks last night. Anyway, I knew when I woke up this morning (by the way, only my hamstrings told me ”no, ain’t gonna happen”, the rest of my body was quite alright) that this was gonna be a hard day.I know that everybody is tired, and for those who know me, you know that when I’m real tired I only have two settings – pissed off or sad.As long as we were punching and kicking it was alright. I could be angry as fuck and just get my frustration out – easy peasy. But then came the techniques. Hand defenses against kicks.

Fucketi fuckety fuck… Not today…

These are some of the techniques that I have most difficulty with. I just can’t seem to get it into my muscle memory, I can’t get the right steps. So I have a mental block in my head. It’s this little annoying voice that keeps saying

You can’t do this. You can’t do this. You can’t do this.

Do you think that helps with the technique? Not a god damn thing. But Dima is awesome to train with – he sees what I’m doing wrong and is great in explaining how to fix it (even though I still don’t seem to get the hang of everything). He also lets me train on some stuff much more than he does himself, so that I can get more coaching.

I held up until lunch. Then I had to have a small melt down.

I felt useless, slow and stupid. Not sure why I would be stupid all of a sudden, but that was the general feeling (General Feeling). But if there’s something I’ve learned these last couple of years, being on the waiting list for a new heart, feeling the strain and toll that takes on your mind – I’ve learned that breaking down is not a bad thing. If I need to break down to get back up again, then that’s what I’m gonna do.

The afternoon went much better – we still worked on defenses against kicks, but with techniques I like much more, I got to kick and hit and get to get some more frustration out. Especially the last exercise when we were toughening up our legs by doing squats two on two, and every other time I did I a round house kick on one of Dima’s thighs, and the next time he kicked me. The guys already say I’m a sadist (hm, could be true, to some extent), but today I really needed to get kicked. Since I can’t kick myself very effective, I need someone else to kick me out of this funk.
It is tiring. It is hard. It is a lot of info to take in.

I don’t think I’m the only one feeling like this, and don’t get me wrong – this is also enormous amounts of fun, it’s a huge challenge (and you know I love those), we have an awesome instructor and all the guys are just so great, goofy, and hilarious.

Now day five is about to come to an end – and we have a 15 minute lesson to prepare for tomorrow, in groups, on how to teach a new technique. That’s about the extend of what I can do for today – I’m gonna be the first one in bed tonight (pinkie swear) – and tomorrow is a brand new day.

Day 6, look out – here I come!

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All the other days, this is energy.
Today, it’s comfort food.

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GIC1 Day 4: Part two – toughest so far.. [photo and video post]

The chilling out ended after lunch.. I swear, this was the toughest day so far.

We got to punch a lot since we practiced defenses against straight punches, ending in a summarizing drill with both straight and circular punches. As a finishing physical drill we did ”Flower” by Moby. Are you familiar with that one? No? It’s simple – you do push ups, and they sing

”Bring Sally up and bring Sally down”

and every time they sing ”bring Sally up” you go up, and at ”bring Sally down” you go down (duh) – and HOLD IT. Until the song says to up again. That’s the original. If you can’t do push ups, you do squats. I did squats.

It’s a lovely song. Really. And we checked, it’s not that long. But when you’re doing it, I promise you it feels like half and hour…

And directly afterwards, we took part in a one hour sparring class with the club here in Oslo.

I usually think that I suck at sparring, but it actually went okey. I got to kick the shit out of some people (yay!). Then I got my ass kicked as well.

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Video: One partner could only kick, and the other could only punch.

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John got a nice swing at my eye, so now I have a tiny red blood dot in the left one. At least it’s not a black eye, like in February..

We went out to dinner at Munchies in the evening. Markus was a bit displeased that we all got our food before he did.  It’s really a great gang of guys, although we’re all a bit crazy. We made some jokes about what people might think when I’m the only girl with five guys and I have bruises all the way up and down my arms. For me it’s simple – I have my own, reversed, hardcore harem ;)

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Jarmo found a pair of balls at ICA.

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And Nima is too tired to carry the bag..

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Back home things kind of got carried away…

First, Jarmo put smoking hot potato mash on Markus’s left nipple. Poor thing, he used my banana to cool it down. It is now a nipple banana. Then I kinda kicked him in the groin…

Nima and I were wrestling and I guess he felt he was about to loose, so Nima said ”You’re about to get Linnex all over your back”. When I turned I saw Markus holding Linnex in one hand, so my natural reaction was a kick to the groin (have I been training Krav too much?). I promise – I barely touched him, but he went down faster than you can say

Snap!

It was the first time he almost threw up from a groin kick.

And yeah, I admit it, I felt really bad for the kid. First he didn’t get his food on time, then he got food – but burning hot and on his nipple – and then I wore his left ball like a sock…

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I haven’t had that much trouble yet with muscle ache or soreness. Not like some of the guys, but you know how guys are – they like to complain (oops, did I say that?). I guess I’m used to a lot of training at this point, since I’m also doing a Swedish Classic (skiing, cycling, swimming, running) – BUT, however, I have a feeling that tomorrow when I wake up, my body will go

No, forget it. Ain’t gonna happen.

Well, body – it’s gonna happen anyway… Tomorrow is day number five.

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