EXTREMELY belated Krav Camp update
Yeah, this is a ridiculously long one, and it's over a year late. The trip itself was pretty darn expensive, so I figure I should document every single milisecond to get my money's worth :)
So August 2nd Terence and I flew out to LA. He crashed at my place the night before cause we had an early flight out of Dulles. Everything was on schedule and we made it to LAX around 10 AM. We didn't arrange for a rental car cause the krav national training center was supposed to provide transportation from the hotel to class, etc... So we took a cab to the Marriott in Century City. We were too early to check in, so we gave our luggage to the concierge and went out exploring LA.
I really have no clue about LA's layout. We did find a Ralph's grocery next to the hotel though, which was uber-convenient. We checked it out and it's better than your typical Safeway or Giant. After that we just kinda picked a direction and walked and walked and walked. It was kind of muggy. Stopped to look at crazy plants, and noticed everyone has walls in LA. Was tempted to wallrun them, but I'm sure people wouldn't appreciate landing in their yards :p Everything was really residential. Walked about a mile before finding any stores. Ate a nice bagel sandwich at a deli along with some much-needed water. Wandered around a little more then decided to take a different street back. This time we ran into a mall and a lot of little shops. I guess we just chose the wrong street going!
Got back to the hotel and checked in, except the room we got was smaller than what Terence had originally specified. But he kicked some ass with the front desk and got us a nice big room with 1 king-size bed, a rollaway, and couch bed. Settled down and unpacked. We figured Anthony was the tallest, so we left him the king-size bed. Terence got the roll away and I took the couch bed.
Chilled and read a bit, and Anthony arrived around 3:00 or 4:00 I think. After a while we headed out for dinner. We wanted to carb-load that night, so we asked the concierge about places to get pasta within walking distance. He mentioned a couple of places that were far away on foot, then a mall with a food court that was only a couple of blocks away, with an Italian express place. It was a Westfields mall, but a lot snazzier than the ones at home. The shops and food court were open-air and all the restaurants served their food on actual dishes with silverware, even the Panda Express ;) Found the Italian place the concierge mentioned and ordered a nice tomato pasta. It was pretty damn good and relatively cheap. After that we headed back to the hotel.
Anthony and terence headed back to Ralph's at some point to pick up gatorade, and they ended up coming back with an insane chocolate cake that Terence and I had been eyeing on our first trip there o_O It was super awesome, but Anthony was trying to cut weight for his upcoming Muay Thai fight, so he couldn't have any :( We had a hell of a time trying to stuff the leftovers in the mini-fridge! Spent the rest of the night watching Enough and practicing putting handwraps on, cause I never use them and wasn't sure if the National Training Center requires them.
Friday we got up early, showered, and munched on the stuff we got at the grocery store for breakfast. Around 10 we headed down to the lobby and waited for Marcy from the NTC to pick us up and drive us to class. Met some of the other peeps in the lobby. they were from Ottowa, sacremento, LA, and Detroit mostly. Anthony was the lone MT guy from the krav-less land of Pittsburgh ;) The 3 girls from Detroit were level 2's, and one of them was testing for Phase (instructor certification) the weekend after camp! craziness @_@
Marcy came and we piled into a couple of vans. We got to the NTC and checked in. Everyone got krav goodie bags which were kinda cute. They came with new wraps and a key chain. We got nametags, which stayed on for a grand total of 1.5 mins before giving up the fight. There were probably 30 people or so signed up for camp. We spent the morning indoors just going over techniques from Levels 1-3. I didn't have a partner, so I got to work with Jaret, a girl instructor who's about my build, but probably a little lighter.
She was awesome! She pointed out a lot of things technique-wise to me. ie- I still have a lot of problems with headlocks/chokes from behind. I try and duck out of it like in Aikido. We worked on everything from side headlocks, 360 defenses, zombie drills, buck & roll, knife defenses, etc... Got my forearms totally banged up from the knife defenses. Anthony and Terence managed to damage each other in equal amounts when they were paired up.
The instructions was pretty standard with what we get back home. I noticed Jaret makes the same sound effects as Jon in Rockville o_o The major difference I saw was that the LA instructors really stress yelling for help A LOT. Stuff like yelling "STOP! STAY AWAY FROM ME! HELP!" while beating the shit out of your attacker. It felt really really weird and I kept forgetting to do it. We never do it back home, so I felt pretty retarded at first. Got a bit more used to it as the day went on I got a little bit more used to it because it works as a sort of kiai and ups your adrenaline.
Broke for lunch and randomly followed some instructors to a Robek's. Got some chips and a smoothie and it was time to head back for afternoon class before we knew it. Anthony stopped by a Starbucks to pick up a mug for Amber.
The afternoon session was supposed to be outside at a park for scenario training. But the park's management was worried about the tons of kids in the park seeing us beating the crap out of each other. So the fire department across the street was nice enough to let us use their training lot and firetower. It was pretty darn sunny and hot out there though.
Started out with a big group drill where half the class closes their eyes and the other half runs around attacking them with knives, chokes, pads, etc... We had different props too, like book bags and fuzzy snowman blankets to use against attackers.
Afterwards we split up into 3 groups that went to 3 different stations-- rape scenario, firetower, and van kidnapping. Our group started with the rape scenario. The instructors picked a patch of grass next to the sidewalk outside the fire dept, and threw down a blanket and some reading material. 1 person would lie down on the blanket and pretend to read. The attacker walks up and starts casually chatting with the person on the blanket, but then it ramps up and the attacker gets on top of the person on the blanket and starts attacking. The victim has to get them off, yell, get up and counterattack/run away. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I was anticipating the attack way too early and getting all defensive and ready to kill when the guy was just asking me what time it was. When he finally did attack, I was able to buck and roll the guy into the bushes and counter, but I kept forgetting to yell. Ah well, it took a few tried but I eventually got it right.
For the guys, the scenario was a little different. ie- The attacker would try and steal something or just pick a fight. Terence and Anthony's was hillarious.
Scenario 1:
*Anthony approaches Terence, who's lying on the blanket*
A: Hey man! That's my grass!
*Anthony tackles Terence*
Scenario 2:
A: Hey, that's a nice watch, can I have it?
T: What!? It's crap, you can have it!
And then there was this one:
*Detroit girl reading on the blanket, attacker approaches*
Attacker: Hey, you're really hot.
Detroit Girl: FUCK OFF!!
Instructor: Um, that might've been a little too aggressive...
Since we were doing this next to the sidewalk and a road, lots of people in cars would stop to watch and look very confused and/or concerned ^_^;
Next we switched to the van scenario. We used one of the big white vans that was being used to shuttle us back and forth to the hotel and NTC. The victim was supposed to stand to the side of the van facing away from it, rummaging through a bookbag, like they were looking for their car keys. At some point the door would open and the attacker would attack the victim and attempt to drag them into the van. Again, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I always consider myself pretty damn heavy for a girl, but most of the guys were able to pick me up off my feet before I could even blink. I managed to fight them off enough to keep from getting dragged into the van, but it was ugly. And I forgot to yell. Was too busy trying not to die. Got hardcore killed by Anthony when he tapped me on the shoulder and did an underhand thrust to the gut with a knife. THAT SUCKED. At that point I'd just hope to be able to choke the guy out with my intestines like in Riki-oh :p
The drill was set up so that once you got attacked, you hopped into the van and attacked the next victim. At one point I hopped into the van ready to attack, but one of the giant instructors tapped me on the shoulder and told me to stay in the van. He jumped out and surprised the hell out of the next person ;)
Last station was the firetower, to do close quarter scenarios. I was kinda nervous cause we had to climb up a ladder to a 2nd floor window to get in. I don't like heights, but made it ok. There was one guy who was more terrified than me, so I felt a little better :p
While we were at the other stations, we heard really scary zapping noises. Well, it's cause they were using the shocknives o_o; Fortunately we didn't use them too much and only did basic knife defenses with them. They do hurt tho. But for some reason they didn't phase Terence *_* We did some other scenarios where half the group would be sitting on folding chairs and and the other half of the group would attack them. It was weird. After that we climbed up to the 3rd level of the tower and practiced some choke defenses in really cramped spaces. I didn't get tossed off the side of the bldg, so I consider it a success.
After that we were done with class for the day. I guess we put in a good 6-7 hours. Felt pretty good and no major injuries to report. Now if we had sparring, I would've definitely been in trouble!
That night, I think we went back to the mall for food and hit up Ralph's again. I picked up some bananas, and sourdough bread, cheese spread, and sliced turkey. Anthony was looking for arnica gel for bruises, but we couldn't find any. We tried to stay up to watch Human Weapon around 11, only to realize that the hotel didn't have the History Channel. We promptly passed out after that.
Saturday I got up and ate turkey sandwiches for breakfast. We got ready and got in the van to head out to ITTS for our day at the range. The ride was about 30-40 mins. I was nervous cause I've only handled a gun once before, when Caleb took Terence and I out to the NRA indoor range. This was all outdoors. Got there, and it was really sunny and hot. bleh. Had my Target sunglasses as eye protection though, so that helped a bit.
Sat around under a little shaded pavillion thing with picnic tables and Uncle Scott, the head instructor guy introduced himself. He's a character to say the least. He was in the LAPD and SWAT for a while and specializes in hostage situations, etc... We watched a quick video and Uncle Scott went over safety. His wife/gf (?) Brett, helped out a lot too. She mentioned that anyone wearing tank tops would want to change, cause they could get hot brass stuck in them. ouch! Scott's sons were also running around. The sun was pretty intense, so I caved and bought a hat for like $20. But it ended up being the best $20 I've ever spent, cause otherwise I think I would have burst into flames after a few hours in that sun.
Then they just started giving everyone guns and holsters. The guns weren't all the same. I think I got a glock or something at first, but then they switched all the girls' guns out with older 9 mm barettas cause they figured they fit our hands better. *shrug*
We all lined up and got assigned our targets. I was still pretty nervous, but Uncle Scott said that by the end of the day, everyone would be able to shoot a target at 40 yards. We had some LEOs and ex-military peeps with all sorts of gear, so I was pretty sure they could, but not so sure about me :p
But! he ended up breaking everything down into specific steps, so it wasn't so hard. We went over the different positions, 1-3 from drawing to hold position. Fired without ammo a few times, then went to get magazines and bullets. I was terrified I'd do something wrong, but the instructors were chill and checked everyone. We started real close to the targets and eventually moved back. We decocked/put the safety on between shots. After some advice from uncle Scott, I really improved!
Broke for lunch at some pt, and it felt weird to be walking around eating sandwiches with loaded guns everywhere. I remember at the NRA indoor range, they really stressed that you should wash your hands after firing guns. Not here :p
For the 2nd half of the class, we worked on head shots only, speed reloading, and shooting at metal targets. It was fun! Uncle Scott started telling all the young guys that they have to relearn everything cause they got it all wrong from playing too many video games. But by the end of the day he went around and told them "You've been born again hard!". Terence was like "but I don't even know what that means! @_@". After 7 hours out in the sun, we were beat! And all of us had hit the targets at 40 yards :)
Took some group photos, watched a vid on hostage situations, and turned our guns in. Hopped back in the vans and got dropped off at the hotel. We had a couple hours to shower and rest up for dinnar in Santa Monica.
Hopped in the vans and went to some Tiki-like restaurant with the group. Marcy worked there part-time, so she must've gotten some kind of deal, cause the NTC paid for it. Amir, some big wig in krav joined the group. No one really wanted to si with the 3 of us, so we got a lot of food to ourselves, which we completely demolished :) We had Asian chicken salad, a lo mein dish, kung pao chicken, and finished with an awesome giant dish of different ice creams and sorbets. Towars the end a comedian came out. I felt bad ofr him cause I don't think anyone found him very funny :p He saw me and Terence and was like "do you guys speak English?" ~_~ I was more interested in my ice cream, for obvious reasons. We had to clear out fast after that because salsa dancing was starting in a few minutes, which was fine for me. I was pretty tired and wanted to crash hardcore.
Unfortunately, the Detroit girls originally said they wouldn't need a ride back to the hotel cause they were going out whoring after dinner, but they changed their minds last minute and decided to smash themselves into the already overcrowded vans. That, and we had to wait 30 mins for one of them to stop flirting with the retarded comedian and get his number, even tho she already had a boyfriend. wtf! >_< We sat around outside the restaurant and watched some street musician girl sing and dance like a wounded animal. grrr.
After a very uncomfortable ride home, we got back to the hotel and finally chilled and txted and myspaced at Drew a lot. Crashed early.
Got up the next morning and we got a ride to Santa Monica beach. We had to unload the vans, which were full of pads, kettlebells, bottled water, and other crap. That alone tired me out. I hate sand!
We split into 2 groups. Firsh we had to run on the beach, maybe about a mile? I thought I was going to die, but I heard that in past years it was 5 miles. We did weird Indian drills where each group formed a line and ran parallel to each other. The last person in each line would sprint against the other person to the front of the lines, while everyone else was still running. i only did it twice before I had to slow down and just try not to die. I was pretty much the slowest person there, but at least I didn't give up like a couple of peeps.
After that, my group had to do the plyometrics obstacle course. It was soooo bad. Had to run thru rings up a sand dune, thru a ladder, cone slolem down the dune, etc... for 5 rounds. Then we did bear crawls up and down the dune, and many other crappy things.
Then we switched to the other station, which was kettlebell tossing. I don't know much about weights or kettlebells, so I'm sure I was doing it wrong. We had to throw them a certain way, run up to the kettlebell, pick it up, and throw it again, repeat repeat repeat until we got to the other side of the field/beach. It wasn't bad, but the worst part was digging it out of the sand to get at the handle. Sooo much sand ended up blowing back into my face :X I was constantly running around and spitting everywhere. Also some peeps picked up the lightest kettlebells, which were like 2 kg. Slackers! At the end we did a partner relay. Me and my partner ended up 3rd to finish.
After that we got counted off into groups of 5. We had no idea what we had to do, and started worrying cause we had the smallest peeps. Turns out it was a race to see which group could dig a hole that all 5 peeps could fit into the fastest. yay! small ftw! The rules were that 4 people had to be digging at 1 time, while the 5th person would run down to the water and fill an empty water bottle. Then they would run back and dump it on the other 4, and switch off with another person. Our group won!
Whne we were done, we got to play in the water a bit. Then we had the unfun business of loading all the vans back up. Went to the hotel for 3 hours to chill. Then we got picked up again to go to the NTC for the adrenal stress training. I was kinda nervous cause I had no idea how I'd react in a high stress situation, especially with verbal confrontation.
Before class started I made a mad dash to the NTC shop before it closed. I had to make sure I took advantage of the 15% discount :) Picked up some shirts for peeps back at home.
Was waiting around, when I saw Christian, one of the instructors who was training with us back in Rockville for a while. We were all "what are you doing out here?! @_@" when we saw him. He daid he permanently moved out to LA now. He also had a shiny new krav tattoo on his calf.
Class started up and the adrenal stress training peeps came in and talked. They had the funny angry robot suits ready to go. It's a husband and wife-run business. The wife had been assaulted and raped when she was young, and now she does a lot of the talking and explaining for the IMPACT classes. Her husband, and a couple of other guys wear the angry robot suits. We started off with basic strikes to the guys in the suits. The helmets are ginormous, so that changed dynamic a lot. For knees we had to throw knees and groin kicks straight up and down, rather than through. It was kind of hard to get used to, add the yelling to it, and it just plain confused me.
Next we went over verbal de-escalation. The guys in suits would harass, yell, threaten, and get in your face. But you couldn't attack them. they were really good because they had a different scenario for each person, and their acting was pretty good. Basically, they stressed that it's a matter of staying calm, being firm and assertive, and telling the attacker to leave you alone, without being overly hostile or scared. Also being loud enough to create a commotion is important. Pretty much talk to them like a child. One of the Canadian dudes said I have a good voice for yelling at people ;)
The last drill was for when talking doesn't work. you'd have 1-3 attacker at the same time. It would start out verbal, you'd try and talk them down, but at some point they'd start swinging at you and you had attack and get them to give up. Terence and Anthony did really well! I started with a palm strike to the face and a groin kick, but still got taken down. Managed to scramble and hammerfist the guy in the face, and got back to my feet and kneed him in the head to finish him off. Not ideal, but oh well.
There were some really good fights, and it was funny because a lot of peeps were pressing in on the attacker before the fight even started. ie- "Look, just leave me alone, I don't want any trouble!" *inches forward in aggressive fighting stance*
After that, we were done with classes! Sat around and chatted with peeps and packed up. said bye to Kelly and the other instructors, and then got dropped off at the hotel.
spent the rest of the night packing. We went to the mall again and got Panda express on real dishes and silverware :) Tried to see the movie again, but it was sold out for the 3rd day in a row!
Monday we checked out early for the airport. Anthony was at a different terminal, so we said bye to him and got checked in. Got a couple of croissandwiches at BK for breakfast and eventually got on the plane. Made it to VA without any problems.
Had a great time! Thanks to Terence and Anthony for going with me :D I wanna go back again some time in the future.
Pics are here.
So August 2nd Terence and I flew out to LA. He crashed at my place the night before cause we had an early flight out of Dulles. Everything was on schedule and we made it to LAX around 10 AM. We didn't arrange for a rental car cause the krav national training center was supposed to provide transportation from the hotel to class, etc... So we took a cab to the Marriott in Century City. We were too early to check in, so we gave our luggage to the concierge and went out exploring LA.
I really have no clue about LA's layout. We did find a Ralph's grocery next to the hotel though, which was uber-convenient. We checked it out and it's better than your typical Safeway or Giant. After that we just kinda picked a direction and walked and walked and walked. It was kind of muggy. Stopped to look at crazy plants, and noticed everyone has walls in LA. Was tempted to wallrun them, but I'm sure people wouldn't appreciate landing in their yards :p Everything was really residential. Walked about a mile before finding any stores. Ate a nice bagel sandwich at a deli along with some much-needed water. Wandered around a little more then decided to take a different street back. This time we ran into a mall and a lot of little shops. I guess we just chose the wrong street going!
Got back to the hotel and checked in, except the room we got was smaller than what Terence had originally specified. But he kicked some ass with the front desk and got us a nice big room with 1 king-size bed, a rollaway, and couch bed. Settled down and unpacked. We figured Anthony was the tallest, so we left him the king-size bed. Terence got the roll away and I took the couch bed.
Chilled and read a bit, and Anthony arrived around 3:00 or 4:00 I think. After a while we headed out for dinner. We wanted to carb-load that night, so we asked the concierge about places to get pasta within walking distance. He mentioned a couple of places that were far away on foot, then a mall with a food court that was only a couple of blocks away, with an Italian express place. It was a Westfields mall, but a lot snazzier than the ones at home. The shops and food court were open-air and all the restaurants served their food on actual dishes with silverware, even the Panda Express ;) Found the Italian place the concierge mentioned and ordered a nice tomato pasta. It was pretty damn good and relatively cheap. After that we headed back to the hotel.
Anthony and terence headed back to Ralph's at some point to pick up gatorade, and they ended up coming back with an insane chocolate cake that Terence and I had been eyeing on our first trip there o_O It was super awesome, but Anthony was trying to cut weight for his upcoming Muay Thai fight, so he couldn't have any :( We had a hell of a time trying to stuff the leftovers in the mini-fridge! Spent the rest of the night watching Enough and practicing putting handwraps on, cause I never use them and wasn't sure if the National Training Center requires them.
Friday we got up early, showered, and munched on the stuff we got at the grocery store for breakfast. Around 10 we headed down to the lobby and waited for Marcy from the NTC to pick us up and drive us to class. Met some of the other peeps in the lobby. they were from Ottowa, sacremento, LA, and Detroit mostly. Anthony was the lone MT guy from the krav-less land of Pittsburgh ;) The 3 girls from Detroit were level 2's, and one of them was testing for Phase (instructor certification) the weekend after camp! craziness @_@
Marcy came and we piled into a couple of vans. We got to the NTC and checked in. Everyone got krav goodie bags which were kinda cute. They came with new wraps and a key chain. We got nametags, which stayed on for a grand total of 1.5 mins before giving up the fight. There were probably 30 people or so signed up for camp. We spent the morning indoors just going over techniques from Levels 1-3. I didn't have a partner, so I got to work with Jaret, a girl instructor who's about my build, but probably a little lighter.
She was awesome! She pointed out a lot of things technique-wise to me. ie- I still have a lot of problems with headlocks/chokes from behind. I try and duck out of it like in Aikido. We worked on everything from side headlocks, 360 defenses, zombie drills, buck & roll, knife defenses, etc... Got my forearms totally banged up from the knife defenses. Anthony and Terence managed to damage each other in equal amounts when they were paired up.
The instructions was pretty standard with what we get back home. I noticed Jaret makes the same sound effects as Jon in Rockville o_o The major difference I saw was that the LA instructors really stress yelling for help A LOT. Stuff like yelling "STOP! STAY AWAY FROM ME! HELP!" while beating the shit out of your attacker. It felt really really weird and I kept forgetting to do it. We never do it back home, so I felt pretty retarded at first. Got a bit more used to it as the day went on I got a little bit more used to it because it works as a sort of kiai and ups your adrenaline.
Broke for lunch and randomly followed some instructors to a Robek's. Got some chips and a smoothie and it was time to head back for afternoon class before we knew it. Anthony stopped by a Starbucks to pick up a mug for Amber.
The afternoon session was supposed to be outside at a park for scenario training. But the park's management was worried about the tons of kids in the park seeing us beating the crap out of each other. So the fire department across the street was nice enough to let us use their training lot and firetower. It was pretty darn sunny and hot out there though.
Started out with a big group drill where half the class closes their eyes and the other half runs around attacking them with knives, chokes, pads, etc... We had different props too, like book bags and fuzzy snowman blankets to use against attackers.
Afterwards we split up into 3 groups that went to 3 different stations-- rape scenario, firetower, and van kidnapping. Our group started with the rape scenario. The instructors picked a patch of grass next to the sidewalk outside the fire dept, and threw down a blanket and some reading material. 1 person would lie down on the blanket and pretend to read. The attacker walks up and starts casually chatting with the person on the blanket, but then it ramps up and the attacker gets on top of the person on the blanket and starts attacking. The victim has to get them off, yell, get up and counterattack/run away. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I was anticipating the attack way too early and getting all defensive and ready to kill when the guy was just asking me what time it was. When he finally did attack, I was able to buck and roll the guy into the bushes and counter, but I kept forgetting to yell. Ah well, it took a few tried but I eventually got it right.
For the guys, the scenario was a little different. ie- The attacker would try and steal something or just pick a fight. Terence and Anthony's was hillarious.
Scenario 1:
*Anthony approaches Terence, who's lying on the blanket*
A: Hey man! That's my grass!
*Anthony tackles Terence*
Scenario 2:
A: Hey, that's a nice watch, can I have it?
T: What!? It's crap, you can have it!
And then there was this one:
*Detroit girl reading on the blanket, attacker approaches*
Attacker: Hey, you're really hot.
Detroit Girl: FUCK OFF!!
Instructor: Um, that might've been a little too aggressive...
Since we were doing this next to the sidewalk and a road, lots of people in cars would stop to watch and look very confused and/or concerned ^_^;
Next we switched to the van scenario. We used one of the big white vans that was being used to shuttle us back and forth to the hotel and NTC. The victim was supposed to stand to the side of the van facing away from it, rummaging through a bookbag, like they were looking for their car keys. At some point the door would open and the attacker would attack the victim and attempt to drag them into the van. Again, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I always consider myself pretty damn heavy for a girl, but most of the guys were able to pick me up off my feet before I could even blink. I managed to fight them off enough to keep from getting dragged into the van, but it was ugly. And I forgot to yell. Was too busy trying not to die. Got hardcore killed by Anthony when he tapped me on the shoulder and did an underhand thrust to the gut with a knife. THAT SUCKED. At that point I'd just hope to be able to choke the guy out with my intestines like in Riki-oh :p
The drill was set up so that once you got attacked, you hopped into the van and attacked the next victim. At one point I hopped into the van ready to attack, but one of the giant instructors tapped me on the shoulder and told me to stay in the van. He jumped out and surprised the hell out of the next person ;)
Last station was the firetower, to do close quarter scenarios. I was kinda nervous cause we had to climb up a ladder to a 2nd floor window to get in. I don't like heights, but made it ok. There was one guy who was more terrified than me, so I felt a little better :p
While we were at the other stations, we heard really scary zapping noises. Well, it's cause they were using the shocknives o_o; Fortunately we didn't use them too much and only did basic knife defenses with them. They do hurt tho. But for some reason they didn't phase Terence *_* We did some other scenarios where half the group would be sitting on folding chairs and and the other half of the group would attack them. It was weird. After that we climbed up to the 3rd level of the tower and practiced some choke defenses in really cramped spaces. I didn't get tossed off the side of the bldg, so I consider it a success.
After that we were done with class for the day. I guess we put in a good 6-7 hours. Felt pretty good and no major injuries to report. Now if we had sparring, I would've definitely been in trouble!
That night, I think we went back to the mall for food and hit up Ralph's again. I picked up some bananas, and sourdough bread, cheese spread, and sliced turkey. Anthony was looking for arnica gel for bruises, but we couldn't find any. We tried to stay up to watch Human Weapon around 11, only to realize that the hotel didn't have the History Channel. We promptly passed out after that.
Saturday I got up and ate turkey sandwiches for breakfast. We got ready and got in the van to head out to ITTS for our day at the range. The ride was about 30-40 mins. I was nervous cause I've only handled a gun once before, when Caleb took Terence and I out to the NRA indoor range. This was all outdoors. Got there, and it was really sunny and hot. bleh. Had my Target sunglasses as eye protection though, so that helped a bit.
Sat around under a little shaded pavillion thing with picnic tables and Uncle Scott, the head instructor guy introduced himself. He's a character to say the least. He was in the LAPD and SWAT for a while and specializes in hostage situations, etc... We watched a quick video and Uncle Scott went over safety. His wife/gf (?) Brett, helped out a lot too. She mentioned that anyone wearing tank tops would want to change, cause they could get hot brass stuck in them. ouch! Scott's sons were also running around. The sun was pretty intense, so I caved and bought a hat for like $20. But it ended up being the best $20 I've ever spent, cause otherwise I think I would have burst into flames after a few hours in that sun.
Then they just started giving everyone guns and holsters. The guns weren't all the same. I think I got a glock or something at first, but then they switched all the girls' guns out with older 9 mm barettas cause they figured they fit our hands better. *shrug*
We all lined up and got assigned our targets. I was still pretty nervous, but Uncle Scott said that by the end of the day, everyone would be able to shoot a target at 40 yards. We had some LEOs and ex-military peeps with all sorts of gear, so I was pretty sure they could, but not so sure about me :p
But! he ended up breaking everything down into specific steps, so it wasn't so hard. We went over the different positions, 1-3 from drawing to hold position. Fired without ammo a few times, then went to get magazines and bullets. I was terrified I'd do something wrong, but the instructors were chill and checked everyone. We started real close to the targets and eventually moved back. We decocked/put the safety on between shots. After some advice from uncle Scott, I really improved!
Broke for lunch at some pt, and it felt weird to be walking around eating sandwiches with loaded guns everywhere. I remember at the NRA indoor range, they really stressed that you should wash your hands after firing guns. Not here :p
For the 2nd half of the class, we worked on head shots only, speed reloading, and shooting at metal targets. It was fun! Uncle Scott started telling all the young guys that they have to relearn everything cause they got it all wrong from playing too many video games. But by the end of the day he went around and told them "You've been born again hard!". Terence was like "but I don't even know what that means! @_@". After 7 hours out in the sun, we were beat! And all of us had hit the targets at 40 yards :)
Took some group photos, watched a vid on hostage situations, and turned our guns in. Hopped back in the vans and got dropped off at the hotel. We had a couple hours to shower and rest up for dinnar in Santa Monica.
Hopped in the vans and went to some Tiki-like restaurant with the group. Marcy worked there part-time, so she must've gotten some kind of deal, cause the NTC paid for it. Amir, some big wig in krav joined the group. No one really wanted to si with the 3 of us, so we got a lot of food to ourselves, which we completely demolished :) We had Asian chicken salad, a lo mein dish, kung pao chicken, and finished with an awesome giant dish of different ice creams and sorbets. Towars the end a comedian came out. I felt bad ofr him cause I don't think anyone found him very funny :p He saw me and Terence and was like "do you guys speak English?" ~_~ I was more interested in my ice cream, for obvious reasons. We had to clear out fast after that because salsa dancing was starting in a few minutes, which was fine for me. I was pretty tired and wanted to crash hardcore.
Unfortunately, the Detroit girls originally said they wouldn't need a ride back to the hotel cause they were going out whoring after dinner, but they changed their minds last minute and decided to smash themselves into the already overcrowded vans. That, and we had to wait 30 mins for one of them to stop flirting with the retarded comedian and get his number, even tho she already had a boyfriend. wtf! >_< We sat around outside the restaurant and watched some street musician girl sing and dance like a wounded animal. grrr.
After a very uncomfortable ride home, we got back to the hotel and finally chilled and txted and myspaced at Drew a lot. Crashed early.
Got up the next morning and we got a ride to Santa Monica beach. We had to unload the vans, which were full of pads, kettlebells, bottled water, and other crap. That alone tired me out. I hate sand!
We split into 2 groups. Firsh we had to run on the beach, maybe about a mile? I thought I was going to die, but I heard that in past years it was 5 miles. We did weird Indian drills where each group formed a line and ran parallel to each other. The last person in each line would sprint against the other person to the front of the lines, while everyone else was still running. i only did it twice before I had to slow down and just try not to die. I was pretty much the slowest person there, but at least I didn't give up like a couple of peeps.
After that, my group had to do the plyometrics obstacle course. It was soooo bad. Had to run thru rings up a sand dune, thru a ladder, cone slolem down the dune, etc... for 5 rounds. Then we did bear crawls up and down the dune, and many other crappy things.
Then we switched to the other station, which was kettlebell tossing. I don't know much about weights or kettlebells, so I'm sure I was doing it wrong. We had to throw them a certain way, run up to the kettlebell, pick it up, and throw it again, repeat repeat repeat until we got to the other side of the field/beach. It wasn't bad, but the worst part was digging it out of the sand to get at the handle. Sooo much sand ended up blowing back into my face :X I was constantly running around and spitting everywhere. Also some peeps picked up the lightest kettlebells, which were like 2 kg. Slackers! At the end we did a partner relay. Me and my partner ended up 3rd to finish.
After that we got counted off into groups of 5. We had no idea what we had to do, and started worrying cause we had the smallest peeps. Turns out it was a race to see which group could dig a hole that all 5 peeps could fit into the fastest. yay! small ftw! The rules were that 4 people had to be digging at 1 time, while the 5th person would run down to the water and fill an empty water bottle. Then they would run back and dump it on the other 4, and switch off with another person. Our group won!
Whne we were done, we got to play in the water a bit. Then we had the unfun business of loading all the vans back up. Went to the hotel for 3 hours to chill. Then we got picked up again to go to the NTC for the adrenal stress training. I was kinda nervous cause I had no idea how I'd react in a high stress situation, especially with verbal confrontation.
Before class started I made a mad dash to the NTC shop before it closed. I had to make sure I took advantage of the 15% discount :) Picked up some shirts for peeps back at home.
Was waiting around, when I saw Christian, one of the instructors who was training with us back in Rockville for a while. We were all "what are you doing out here?! @_@" when we saw him. He daid he permanently moved out to LA now. He also had a shiny new krav tattoo on his calf.
Class started up and the adrenal stress training peeps came in and talked. They had the funny angry robot suits ready to go. It's a husband and wife-run business. The wife had been assaulted and raped when she was young, and now she does a lot of the talking and explaining for the IMPACT classes. Her husband, and a couple of other guys wear the angry robot suits. We started off with basic strikes to the guys in the suits. The helmets are ginormous, so that changed dynamic a lot. For knees we had to throw knees and groin kicks straight up and down, rather than through. It was kind of hard to get used to, add the yelling to it, and it just plain confused me.
Next we went over verbal de-escalation. The guys in suits would harass, yell, threaten, and get in your face. But you couldn't attack them. they were really good because they had a different scenario for each person, and their acting was pretty good. Basically, they stressed that it's a matter of staying calm, being firm and assertive, and telling the attacker to leave you alone, without being overly hostile or scared. Also being loud enough to create a commotion is important. Pretty much talk to them like a child. One of the Canadian dudes said I have a good voice for yelling at people ;)
The last drill was for when talking doesn't work. you'd have 1-3 attacker at the same time. It would start out verbal, you'd try and talk them down, but at some point they'd start swinging at you and you had attack and get them to give up. Terence and Anthony did really well! I started with a palm strike to the face and a groin kick, but still got taken down. Managed to scramble and hammerfist the guy in the face, and got back to my feet and kneed him in the head to finish him off. Not ideal, but oh well.
There were some really good fights, and it was funny because a lot of peeps were pressing in on the attacker before the fight even started. ie- "Look, just leave me alone, I don't want any trouble!" *inches forward in aggressive fighting stance*
After that, we were done with classes! Sat around and chatted with peeps and packed up. said bye to Kelly and the other instructors, and then got dropped off at the hotel.
spent the rest of the night packing. We went to the mall again and got Panda express on real dishes and silverware :) Tried to see the movie again, but it was sold out for the 3rd day in a row!
Monday we checked out early for the airport. Anthony was at a different terminal, so we said bye to him and got checked in. Got a couple of croissandwiches at BK for breakfast and eventually got on the plane. Made it to VA without any problems.
Had a great time! Thanks to Terence and Anthony for going with me :D I wanna go back again some time in the future.
Pics are here.