Work around the pain (Hand to hand training: open)

[Blade]

Rurak sat on the edge of a cot in the medical tent. He'd been ordered to come here twice a day to get a change of bandages for his hands. Just thinking about not having his hands burned him up. Sure he was still a member of the band, at least for now, but he was next to useless like this! He couldn't use his fingers for now, and from the looks the medics gave him when he asked about it, there was a possibility he might not ever get the use of those back. He still taught classes for the other archers, but he wasn't nearly as effective without being able to pick up a bow. Plus, and though none of them would dare say it, nobody really trusted an archer who couldn't shoot to be training them in archery, so basically he had been spending his time cooped up in this light forsaken camp with next to nothing to do, and no way to vent it all. Today though he was going to find something to do if it killed him. He had an idea what he wanted to do and so he asked the medics to double the thickness on the bandages. They gave him a strange look and asked why. He only half lying said he was going to try some new exercises to help him get his arms back faster and he didn't want to damage his hands. They cautioned him against straining himself. Luck was on his side today though because shaylor wasn't around. She had been practically shadowing him the past few days, ever since the injury to make sure he wasn't doing anything to strain himself worse.

 

The medics offered to help him back on with his shirt, but Rurak asked them to just drape it over his shoulder. He'd just have to take it off anyway at the training grounds, and he didn't want to look any more crippled than he already was in front of the other soldiers. This was going to be a very interesting training session. He had already taken hand to hand training previously, but that had been when he had the use of his hands. He was going to have to come up with a completely different fighting style if he was going to be of any use without his hands for the next little while. Rurak stood there staring at the padded pole he was going to be practicing against...then looked at his arms. Without his arms he'd be useless...but what was keeping him from using the elbows...or even for that matter the knees or shins? He worked through some basic ideas, starting simple, just whipping the elbow into the side of the pole. It had a lot more power especially when rotating in with the body. The shin he could tell would hurt for a bit while he was training, but it was also one of the stronger bones in the body so he'd just have to get used to it. Since he didn't have a way to keep people back with jabs from the hands, he was going to have to use light kicks to push people back or off balance. Rurak circled as he moved through his own unique set of forms developing them on the fly to suit his needs.

[Barmacral]

Walking through the training yard looking for something to do for practice, Burgandy stopped by the archery range for a few minutes to watch as some soldiers competed for the most accuracy. After a period of watching Burgandy decided he would come back here another time to practice his shooting, he needed to start with something more basic than that, like basic sword combat, or re-mastering his hand to hand.

 

Walking along the grounds Burgandy saw something that drew his curiosity, and quickly found himself standing and watching a man practicing his hand to hand combat with large white bandages completely wrapping his hands, and not actually using his hands for anything.

 

After a while of watching this Burgandy decided to approach the man; as he drew near he waited until the other man stopped and he definitely had the man’s attention. “That is a unique combat method you have there, how would you feel about showing me a few of your moves?”

 

[Jehaine]

Saira looked at Rurak for a while, still feeling quite a bit responsable for his injuries at the hand of the Asha'man gone mad. Judging by the bandages, she figured he was still recovering, and she wanted to find a way to make it up to him. Every time she tried however, she found herself lacking the words to say, or she started second guessing how Rurak would possibly react.

 

“That is a unique combat method you have there, how would you feel about showing me a few of your moves?”

 

She was just about to start on today's attempt number twenty-seven when she overheard Burgundy's request. Figuring it was as good an opportunity as any, she gathered up her courage and walked over to where the two of them were standing. Though far from the strongest soldier in the Band, and having a light build to the point of being almost frail, she couldn't help but wonder whether or not she was doing the right thing, but she needed the opening too much to pass on the opportunity Burgundy had unknowingly provided for her.

 

- "Umm... Rurak, sir? Can i practise a bit as well?"

 

 

Saira

Struggling for words

[Blade]

Rurak was drenched with sweat after a little while, most of it from the workout, though some of it from just putting up with the stress on his body. Even slight movements hurt his arms. Well, he'd learn to work through that and thankfully enough his wounds hadn't broken open and started bleeding through.

 

“That is a unique combat method you have there, how would you feel about showing me a few of your moves?” Rurak raised his head to find a face he didn't recognize. Maybe the man was new, or just one of a number of the people he hadn't gotten the chance to meet yet. There were a lot of people with the band now. Rurak was banking on the side of new though since most of the soldiers new the higher ranked officers rather than the other way around and he hadn't inserted any sirs into the conversation. That was just as well, since the man would give him better training by not holding back, though anyone would probably hold back against a cripple like himself.

 

Rurak smiled, well at least he'd have someone to practice these new moves on and see if they worked. The theory seemed sound, but it was always best to try it in a mock up at least. Before he could respond though another voice piped up timidly "Umm... Rurak, sir? Can i practise a bit as well?" The agressive look in his eyes softened. He'd noticed Saira for quite some time now, she seemed to be shadowing him all the time. Maybe she thought he needed someone to take care of him while he recovered. Right now he wanted anything but that, but it would hardly do to say something like that right now. Well that meant that she would get her wish. He could hardly hurt himself sparring with saira.

 

Supressing a sigh, Rurak finally nodded his consent. "Alright saira, you can practice with me. I'm not sure how much help this is going to be though, I'm making this up as I go in case...in case I never get my hands back" Rurak said with a bit of hesitation. He hadn't wanted to say it, but there was the possibility that he might not regain the use of his hands. Looking across at the other man, Rurak's gaze toughened a bit "Well, you can train with me too if you want, but I can't say my style is unique from experience, I'm trying to figure out a way to fight so that I don't damage the hands, but I figure I need someone to test these moves out on so why not?" he said with a shrug and a grin that wasn't quite real.

 

A little embarassed, Rurak motioned them over together. "Well the basic idea I'm getting is that with this style, there's going to be a difference in blocking. First, as you can see it's not a good idea to catch any of the attacks against my fists" rurak said with that wry grin again while shaking his bandaged hands. "That means for the most part I'm going to want to re-direct most of the attacks rather than block them. that means pushing the punches outside which leaves the attacker open for a counter attack. Use only the amount of energy required to re-direct and then bring yourself back to guard"

 

"For the lower body shots you're going to want to block with your shin. This might hurt at first, but it's more important to block with that because if you block with the in-step of the foot or any other part of the foot you're going to hurt yourself in a much more permanent way than the shin. Besides, the shin is probably one of the strongest bones in the body so it'll be fine, though for the first little while it's going to hurt during training."

 

"The last thing that you're going to need to work with is a way to keep the person off balance and have them keep their distance. Normally most people would use the jab to do that to keep them at bay, but again, we don't have that option, so what we're going to use here is sort of a push-kick. Basically as they rush in you kick out to push them back and off balance. You want to make this move fast, snapping the leg back else they can trap the leg or might be able to catch you off balance. Also you can during kicks you can attack the supporting leg or even the attacking leg to throw them off balance."

After having talked for a little while Rurak realized that all these ideas were pretty new and they probably wouldn't be able to understand all of it without a little demonstration. "here, you there" Rurak said to the man who had first asked to join in " I didn't bother to catch your name what was it?"

"Barmacal"

"Ah yes, well, you look like you've had a bit of experience in a fight, how about you come at me and we'll see how well this works or not." The man seemed to hesitate looking at his bandages but Rurak egged him on. "Oh come now, I'm sure you can manage to fight a cripple like me without managing to hurt him!"

 

Rurak readied himself for the attack. This was going to be the first real test of his style. He wasn't too worried, he'd already had a good hand to hand trainer back in the day and had plenty of time over the years to expand on it in brawls and fights along the way. Still, there was the potential for embarassment. The other man dropped into a traditional stance and circled, looking for an opening. Rurak held his arms up next to his head, forearms facing forward and circled in his spot with the man. A testing jab was parried easily, then another, and suddenly it was a real fight. A light jab was dodged easily with a slight tilt to the head and the follow up from the right hand was deflected with the back of Rurak's arm. The man tried to rush in for a closer attack but a light push kick to the stomach kept him back. A low kick aimed for the legs was blocked with the shins, and then another rush, this time he wasn't able to get a push kick up in time and a heavy right was headed for his head. Rurak deflected it outside past him with his left and then spun at the hips bringing his right elbow around halting just before it made contact with the other man's face. He'd done it, it worked!

 

Sweating, but with a self satisfied grin, Rurak spoke again. "There, that's how a proper defense in this style would work, now I'd like you two to work on defense as I come at you and use the basic principles I taught to you. Remember, this style is working without the hands so don't use your hands."

 

OOC: Alright, just post a very short little mock fight with Rurak working on the defensive principles and you can have it turn out however you want.

[Daetirion]

Daetirion roused from his momentary nap, finding himself slumped against a wall in the shade. Maybe the first practice session that morning had been a little tiring after all. Sitting upright, he began stretching his muscles, trying to work out a few of the aches. Once his own body was seen to, the outside world needed addressing. Looking around circumspectly, just in case a senior officer happened to be watching, he was still in the training yard. It looked like the next session was just about to begin, and judging by the lack of practice weapons it was hand-to-hand.

 

"Well" Dae mused as he adjusted his position "this should be worth watching at the very least. Mayhaps i'll even be jumpin' in now or then".

 

 

[Jehaine]

Saira nodded, yet flinshed when Rurak mentioned there was a chance he would never regain the use of his hands again. All because of the time that training session with two Asha'men went spinning out of control. All because she wanted to draw his attention away from the Band. All because of her...

 

Though she watched him spar against Burgundy, her mind was not on the battle, but rather working on getting her concentration up for a fight. She had never been in one before, and couldn't help but wonder how she'd do now that the time came to train in actual combat. She snapped out of it in time to see Rurak standing in front of her, and she hesitantly greeted him, settling into a combat stance that seemed mostly copied off of the one he had adopted at the beginning of the spar against Burgundy a moment ago.

 

She sighed, feeling her opponent's eyes on her. Would he want to see her get hit? Would he want to see her as hurt as he was, back in that forest? Pressing her eyes shut to suppress the increasing feelings of guilt that threatened to sweep her away, she took a deep breath before giving the man in front of her a nod to tell him she was ready to begin.

 

 

Saira

Will probably be out in two seconds

[Barmacral]

Squaring himself off against the officer, having determined this by the girl whom had called the man sir, he got ready to fight, determined not to be taken by down as easily as he had the first time. He’d misjudged the man’s handless style, and had been expecting a far easier fight than he’d got. About to make his attack he realises that the girl is set up ready to fight him. Looking over at her he sees her nod at him, clearly showing that she was ready to fight.

 

Grinning, Burgandy pointed at the officer, “He’s the one training us here child, and I’ll fight you after he feels we’re competent enough not to kill ourselves in our attempts to kill each other.” Turning back to the officer he put himself into a fighting stance. Carefully shifting his weight around so as to not give anything a way he stepped in and launched a quick jab at the man’s face and as it was swept to the side whipped his leg out in a kick at the knee, only to be blocked by the man’s shin. Without giving any ground Burgandy threw a few more jabs at the officer, all of which were quickly blocked or swept aside, none ever making it close to the man’s hands or body. Stepping back into a defensive position Burgandy immediately lunged shoulder first at the guy, who jumped back in surprise, fell, rolled and was back on his foot whipping around and stopping just short of Burgandy’s gut.

 

Damn, too slow, I really need to work myself back into shape. Backing off a bit to give the girl some room, he looked over at the officer, who’s name Burgandy still didn’t know, curious to hear the man’s feedback.

[Blade]

Rurak's eyes narrowed a bit at the man calling saira child, but after a moment's reflection realized that to him they probably looked like children. He was a bit old to be still in the army, and it seemed ironic to be trained by younger men, but he seemed to understand well the idea that there was always something to learn from everything. He noticed someone else watching frm the sidelines and nodded to him and gave a jerk of the head to let him know he could join in if he wanted to, then turned back to the task at hand and squared off against the one

 

"They sparred for a bit stopping right before Rurak landed a blow. "That was good Burgundy, good stance, you didn't reveal anything, but you overcommitted yourself on that last attack. Notice how my movements on defense were all re-directing. That's the most important thing. Don't waste your energy on blocking when you don't have to, try and move the attack aside and you'll save energy and create openings. Worst comes to worst, move away from the attacks when you have to, all in all a good round." By the way, I didn't catch your name..."

"Burgundy sir"

"Burgundy, well I'm Lieutenant Rurak, but just go by Rurak for now and keep up the good work"

 

"Now saira, time for your round, we're going to reverse it, I'm going to keep it light and come at you. I want you to defend using the principles I just taught you. I'll be pushing you to think fast so be ready."

[Jehaine]

Saira bit her lip nervously, trying to remember as much as she could from the two spars between Burgundy and Rurak. Taking a deep breath, she winced as she saw Rurak approach, resisting the urge to curl up defensively into a ball. The first few attacks came slow, and would have been easily identifyable as trying to get her into the hang of things even to a blind man. As she managed to deflect those, correcting herself a few times on not being supposed to use her hands, Rurak started speeding up.

 

An elbow was just barely dodged, a knee blocked with both arms and a leg as she tried to get used to just being in a fight in the first place. Though she wasn't short, she instinctively tried making herself smaller to reduce the area that could be hit. The change came when Rurak tried a low kick, aimed for her shin.

 

She leaned into the blow, raising her lower leg in an attempt to block, but she was too late. His shin managed to hit the back of her knee, but her raised lower leg prevented him from pulling his leg back again. The attempt made her lose her balance though, and she grabbed Rurak's shoulder for support, only to find her attempt be deflected by his forearm. She fell on the ground, feeling relieved that they were sparring on grass. Getting up a few seconds later, she turned to see what Rurak would have to say about her skill.

 

 

Saira

Told you she'd last two seconds ;)

[Barmacral]

Watching the young woman flinch and desperately try to fend off the Lieutenants attacks he carefully observed how the man moved. ‘He’s good, that much is certain, but the girl needs to take a hit first,’ Burgandy thought, ‘That’s why she goes down so quickly, she seems afraid to get hurt.’

 

Offering a hand to the girl, Saira he believed Rurak had said, he looked at the Lieutenant in order to make sure that the man was listening, “Sir, if I may, I think I know what might help this young woman.”

 

Scrutinizing Burgandy for a moment, Rurak nodded at him, “Go on,” he said.

 

“I think what she needs is to be hit hard, to be flattened once, to show her that she can take a hit. After that, I think she’ll be less afraid to fight.”

[Jehaine]

OOC: http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=3093360 ;)

 

IC:

 

Saira looked to the side as Burgundy made a comment after he had helped her get up. She knew from the other lesson that he had been an archer way back, and a pointer or two would certainly come in useful. Maybe something akin to--

 

“I think what she needs is to be hit hard, to be flattened once, to show her that she can take a hit. After that, I think she’ll be less afraid to fight.”

 

- "EH!?!"

 

Well that was unexpected. She just stared at the man as if he had grown wings and announced he was a butterfly. After a rather uncomfortable feeling silence of a couple of seconds, she quickly intervened. Light protect her from anyone thinking that was a good idea!

 

- "No, it's not! I have a light build, i can't... How is that supposed to..."

 

Frantically waving her hands she tried to persuade them that it really was a bad idea. Getting hit as hard as possible, seriously... What kind of a place was Burgundy raised to say such a thing, anyway? It's not like she was built like a rock or something, she only weighed a hundred and twenty pounds!

 

 

Saira

*slam* OBJECTION!!!

[Barmacral]

After giving his suggestion Burgandy turned to Saira to see how she would react to this idea, expecting her to be surprised and a little scared at the idea, and was not disappointed.

 

"EH!?!" She said, looking aghast at the very thought, "No, it's not! I have a light build, I can't... How is that supposed to..." she trailed off, terror obviously flickering across her face as she waved her hands around.

 

“Its not as bad as you think,” Burgandy responded quietly, hoping to settle her down a bit, “even as small as you are, you should handle getting tackled by the Lieutenant or somebody fairly well without serious injury, and after that happens you’ll see that you can take some pain without issue, which should help you beat your obvious terror of getting hurt.” He hoped this would explain things a bit to her, sooth her fears a bit, though he’d not be surprised if the young woman’s legs were a near thing to jelly just before the hit.

 

’Wait,’ Burgandy quickly thought, that won’t help, she’s going to need something more than that.’

 

“Actually, what she needs, is to be hit when she’s not expecting it.” Burgandy turned back to Rurak as he spoke, “as long as you are careful about it, she should have no particular issues. I’d still recommend having her brace for a hit now too though, so an unexpected one doesn’t have purely negative effects.”

 

Burgandy stopped talking then, to let his explanation sink in a bit. He didn’t know the girl well, and this could be the wrong thing for her he knew, but it might just work too. But that would be up to the Lieutenant to decide, he had been slipping subtle hints the entire time suggesting that he might see the girl as more than a mere recruit that needed training.

 

[Blade]

Rurak was too stunned at what Burgandy was proposing. Him? Hit a girl? Not on your life. He was saved from responding at first, while his mind took the time to absorb just what the man was proposing, by Saira's reaction. It was quite humorous actually taken from an objective point of view. She started talking frantically until she ran out of words and started waving her hands around. Well, he couldn't really let this continue. He may be with an army and have traveled a lot of places but he really was still just a farmboy with a bow, just a little grown up from those days, and you DEFINITELY never hit a girl around home. Not unless you wanted to have a good long chat with the creator waiting for your next rebirth.

 

"Alright, we'll have none of that here."

Rurak said, cutting off the whispered suggestion from Burgundy about sneak attacking her. Bad enough to hit her while she was looking, but to sneak attack her?! Honestly, things really must be different in whatever land he hailed from.

"Truth be told, the purpose of a fight is NOT to get hit if you can, so it's not necessarily a bad thing." Turning back to saira he also turned back into teaching mode. "Your problem isn't not wanting to get hit, but you're movements on defense aren't fluid enough. Remember what I said about using just enough energy to push things aside? Well you want to use just enough defense to get the job done because if you block one punch with two hands that's leaving an opening for the other one right or even if you over commit yourself to stopping the blow you'll leave yourself open if it's a feint. For example, on one of those attack sequences you blocked one of my knees with both arms and a leg. That's all of your defensive options tied up in blocking one of my legs. you left yourself open to both of my fists or elbows had I chosen to use them. It seems like your natural instinct is to block what's attacking you, but better to move away from it whenever you can, or move it away from you. At any rate, I think you'll be far better on defense than our friend burgundy thinks as you get used to this, but let's move on to what we can use for offense here."

"I'll stay away from fists for now since you can learn those kinds of attacks from just about anyone else. What we're going to work on is kicks knees and elbows, more so on the last two. First we'll start with the elbows since I think the knees will be a little more tricky. Elbows can hurt even worse than fists so I don't want you practicing on each other so I want you to work on this padded pole I was using."

 

Rurak waved them forward so that he could demonstrate more easily. "Now, from what I've worked out there seems to be about 3 or 4 basic ways to strike with the elbows. there's an upward motion similar to an uppercut punch, there's a sideways motion similar to a hook punch, and then there's also a down swing attacking from the top. Also you can use the elbows in a spin to increase the damage. Now, when using the elbows for this practice session, swing upward in the smallest angles possible, that way it'll get you used to using them. Also, I don't want you just slamming your elbow into the punching bag, try to brush the bag lightly with your elbow. This will help you to use them better in an actual fight. Make sure to put your shoulders into it too. Your elbows will have more power if you rotate your shoulders with the strike and not just swing your arm. Lastly, when using the elbow in the spin, lean back into the target otherwise all you're going to do is end up slapping the target with the back of your hand. Here, let me demonstrate this."

 

He'd really only gotten some basic forms worked up but they seemed to be doing nicely. Moving into the punching bag Rurak kept himself light on his toes and whipped his elbow around sideways from the shoulder, lightly grazing the padded pole, then quickly swept the right elbow upwards with the arms tucked as tight as he could for a small angle. Stepping back he again brought the right up and over top for a downward strike, then quickly followed it through by launching himself off his back foot into a spin. Leaning back towards the target he delivered a heavy blow again with the right elbow that set the pole rocking on its foundation.

 

"One last thing, the elbows can also be used in jumps, as in jumping at the opponent and using the weight of your body to add force to a downward striking elbow to do more damage, now you work through these and I'll fix what I can and then we can move on to knees.

 

OOC: Alright, sorry guys for taking so long, go ahead and post working through these forms. Sorry for the seeming lack of interaction. I'm basing these instructions off of muay thai so if you want to see how the moves look you can look that up.

 

[Jehaine]

Saira nodded as Rurak explained to her what she was doing wrong. She couldn't help it much due to just about everyone paired with her being both stronger and heavier than she was, and she simply needed some extra stopping power from a second arm or leg to block the heavier looking blows. Still, when walking up to the pole she was not the defender, punching bags did not attack and as such she could afford to spend more time on offense.

 

Moving forward, she knocked her elbow into the pole a little harder than Rurak had... when he grazed the thing. She then moved into the same movements the lieutenant had, showing some raw potential that needed experience to shine. What would be needing more work is the amount of force she put in the blows, the pole barely moving even with her mimicking the heavy blow Rurak had ended his attack run with.

 

 

Saira

...Yup