Game of Elbows

Elbows down and in.  What’s that mean?  It means protect your torso with your arms.  It means set yourself up with a good defensive posture so that you expend less energy blocking or parrying incoming strikes.  It means keep your arms for you when you grapple and give the gift of sharp elbows into the ribs when someone tries to squish you.  It means being able to fire punches with your hips behind the strike because your lower and upper body are connected.

We worked keeping our elbows down and in and then played a couple of games.  One game was sparring: students examined if keeping their elbows down and in protected them from body shots.  The other game was grappling: students examined if keeping their elbows down and in helped them to create a frame and get out from someone who was trying to squish them.

See if the students got it to work here.