The Gym, Monday Afternoon

[the_merriest]

Rikku usually liked to spar out in the preserve, but this wasn't sparring, it was punching lessons, and that meant having a few punching bags handy so they didn't just have to punch each other.

Therefore: two blonde girls were hanging out in the school gym, after classes, ready to kick some butt. Or at least punch some bags.

"Okay," Rikku said. "Have you ever fought someone, like, hand-to-hand? Any experience or whatever?"

(Expecting a Dojima, who was modded with permission. Also open for all your gym-ly needs.)

Comments

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Ano, does punching a guy for copping a feel count?" Dōjima asked curiously. "I've slapped a few boys, and given one a nice shiner, but no fighty-fight."

[the_merriest]

"Totally," Rikku said. "Black eye, that's not bad at all. Here, show me how you hit him on the punching bag."

She stepped back, watching for form and all that other good stuff.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Dōjima eyed the bag warily. "Okay, he was, ah, this tallish," she said, holding up her hand against the bag, "and really drunk, so I punched him like this."

Nose scrunched in concentration, Dōjima pulled back her fist and let fly, aiming from slightly below and off-right. The impact was enough to rock the bag a bit, but nothing impressive.

[Out for a bit, back later!]

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded. "I bet it stopped him," she said. "Not bad. Make sure you're holding your hand like this" -- she held her own out, then made a fist carefully, curling her fingers around -- "and try to get the impact to hit around here-ish. And make sure your thumb is outside your fingers, and not tucked under them, or else it'll hurt like a son-of-a-gun."

She hadn't seen where Dojima's thumb was; this was just helpful information from someone who had smashed hers badly, once.

"Okay, so step one is stance. Have your feet about ... shoulder-width apart? And get loose, looooooose so you're not tense." She shook herself out a bit to demonstrate.

(Okay! SP = love.)

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Hai! Loose!" Dōjima rolled her shoulders and bounced in place.

She tried to mirror Rikku's stance, then re-adjusted slightly. "Why do I keep my thumb outside my fingers? If I tuck it under, I don't have to worry about my nails cutting my hand when I hit him."

"Or her. I am very equal-opportunity hitting."

[the_merriest]

"Me too," Rikku said. "Some girls seriously need to get punched. But if you have your thumb inside," Rikku said, reaching for Dojima's hand and moving the thumb back inside the fist again, "and then you punch me?"

She moved Dojima's fist into her flat palm, slowly.

"You can put a lot of pressure on that thumb, when your fist smacks into someone's face, and it's just squeezed in there. You can bruise it, even sprain it. I did that, and it hurt like anything."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"OH!" she nodded, playing around with positioning her fingers and hitting her own palm. "So, where's the best place to hit, then? I mean, eyes and nose are tempting, but where will it hurt?"

[the_merriest]

"Throat," Rikku said, nodding. "You can make someone choke. Groin is good, uh. Obvious reasons. And if you want to take someone down in one hit, you need to find the solar plexus. It's ..."

She put her own hand on the bottom of the rib cage. "Right about here, then you count up, and it's in the center, that little dip right there?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Then do I hit them the same way, or like, I dunno, something different?" Dōjima was busy poking at her own solar plexus as she talked. "Yeah, that would hurt. I mean, yeah, I've kneed a guy where it counts before, but aren't they expecting that?"

[the_merriest]

"The groin, yes," Rikku nodded. "The solar plexus, not usually. It's good for times when you're right in front of someone and you want them to pass out, right now. It kinda knocks the air out of you and you just crumple, thud. I've had to use it a couple of times, it's ... really, really good when you need it, you know?"

She turned around, walked up to the punching bag, and then jerked her arm back and punched.

"Hard, fast, and right to that spot," she explained. "You don't have to hit too hard, but it's better to go too hard than second-guess it, right?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Dōjima blinked in surprise as she watched the bag rock from Rikku's attack. "Damn, girl, you aren't kidding. I pity the boy who pisses you off."


[punches notifications liek whoa]

[the_merriest]

"My dad taught me that," she explained. "It's kinda ... you know. I'm tiny, I like to go off on my own, I think he was worried about guys getting all grabby. Last time a guy acted deaf when I said 'hey, stop that,' he went down like a ton of bricks."

He'd actually been witch-zapped into acting like that, but that was another story.

"It's not hard," she said. "I took down a guy once who was, like, a blitzball player. Professional athlete. And a head taller than me anyway. He wasn't grabby, that was something else. Anyway. Try to find that spot on the bag and give it a good oomph."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Dōjima considered the bag, then settled into the stance Rikku had shown her and let fly with everything she had.

She hopped back from the bag, shaking her hand. "Ow ow ow. That hurts! I think my arm is vibrating!"

[the_merriest]

"Sorry!" Rikku reached for Dojima's hand, checking it out. "You're okay, sorry. Try ... uh. Put, like, your weight behind it? Punch from the hip, the shoulder, like, move your whole body, and your hand's just an extension of that? Does that make any sense? You did good with the spot."