“Ok, now let’s work on some hand to hand combat,” Bill said.
“Why will I need that if I have the gun?”
“Because you have to be prepared for everything. You might lose the gun. It might run out of ammo. There are a wide range of scenarios that might occur here. You have to be prepared. I’m just trying to make sure you are.”
“Ok,” I said. “I’m not sure how much of this I can learn this fast.”
“Well, I’ll show you a few fast ways to disable someone. Let’s go into the gym.”
We walked across the pasture into the house and then down a few hallways until we came to a large room. On one side were free weights with cardio machines. On the other side was a punching bag with a lot of empty space around it.
I followed Bill over there. He stopped me in the center and turned to me. “Ok, I want you to punch me in the face.”
I stared at him blankly. “I’m sorry? What?”
“Yeah, ball up your fist tightly and throw that hard punch to my nose. Right here.” He pointed to his nose and then smiled.
“Are you serious?”
“Of course. Hurry up. Attack!”
I stepped into it and threw a hard-right punch towards his nose. He sidestepped it easily and then looked back at me with a shrug.
“Ok. You made that look easy.”
“It was easy. You set it up and you telegraphed it. That’s the most common punch thrown in a street fight. It’s called a roundhouse. It came in a wide arc that makes it easier to see coming and easier to duck. It’s harder to duck a straight punch. We need to make your moves tighter and straight on.”
“Ok.”
“You want to punch like this,” he said. He threw a hard-right hand at my face. Before I could react, it was almost touching my nose, but just short of it. I staggered back trying to make sure I wasn’t actually hit. The punch was so fast and so accurate that I didn’t even see it coming.
“Shit!”
“You see. The punch comes straight from the shoulder, but I don’t drop the shoulder. The whole arm comes straight out and the snap is from the elbow. It’s one single, quick move. You try it.”
He stood beside me and I did it with him a few times, straightening my arm out in a quick, fast manner with a pronounced snap on the end. I tried it several times and it started to feel more natural.
“Ok, now put these on and we will practice it on the bag,” he said.
I put on the gloves and he led me to the bag. “Now you want to get in that loose stance bouncing on the balls of your feet. When you hit you want to be moving in and then quickly out at an angle so you aren’t where you were a second ago in case the punch missed and he wants to retaliate. If he does he has to redirect himself. So, always be moving. And this keeps you lose to duck blows and roll with punches that do connect. Always keep your hands up here on your cheeks. Right against them to block the blows.”
“Wow, that is a lot of info to take in.”
“Yeah, but once you start doing it then it will become second nature to you. Now throw that left jab, just like a shortened right. And that sets up the right. Even if it doesn’t connect, it is a distraction and then you can follow that right behind it. Never intend to throw one punch. We do combinations so that something is always backing up the backup punch. You never throw one thing and expect it to be perfect and knock the dude out. Sometimes you get lucky.”
“Ok.”
We worked some drills for several minutes until my arms were too tired to keep up anymore. I was feeling spent. I wanted to quit, but Bill wouldn’t let me. He was in my ear motivating me to the core telling me that these guys were going to get me and beat me down. They were going to get me. I knew it was going to happen. I had to push harder and harder. Finally, after several minutes, I had to stop in exhaustion.
“Grab some water,” he said.
I went to the cooler in the corner and grabbed a bottle of cold water. I downed it quickly and walked around to catch my breath a bit. I was burning up even though the air conditioning was on. Instinctually I took off my sweater and dropped it on the floor. I was wearing a nice cut off sports tank underneath. I’d almost forgotten what I was wearing.
It took me a moment of pacing and trying to catch my breath before I realized that Bill was checking me out hardcore and had removed most of his clothes. He was standing there watching me with that sexy look in his eyes. Oh, he wanted me.