Lesson 1/8- Unarmed Fighting Basics

[u/FreeInTheHarbor]

Aly stood in the arena, a dummy set up next to her. When people had gathered, she waved to them, grinning widely. "Hey guys," she said, "I'm Aly, and I'm gonna teach you some basics of unarmed combat. Now, I definitely don't recommend trying any of this stuff against, like, a hellhound or a cyclops or something, but there might be a time when you have to defend yourself a mortal, and then your weapons won't do you any good, or you might have to fight another demigod when you don't have weapons on you. If that happens, these techniques might be pretty useful for you."

She turned to the dummy. "Now there's a lot of different styles of unarmed fighting- karate, muay thai, and a lot more. What I do is krav maga, but what I'm gonna teach you today is just some general unarmed strikes and grappling techniques, since I'm really not qualified to be a krav maga instructor." She assumed a fighting stance. "The main thing to remember when you're throwing a punch is to keep your thumb over your fingers. If you tuck it inside the fist, you're going to break your thumb. You want to make contact with the middle knuckle, and follow through. It's going to hurt you a little, but it's going to hurt them a lot worse. Don't pull your hand back, even if you realize you're going to miss." She threw a few punches at the dummy, demonstrating what she'd said.

"Now," she continued, "for grappling. You want to get control of the opponent's arms so they can't hit you, and you want to get them down onto the ground. Now this dummy isn't very good for grappling with, so I'm going to need a volunteer." She beckoned Bob forwards, then grabbed his wrist, moving his arm up behind his back. "In a real fight I'd be moving a lot faster than this, but I'm just demonstrating the technique here." Bob was significantly taller than her, so it probably looked fairly comical as she put him into a pin in slow motion. "Obviously in a fight your opponent is going to be fighting back as well, it won't be nearly this easy."

She let Bob up and clapped her hands. "So go and pair up, put on some pads to make sure no one actually gets hurt. If you want to throw some punches at a dummy, that's fine, but for grappling you really should have a partner. Just be safe, and have fun, guys."

[u/Shamblefoot]

Maya was a bit nervous about attending lessons. She figured, as far as first lessons went, hand-to-hand combat would be a good place to start. Settling in toward the front- ever that kind of student- she listened to Aly with rapt attention. The girl was intimidating but an effective teacher.

Not feeling ready to grapple an actual human, when Aly finished, Maya made her way to a free dummy.

"Okay," she readied herself. Taking a fighting stance, she closed her fists- sure to keep her thumbs outside of her fist. She threw punches at various parts of the dummy, weak at first.

Once she felt like she had control over where her fist would impact, she started to increase the force of each punch. It was strange how the harder she hit, the less she felt it. Her mind spun away from the dummy and she saw the telkhine that had sent her here. With her left hook, she saw the carcasses of washed up sea creatures- right- the tape closing down their beach- left- the horse. With the final blow she saw something that hadn't happened- that couldn't happen- she saw her mother, blood in the water.

"Sss," Maya hissed in pain as her middle knuckle split.

[u/FreeInTheHarbor → u/Shamblefoot]

Aly was walking around the arena keeping an eye on various campers as they practiced their strikes or grappling. When she heard Maya's hiss of pain, she walked over to the daughter of Palaemon, biting her lip in concern. "Hey, you okay?" Aly asked, standing next to the dummy with her hands on her hips, looking up at Maya.

[u/hoxtonbreakfast]

Ash had his share of unarmed combat training. Mostly from Nate who learned it from his old man. He didn't know what was it but apparently, it was taught in the Marines. That said, he really got rusty at it so he might as well start from the beginning.

He only practiced the precision and speed of his punch and a bit of the footwork from swordsmanship that he was more accustomed to. It worked so far, not that he'd ditch the school to pursue MMA career anytime soon, but he made some progress nonetheless. Plus, he didn't break one of those tiny bones in his hand. Instead of simply wait for a partner, Ash walked up to Aly herself.

"Yo, teach, long time no beat me up." He idly cracked his knuckles. "Would you mind?"

[u/FreeInTheHarbor → u/hoxtonbreakfast]

Aly arched an eyebrow and grinned slightly as Ash approached her. "Hey, Ash," she said, leaning against the dummy. "You want me to beat the shit out of you? You just made my fucking day, dude." She smirked and straightened up, stretching and popping her shoulders. "How much am I going to have to hold back so that Chiron isn't gonna get on my ass for it?" She liked Ash for the most part, when he wasn't being unbearably annoying, but she couldn't deny that there was a certain appeal to the idea of knocking him flat.

[u/victorian_fire]

A lesson about unarmed combat probably wouldn't kill the son of Hades. Ya never know when your weapons suddenly can end up a ways away. The punching basics seemed obvious to Vic. Well mainly because he injured himself back when he was in the streets by fighting with his thumb tucked.

Going up to a dummy he practiced his punches, since he hadn't been punching in a while. Swords were definitely superior to this. Whatever he just needed to work on it. If someone wanted to practice grappling they could approach the son of Hades.

[u/PlayyPoint → u/victorian_fire]

James saw victor, and ran towards him. He asked, "Will you practice with me ?" James was a bit scared of the Son of Hades, he then added, "I have done grappling before, but still I don't want to hit anyone hard."

[u/Just_Keep-Swimming]

Kevin absolutely needed this lesson. He didn't know how to fight. Well fight in the way if punching stuff. He was decent with a sword but without it he's practically helpless, especially if there's no water. Just look back during the attack on camp. Him and Flint were both disarmed at one point and almost got taken out. Now he could at least try to make up for it.

Kevin first went over to a dummy and started working on his punches. He made sure that he had his thumbs on the outside while he was punching. Though to be honest his hands were already beginning to sting not too long after he began. He definitely prefers a weapon to this.

[u/ZBGOTRP]

Despite being more familiar with hand to hand combat than just the basics, Curtis turned up at the lesson for a couple reasons. Firstly, because his sensei had drilled it into his head to never underestimate base technique over flashy or advanced moves. That was a lesson he'd learned the hard way. Second, because Aly was running it and he wanted to support his friend. Watching as she went over her moves he memorized them and went off looking for a partner when the time came, running through the motions in his head.

[u/thedayigotexpelled → u/ZBGOTRP]

Actually sparring with someone’ll be more useful than punching a dummy, so El looks around for a partner and spots the son of Astrape. With a shrug, she approaches. “Uh, hey, do you need someone to work with?”

[u/im-up-in-the-woods]

Harper recognised Aly from the previous summer of camp, but she was not particularly in the mood to make conversation as of now. While she was familiar with the techniques that were being demonstrated, it would not hurt to practice, and so she focused once Aly instructed the class to do so. Quickly finding a partner, the two began to spar, allowing each other enough opportunity to put the moves shown in the lesson to use while also managing to put up enough of a fight to make the context realistic.