Ways of the Spear [attn; Locke]

[Avyra]

Avyra wasn't worried about falling, so she nodded. She had been practicing, of course, but there was only so much she could practice in her small room, especially when Seonin was in there doing her work. The tiny Carihienin mimicked his form, standing up on one leg, holding the other one up and over her knee. Already she was slightly wobbly, but she told herself that she would stay up. And she did. Her balance already looked good, even without the exercises. She just seemed to have naturally good balance. But holding herself up with one leg made life so much harder, and she eventually dropped back to both feet, shaking them out before trying the other leg, her left, and held that too. "How are we gonna practice grapples?" She paused to shake out her form after a moment longer before returning to the stance. "You just hold me down and see if I can escape?"

[Locke]

Terric

He wasn’t quite sure if he was supposed to laugh at her remark. Instead, he let the Void melt away and said, “We won’t be doing anything that aggressive yet. Like with everything else, there are fundamentals.” He lifted his arm and gripped it around the wrist with his other hand. “If somebody grab’s your wrist and you really want to escape, yank your arm towards their thumb. It’s the weakest part of the hand.” He yanked down freeing his arm. “Here, let’s try a few times,” he said reaching out to grip her wrist. “If you have trouble yanking your hand free, don’t be afraid to grab your fist with the other hand and pull.”

They repeated the maneuver a few times with both arms until Terri was sure she had the hang of it. “This next maneuver should be extremely helpful for somebody, your height. An opponent might try to use their reach and grab your face or hair to control you. Here is a way to break free. I’m going to put my hand on your face. When I say go, I want you to put one hand on top of that hand, and the other on my wrist. Let yourself drop, pretty much to a knee. It should hyper extend my wrist forcing me to let go to escape the pain. For the sake of training, if I say halt or tap three times, you stop what you are doing no matter what. Just like we did with throws. We train like that to avoid unnecessary injuries. All right,” he reached out, his large hand covering most of her face, “Go!”

[Avyra]

He dropped his stance and she did too, and he walked a bit closer. “We won’t be doing anything that aggressive yet. Like with everything else, there are fundamentals." He grabbed his own wrist and began to demonstrate, explaining to to pull her arm down to dislodge her own hand. She nodded, and he took her wrist in a gentle but powerful grip. It was like being in a steel trap; her hand wasn't coming out for a while. “If you have trouble yanking your hand free, don’t be afraid to grab your fist with the other hand and pull.” She tried to pull her arm free by yanking down, but it didn't work. She hardly felt him shift. She set her jaw, obviously struggling. She finally decided to use both hands before using her entire body to break free, feet digging into the sand. Eventually his grip broke, either from him being merciful or her prevailing, but she nearly tumbled backwards when it did from her momentum. The same continued. She couldn't use just one hand, she had to work her entire body into the move. The only problem was the fact that she tumbled backwards when she did, causing her to actually fall on her back a few times in the sand. But slowly, she was able to work up her speed of escape. He called time and she looked over to him, breathing heavily. “This next maneuver should be extremely helpful for somebody, your height. An opponent might try to use their reach and grab your face or hair to control you. Here is a way to break free. I’m going to put my hand on your face. When I say go, I want you to put one hand on top of that hand, and the other on my wrist. Let yourself drop, pretty much to a knee. It should hyper extend my wrist forcing me to let go to escape the pain. For the sake of training, if I say halt or tap three times, you stop what you are doing no matter what. Just like we did with throws. We train like that to avoid unnecessary injuries. All right-" He paused, taking the moment to cover her face with his huge hand. She resisted the urge to shrink back. "Go!" She squeaked when he called go, not expecting it, and took both her hands and slammed them onto his wrist, dropping down to her knees quickly.

[Locke]

Terric

Terric’s shout of “Go!” jumped in pitch as Avyra grabbed his wrist and yanked down with all of her might. He staggered forward managing to catch them before they went down in a heap. His grip however, did not break. “You just pulled my wrist,” he said as they resumed their starting positions. He was slightly aware of a new ache in his shoulder. “You want to bend my hand back. The wrist dropping is part of the action. Place one hand over the back of my hand, and the other on my wrist.” He waited for her to comply. “Let’s do it slowly this time. My wrist should be moving straight down. My hand will fold back and the pain should cause me to lose my grip.” He should have had her start slow in the first place. The growing ache in his shoulder would be a good reminder. “Ok, now slowly. Go.” He said this dragging out his words.

[Avyra]

He didn't let go! Avyra gave a soft grumble, getting back to her feet. “You just pulled my wrist," he said, evenly. He explained what she was doing wrong, and she nodded, this time putting one hand on his wrist; she couldn't even wrap her entire hand around it, and one hand on the one currently smothering her face. “Ok, now slowly. Go.” Avyra still wasn't sure she understood, but she decided to try it. She slowly let herself drop to her knee again, hoping maybe it would break her free.

[Locke]

Terric

This time, after making the proper adjustments, when she dropped, she properly bent his hand back. Terric tapped on his thigh and let go as his wrist was pushed beyond its normal range of motion. Thinking to himself that he should have stretched first he said, “Good you’re getting the principles. Let’s try this a few more times slowly then we’ll speed up.” He reached back out to take hold of her face. It was remarkable just how tiny she was under his callused hand. She had a lot of spirit, he would give her that. She managed to pull the maneuver off at a quicker speed, placing one hand on his hand and the other on his wrist, and he found himself quickly letting go as his hand was folded back on itself.

“Good job, you learn quickly,” he said massaging is wrist. “We’re going to move backwards for a moment. Revisit breaking free of wrist holds. Last time, you were using way too much effort trying to break free towards my fingers,” He held up a hand making a ring, thumb and middle finger meeting. “See this space,” he pointed to the place where the tip of his thumb met his fingertips, “This is where you want to try to break away towards. Taking the path of least resistance is usually your best option when dancing the spears.” He reached for her wrist. “Ok let’s try again a few times. Then I’ll show you how to break out of headlocks.

[Avyra]

Being in these positions made Avyra very uncomfortable. She knew Terric wasn't going to harm her. Although strong, all of his holds were gentle. But still, it was rather unnerving to have her face engulfed by a hand that could probably crush her skull. But she tried to not let that get to her too much. She learned fast, eventually able to break the hold rather easily and quickly. He eventually paused them, taking his hand from her head and massaging his wrist. “Good job, you learn quickly." She couldn't help but smile. "We’re going to move backwards for a moment. Revisit breaking free of wrist holds." He quickly explained what she had done wrong, holding up his hand for demonstration. She nodded once he was done, and he took her wrist once again in an iron grip. "Okay, let’s try again a few times. Then I’ll show you how to break out of headlocks." She stopped for a moment, eyes widening up at him. "... Headlocks?" She couldn't help but glance at his arms. They were perfect for being carried in, not so much being trapped in. But she pushed that thought out as she worked on breaking free from his wrist once more. She jerked her own hand in a sharp motion, cutting towards where his fingers met. Maybe that would break it.

[Locke]

Terric

Grabbing her left hand with her right, Avyra jerked with all of her might. Terric realized that she might have some difficulty, her writs were small enough that his fingers did overlap slightly. She managed it however, and broke free, staggering a bit. “Good, now you either turn and run or you go for a weapon and remove your opponent from the equation. Either option is valid, it just depends on your current situation. You will become better at snap decisions with experience. You’re doing a good job.” From his time training under Vishik, he knew how important encouragement was, as long as it was honest. He had also learned the power of self-critique. Maybe she would be ready to critique herself soon. The key was to separate emotions like pride or doubt from the equation. Look at one’s own performance as objectively as possible and verbalize what was done right and what was done wrong. Both were equally important.

He was preparing to move on to headlocks when something occurred to him. “Avyra, you seem nervous about training. We can stop whenever you want.” If they were to continue though, she would have to face her fears. He just didn’t want to push her further than wanted to go. This training had been her choice after all.

[Avyra]

Avyra nodded as he spoke, telling her to either run or turn and fight. She would rather run from most situations. Turning and fighting, especially a man Terric's size, could end badly for her. It wasn't worth it; if she could run, she would. He paused, then. “Avyra, you seem nervous about training. We can stop whenever you want." Avyra shook her head. "I'm fine. Let's keep going." She was very nervous, that was obvious, but she also didn't want to stop. For Light's sake, she was sparring with Terric. The actual human embodiment of a sweetbun. He wasn't going to hurt her. But she was still nervous.

[Locke]

Terric

He nodded. She was obviously still nervous, but she wanted to continue training. It was her choice. “Ok,” he began his new topic, “The first thing you want to know about escaping head locks. Keep your air ways open. If you can breathe you can fight back. Once they take that from you, they have you. In most situations, opening up your airways is quite simple. Just turn your chin towards their elbow. It’ll be bent and there’s a natural gap. If you are being grappled though, you need to maintain presence of mind to respond properly instead of just panicking and flailing. That’s actually the secret behind everything I will be showing you today. These aren’t super complex moves. Many won’t be too helpful against an experienced wrestler unless you catch him off guard. They are helpful for breaking free from the random goon who things he can just grab you. Once, you’ve turned your chin towards their elbow,” he said returning from his tangent, “You can work on escaping. I’ll show you a few different methods. There is no guarantee you will be able to do any of these at any given time but they are arrows in your quiver. The more you have, the more likely you will find one that works.” He brought his hand up to his face, pressing his thumb against his eye, “If you can reach, try pressing your thumb into their eye. That usually is enough to make them stop, if not keep going until they lose the eye. Losing an eye is never good for moral. This second method works best if you are wearing hard souled shoes but can be done barefoot if necessary.” He knelt pointing at his shin. “Shins are extremely sensitive. This is honestly a good response for any unwanted grabs from behind. Place the outside of our foot against the person’s shin and stomp down on the foot as hard as you can scraping the shin. When we practice these I want you to go slowly and remember to listen if I tap or call a halt.” He made his voice gentle and reassuring, “Now, I am going to put you in a head lock. Tap out if you think you need to, there’s no shame.”