Tuesday we arrived, stiff and tired. Christos has torn two different parts of his left knee in grappling. Nearing 40, he’s re-focusing on MMA and bare knuckle as the grappling injuries mount.
The gym is in a cinder block barn with two roller doors and a side door. The east half is an auto garage and work shop. Christos is a major gear head—motorcycles, trucks, guns, tools. Tuesday we walk in through the scattered refuse of work projects and training sessions. “Yeah, dude, I try never to leave water bottles around in a gym, but look at this. I need a trash can.”
The mats occupy a parking space in front of the west roller door. Behind that is a couch and a weight area. Behind that is a stunning piece of art. A circle with text that reads, “Our tradition is revolution and our land is where tyrants come to die.” Within the circle is a lady liberty with one bared breast holding a spear and placing one foot on the chest of a slain king, his crown fallen from his head and fetters from his hand. I liked it. Christos, whose lady looks like Ellie May with tattoos and a gun, and has just as many critters under her care, looked up and grinned, “Yeah, I’ve gotten some complaints that there are some Egyptian features to the woman. But its my gym. Besides, she has nice tits.” [0]
We did a bare-knuckle flow drill then switched to gloved sparring. 15 minutes in we both discovered that eating a plate of meat at the Mexican place down in town was maybe not the best move. We sparred as a way of reacquainting. I recalled to him that the day before the last time we sparred I thought I was having a heart attack. My brother said, “How could you put that on one of your guys?”
I responded, “Christos and I don’t know each other that well, Besides Christos is mentally tough.”
He agreed, “At east you’d die of something honorable. I was real sick once and staggering towards the bathroom and thought that I might hit my head on the toilet and die that way. All the fighting I did, to go that way—that would suck. How many of us die doing what we love? I come to this with the realization that a lot of my guys won’t make it, either physically, mentally, socially. It’s a necessary process. A gym is a filter—it does not admit everybody.
A second sparring round went as badly as the next. I took a knee on a high point for Christos, where he cut a good angle, and called it.
…
Yesterday we returned to the gym and cleaned it, the kind of thing I’m still good at. Christos worked on his extensive physical therapy routine, which includes neck and spinal strengthening exercises. The one where he climbs a Jiu Jitsu belt looped over a barbell on the squat rack in a 360 degree twist, is astonishing for my weak-ass to see.
As Christos was doing his PT, I built a snake for bare knuckle training.
150 feet of hard nylon is used to build the spine. 12 6 foot strands are looped at the top, suspended and tied off in a knot at the bottom. Duct tape is used to secure. The rest is coiled from the knot up to the loop and banded in three place with duct tape. We now have a spine.
A roll of clothesline is used to build the knot at the bottom.
Water bottle case wraps, bubble wrap, foam wrap, and three old T shirts are used to build a bulb at the bottom. Half the duct tape is expended in this cause.
One bundle of soft nylon rope [all rope in this is ¼ inch] is used to make two layers of coil.
A second bundle of soft nylon is used to reinforce the top loop, make a third descending coil, and build up the neck of the bulb where the soft material joins the coil.
Christos’s old back belt is tied around the waist of this training partner and secured with two turns of duct take.
The thing is then suspended leaving 4 inches of duct taped “skull” at the top, 20 inches of soft face/body targets descending to the bulb. The bulb can be used to block body shots, knee, hip check, or practice gut, liver and kidney shots. With low velocity punches it swings as much as it buckles. High velocity it buckles more.
This done, Christos and I gloved up. He wore MMA training gloves that have the knuckle pad rather than finger pads. He hates them for MMA. But, they train knuckle punching well. For the coach sparring gloves I used 12 ounce discount gloved that permitted knuckle punching. These should be prepped by wearing them and doing planks to form a knuckle punching face.
I think I lasted 40 minutes, but don’t know. It was a good session. We worked Christos orthodoxed then southpaw, without switching during the long untimed rounds. He improved his defense against the stop and jab with the circular jab. We adjusted his orthodox foot work to save the knee.
He of course goes very light on me, has since our first sparring last year. But he is strong. When he dings me in the left floating rib, where I have been KO’d 5 times in 43 years, I asked him to take it easy, he grinned, “I am taking it easy, OLD MAN!” and tapped me again. I cringed, “Easier, please!” hit him, and he dropped me with a double circle jab.
The safety aspect of my hip injuries is that any decent shot, even light, from a strong man, will cause me to take a knee, as I have trained myself not to resist at the hips since both of the labrum are torn and will not be repaired. The wrecked hips are saving the head.
It is such an honor to have a prime fighter carry me in sparring enough for me to help him on a few angles. We had fun and this old man felt alive for that time.
Later, on the porch, eating meat with his darling, he asked me, “How old are you?”
“Sixty-three.”
Looking at me as if into a yawning abyss with no measurable depth, he exclaimed, “Sixty-three—that’s old as fuck!”
…
Notes
0.) Men/youths of my generation regarded the actress who played Ellie May on the Beverley Hillbillies as the best looking woman in the world. Christos has the super soldier version of Ellie May for his mate.
