Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Break Out the Mats and Spar (Tag Martel)

Posted by Lieutenant Miranda Martel (Chief Engineer) in Break Out the Mats and Spar (Tag Martel)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Break Out the Mats and Spar (Tag Martel)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

The first knee, she took in the gut, but let out a sharp hissing breath, tightening her core as she bent forward. It was quick, meant to absorb impact, but and keep her from losing her breath. She kept her wind, but the strike still hurt. It had been a while since she’d focused on toughening and body hardening. Have to remember that for later. Hopping back, the second knee was out of range.

The engineer pivoted on the ball of one foot snapping out a low round kick, aiming for Bethany’s knee or calf at the back. Not so much to do damage, but hoping to tap her leg enough to fold it up and drop her, or knock it out from under her before she could set her striking leg back down.

Martel

After years of having to quickly learn and adapt, Bethany just had this gut feeling Miranda was going to try to stretch the space again with some leg work. In those close quarters Bethany couldn’t stop her from tagging her calf, but she swayed with it, and instead of resetting she let her self fall forward onto her forward foot. She pressed, keeping the close space for a moment. Then she suddenly stepped back and held her hands palm out. “Good. Let’s try some hand combinations.” She turned and grabbed a couple of focus mitts and slipped them on. Miranda didn’t like close quarters and preferred to keep her opponent at legs’ length. Bethany would guess it was the close quarters and not a lack of skill. So the focus mitts would let her keep that distance, but refresh those techniques.

Gadi

With Gadi escaping her counter, she frowned and immediately retreated, hands up, palms open and toward her. Peace before war. It would allow her to block, parry, grab. But was also defensive and showed no hostility or threat. Even without sparring. Something her old teachers had gone over a lot when it came to de-escalation. It was a great position to start or defend from, and could allow you to be in a ready position without setting off warning bells. In this case, she was just trying to avoid getting plowed in the face. But it was just as quickly apparent, Gadi wasn’t going on the offense. Then suggested some hand combos.

Miranda let out a deep breath and then nodded. Then frowned, realizing she was already out of breath a bit. Forgetting to breathe was the fast track to being gassed. Something she’d have to work on and get back. Taking a few moments he shook her arms loose and rolled her shoulders. Reaching up she checked her cheek where Gadi had caught her earlier then seemed satisfied it hadn’t split open. Little tender, but nothing a dermal regenerator wouldn’t fix in a minute.

Bethany had been out of breath for a good bit. Well, sort of. Her heart was racing, and she was breathing hard, sweating. Expected with a workout but she’d been teaching not soaring the last hour, so she shouldn’t be as out of breath as she was. The doctor had told her she was nervous, and hadn’t listened. Bethany was more than concerned, but she knew all to well that you simply adapted and moved on.

As Bethany returned, getting the mitts settled in place, she bounced lightly once, twice. “You know, I’m moving around all day in engineering. But actually moving like this feels good. Missed it. Haven’t done it in years. Thank you,” she said. A small smile splayed across her face as she closed in and reached out to set her range, squaring up with the security chief. “It’s not something you have to do, but … I really appreciate it.”

Martel

Bethany grinned and shook her self out, bouncing from foot to foot for a minute. She slapped the mitts together twice making a double pop sound. “Feel free to change up what I’m offering and aim else where, I’ll block. And if I don’t, well I’ll learn.” She raised the mitts, at first both forward and shoulder level, but as they worked she would change them, high, low, facing in and out and at different angles. Some positioned to take various kicks and knees. “I move all day, rarely do I actually sit at the desk they gave me. But this is different. Let’s your muscles and nerves come alive and breathe.” She nodded totally understanding and then chuckled. “Wellll technically it is my job to make sure the entire crew is up to date on their phaser certifications and hand-to-hand combat training. But I would gladly do this anyway. That’s what friends are for, right?” It was strange, Bethany had said that so many times, and though she had wanted to help those people they were never friends. Bethany was never the person they thought she was and she would never see them again. But here Bethany was herself, not some cover story, and she truly meant it. Gadi with a friend, who would’ve thought?

Gadi

A smile spread across her face as she bounced lightly on the balls of her feet. “Right.” Bethany was her only real connection on the ship so far. But even if she had more, Miranda would have considered her a friend. A good one, even. Maybe. It seemed to be mutual though, which only made her feel better.

Settling back down, she gave a sharp jab-cross, then repeated the combo. Then again, adding a hook. Repeat through the hook, then she added an uppercut. Each strike matched with her breathing, and at the same time she focused on form, pivoting in the right places at the right times, since there wasn’t the pressure of sparring. She settled into a rhythm of every strike setting up the next, creating counter-motions to generate power, speed, and flow.

Martel

It had been a long time since Bethany had made a friend. There was the D9 team, and Paddy was a good guy, but was looking for more than she felt prepared to give. Though that didn’t seem to phase the Irish counselor. There was Forgrave though, she wished she’d had time to contact him before they were shipped out. She hoped after the Dresden was decommed he’d landed on his feet. But Miranda was good people, she felt a little lost, struggling to Bethy, but made of stuff stronger and more pliable than steel.

Standard combos and drills. Then Bethany was adjusting her position to match Miranda’s aim. After a few minutes of that, “Alright I’m going to add some head level swipes to it, so you can add some ducking and weaving to your work.” The first few were slow just to get Miranda in the rhythm and then Bethany added speed, but no power and kept it random. Her goal wasn’t to land a blow but to allow Miranda to work both offensively and defensively.

Gadi

Miranda nodded. She’d already expected to get popped up side the head any time she dropped her guard anyway, but at least this was a nice change up. She took it a step further though and went back to focusing on footwork, changing range and position, forcing Bethany to follow her as she worked her way around. She used it too, to add in some kicks and closer-in knees and elbows. Not that she was trying to hurt. It was more target practice, going for anything open and pulling the strike if she was going to connect to something besides the focus mitts.

More than once instead of ducking, dodging, or even blocking, she turned into the swipe at her head or body, and blasted it with a strike of her own, or even caught it between her hands for a split moment, with one hand just above or below the elbow. In a real situation, that elbow would have been dislocated. It seemed the girl was big on limb destructions, but generally didn’t try to use them when sparring. But this gave her a more controlled way to train for them, with a little bit of resistence.

Martel

Bethany nodded as Miranda changed up the routine and started moving. It was more of an acknowledgement so that Miranda knew Bethany was following than anything. Bethany kept her power checked but increased the speed as Miranda began to move. Upping the difficulty almost to sparing level. Not to exchange blows but to get Martel’s mind and body moving, anticipating, and acting and reacting. When Miranda went for limb distruction, Bethany moved with it rather than resisting. Martel was not trying to follow through or hurt her, but it was good practice for Bethany. You couldn’t always prevent the damage but you could mitigate it.

They worked hard for half an hour before Bethany called a stop. “Alright, the 15 minutes warning will sound in about 10 minutes. You want to keep going, work the bags, or work and n some stretching and limbering?”

Gadi

OOC: Mind if I get in on this?

-Kieron-