Again he tried to secure his dummy attacker in a vice grip, turning his body against the dummy's so that his back was to its torso, his foot coming down for another stomp while also bringing down the dummy's arm over his shoulder, hard.

CRACK.

There sound was distinct, and as far as he could tell, it hadn't come from him. He'd felt it though, on his shoulder, the force of the dummy's arm coming down over it. It would bruise, badly for sure, but he was fine with this.

.....

Throwing back his elbow into the dummy's torso, Zeke let go of its wrists and skipped a step forward, turning swiftly and raising his fists to protect his face.

The dummy remained standing, one of its arm limbs on an awkward angle at its elbow. He'd broken it? That, or dislocated it at least. Whoooooooooooooooops. Heh. Zeke grinned, wetting his lips slightly as he considered placing another few knocks before time was called.

Uuuuugh this was not fun. Rolling away from the now yet again advancing dummy the now somewhat sore first year simply pulled herself from the ground. She was going to be bruised she knew that already, it would take a miracle not to be bruised after this class.

“lets do this Dummy” she snapped as she saw it coming at her again reaching for her arm. WAIT ITS ARM WAS PALM UP and it was going to go down. Reaching her hand up she clasped it onto the Dummy’s arm and pinched down hard on the crook of its elbow.

LOOKITPROFESSOR SHE WAS BEING AWESOME. The dummy slowed but continued attacking, that is until the swift kick to its groin stalled it. “I did it” she squealed happily before moving away from the dummy once more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Rachel really did think that she had been gripping Ava's hand with great force but unfortunately, it didn't seem so. The Lion easily broke away from her hold with ease and before Rachel had a chance to respond, there was an attack coming her way. Using as much of her agility as she could, defended herself by raising her hand to deflect Ava's palm before it could hit her again. The first hit had caught her off guard.

Without waiting for Ava to get again, though, Rachel lifted a foot and brought it around the Gryffindor in an attempt to hook it around the girl's knee then pull it forward so that she would loose her balance. Yes, she was much more ready this time but would it work?

Wow. She couldn't help but amazed that Rachel could block her attack. Maybe she wasn't quick enough to give the attack? it could be. Ava remembered what her Karate sensei said that speed is also one of the key in order to defeat her opponent. Alright, she regained her stance and ready for the next attack but... DID RACHEL JUST LOCK HER KNEE? Merlin, she lost her balance and fell forward on her. Oops...

"Are you okay?" Hopefully she didn't injure her because Rachel was smaller than her... See? This was why she didn't want to partner up with a student, especially the one who was smaller.

Hugo received another rather skeptical look as he’d spoken again, both because Brooklyn wasn’t entirely sure what he hadn’t done and because she couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed anyone else when they were practicing with the dummies earlier. As far as she was concerned, he ought to have. If just because it seemed like prefects were supposed to watch everyone else, to make sure everything was going as planned. It seemed boring to her, but then there wasn’t any likelihood she’d be asked to be one. She wouldn’t want to, either, not when she had better things to aspire to. Prefects were still underneath the real power after all. The nod was enough answer to her, anyway. Partners it was.

She’d smirked a little at his gentlemanly offer to let her go first. Reaching forward, she clamped her fingers around his wrist and waited to see his reaction. Something told her he really was worried about hurting her, but she didn’t particularly have the same concern. Aside from preferring not to end up in the hospital wing.

"Eurrggh leggo!" the curly top tried to free his arm from the dummy. But this time it was surprisingly tight. Was he doing the right technique as what the Professor had demonstrated? "Glad you're taking this seriously now Mr Dummy." he goaded as he kept trying to free himself. Take a step forward, pull your elbow down then it should release yeah?

Keep trying keep trying keep trying...

Nothing.

But he found himself now standing somewhere off to the side of the dummy, almost behind it even, and has a clear shot of the dummy's leg. Should he take it?

But of course.

W H A C K! goes his foot to the back of the knee.

And down goes the dummy-- along with him.

"Whooooaaaaaahh!!!"

SPOILER!!: Kitty

"Thanks!" Kitty felt a surge of excitement as she realized that she WAS able to do this, despite her lack of physical strength. Whoever knew she would ever do good at Defense Against the Dark Arts? "Sure, let's do it again. Your turn now, right? Or do you want me to go again?" Now that she knew she could do it she was no longer worried about who would go next.

Hady offered the girl a small grin. "See, nothing at all to worry about. If you at least try that's all there is to it." Nothing wrong with trying. You could always surprise yourself like Kitty had just done. "You can give it another try and then I will." She reached forward and took the smaller girl by the wrist firmly just as she'd done before. "Whenever you're ready this time." It was all up to Kitty now and Hady was certain that she could get herself free just as she'd already done moments ago.

So far so good for both of them. Neither had any trouble getting their arm free from the others grasp. Even though she knew how to do it now and also knew that she was capable it didn't stop her from wondering if she would have the same success if she'd have been working with someone in her year or older.

He only signed him up? His dad did no fighting? "I am pretty sure that my father would have driven an instructor rather batty. He is very particular and precise about things." He probably would have taught the instructor a thing or two.......

The dummies? He wouldn't fight her? She was....sad. She was giving him a perfectly good, class friendly opportunity to put his hands on her and he wasn't taking it......She wanted to sigh, but....whatever. She just laughed at his wink and shook her head. "But you already do that."

He'd back her up??? Okay. She poised as the dummy came at her and she allowed her wrist to be grabbed. Once contact was made however, in one swift motion she stepped forward and brought her elbow down. Ilia felt the bend in the dummies wrist, then shot her arm up to release herself from its grasp. Only, she altered the trajectory of her arm as well. She didn't just pull her arm back, she balled her hand into a fist and as her arm came up she gave the dummy an uppercut punch.

Like her dad said, they can't hurt you if they are unconscious.

The protective clothing, Daxton had decided, was stupid. More significantly, if he paused to go and grab some for himself, that would completely interrupt the flow of energy that put him in the perfect beating-up-a-dummy mindset. Then there was the bulkiness of the cumbersome safety gear; part of the reason Daxton did not wear shoes was because they got in the way and made him too clumsy (the fact that his only pair were too small and very worn out may also have had something to do with it), so he was hardly about to dress up in what was essentially a shoe for his entire body. In any case, with his ear muffs over his ears, he would never get the headgear on as well, and they were not a sacrifice he was willing to make.

The dummies, then. Daxton was surrounded by them, he hardly needed to go looking for one to face. As it happened, he knew for a fact that there was one approaching him, just behind and to the left. He whirled around, dodging out of the way as it made a grab for his wrist. Yes, they were supposed to be practicing how to escape the wrist hold, but Daxton preferred to practice avoiding getting into that situation in the first place. He had a tendency to completely freak out when people touched him (which included grabbing, funnily enough) and that terror extended even to the hold of an animated dummy. There was no chance he was about to allow himself to be trapped.

Having nimbly side-stepped out of the way, staying up on his toes, Daxton quickly drew his arm back and slammed a full-force elbow jab right in the dummy's ribs. It was not listed on the board as a pressure point they were practicing on, but then Daxton had already veered off course from the lesson instructions in any case (as he had the tendency to do). Additionally, he knew for a fact that an elbow to the ribs could be debilitating enough if it was done just right.

Okay, that was terrible. She was really going to need a lot more practice if she was going to get this pressure point thing down. She backed up from the dummy and took another look at the board. This time she wasn’t going to randomly hit a spot, but pick a certain area.

Partly because he was a show-off, and partly because he loved the activity, Zeke opted to pay homage to the mornings spent training with his mum over the summer by unleashing a few of the simple moves he loved.

Stepping forward on his favoured foot, Zeke sent a jab at the dummy's throat, followed by an elbow coming down across the jaw, the smacking sound reverberating in his ears. There was pain in his hand and elbow, but he welcomed it, and it was nothing he couldn't tend to himself. Inhaling sharply, next he thrust a well-placed knee strike into the dummy's solar plexus, effectively knocking it back a pace. Not done yet and still with energy to burn, Zeke followed up the move with a cross to the nose, and finally a solid side-kick into the dummy's navel which put it down. It was down. He was the man.

Disarmed. Disabled... sure, it wasn't confined, but that was a rather small detail in the current context.

But he really just wanted to do this all over again.

Taking a moment to himself, the dummy being disabled, he watched some of his peers have their turns unbinding themselves from their opponents. It was amusing, and even impressive... mmhmm.

“I’m really bad at this,” she muttered to herself. This was a lot harder than she originally thought. It was a good thing she had the rest of the lesson to practice some more. She would definitely have to take this one step at a time. She was determined to improve some by the end of the lesson.

Protective gear helped, unless you weren't used to it and it hindered movement, or quickness and thats where she was now. She had to keep from getting the rest of her caught while freeing her wrist. Olivia was almost tempted to slip off her glove in hopes the dummy's hand would follow but that didn't seem like it would work all that great given the grip was keeping the glove pretty secure.

Come on Olivia....remember!

Movement forward, her body shifting closer to the dummy one step, which seemed counterintuitive but she wasn't going to question the professor just yet. Especially when the dummy's elbow moved as he said it would when she brought her own elbow down. With just a slight hesitation, the Ravenclaw then moved her arm upward as quick as she could manage. Her hand was loose but not quite free. Repeating the steps a bit smoother got the desired results and Olivia quickly jumped back and out of the way.

Henric blinked. Remind him not to **** off her dad...ever. About the sparring, he would love to fight his girlfriend but...he wasn't sure if he could control his strength around her. What if he accidentally hit her?! His heart would literally stop. He knew of course not to underestimate her fighting skills but still...his worrisome heart wasn't ready for it yet. Henric chuckled again while blushing slightly at her words. Awww...he wanted to squish her cheeks. So adorable. I don't mind sweeping you off your feet every single day," he teased back.

Time to get serious, Henric. He saw one of the dummy grabbed llia on her wrist and thought maybe she needed his help for one second but noo...it wasn't the case at all. She swiftly pulled her wrist away from its grasp and gave a good uppercut punch on the dummy's face! Henric stared at her wide-eyed. Oh merlin! He was wronged to think she would get hurt. It was HIM that was afraid of getting hurt. "llia, that was...that was absolutely brilliant!"

He wanted to try that too!!

There he went forgetting the most important part of this. With his most precocious smile he reminded his dearest cousin. "But we're bullies, Bentley. Our parents have been told we're the worst of the lot who are so ruthless we'll attack Prefects. Don't you remember the rotten little stinkers we are?"

And just as suddenly the smile was gone and one could see just how ridiculous the whole concept was. It was food. No one broke an arm or a leg. No one got sent to the Hospital Wing.

Not something he'd dwell on. Blaise reached forward to grab at his cousin, being sure to hang on as tightly as he could.

"Whenever you're ready."

Soon though 'cause he didn't wanna be hanging on forever while his cousin learned the proper way of self defense.

So he had a partner that was good. Though maybe he should have went with the dumny. Less chance od actually being hurt either by mistake or whatver. You never know.

"Yeah. That sounds like the best way. You escaping from me and I'm Dante by the way"

So now all the was left was to get started. Dante felt ridiculous in this protective oadding but as long as it worked he did not care. He grabbed hold and his wrists.

"Whenever you are ready"

Dante was going to be humiliated here wasn't he?

Sigh

SPOILER!!: Ava! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

Wow. She couldn't help but amazed that Rachel could block her attack. Maybe she wasn't quick enough to give the attack? it could be. Ava remembered what her Karate sensei said that speed is also one of the key in order to defeat her opponent. Alright, she regained her stance and ready for the next attack but... DID RACHEL JUST LOCK HER KNEE? Merlin, she lost her balance and fell forward on her. Oops...

"Are you okay?" Hopefully she didn't injure her because Rachel was smaller than her... See? This was why she didn't want to partner up with a student, especially the one who was smaller.

Beast's gigantic library! She had actually done it! She had actually managed to trip Ava! Rachel gave an excited little squeal and jumped up and down for a bit. then she smiled at her friend. "I am. Don't worry. These protective gear did its job. I trust that you are unhurt too?''

With that, Rachel held out her hand to give Ava a boost back onto her feet again. "That went well. Thank you for agreeing to partner with me.'' It was much fun to practice with someone else than just a creepy dummy.

Bella had decided that throwing punches wasn’t exactly working for her. She had never thrown a punch at anything in her life, so she had no idea why she had tried punching the dummy the last two times. This time around she planned on focusing on one thing at a time and practice until she was comfortable with it. She knew exactly where she wanted to start and certainly was nowhere higher than the torso.

“Okay, let’s do this,” She said, talking to herself a she took a moment to fix the protective gear she had put on. Once she was ready she moved closer to the dummy she was working with and it responded instantly. It wasn’t until it was moving toward her did Bella remember that it was going to more than hug them, but attack.

WOAHHH!!!!!

Bella stumbled backward as the dummy tried to grab her, realizing that it wasn’t easy moving with the protective gear on. She was a little too slow moving because it grabbed her by the wrist. Oh gosh, what should I do? She thought as she tried to pull her free, which fail miserably.

"Oh you're so right my bully buddy. I almost forgot that we are the worst scums of the earth with our bullying ways." He grinned. How could he have forgotten that they had earned themselves those titles? For shame!

Hmmm

How hard was he allowed to jam his cousin and where was the best place to do the jabbing?

When Blaise grabbed him, he pulled them both to the ground with a heavy thudd, then grabbed his nose and pulled on it. He was sure that would cause some amount of uncomfortable burning. Some how rough housing in class was not as fun, when it was something that you did all the time anyways.

Ilia smiled and blushed slightly at him. Sweep her off her feet every day huh? "Might be a challenge. Are you sure that you're up for it?" Yes, she liked their lovey banter. Only, she spoke quietly enough that everyone couldn't hear her because....well....she was shy. She was hiding their relationship from her family and the LAST thing she wanted was to be in trouble with a professor and have them owl her mother for it. Anything but for being too affectionate with him. That would be an emotional apocalypse waiting to happen.

Brilliant? She blushed a bit at the praise and bowed her head. "Thank you, it isn't hard. Speed and fluidity are the key. I'm sure they taught you some of that in judo right?" She would demonstrate for him. The dummy seemed ready to go again after she hit it, so she let her wrist get grabbed again. In more slow motion, she still lunged forward at the dummy as she dropped her elbow. Her hand was already making a fist as she popped her arm upward out of its grasp, connecting her fist with its 'jaw'. She vaulted backwards, back to his side and grinned. "Why don't you go for it, Mr. Prefect?" Yes, she liked teasing him almost more now that they were dating.

Janelle was all ears, as Professor Hirsch began to instruct them on how to get out of the attacker's hold. She took notes as he spoke, afraid that she would forget something important. How to get out of a wrist hold........got it. Janelle was anxious to try this technique. Surely it would take a lot of practice to perfect it. But knowing that you had a way out of a dangerous situation made her feel empowered. You didn't have to be a victim. You could fight back and win, or at least do some damage.

Oh they had protective equipment. Awesome. Hopefully it just protected and didn't impede movement or slow Janelle down. She walked over to the box and began to gear up. As Janelle put on each piece of padding, she felt more and more powerful. Knowing that you were protected from any serious damage, made a person feel more confident. She hoped that this classroom practice would make her feel more confident and prepared if she ever had to put this stuff to use. In Janelle's experience, preparation and repeated practice always made things easier in the long run. If you were in a situation where you didn't have time to think, hopefully muscle memory would take over and you would do the right thing. Hopefully.

Ok so he managed to knock that dummy down again, but it still kept its vice grip on his wrist. Gosh this bad guy was dedicated. Very realistic though.

But he saw the opportunity of both of them trying to find their footing again. Tenacius lunged at the just rising dummy, to keep it off balance, then suddenly seized his arm away.

-- and it worked! He was freeeeee.

"I'm freee!!" he jumped up and down excitedly, showing his freed wrist off to everyone in the room.

And suddenly the room spun upwards!

ADFASDFADFADF!!!! He was hanging upside down!

Neat so he did get to fight off someone...at least...taller than him. Though probably not that big in girth, he'll admit. "Awesome. I'm Tory!" Tory offered him his hand to let him grab it, and he did at that. "Okay Dante. I'm ready!"

The first year let out a soft snicker.

So here's how it's going to go!

Tory stepped forward as instructed and brought his arm down bending Dante's wrist in the process. He then jerked his hand free bring it up and out. So there he did as instructed, but Dante was his attacker! The best defense is offense as they say and well, Tory was gong to see how fast Dante's reflexes were.

He took a step forward pushing his head up almost like he was going to Headbutt the Taller Snake. He stopped short though only making sure that his Afro was getting all up in his face. Once that was finished he quickly jerked his knee up. Hopefully Dante would know to step back. The Padding was protecting the groin was it not?

Properly attired for her fight, Janelle made her way back to her dummy. The entire way there, she was thinking, elbow down, arm up. The professor had made it clear that these movements should be done quickly. Janelle practiced the movements as she walked, but this was definitely not the same as doing it for real. As she reached the dummy and stood in front of him, Janelle's brain was working a mile a minute. She had to make this work.

And then.............the dummy started moving toward her. Janelle knew that it would not be so easy this time. There was no cockiness in her manner, only serious concentration. If she was going to defeat this dummy, Janelle had to have all of her wits about her.

The dummy got closer and suddenly, it grabbed her wrists. At least Janelle had the advantage of knowing this was coming. In a real attack, the attacker would not be so predictable and she would have no time to prepare. With her wrists firmly in the dummy's grasp, Janelle, yanked her elbows downward. Then she quickly jerked them upward. In theory, this should have worked. Unfortunately, it did not. It only seemed to make the dummy's grip on her wrists tighten. OK, that wasn't supposed to happen. Now she had lost the element of surprise, if it was possible to surprise a dummy. While she was tempted to start kicking the attacker, Janelle knew that she had to free her wrists. Think fast and try again.

Tia was pleased with how well she tackled the dummy in the mini activity part. Defense wasn't necessarily her strong part, mostly because she tended to overthink too long and not act on impulse. She was practical, as Dakest had giving her that title last year from the dueling club.

But practical didn't make her any better at acting on impulse and sometimes acting on impulse and on what real people were doing was good to know. She was content to work with the dummy though, because it was easier than socializing and figuring out who needed a partner. Though if someone wanted to partner with her, she wouldn't object.

Donning safety clothes that Hirsch had set out for them, the seventh year went back to her dummy after first gazing around to see if anyone wanted a real partner. She noted Janelle also by herself but she too was practicing with a dummy and maybe she wanted it that way?

They could always practice first with the dummies, which is what she did. Standing, watching and waiting for the dummy to come at her. She would let the fake person make the first move. No sense in starting anything.

It didn't take long before the dummy moved at her and reached for her wrist ... how did it even know where her wrist was? Magic. Tia just stood in awe, contemplating the magic involved in the creation of the dummies, as her dummy's digits closed around her wrist . . .

"Wait whoa!" Quite suddenly, he was being dragged to the floor with his cousin and his nose was burning something fierce. He released him, thinking it better to hold his poor nose that was in danger of falling off. "Mate...not cool." Maybe he could try aiming for somewhere more...oh...say...PADDED next time.

Them now being here, Blaise also found the temple to not be so out of reach and though it was no longer defense, the young Gryffindor still reached over and thumped his cousin as hard as he could in the temple--BECAUSE THAT'S LISTED ON THE BOARD, THERE SEE!

Now he was perfectly defended and could rise to proper attack again.

"I think this means you're losing." You know...because he got up first and that was CLEARLY what this whole exercise was about?