tallgeese

today- Drilled some gi stuff from BJJ with my group. Worked through the spider guard set up and then sweep, triangle, olmo plata series from there. Really worked through to de la riva postion as well. Free roll for 40 min. Worked on flow and relaxation while continuing to work for things.

First off, welcome to the boards. As to your question, the truth is that it's extremly difficult to learn new martial skills without someone there to really teach you the fine points of the movements and the principles behind them. MA's are more than just a list of movements, they have to be constructed and fitted together properly to work well. That's hard to get without someone who is familiar with the whole process. You can actually do more harm than good if you build in bad habits unknowinly. That being said, you can keep your old skills sharp. You should have the understanding of those to drill them properly. If kata is part of your system, drill the ones you know. Really focus on the little things to make them perfect. Then there is always the tried and true heavy bag for drilling strike work. Lastly, try really hard to find a school that can fit to your schedule. Or at least skilled training partners you could work with informally. Some of the best traning I've ever done has occured this way. A single training session per week with a skilled partner is probably woth more than days and says of dvd viewing. In my view, books and dvds should suppliment training that you are already familiar with, or simply be used to get a surface feel for something new. Good luck and keep us posted.

I'd be careful with the heat or warm on an acute injury. Ice is the preferred treatment for the first 48-72 hours. This causes capillaries to constrict and allow less blood to the damaged tissue. This results in less swelling around the injured joint and thus will allow faster recovery post injury. Heat will have the opposite effect and will actually increase the swelling of the injured site beyond even what the body would normally produce. This can be detrimental to a speedy recovery and even cause longer natural healing due to the inner pressure created by the fluid. Now, post 72 hours heat is the key. Now, it will make all that tissue more malleable and allow you to start moving more. It will also help the body milk out all of that gunk that has accumulated there post-injury. Even then, cold is recommended after a workout or rehab session. There are some interesting studies coming out using alternating heat/ cold during the acute phase of injury (0-72 hours). It's been used post acute and chronic for years but we'll have to wait and see what the final verdict is. Admittedly, I don't keep up like I used to when I was in the field.

today- 1 mile run legs 10 min of cool down on Boomer. Linked the pass drills from earlier in week with the side control series from last night, both sides.

Glad to hear you have the opportunity to study in JKD. I think you'll find it a good contrast to what you've done before. Good luck and keep us posted.

yesterday- BJJ nite: Drilled more work from side control series. Heavy focus on transitions and keeping weight heavy. Really hit a high side and the move from there to north/south. Finished with rotating drill of maintaining top and trying to escape bottom. Constant motion. Free roll or 35 min at the end.

I'm not disputing the claim over recovery drinks, but I'd like the source material on that. I haven't seen those studies and would be very interested in the science on that. As to supplements, alot of the hype is over blown and most recreational athletes can easily get by on a good diet and a decent multi-vitamin. If you're looking into bulking with the weights look into Animal Pac products, they have some good stuff that I've seen work pretty well in the past. Also, make sure your considering the reasons you're hitting the weights as well. You might find that if your goal is to compete that you won't want the bulk in regards to weight classes. That might not be your thing, but if you're thinking that way, seriously look at where you'll optimally compete at before striving for 200 lbs. Bushido man is certainly correct in looking at your goals and specifically designing your workout protocol around that. I've gotten back into the competition scene lately and have looked at where I roll best at for the ground game. That mandates I give up on looking big and focus more on other types of resistance training programs. This means I'm more advantaged in the right weight class and can actually get there without starving myself into a stupor. You'll also find that your goals might change. Just stay on top of what you want and be sure to modify whatever you're doing to maximize that. That may or may not change your views on if you need supplementation or not.

It's probably a sprain, likely you tore up one or more of the major ligaments between the tibia and the talus. Still, I'd second getting a doc to look at it. You never know if you fractured off part of the bone on a serious one. It might change the course of treatment a bit. Get a doc to look at it. An ortho specialist if you can and until then keep the weight bearing to a minimum and hit the ice and elevation alot. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Very nice. Good luck!

today- back/bis 4 mile run 15 min of repping pass sequence again on Boomer, really focused on placement and tightness of everything. Drilled the more complex facets of Monday nite's pass.

today- 2.5 mile run chest/tris 20 min of drilling pass work from last night on Boomer.

I really enjoy biking. But I tend to run far more for workouts. It's just easier to put together than going biking, that's all.

today- BJJ nite: Focused on really getting pass technique down. Started with a shoulder crush pass and followed by a more complex passes. Finished with arm bar drills without the use of arms. Free roll for 40 min in 5 min blocks. Worked at 30 percent today with the idea being to keep moving and working 100 pecent technique. No muscling things to position. Keep on opening the game and moving. It worked really well.

Strikes need to snap out there to deliver kinetic energy to the target. The rub is, the target needs to be visualized through the target, not at it's surface. You can beat up the surface of someone all day and not hurt anything structurally enough to do damage or stop their aggression. I like to use focus mitt drills for this sort of thing. Punches should be snappy and return directly along their original flight path, but they shouldn't hit the mitts, they should strike through them, pressing force into the hands and skeletal structure of the holder.

today- 1 mile run legs/abs 15 min of drilling side transitions from last night on Boomer.

yesterday- am- back/bis pm- BJJ nite: Focused on variations of holding side control. Then worked round robins of moving thru them with transitions. Finished drilling by adding knee in belly option and having partner feed one of two submissions. Really good drill. I focused alot on north/south and streamlining my posture off it. Made good progress.

Thanks, bushido man.

Hello and welcome to KF!

am- 6, 2 min rounds of sparring drills. Start with slipping the jab, add bobbing from the hook, work in conjunction. Finish with limited engagement sparring with the above combos. 3, 2 min rounds of boxing work. 3, 2 min rounds of kickboxing. 15 min drill of escaping half guard 4, 2 min drills of escaping side mount. 1, 3 min round of free roll. Really focused on working the newer stuff I've been learning here. Went well. pm- 6, 2 min rounds of the same drills from the am. I just felt like sparring today, as well as spending time drilling the slip myself. Added 3, 2 min rounds of adding a double leg takedown onto the end of the above drill. Started by switching and in controlled set ups, finished with limited engagement sparring on it. 3, 2 min rounds of sparring, boxing and the double leg only. 20 min review of passing guard and drilling reps of various escapes. 2, 3 min rounds of rolling for escape of the guard only.

If you want to keep learning new things, you'll need a teacher of some sort. It need not be formal, but it easily could be. To refine one your own, you'll at least need good training partners to experiment with.

I concur, the round defiantly lends itself better to follow up. Certainly over a side kick. Bear in mind, we're talking about follow up combinations that produce full contact quality damage. The other reason that you see more of them is that the target is generally lower. The outside/inside of the quad is the main attack seen. I know, you'll also see body shots and the occasional one to the head. These last ones always make the highlight reel so it's easy to think they happen all the time. But in reality, a vast majority go to the leg. This has the effect of being harder to catch or trap, thus keeping a striker on his feet longer. It also keeps one's center lower and more grounded, again, keeping a striker up longer vs. a grappler. For those guys who don't strike alot, it's also fairly easy to learn and integrate into grappling stance work and timing. So it's less time intensive in it's training time to application for them.

I disagree that contact is a non-issue. Regardless of who hits first and quickest, it's meaning less if you don't train to actually have power behind it. Too often semi or non contact fighters I've seen can point people left and right, but ask them to actually hurt someone and they are hard pressed to do so. This is not a fault of the art but of training methods. If that's one's focus, that's fine, but being a phenom at point fighting might not translate to skill in real combat. If fighting for sd is your focus, then proper sparring is crucial, this will include some contact. I'm not talking about going to a non functional state each time you step on the floor, but working varying levels of contact that do occasionally mean that you're going to put some hits on.

today- 4 mile run chest/tris/abs 20 min or reps on Boomer (my 5 year old's name for the grappling dummy). Set up spider guard, triangle, swept to mount. Then drilled transition to side and sub series from there.

Sounds pretty normal to me. And yes, soreness post activity is pretty normal as well. I wouldn't worry about it unless it drags on fro signifigant time and causes pain instead of mere soreness.

today- BJJ nite: Drilled more from entering the spider guard frmo full. Worked on really gettnig the hip motion needed to set up submissions and sweeps rom here. Finished by drilling triange and sweep from the spider. Free roll for 50 min. Spent time really relaxing and transitioning from position to position. Didn't focus on using pysical attirbutes to get things done, really worked thru lots of technique. Including some I'm not that good at to try and build my skill set more. Good roll came out of this.