tallgeese

today- mitt work 9, 2 min rounds of: -jab out of crash, sprawl v. shot -kick, jab out of crash, sprawl, combo -mitt and second man, combos to mitt, defend committed takedown from second man, combo again to mitts. 6, 2 min rounds of sparring, mma - heavy contact Now, I've got to clear my head of the cobwebs and try to get my nose back on straight .

Agreed. Get to using them. Drill heavily with kicking shiled, MT pads, ect. Do some target work live moving with a training parnter at low contact. Then bag work, alot of it. Now to sparring. Keep doing this, and try to use the kicks. Like bushido man said, try limiting yourself to a set of kicks and use them (while defending of course). We call this limited engagement sparring. Let your opponant know what you're doing so he can limit the contact level and the types of attacks he's throwing. A good parnter wile doing these drills will "feed" you openings for the kicks. Depeding on the trainees time in, I might make this very obvious, even stop moving a second to get him to hit it. Maybe even verbally coach him into for the first few time. Then progressively make it more difficult. Then work them in open sparring. Remember, the goal of sparring isn't to "win" a sparring match. It's to train. Getting hit is sparring isn't a bad thing, it's part of learning. So don't worry to much if you're game suffers while you're trying to utilize more kicking. That's part of it as well. Just make sure you're woring your other tools to keep them sharp. Lastly, be certain that your form is good when drilling. That might be part of the problem (maybe not as well- just covering the bases). Good form will make it mcuh easier to throw kicks (or anything) effectively.

John, I like the way you're thinkin... bushido man, yeah, it really seems that for this kind of training you can't go wrong. It's really an issue of cost for me. A cheaper tag would have one in my basement already. I'm sure something better will eventually come along. That's the nature of the beast. Maybe something that will cushion like the red man and move like this one. Until that material is developed, my money is on this everytime, even if you'll have more bruises when you're done.

Good point. I guess it depends on how far you're willing to stretch the boundries of change and what you'll call identifiable. John's method of going to the source is a good one as well.

Alright, this afternoon I got the chance to go in and trial the new Blauer "High Gear" armor that his company sells. Our department just got a set in so one of my friends in training called me up. This was so worth going in for on a day off. You should google it and check out the videos if you haven't. First off, a description. It's a suit consisting of headgear, body armor, shoulders, elbows and forarms, hip and quad protection that's integrated into a slide on girdle, and knee/shin gear. It also comes with mma type gloves. The helmet features a removeable eye shield. For those invovled in le and military appications, it is also capable of being used with sim rounds for force on force training. I was doubious that this thing could be as good as the vids made it look. Mobile and protective it was the next step in sd sims evolution. I had liked the concept of the red man, but despised how it acutually moved. More like a determined zombie than an attacker and if you wanted to cuff people, forget it. Mobility was not a problem in this suit. I felt like I could move almost as well in full armor with this as I do without. You could spar in this with little loss of efficiency. It seemed very durable. Construction was top notch and I saw no parts where I thought undo wear would occur. It was a bit harder to get on than the website suggested and there was a tad of fiddle factor with getting everything in place. Once there however, it stayed there thru our sims. As for protection, I thought that it was very good. You could eye gouge the face plate full tilt and I was never afraid that it was going to give. The head gear was great as far as visualizing your opponant and covered everything very well. The additional c-spine pad was a nice touch as well. The gorget, or collar was a bit uncomfortable, but I suspect this was more due to the newness of it than any design flaw. It added another level of protection around a very vunerable area that really let me feel like you could target this area with less to fear. The body armor was, I thought, most impressive. Simply because I have never found a set I liked. You can easily lay into it with elbows and be adaquately protected. The kidneys are covered as well, allowing you to tie up and swing away. The girdle is well made and padded enough to take the sting off stuff to the legs. When used in conjunction with either your advasery haveing shin or knee gear it worked really well. It was comfortable as well. Personally, I'd wear a cup with this eveytime. You have some padding, but not enough to target direct strikes to the region without causing damage. With a cup, however, the padding is a welcome addition and lets you strike to the groin activaly. The shin/knee gear, and the elbow/forarm set up is fine. They work and are padded well. Nothing here you haven't seen before. I did like the attackment system and they are easy to get on and off. The glove are gloves. Take 'em or leave 'em. For a couple of things. You won't have the same protection as red man. Not even close. Howeveer, there's enough and the ability to actually move like a real person is a more than adaquate trade off. The realism with our impromptu tests were far higher instantly than with red man. I tested it by taking some good knees to the body, kicks to the quad and elbows to the head and it's good. Personally, if I had uke san in the suit, and a strong defender, I'd put elbow and knee pads on the defender as well. MMA gloves as well. For heavy training in the thing, I'd also throw a set of kempo gloves on the suit, just so he could go harder at the defender. But that 's a minor quibble. All in all, I give it high, very high marks. The 1500 dollar price tag is steep, no doubt, and the wait is pretty good, they make these things custom. Still, they are very high end products that do pretty much what they say they do. They would be a very good addition to any schools arsenal of tools. It would be hard to tell people to go buy it if they have and ad hoc set of armor they have peiced together, but it sure made my wish list in a hurry. If you teach sim realted drills in your system or do much womens self defense, it's be worth the investment. Not to mention you could use it all or in pieced during your own training. As for me, well, I'm seriously thinking about getting one for myself. Haven't decided yet and I sure haven't told the wife I'm thinking about it, but it sure impressed me.

I know, I'm a broken record... Check out crossfit.com On their "exercises" section there are a ton of bodyweight exercises and stuff you can do with minimal room and equipment. Or equipment that you can construct yourself for very little. They'll also have segments dedicated to stringing those together for a more total workout. Check out the FAQ about the "offical crossfit warm up" or such. It's really good in and of itself. It should get the creativity flowing.

This one's kinda hard for me simply due to my backgournd. Preservation has never been at the forfront of my mind. Still, there are constantly things I'm doing and trying as part of my set up. Plus there are things I've seen other people do over the years that are along the lines of what you're talking about. -Getting rid of any "chambering" actions associated with striking or blocking. all hands should be moved to the head. -Remove all static blocking and move to a movement oriented defensive scheme where the attacking limb AND the target (you) both move. -Add spontenatiy drills when applicable. No matter what movements you're using they should be applicable on the spot not simply in one-step set ups. - Use of mitts and shield in realistic attack and defesne patterns. Again, no mater the movement keep both parties moving as if in a fight whenever possible. -Train to stirke thru the targets, not at the surface. -Contact sparring of some sort, sometimes at least. -Move from a technique based strategy (x black to counter y attack) to a priciple based one. -Get away from stances during any self-defense portion of training that cause you to be immobile in any way. -Cross train in arts that compliment weaknesses in your own. Acknowledge where you got the info from and integrate it into your syllibus. -Add modern weapons training to your platform. If you like trad weapons, keep doing them. Add knives, sticks, and guns to the syllibus. Get training needed to add these if you haven't done it before. -Use "rounds" during sparring and drilling to keep the intensity up and the rest down. That 's just some thoughts on the subject. Im certain that there are plenty of other things that could come up. These are the ones that jump out at me.

That begs the question, bushido man, what do you think of a junior ranking system? Would it be a handy thing to have in your opinion, or an overcomplicating factor? Just curious.

today- 20 min defending vs. knife attack 20 min defending vs. club 20 min gun defenses 3, 2 min rounds of free roll 3, 2 min rounds of free roll with strikes 3, 2 min rounds of free sparring, mma focus

That's a great question. It kind of depends where I'm at when I get the time to dig deep into a system again. If it's the near future, I'd probibly check out krav pretty hard. Lots of it's movements look very similar to what we do already, but I'd like to see how it's put together, to find out what's different and how it works. I'm also very interested in their weapons training. Very modern. If it's down the road a bit, like when I can't do the things I'm doing now as hard, It'd probibly some form of pressure point work. Probibly back to what used to be Ruy-kyu kempo (I understand they've changed the name now) since that's what most of my small joint manip. is rooted in. That's probiblly my choices. I think the idea of a sword art (again, when I'm kind of done with the beatings thing) would be pretty cool, but I can't see myself with the traditional sense to hang in with those classes, they are pretty formal.

Back when our association was more active in promoting such things we'd have a pretty good one every year or so. Everyone would come and teach on thier speciality. Lot's of things were familiar since we all came from the same source. It was still good training and I've held on to some of the stuff I learned there for years. I've also gotten the chance from time to time to go to seminars from organizations radically different. Aikido come to mind, the Phillipine arts, ect. Some were better than others, I can say that they are a great way to get exposure to things that you don't normally do and expand your knowlege base and get a feel for other things you might want to try. I ended up in a couple of shoot seminars back in the day that started me into competeing in that areas, which would lead to my mma days. So I can say that at some level they radically altered my ma career. I've still go some on my list to look into down the line.

Yeah, that's a lousy display and some sort of punitivie action should be taken. However, Tiger does make a point, rules need to be inforced. It's hard to blame competitors for getting out of line if it's been progressively toleraged all day.

Ok, I don't really pick up anything off the newsstands (or anywhere else) these days. So I was wondering, what is everyone's favorite martial arts realted magazine out there these days? Anyone got a favorite and why?

No real protocol at all that I'm aware of, just try to tie the knot right. Humerous story, another that I have yet to live down, I had been training alot (as has become custom for me) to train in shorts/t quite a bit prior to my bb test. Well, I show up to this thing and walk out of the dressing room with my belt tied wrong. One of the lower grades had to bring it to my attention so I could go fix it .

Yes, I utilize junoir ranks. I think it's important to teach good fundimentals to younger kids, but they can't and shouldn't be allowed to practice highly combative stuff 'till they've had a chance to mature a bit. For instance, we don't teach eye gouging and stuff to lower aged kids. Nor do we show them how to utilize or defend agaisnt a blade. We also have a mandantory firearms portion required for bb, obviously you can't ask a kid to do that. For the junior ranks, we use a -so suffex on the certificate, for adult ranks it's the -jutsu suffex. That serves to delinate the two. There is no differece in the actual look of the belt or uniform. For the really young kids, I don't even rank them. They earn stripes on their while belts, which they will keep until they are old enough to train in the -do version of the system. Then it's all the way through again. This stuff is mainly prepatory work for really learning later, not necissarly learning right now. Bear in mind, this is just how my group runs and a bulk of the people I work with are adults. The younger rankings are largely theoretical now aside for a couple of exceptions. That's the structure listed in the handbook I work out of anyway.

My shin is the primary striking surface no matter what the target is for rounds. Yes, occassaionally I will cut one up under the elbows. More likely though I'm dropping on at the leg.

When we wear belts it's up to the wearers discretion at black belt. Some have striped, some have custom work done, some (like me) just have the plain belt as it came. As for unis, kyu ranks and black pants, white top. BB's are all black. Again, when we choose to wear them to formal occassions. My typical "uniform" consist of shorts and either a t-shirt (sweatshirt for warm up) or burn protector (long sleeve for winter months).

Good Job!

In this scenario I think it's fine. You have to develop people along. Everyone's first command isn't necissarily the smoothest. This is the kind of thing you can to as an instuctor to bring people along. As to the giggles and such, I'd let it go as long as it wasn't over the top. Then, as an instructor, you have a talk with her later and go over some teaching points on how to best work crowd control. Next time it should be better.

Today- 6, 2 min rounds of mitts. Starting combo, defenive work, to tie up and knees 3, 2 min rounds of sparring, foucs on the work we just did on the mitts. 25 min heavy instructinal block (new people) on escaping the mount. Bumps, shrimps, and alternating between the two. Chaining the two as well. 2, 2 min rounds limited engagement rolling. escaping mount.

Welcome to KF!

I'd say it's a good idea. It will help keep your skills sharp that you've learned and help you develop up to the skill level of the "instructor" that you have. You'll probibly help him get better as well. It can be really rewarding. Some of my best training experiances are in someone's garage or basement or yard. Do be careful about contact, espically if your minors. That being said, mitt work is great. As is training on the kicking shields. Movement drills. Whatever the sd movements you were specifically working at the school continue, again, with caution. I'd also look into finding somewhere to continue learning. It's a different story if everyone there has studied for years, or you have someone who has in the group. That will keep the fresh material coming, as well as thetips to improve your game. Since everyone is a few years in at the most, finding another source might not be a bad idea.

Or. what we do is add things to the core of the art as they prove valuable, immediate use skills that prove their use over time. I'm not saying ad hoc things in, but really study other things and add them into your operational framework in a usable way. Sometimes you'll train them more frequently than others. We breakdown movements at an instructional level into three tiers: Primary, Seconday, and Terciary (can't even spell the word . We spend a bulk of our time training primary, less on seconday but still a substantial amount over time, and very little on the third . You'll still get those skills in time, but not as quickly as primary ones due to the frequency that you train them. They are broken down by that which we see as the most to least u seful. This model automatically builds in a break from the "bordom factor" by adding different elements from time to time. Elements that will eventually become part of the students overall response system.

I sent in an article on just this subject that is still in the system . Let me find it on my harddrive and I'll PM it to you. Might take a bit, my files are a bit all over the place.

Welcome to the boards!