tallgeese

Pretty much the same way. The difference becomes that they get put higher on the priority scale than you do. Also, your awareness skills come into a much higher play in and effort to aviod trouble all together. Your positioning will usually put yourself in a more exposed position than that of your charge. Think about it, when you have your kids with you, I'd put money on you walking inbetween them and anyone that looks shady in the mall. Same priinciple. I usually feel that I will ratchet up my response to just about anything when my kids are involved. Not off the deep end or anything, but it will take less for me to move up he force continuum. (My personal rule for my kids in public is that I won't let them any further from me than I can make good center mass hits on an abductor, but that's just my twisted thinking). Just some thoughts.

Yeah, you could get alot of mileage out of a big-ole shield, that's for certain. I've got to second that one. Every big melee i was in during my SCA days I opted for this combo. Every thing else was too one dimensional and too easily countered to be considered for me.

I'd give it a chance.

The Unit on CBS. Supernatural. Smallville (God help me). Maybe a few others I can't think of right now. Can I cross my fingers and hope for a Walker: Thexas Ranger reunion special .

My idea of a warrior has more to do with mindset than anything else. Certianly, I've met many ma-ist that wouldn't qualify as warriors. Same could actually be said of some soldiers I've met, cops as well. Warrior, I think, means that you are an individual that accepts that someone might try to kill you today, and as such, you train in anticipation of that event. If you are doing this, your mindset will automatically fall in line for what is neccissary for the "warrior" qualification. Naturally, you will mind more individual that are accepting of this in armed professions, soldiers, cops and the like. However, anyone who accepts the reality of their training and what it is for, can learn to become one. And belong to one of the aforementioned professions dosen't necissarly make a warrior. It's about why you're training and how you're training. That's a warrior. Are you really training to use you skills to defend agaist a life threating attack, are you training to kill if needed. Then you're at least becoming a warrior. It has to be more than words, it must be action, guided by mindset that leads you deeper into this calling. How "real" is your training? An improtant question to ask. As is "will i use this if needed". Many will find that the answer is no. There are also tiers of warriorhood. Some are more completely absorbed in the lifestyle than others. Most of us probibly go up and down a warrior continuum from day to day. That's okay. It's the striving, the training and the mindset that push us along for the ride. There it is in my book. No real philosophical outlook (probibly no suprise to anyone who knows me), just a mindset in preperation of combat. Great question to pose bushido-man. Looking forward to the posts.

Yup, any kind of jumping (rope, ect.) will help. As will any plyometrics (box jumps and the like). You can also get a lenght of resistance tubing and work the ankle in all four primary directions to help with the small stabilizers. 3 to 4 sets fo 10-20 every day will certianly show improvement. Don't forget (and I don't know what you're doing already so I apologize if you're alreay active in these) running and lifting. Just the constant stabilization will yield generally better results.

Alright, back in business. Today was good, really high intensity. 4, 2 min rounds rotatin between the double ended bag and the heavy bag. 10 min of drill on escaping the mount 30 min of free rolling

Thank you, like I said I borrowed the phrase from a fellow range officer and swat guy. Still it pretty much sums up the way I feel. I explain it to all the new guys I train at the dpt. The respone I usually get from the guys that work with me is that considering how much ammo i usually have, that 's gonna be a really bad day .

Agreed, situations change rapidly. More rapidly than most would suspect I think. Still, the best you can do is react to the circumstances as best you can and train to keep a fluid mind. This will help one adapt as needed. Additoinally, training with simulations that allow for a spontaneous threat and non-designated responses will also train one's mind to this facet of combat.

Gonna' have to quoate a good friend of mine here. "No one wants to die at work, but if it has to happen, I hope it's with my slide locked back on my last empty magazine."

Congrats!

All I got in today was about 20 minutes of climbing on the wall. I was teaching my daughter and got the oppotunity to get laps in inbetween her efforts. Not bad for a fast burn, but a bummer since I'm gonna be tied up with family visits all weekend and probibly won't have time to train. It was a real burn on the fingers and forarms, and remined me that I haven't done that much since I got back from vacation. I'll have to work it into the rotation a bit more.

While we're all trying to sell our favorite workouts Throwdown , I'll put in my 2 cents for a sight called crossfit.com It's an excellent resource for core strengh and it's the best thing I've had happen for my ma conditioning in years. You just have to ignore some of the more militant members . It's worth checking out.

Exactly, hydrate early and often. Also, if your place is "old school" about not allowing water breaks, I'd talk to the instructor and try to politly bring him up to date on the scientific reasons for these things. I've seen alot of places not do their students any good with this policy. Of course if you're cutting weight for a fight...

Congrats!

Bushido man- what variation are Austrailian pull-ups? Might be nice to add them to my rotation. Light one today- Legs shadowboxing- 3, 3 min rounds unarmed. Yeah, I think my sleep will sort itself out. The schedule is really making me and my training partners work to find "class" time. Again, I think this will get easier too as I live the schedule a while. Still, it's been worth it.

I typically set up an off balance postion and throw one or two punches from there, then practice naturally flowing back to a more balanced position and firing another combination from there. Sometimes, I'll actually et up a combination that leves me off balance, then punchr from there and recover. For instance, I might do a jab-cross to the mitts. Then have the mitt holder punch at me and I'll retreat. Only I won't move my feet and just lean back to far, way off center. Then he'll just present them again and I'll trhow a fast jab or backfist, even an eye gouge to the mitts as a stun. Then I'll bob back to proper position and fire another combination. It's just an example, you can subsitute just about any wepaons you wnat in there at any point. And any off-balance posutre for that matter. Bushido man's right. Fights are dynamic and dojo prep need to account for the possibility that sometimes you're working from a negitive position.

The amount of times you train per week really should be govered by what your body is telling you. As long as you're recovering. 3 times should be fine. If you're falling behind physically, back off for a few weeks and then increase.

I agree, good post and points. I always appreciated your thoughts ps1, I just disagree slightly on this. However, I would just like to point out a couple of responses. First off, any good fighter should be varyingh is game to fit the opponat he is fighting at the time. This should be true no matter whay system you're out of. MMA simply gives you a larger set of responses than many more traditional arts. Due to the competivie nature of it, one also has the advantage of reviewing tapes and such. For systems designed for steet use, the only thing that changes is that you have to do your opponant's skill assessment on the spot and adapt as the fight progresses. Secondly, I think that most competitors with a background in more traditional arts often tout these as a background. Not what they are actually doing in the ring. Anyone can see that these athletes are not confined to what ever their black belt is in while in the ring. BJJers are punching better and better as are wrestlers, and MTers are sprawling with the best of them. No one is operating under any "style" that they have. I see your point with the terminology, I just respectfully disagree on it's importance. Heck, most schools with Japaneese backgrounds can't call the stuff the same thing (certainly not pronounce it right). I gave up trying to approximate another language a long time ago. Pretty much if it looks like a duck.... Really, only your more elite fighters h ave more than one or two coaches. A bulk of the guys training out there right now have a couple at most. Remember, I think that this is part of the evolutionary process. This next generation of MMA guys will come out and coach and fell less of a need to have more than one coach work with a fighter. As far as getting more people to work with your guys, who in a traditional art hasn't done this? If someone in your system is better at forms, you probily have him work with someone who needs to get better at them. It's true across the board. As for the set curriculum, it's coming. As close as fighting to haveing anything set that is. More people are becoming more knowlegeable all the time. When I started competition, what feels like an age ago, you really had to hunt to find anyone who knew anything to teach you submission grappling. Now, alot of guys can show you a decent game. I'm not talking guys that will clean the matt with a high end grapper, but guys with decent skills that can show you the basics and then some who have probibly had a few fights and or matches. Of course it changes from fight to fight. Good traditonal arts should too. That's not consistancy, it's winning. As to those training who didn't want to study a style, that's probibly true- in the traditional sense. No forms and such, only what works...I can't fault them for that. But it dosen't make what their doing less legitiment as a "system". Again, I'm not saying that it's there yet. Only that I see it evolving in that direction. I don't think we'll ever see a ranking system, and that's fine, nor is that needed to be a "system". I just think that this is a new synthsis of ideas and training methodogies that are coming into their own. We also have to be careful in saying that the elite fighters we see on tv define MMA. They may be the pinnicle of the art (or sport, whatever) but they are just the very tip of hte iceberg of people studying out there.

Yeah, it sounds pretty normal for a new student. I wouldn't worry too much, it should start to resolve little by little over the next few weeks. Try a bit of ibuprophen just prior to and just after class.

Today- back and bi's 1 mile run 1/2 mile flat interval runs 1/2 mile run 1/2 mile incline interals 1/2 mile cool down My new work schedule is messing with my training rotation. Sleeping at night again is harder than I thought it would be . Who would have guessed. Hopefullly, I shake this pretty soon.

Sounds like a good one, bushido man. I too like to time things rather than count reps, it really keeps the energy levels up. I certainly like the second bag holder from an entirely different angle during the mitt drills. Making the defender switch his main area of focus is a good idea.

This sort of thing happens. More sparring time will make you more comfortable with it. Additionally, I do some mitt work from positions like this occassioanlly. It can be helpful to do a stirke from a negitive body position then work to regain your center and be forced to throw another combination into the pads. This will also show you natural ways to regain your center, often by initiating another strike.

3 rounds of 1/4 mile run 35 lbs dumbbells swings 12 pull ups (broke into sets) 3, 2 min rounds of shadowboxing round 1- combination work, pressing my cross into the fight more round 2- trapping a crash to infight round 3- sd kicking, side stops to knee, front to groin, ect. with hands

You'll find that if you throw your punches with a relaxed grip until just before impact, you will reduce the tension in the attacking arm and the speed will increase. Thus, kinetic energy transfer will be higher. As for penetration, i still think that a closed fist will get more drive than a palm to the havy tissue of the body simply due to it's smaller striking surface in general. And for breaking bones in hands...it happens. It's an ever present concern with fighting. Proper fist construction will help, as will proper use of striking surface, but in the end you and the bad guy are moving around a lot durning a conflict. It's easy enough to do everything right and still suffer a bony injury to the hand. The key is to have mentally prepared for the fact that fights hurt and be able to fight through it and adapt your fight strategy around it.