tallgeese

10/7 Drilled gi choke from top side with lapel entanglement. 30 min free roll. 3,3 min rounds standing. Continuing to revamp my ranging. Incorporated functional trapping to the equation tonight.

10/6 Open mat. Free roll, 60 min.

Welcome to KF!

10/5 1.5 mile run back/bis abs 20 min of stance work, weighted for structure. Followed by footwork.

Congrats!

Couple of things. First up. The consensus opinion is true. To truly learn an art you'll need an instructor. However, depending on your previous experience, taking bushidoman's advice is also applicable. If you're just looking at adding to your tactical tool bag, you can pick up things from video and on line sources. But you have to have a solid grounding and understanding of fighting to grasp that. It depends on what you're looking for. Lastly, be sure that you're not looking at just one aspect of "slow" strikes or "fast" striking. Power and speed go hand in hand in effective execution. However, you can elect (and should) to train one of many attributes with a single drill. If you shadow box and throw slow, precise, structurally perfect strikes then you are working on one thing. If you are on a heavy bag bombing away, you are working on another. Do not confuse training method with tactics or make generalizations about an art based on a limited viewing of drills used in that system. Particularly in progressive or eclectic systems you're liable to get an incorrect read on what they are about based on what training method they are using that day. The drill can be the same, the movement identical, but the focus completely different on a single aspect of the fight. Just a reminder.

Congrats! It's also notable that you're posts are ones I look forward to reading due to content. You've managed not just a post count, but really good sink you teeth into it material. Thank you.

Doubt is such an important part of individual growth as an artist and it's never given the respect it deserves in martial development. It can take a lot of useful forms, many of which have been touched on. Doubt in self or attributes can push us to perfect technique or physical attributes to be helpful in combat. Doubt in tactics and effectiveness has probably been the greatest contributor in the modern era of martial arts for growth. This has led to development and testing of things as never before. This is where doubt speaks to me the most. Theory isn't enough, I need verifiable evidence. Either my own or reliable sources to say "I've been there and done this, it works." This applies both the methods of training tactics and the tactics themselves. For instance, for years in the arts I came out of, the introduction to gun defenses were to evade and parry then gain control of a threatening weapon. It makes sense, solid theory, but the data on effectiveness is hard to come by. It's a similar tactic used in LE work for this type of thing. But it happens so rarely that even the DOJ can't statistically say if this tactic taught to cops works well. Bummer, I hate teaching theory without evidence. Now; however, we have newer methods of stress inoculation and we can run tests like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i39tDn5jMI8 This was recent testing a partner of mine and I did, I won't bore you wiht excessive video from several angles. It is utilizing the first part of weapon disarming tactics used in a lot of systems. Pivot, parry and control. We ran this drill multiple times each with Simunitions weapons and had good results. Now I can confidently say that this tactic will work. Doubt led to testing. Testing led to evidence. Evidence can now support training. We ran this with a handful of other tactics as well with results that were less effective. This lets us decide where to spend time training and lets us cull out the tactics that aren't doing what we wanted them to do. Win, win. It's finding we plan on sharing with the rest of the LE community. But we would have never gotten there without doubt. We've taken things on faith for so long that it just becomes the way things are done. That's unacceptable for ANY art that is concerned with self defense or combat. The doubt in the "why" is just as important and really is the idea that leads to the doubt in tactics. "Why" must make sense. If it doesn't, then we have to find an answer. sensei8, great topic. And a great discussion thread for an under-utilized aspect of the arts.

10/4 Drilled arm bar from bottom side. Followed by lapel choke with leg from bottom side. 35 min free roll.

10/3 Active rest day. Few light rounds of knife disarm drills.

10/2 Drilled sweeps from bottom side. 30 min free roll 3 rounds of stand up. Focus on interception and angles.

10/1 Light day. 1 hour spent working knife disarms. Fluid training.

I've spent time cutting weight. It really stinks, but can be done healthy to a degree. Likewise, it can obviously be done in a detrimental fashion. The most I've cut has been about 21 pounds give or take. That's over a 3 week period. I've known fighters who have done the same amount much quicker. The mma format that allows steep cuts followed by re hydration can really set some people up for dangerous situations. Conversely, IBJJF regulates weight cutting by making you weigh in just before you step on the mat. This means a much less drastic cut because you'll need to perform at the weight you're at, not what you can get back up to in 24 hours. I think it's here to stay. Like it or not. The best thing we can do for fight athletes working under rule sets that allow them to cut hard and re hydrate is to make sure that they are doing it sensibly. This includes making sure that they are making good lifestyle choice thru the competitive cycle to stay at a naturally lower weight rather than ballooning up between bouts and then radically cutting down.

9/30 Drilled sweeps from bottom side leading to sub set up. 30 min free roll 2 rounds of sparring. Focused on distancing and interceptions Knife disarms.

9/28 Drilled lasso guard sweeps from the week. 30 min free roll. Focused on using the new material to sweep and then proceeded to focus on taking back and finishing.

Welcome aboard!

9/27 Light day of knife work. Focus on disarms.

9/26 40 min free roll no gi.

Kusotare has a good point here, but it goes to a bigger question. Sensei8 also touches on this a bit. It's highly dependent on a couple of things. One of these is the person doing the art. What is more important that that in my opinion is your training methodology, which is (I think) what Kusotare is getting at with how karate is taught. Tactics from differing systems can be more or less efficient, most every system has something to offer but it may or may not be efficient. The same is true of training methodology. If your instructor is doing live drilling, scenario training and training those things you mention (weapons, multiple attackers, ect.) there's a good chance that you might be on to something in the way of combat prep. If you're instructor is more concerned with the artistic side of the arts and using a methodology that advances them then you might not be prepping well for combative application.

It was pretty cool, bushidoman. 9/24 20 min of rounds working stance and handwork structure by and large. One round of kicks from Kali. Finished with knife patterns and disarms.

9/23 am: Day 4 of camp. Finished with attack by combination, faints, some trapping and interceptions. Absolutely amazing learning process am I'm very glad I took part. pm: Drilled lasso guard sweep and variant. 30 min free roll.

The bow and arrow. It plays to my game and is artful in execution.

9/22 Day 3. We spent more time reviewing footwork and distancing. We added more hand work and focused on kicking methods and strategy out of Savate and Kali. pm: Private covering knife work. Focus on disarming.

I'm a huge fan of cross training whenever possible in styles that give you different outlooks and skill sets. The only question is "can I fit it into my schedule" If the answer is yes, go for it. And be prepared for your latest addiction.

9/21 Reviewed yesterday's material. Added intermediate range footwork. Covered defensive patterns and placed them in context of the footwork. Then went into strike integration and live drilling. The day ended with a functional trapping workshop. Excellent.