tallgeese

4/28 Drilled deep half guard material from a Lucas Lepri seminar that a friend of mine attend as was nice enough to share.

It does depend. For instance, a question to look at is how are the Shodan tests run? Enduro marathons? Technical only? Somewhere in between? That will dictate what and how much training you'll need to be doing. Set your training up to make certain you're ready for what's coming. I'd guess, and it's just a guess, that 3 hours is a bit on the light side. If you have any extended sparring or testing of any type that won't bet the cardio side of things in line let alone technical expectations. Personally, I'd always look at testings kind of like a fight or tournament as far as prep goes (of course, lighter in all aspects) when I was involved with formal testings. I'd think about getting to 4 classes per week. Those should be 1.5-2 hours each go between technical and live training. Now, add on 3 days of cardio/ weights/ and conditioning as well. Yes, you will be doubling up on some days. That's what I'd look at as a minimum. This also serves as a dry run for fight or tournament prep if that's a route you want to go later. But that's just me, from the clubs I've been at. Mileage may vary per club/ style. Look at what the shodans have put in before.

I will echo the last two solid pieces of advice and maybe even take it a step further in placing importance on aggression. Aggression is not anger. Aggression is actually how we win fights. I never train to, or teach, to defend. Defense is how a bad guy gains momentum and overruns us. Controlled, professional aggression that controls the situation is what wins. When attacked, the only purpose of defense is to put us back on aggressive footing to attack the threat. This is a serious mindset issue that all martial artists need to be aware of and understand. Defense without aggression is a sure way to set yourself up for defeat.

Well done!

4/27 Late PM workout. 45 min free roll.

Bushmaster AR platform. Kimber TLE-II My back up remains my 38 J Frame.

4/26 Drilled this weeks material of escaping mount. Review of lapel chokes from side from previous week. 60 min free roll.

Welcome aboard! Glad to have you.

Great milestone, Bob! Always very interested to hear your input. Here's to another 5,000 for use to keep sorting out the arts!

Check out the thread sensei8 talked about. It's got a lot of stuff on it at this point. No one's linked videos, but it's a great idea.

4/24 Drilled escaping mount via elbow escape then by shrimping from a modified mount to a sweep. 40 min free roll. 4/25 1 mile run. Either the ankle is slowly improving or it was just great to be outside.

Welcome to KF!

4/23 Still nursing a busted up toe and sore ankle. So a lot of stuff is out. Heck, it's all I can do to limp thru BJJ. Abs Bis Tris Shoulders More abs Who would have ever thought I would miss running on my off days. Does anyone remember what it feels like to not hurt anymore?

4/22 Drilled mount escapes. Knee escape, foot hook escape, swim to near back and foot sweep. 45 min free roll.

4/20 Drilled collar chokes from side control. 3 variants in review from the week. 40 min free roll. Work with one of the fighters on the ground.

That's great to hear! I have been trying to scam my department to sending me to one of their instructor schools for years! Enjoy and let us know what you think!

At some point, I think, everyone has to. Maybe not right away, you simply don't know enough. However, as you progress, your game HAS to be interpenetrated thru the lens that is you. Your physiology, anatomy, and mindset are all different than the person standing next to you in class. Yes, you have to learn it, but, if we are talking about self defense application, one has to adapt his art to what works for him. Based on all those individual differences, mental and physical that you have. This an be wholesale process once you reach a certain level. Or it may be piecemeal as you go. Each way has merits and disadvantages. If you're going wholesale, be prepared to wait a long time till you have your patterns sorted out. If you're going piecemeal, be prepared to re-evaluate occasionally as you're understanding gets better or you branch out.

4/17 Drilled side mount to knee in followed by lapel choke. Transition to north/south with lapel. 30 min free roll.

4/16 Abs Bench Overhead Deadlift Cool down with some stick work.

Welcome aboard!

4/15 Drilled lapel chokes from side mount for three variations. 30 min free roll.

There will always be a market for "traditional" arts. And let's face it, the term traditional is a bit of a moving target anyway. There will be people always who want to study a particular method of training made popular by a specific nation during one point if it's history and will want to abide by the training practices that the founders of it's systematization set forth. There's nothing wrong with that. Martial arts is a big umbrella and there's all sorts of legitimate reasons to study it. That said, I'll just throw out my two cents. It's a touchy subject. For me, I see most traditional arts slowly becoming a niche market for those individuals I cited above (who I respect for their choices btw). For people who want to look at sd in the arts, you're going to see more and more cross training and merging of arts to fill in and compliment holes in base systems. People who do this will then move on to teach those skills to other like minded individuals. People seeking self defense aspects will be drawn to these avenues of learning. Mostly, what holds "traditional" arts back in the self defense realm has more to do with training modalities than technique (but not always). Current, study proven, learning theory tells us that there ARE better and worse ways for adults to learn. And yet many traditional arts continue to teach "self defense" movements thru kata and unrealistic one steps. This is less than optimal for a variety of reasons. People don't make the connection and move away to schools using methods more akin to what Justice is talking about. I'm not bashing kata. I'm simply using it as the most common and "off the top of my head" example of using a 100 year old teaching tool to teach modern combatives. On another note, MMA, being highly popular, will have an impact as well. At it's outset, which I was fortunate enough to be around for, most people came out of a specific "traditional" background and started learning other things to compete. As the rules became more standardized, there was less need to experiment. Largely it was found that MT, BJJ, and wrestling would provide the best avenue to win that specific contest. Now, students who are drawn to that sort of contest won't need to "discover" this. They'll just start in programs that already take this into account and bypass the start in traditional arts (speaking generally here of course), It's not a "death" of trad arts, but more of a better understanding of what people are going into the arts for.

4/13 Drilled a weeks review of material. Passing De La Riva, short arc arm bar, passing butterfly guard. Spent open mat time drilling this and cleaning up some things I'd struggled with on open mat this week. Americana from side to arm bar, the above new material, and a triangle from back that's new to me. 15 min free roll.

4/10 Drilled setting up arms for a short arc arm bar. Moved on to countering the open guard and DeLaRiva series. 40 min free roll.

4/9 Abs Squat Bench Rows More abs