DarthPenguin

Saturday 10th MAy BJJ session This session was focuing on back control / excaping back control and was mainly ecological drills. Worked a lot of defending the choking arm with one / two hands and then getting free. Variety of drills around that then some rolling. Managed to pull off first bow and arrow choke in ages. Realised after i felt more energetic so i think the kettlebell work has helped with my conditioning. Will try to implement this alongside more pure strength work going forwards

Thursday 8 May This was the 100 rep session for the press part of the ABF. Managed all 20 sets with double 14kg KB's. Could probably press a little more but not sure about how easily i could swing the weight to get it into position with the clean so will likely step up to 2 x 16 next etc After the presses : Incline Cable flye (weight is total of L + R) 20kg x 5 32kg x 5 32kg x 8 32kg x 8 32kg x 8 Tried these as a new exercise to see how they went. Was going to try presses rather than flyes but the width of the cable led to flyes being easier. tbh unlikely to keep in programme as was a faff Triceps straight bar pushdown 25kg x 8 25kg x 8 25kg x 8 Lat pulldown 50kg x 8 50kg x 8 50kg x 8 Cable neck extension 6kg x 16 6kg x 16 6kg x 16 Cable neck flexion 6kg x 16 6kg x 16 6kg x 16

I find this quite interesting as i have always had a similar thought that the ecological approach is good but not really for new people. We use it a lot at my class too, and i find it useful, but someone totally new would have issues i think. For example, last week we were working on retaining open guard and destabilising / sweeping opponent. Worked well for me as i worked retaining de la riva, adjusting to another open guard if needed etc. and it helped me realise an issue i have had before was due to my not 'pulling' enough with my de la riva hook - fixed that and started hitting some de la riva sweeps in the drills and when rolling afterwards :). But for someone new, while the principle of "get your feet on your opponent and keep them there" is valid it must be tough when you don't know the technique. My personal preference would be to for the instructor to teach a couple of techniques (in my example a couple of basic de la riva sweeps), drill them a few times and then do the ecological drill with the same constraints and instructions. Would give people something to work with, or even if they didn't try that they may have an aha moment about off balancing someone and try something else that works for them.

Hopefully the procedure went well and you see the expected benefits I always find that a little time off and thinking about technique when off can work wonders when you are back - it can fix those silly little errors you don't realise you are making

Wholeheartedly agree - it would be similar to a lot of modern judoka struggling with takedowns that involve leg grabs as they have never learned them since the rule changes. One of the main points of training is to build muscle memory so you respond faster / on instinct. This type of training would lead to know muscle memory being built to defend head strikes. Even if the fighter was able to 'manually' try to respond to such strikes they would inevitably be slower than one who defended it on instinct.

Congratulations!! Also, doesn't need to be final update

Monday 5th May KB over head press double 14kg kb 85 total reps in 2/3/5/10 fashion until hit 85 Back squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 60kg x 5 not squatted in ages so wanted to do a little to get back into it and will ramp it up soon Cable seated row 55kg x 11 55kg x 11 55kg x 11 Triceps pushdown with straight bar 20kg x 15 20kg x 15 20kg x 20 this felt pretty easy so increased reps on the last set to get to 50 rep total Neck extension cable 6kg x 15 6kg x 15 6kg x 15 Neck flexion cable 6kg x 15 6kg x 15 6kg x 15

Saturday 3rd May BJJ Session This session was working on retaining open guard and some simple sweeps etc from there. Really enjoyed it and managed to find some issues in my de la riva and sort them that i could feel an improvement almost instantly (i was lazily not pulling with my de la riva hook so it wasn't creating any pussh & pull pressure). Managed to pull of a couple of de la riva sweeps in rolling at the end so was pleased. Also managed a couple of chokes too which is always good Felt more comfortable than i have for a while!

Friday 2nd May This was the 30 sets EMOM armor building complex day. Managed that part in 27min so was pleased ABC with 2 x 14kg KB x 30 sets Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 60kg x 3 80kg x 1 90kg x 1 Tested this as an experiment as not been lifting as much. Was surprised how quickly this flew up. Going to try to add in a few sets of 1 rep at 100kg and gradually build it up i think Cable flye (weight is total of L + R) 20kg x 11 20kg x 11 20kg x 11 Cable reverser flye (weight it total of L + R) 11kg x 10 11kg x 10 11kg x 10 Neck Extension 5kg x 22 5kg x 22 5kg x 22 Neck flexion 5kg x 22 5kg x 22 5kg x 22

nearing the end of the Armor building formula programme now. Didn't have huge amount of time so did the KB presses and neck work and added one thing in with the neck work as a superset Double KB overhead press 85reps total, 18 sets, done EMOM. sets planned as 2 reps / 3 reps / 5 reps / 10 reps then repeat Cable neck extensions (tri-set with cable neck flexion and cable lateral raise) 5kg x 21 5kg x 21 5kg x 21 Cable neck flexion 5kg x 21 5kg x 21 5kg x 21 Cable lateral raise (reps are total of L + R) 6kg x 20 6kg x 20 6kg x 20 Pretty quick session, was done in 25min. am enjoying the neck work, think it will pay a good benefit over time. Will continue to do the armor building formula stuff i think but more as an accessory to main workouts as i think that barbell strength work will be more useful for my goals

Congrats!

Glad to hear you enjoy it - it is a bit of an institution here! Is also amusing when you see how much younger most of the cast was than their characters. I live in Glasgow and they did film it in a few parts of the city itself though Craiglang itself is made up. If you enjoy their humour they did a sketch show beforehand called "Chewin the Fat". Not something i would usually recommend to a non-Scot (would be definite subtitles plus not sure how well it would translate) but if you like Still Game you may like it. It is also where they first introduced the characters Jack and Victor (Still Game was actually a spin off!). Have always had a soft spot for it after one of my friends had a run in with Ford Kiernan years ago and they included a character with his name in one of the sketches to make fun of him! Pretty harsh when looked at now but at the time it was hilarious

Definitely got Merab. O'Malley always seemed to me like one of the transitional champs - someone good enough to be in the title picture but not good enough to be champ in the long term and need the chips to fall their way to win it. Can't really see how O'Malley can win tbh

just realised i have been extremely remiss in updating this! Rolling updates into one thread: - back training at karate, bjj and judo. Feeling it conditioning wise but otherwise all good (had more time off as had something on my skin i needed checked out but was all good - no infection and fine to train but stayed off the mats until i got the all clear) - replacement gym gear all in and assembled - tested my conventional deadlift (not done that in ages) and worked up to a smooth 130kg for 3. Going to use that as 1rm for calcs and try to add conventional back in rather than trap bar. Reason being that i think it will strengthen my lower back a little more which i think will be useful for judo - been trying the Armour Building Formula programme while i waited for my gym equipment. Just finished week 6. Used 2 x 14kg KB's for it. Not massively heavy but wanted to use it for conditioning and thought it made sense to err on side of caution. Have been doing all the ABC sets EMOM (set a minute timer, do the reps then rest for remainder of timer) and for the press sets no rest between the 2 and 3 reps (just put bell down), one sip of drink between 3 and 5, 45 sec between 5 and 10 and then a minute between clusters. This week is the 30set in 30min ABC which should be fine. Plan is to start adding these in to the end of heavier session as conditioning work mainly Training wise going forward i am going to rerun the juggernaut programme 2dpw as i thought i worked really well for me. Will continue to add in 531 too and then will use the ABF as main conditioning part of the session. Also neck work every session - have an iron neck harness (the multiple d ring one) that i can use with my cable stack Thats the plan for the next 6mths and i think it will help well with the main goals of improving my strength and conditioning for grappling!

simplest example i can think of this is Khabib - he was hardly known for being a top top tier striker but he managed to make it work! Much as i personally dislike Conor MacGregor i can't deny he was a skilled striker and look what Khabib did to him. Plenty of other examples out there too. Don't get me wrong - a skilled striker / puncher is by definition always dangerous but it makes a massive difference the situation of the fight plus the resilience of the opponent. Take many of the 'lighter hitting' pro boxers - i am confident that if they were to strike an unsuspecting opponent (that they couldn't hurt much in a pro fight) they would do some damage but once the opponent is prepared and braced they take it better. From personal experience the thing that got me to start training bjj years ago was going to a class and being absolutely destroyed by someone i was almost a foot taller and probably about 70 / 80lb heavier than. At the time i, while by no means amazingly skilled, had been training in striking based styles for a decent amount of time and usually found i could hold my own decently with experience people due to a combination of some limited ability plus size. When it came to grappling that was a complete no! To a lesser extent i have noticed similar since i started to train judo too - i have an awareness of grips and once we hit the ground i feel comfortable but when standing i am basically a throwing dummy for a skilled practitioner!

I totally missed that - sorry, my fault! 100% agree with you. eg at my judo club the main coach is a 1st dan but he was an international competitor for years, just recently retiring. There are several higher graded people in the class that train under him! Completely agree here and hope it didn't come across as i was being disrespectful to anyone, genuinely wasn't my intention!

Currently i am reading the Bladeborn saga by T C Edge. Was very pleasantly surprised by this and it was also available on Kindle Unlimited which makes things a lot more accessible

As a Scot i can wholeheartedly recommend Still Game though in the interests of fairness i am not sure how well the humour will translate to some other countries! When i lived in England they didn't understand it at all!

Also, at the risk of sounding slightly rude (if it is then i apologise) can i ask what level you have gotten to in Kyokushin and / or Shotokan? I am much junior rank wise to a lot of the people on here (people don't usually make comments here based on rank which is refreshing) but some of the sentiments i am hearing are similar to ones i have heard before from newer students / members who have not trained enough to work out why some things are as they are. Sorry if this embarasses them but @Wastelander has multiple dan ranks in a variety of styles (including practical karate ones) and @bushido_man96 is a 5th dan in TKD plus works as a LEO (so will have real hands on experience of defence situations) and they both have laid out cogent points as to why body only striking as you espouse may not work for self defence. If you are equally as credentialled / skilled then fair enough but it is possible that this is a case of "you don't know what you don't know".

Surely that is the same for any attack though : if you are unprepared the consequences will be worse. Another point i would make is that often people call out exceptions to a general rule to demonstrate they are outliers / unusual. There are a few fighters i can think of who were known for body level strikes: Ricky Hatton and Michael Nunn are two boxers i immediately think of when i think of a body attack; Bas Rutten and Giga Chikadze for mma. They stand out as they were unusual (to my eyes) for their ability to finish fights with body strikes. It is a common statement that pressure testing exposes flaws and brings out the best aspects of things too: if body punching was so much more effective than anything else then professional fighters whose living (and health!) literally depends on being able to damage their opponents as much as possible whilst taking minimum impacts would focus on it a lot more. How many MMA fighters do you see try to win a fight with mainly a body attack? They use body strikes to wear out their opponent and vary their targets to be less predictable. If they could finish fights quicker, with less damage and could then fight again faster and get paid more often they would definitely go to the body all the time if that would help them.

Congrats, though is this meant to say December 2024??

Also good to have someone infinitely better than me at bjj join the forum who i can ask questions of and pester for knowledge!! (just joking about the pestering!). What lineage / school is it you are under? Are you mainly a gi or nogi guy? I very much prefer gi so fingers crossed i get to pick your brains on that!

Yeah to chime in here too: I can understand your reasoning for proposing removing safety equipment but what i would say is more people would not say that boxers and thai boxers are weak and unconditioned, or unable to deliver powerful blows, but both of these styles do train with protective equipment. Plus when you train or figh full contact you perform very differently to lesser contact - from personal experience i remember years ago when i trained in a taekwondo offshoot and a much smaller friend of mine was talking nonsense about weight classes not being needed due to superior technique etc. etc. He then proposed we sparred full contact with some gloves and headgear (more like kickboxing). He stopped the round after a few minutes of being hit in the head (i wasn't unpleasant enough to go full power) to complain at me for only throwing straight punches with front or read hand and front kicks to the stomach, since there were so many more techniques and he didn't think i was utilising the style. My response was i can beat you up with almost zero risk to myself at a range you can't hit me at using these three things: why on earth would i use more? Full contact training is (obviously) extremely valuable but i personally think it, by it's very nature, restricts the techniques you can practice or use either as the technique is too potentially harmful (you won't just snap someones arm) or you rule it out due to riskiness, so some lesser contact can be useful too to build muscle memory for additional techniques. Only training to the body also means you really only build muscle memory for body level strikes. While you would be practising the other levels and ranges in technique practice you wouldn't have them dialled in as much. It is a problem that some kyokushin fighters find in the transition to mma: they are fantastically skilled and very talented but they have to break the habit or not punching to the face. I would also agree with @Wastelander that your message seems to read that the thing you dislike about karate is in essence the karate itself! Which is a totally valid viewpoint, since everyone has their own preferences! Not trying to be insulting there! Maybe boxing training but going to a gym renowned for it's body punching would work better for you? Though your idea does kinda sound like both the "low kick championship" and "power slap" that i have seen online! Maybe it would work as a style similar to that and then the training for it would be an you envisage!

Congrats!

The steroid era is a tough one tbh as it is almost impossible to know how many people were on them. It isn't guaranteed that you become massive when you are on steroids (ala the change in Bonds over time) with different substances having different results - just need to look at Tour De France cyclists using steroids / performance enhancing drugs to improve other aspects of fitness. Just because someone was not massive doesn't mean they didn't take something to avoid injury / increase stamina etc. My personal solution would be to have a "steroid era wing" (not labelled as this but with the years instead) and have the players in that and some exhibits for context. I just keep coming back to the fact that all the players had to compete in the same environment: yes they may have been stronger and able to hit further but defenders may have been faster and able to chase down more hits / jump higher for an above the wall catch; pitchers may have been throwing harder or had more break due to ability to grip harder and impart more spin. In my head it is kinda like baseball having to lower the mound after the absolute domination from Bob Gibson - the mound obviously benefitted him but does it invalidate his numbers ? For me it doesn't. I do take the argument though that it was self inflicted! Plus it is nice to have halls of fame: it isn't something that we really have over here - plenty of footballers who are club legends and legends of the game but there isn't a museum dedicated to them etc.