DarthPenguin

Monday 13th March BJJ Session This session was working on one particular closed guard pass, the log splitter pass. Broke it down into multiple sections and drilled it a lot. Started by taking a grip on either side of guard players chest, between lapel and armpit and driving hands into armpits. Straight arms and tight in to stop opponent flaring them out. Stand up in the guard, making sure feet are back far enough to prevent a grip of ankle. Can adjust opponents guard up a little by sitting back a little, like a bodyweight squat using them as a counterbalance and then straightening. then shift right foot into opponents centreline with shim against their behind. Sit back and down driving knee through guard. This was covered a lot as being like a rear lunge but front leg remains vertical and toes do not go forward over knees. Once guard opened then pass as appropriate. Did some more drills of this and then did some more drilling of the flower sweep as i haven't done that for ages and want to get back to using it. Few rounds of rolling too which went fine.

Sorry for delay: Think that the yahoo fantasy baseball one should be ok. There are 3 scoring options so let me know what people think is the best one: head to head - i don't think this is the best idea if people won't be massively active as this is a weekly matchup between fantasy teams. If someone isn't making a lot of updates etc then it could lead to distorted matchups points only - they take specific counting stats and translate them into a static points system which accumulates over the season rotisserie - they take specific counting stats and they accumulate ovet the season. Personally i think that rotisserie is likely to be more straightforward as can then just score using the 'standard' mlb stats (HR, RBI, wins etc) Let me know what you all think and i will set it up accordingly

This might not be useful but what i found worked well in a prior style was we paired up the beginners with someone more experienced - minimum of 1st kyu or similar worked well i found. We then told them, not to kill the experienced person, try just to use techniques they have been taught but come on hard and just go for it and see what feels natural. The experienced person would then defend and occasionally a light tap to the head if gloves were dropped too far / no guard etc. This always seemed to work well as it helped some people get over the barrier of throwing strikes at people out of worry that they would hurt someone. For those who were over aggressive then it also taught them some humility to be so easily handled - and for all of them the light head taps helped reinforce the proper guard etc

Saturday 11 March Lifting Session Had to abbreviate this a little due to multiple other things this weekend so made sure to do the main lift weight and superset with a useful accessory but didn't do the additional volume. Trap Bar Deadlift 70kg x 5 80kg x 5 90kg x 5 102.5kg x 5 115kg x 5 Standing Single arm kb press (reps = L + R) 16kg x 20 16kg x 20 16kg x 20 16kg x 20 16kg x 20 Time : 25min total poundage lifted : 3887.5kg density : 155.5 kg/min

Thursday 9 March BJJ Session Change in instructors today so the usual Thursday 'bjj for heavyweights' had a little more 'fast whippity people stuff included' but i survived! We went over a sweep from 'worm guard' which i had never heard of before! Started standing and swipe across with left hand to pull their left lapel (on my right hand side) out from belt and then grip it with my right hand, with my left hand taking a lapel grip. Put left foot on opponents right hip and drop to ground then lasso right foot round trapped lapel. Shift slightly onto right hip and swing left leg up and down in a motion similar to pendulum sweep to come up on oppenents right leg, facing into their knee. Transfer lapel into left hand then 'judo chop' into their right knee (buckle it in slightly) and regrab lapel with right hand deep on lapel. The chop gives space to get deeper grip. Then post on left hand and 'scissor legs' to sweep opponent down. Then pass straight to mount. Then worked on a couple of chokes from there : arm triangle and ezekiel Few rounds of rolling after. On plus side i managed to hit a couple of cross collar chokes which i was trying to work on but on negative side i got caught in a simple armbar from guard due to being careless - always a good lesson!

Wednesday 8th March Karate Session Warm ups Usual warm ups done then at the end did a few turns of leg only sparring lightly. Kihon Ran through required grading kihon which seemed to go smoothly. Then we had a few goes of mawashi geri's to a pad working on lifting the foot and chambering properly Kata A couple of run throughs of grading kata on my own in middle of floor. Comments were good and nothing major to work on (though obviously can always improve!). Have got the rhythm and timing for it down a lot better now and it feels sharper. Kumite Practiced required grading kumite a couple of times. Grading in a week and a bit now too

I've always thought this is an interesting topic and tbh there is no right answer. i can understand the argument that training without hand protection helps condition the hands and develop proper technique when striking, and should hopefully minimise injuries in a self defense situation. By the same token then why do we spar in bare feet? In most self defence scenarios we are likely to be wearing shoes/boots, which change things a little. If we are trying to be 'realistic' then should we wear them too? Then i start thinking about attire: in a real situation you are likely to be in regular clothes, maybe even a jacket. This is totally different to a martial arts 'suit' which is built (usually) to permit maximum freedom of movement. A collared shirt or suit jacket isn't going to permit the same, let alone suit trousers etc. My personal take on it is that wearing hand protection when sparring (plus a headguard and or/gumshield if heavy contact allowed to the head) is a good idea as it allows you to practice at a higher intensity and 'throw harder' without the same fear of injury to yourself or your partner. This can build the muscle memory of parrying then countering against a resisting opponent. The correct alignment / technique issue can then be addressed specifically with things like a makiwara; a heavy bag; even with some breaking techniques (but without a 10 minute long prep time - when i did in the past you were literally expected to walk up and hit it: if they were nice you might get to measure distance once for first technique). As an example look at pro boxers : when they spar they wear gloves and headguards. Granted it is for a sport and they wear gloves but they can usually punch hard and they find the headguard enables harder training which carries over to the fight. It is an interesting topic though - don't think there is an absolute right or wrong answer : just a right or wrong answer for the individual

Excellent! I will take a look tomorrow at the league set up rules etc and post them on here to make sure everyone is happy before we start

Yeah fine with me too - as i'm in Scotland i doubt anyone else other than me will have any interest from where i train but if you guys think it will help get some numbers sounds good!

Welcome, nice to (virtually) meet you! Good luck with the search too

yeah there are several qb's who can do it all but their backups can't. My thought process was more along the lines of wondering if there could be a competitive advantage (both financially and playing wise) to having a dual system whereby each one had 'half the skill set', potentially on less than half the money, but also alleviating the injury risk somewhat as if one gets hurt then you only have a degradation on their half of the game eg if Josh Allen goes down hurt then the Bills offence loses out massively and every area of QB production drops. If, however, there was one passing qb and one running one that both played together, filling in as fb/blocker/receiver when not handling the play then if one went down you would only be losing out on their skill set and it might be easier to find a replacement that only has that partial skill - eg good arm but no mobility etc Possibly a silly idea but it intrigues me!

Sunday 5 March Judo and BJJ seminar Attended a seminar based on interactions between judo and bjj which i really enjoyed. First part was dedicated to some judo throws that would fit in well for bjj. We mainly drilled uchi-mata, firstly from a standard set up and then from collapsing your opponents grip inwards towards their body then going for it there. We also practiced another throw that seems very like a bjj hook sweep : you trapped the nearside arm, dropped down and with the near side leg hooked it under their leg and flipped them over you, rolling up to finish in side control. Realistically i would need a LOT more drilling to use these in training properly but its a start and the sweep based one seemed more natural! Then had a few rounds of randori and the judo guys were very nice and didnt splat me too much! For the bjj section we worked some techniques from broken scarf hold (far side arm having the underhook rather than head grip). Spent some time working on maintaining the position by preventing the opponent getting elbow to floor so you can win via pin. Then added in a couple of submissions for if they start to get out. First one being an armbar of near side arm after stepping one leg over head. Second one being the Canto choke (which i have always loved!) Finished off with a few rounds of resisted drilling. Really enjoyed the seminar and also reminded me how much harder judo is physically!! A LOT more tired and achy than i am after a similar bjj session

Congratulations, that is quite an achievement. An impressive amount of dedication and effort involved in getting there - now onwards to 20!!

thats true but things change. Remember when every team used to have an every down main running back but now most teams opt for RB by committee as they get more out of it. In my head i can see a lot of benefits to having two players who could both be in the backfield and interchange at QB - one who is better at passing, one who is better at running and mess with the defence that way. Would be tough to get the right players though!

Thursday 2nd March BJJ Session Another BJJ session aimed at Heavyweights, which i really enjoyed!! Focused on passing spider guard First pass was slightly step forward with one leg and with opposite hand try to circle it behind opponents leg to get a grip. Then push forward with front leg, kneeling into the opponents spider hook and circle hand round on that side too. Depending on opponents response then can either finish pass with stacking pass; groin split pass; leg drag pass as appropriate. The way i do it is usually end up in leg drag pass position so generally focused on that Second pass involved stepping back a a little and grabbing opponents legs, pulling them forward slightly so back comes off the mat a little. Then take a small step to one side (i did left), shift slightly to right and then swing left leg over and round opponents legs so you end up trapping both of their legs together and sitting on them! Then use your weight to slide down them into the pass, being careful to control behind their back so they can't back out and then control their head. Also worked on a brabo choke from this position. When sitting on them you feed left hand UNDER the highest arm and take a very deep collar grip, then adjust the top arm so that it is under you and sprawl down into them so that you are pushing shoulder into neck similarly to with an arm triangle. Put your free arm behind their head and gradually contract everything together. Didn't have any rolling time left at the end. Also, i have signed up for a judo and bjj combined seminar being taught this weekend which i am looking forward to a lot!

Wednesday 1st March Karate session Warm ups slightly different this week as a different instructor - one of the 3rd dans filled in for the week. Lots more stretching which was good. Also did some drills of front kicking over a prone partner to work on chambering properly and a similar drill for yoko geri keage Kihon Worked through our required grading kihon. Got a useful pointer for one of them that a hand adjustment i was performing (As i thought it was required) is not needed so not to do it. Simple fix to make though which is good Kata Worked through grading kata a few times. Once to a count and then all the way through and also once myself in front of the class. Tried to really focus on 'separating out the moves' whilst performing each technique as quickly and sharply as possible. Got some really good feedback afterwards that it looked really good (so i will try to perform it this way in future!) Also found out that i will be grading again in 2 wks - thought i might be but they hadn't mentioned the dates!

Sounds like a lot of potential issues that could have all impacted on the deadlift tbh. Each one could have caused an issue themselves so compounding them it is no wonder that there would be a negative impact. I think i used to use a very similar hammer strength pressing machine in the gym. Generally most people counted the weight as the total weight on the machine as most people were pressing both limbs. One thing i did notice on it though was I always found i could lift a LOT more on it (likely due to the reduced demand on stabiliser muscles). At the time i would struggle and hit 2-3 reps with 75kg in a bench press but could easily rep out 8-10 with 110kg on the hammer machine. Might be worth factoring that in when planning loads etc

Thats 4 then! Realistically i think we need about 8 people to make it interesting. If anyone else is interested please chime in and we can get down to the details of getting it arranged

Just saw this come up and it reminded me of some issues my brother had where yoga actually made the issues worse! When he got it looked into properly by medical professionals they said that he had unusually flexible joints etc and that the yoga was making this worth and leading to instability. He was advised to quit yoga and take up some other exercises and actually to stretch less etc! If you haven't already though i would echo the suggestions to go and see a medical professional - 26 is quite young to be getting issues like you describe (without a clear cause like being in an accident etc). Good luck!!

Tuesday 28 February Lifting Session Bench Press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 47.5kg x 5 55kg x 5 62.5kg x 5 47.5kg x 5 47.5kg x 5 47.5kg x 5 47.5kg x 5 47.5kg x 5 KB Gorilla Row (reps = L + R; weight = per kb) 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 E-Z Bar Curl (superset with below) 30kg x 7 30kg x 7 30kg x 7 Triceps straight bar pushdown 25kg x 7 25kg x 7 25kg x 7 total poundage lifted : 6827.5kg time : 35min density: 195.1 kg/min

I will take that as a no then!

Fans may grumble about it, but fans aren't in the building studying this stuff 5 days a week, and fans don't have to worry about losing their jobs if they make the wrong decisions. I think if Hurts hadn't missed some playing time, he would have won the MVP. I also think he's here to stay; no Wentz dropoff. Hurts has improved vastly over the past three seasons. I don't know how much more improvement he can make, but he's shown that he can carry a team to the ultimate prize. Will be interesting to see how the 4th down thing progresses. There will be a lot of analysis based on net points i assume from 4th down tries, plus net yardage, with teams coming up with their own acceptable metric: I envisage something like : we get 50% of tries and average 7pts per successful 4th down try drive, so 3.5pts per attempt but when we fail we give up a field goal on 1 in 3 but no points the others, so a loss of -1 with a net of +2.5pts - obviously will be a lot more complicated. NFL and Baseball are really good for making use of analytics so if there is a gain to be made there then someone will I think you have to take into account the nature of the game being played in, too. This was the Super Bowl; all or nothing. I'm not sure they consider going for it as many times during an early regular season game, but I could be wrong. I think the fact that it was the Super Bowl made a huge difference in going for it that many times. Sneaking on 3rd and 4th downs like that, that many times throughout the course of the regular season puts the QB in a dangerous spot quite often. True but then maybe you end up with a 'QB by committee for some teams' a bigger one who sneaks more and a smaller one who doesn't - though that would be tough to prevent the other team knowing what is happening. Am sure that the front offices have people working on crunching the numbers though : i know that there is a massive correlation between sacks and game winning and have seen a win probability added number linked to them before. IF there is a way of eeking out a statistical advantage then someone will spot it!

Yeah, i understand why they have tried to make changes to speed up the game but i don't think they have done it in a particularly good way. 8 seconds max for the batter to get ready doesn't seem like much tbh and there will be issues if any 'proper' games are decided with an awarded strike/ball as the spring training one was the other day. I would have thought it would make sense to allocate an average time per hitter and this gets tracked. Then if it isn't met there is some kind of penalty for the player and team - would allow the players to adjust to the situation: if pitching to a dangerous hitter like Judge with the bases loaded then can take some time, if pitching to a guy hitting .180 with empty bases can speed up a bit

Congratulations

Really helpful review. Would be great if you are able to update in a few months on durability etc (obviously if you have the time!). I've always found it useful to see a review of the new product and one a few months down the line since these are relatively long term purchases