bushido_man96

Welcome to KF!

Welcome to KF!

Congrats on your promotion! Lots of good ideas have been mentioned so far. Have you watched any black belt testings? It would be a good way to have an idea of what to expect. That, and perhaps speaking with the instructor and asking for advice on how to prepare.

6/13/2019 MA Training TKD Class: 6:20 - 7:00 pm. Due to some scheduling conflicts, I made it to class, albeit late. So I missed basics, but was able to get in on forms, working on Toi Gye with a low brown belt, and helping the fresh 2nd dans learn Gae Baek. One-steps: low green belt, low orange belt. Post-class: brief stretching. 6/14/2019 Strength Training Warm-ups: 5 broad jumps, 5 box jumps, 5 medicine ball throws. Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 255x5, 255x5, 255x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 85x3, 117.5x5, 117.5x5, 117.5x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 275x5. 6/17/2019 Strength Training Warm-ups: Jumps/throws. 5 broad jumps, 5 box jumps, 5 medicine ball throws. Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 260x5, 260x5, 260x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 165x5, 165x5, 165x5. Power Cleans: 115x3, 135x3, 135x3, 135x3, 135x3, 135x3. MA Training TKD Class: 6:00 - 7:00 pm. Pre-class: stretching. Basics: I was able to push some of my kicks a bit more today. Forms: worked with Dan Gun, Boo Chung, and Gae Baek. One-steps: low green belt and blue/brown belt one-steps. Sparring: just a few rounds, working on the front leg strategy. Post-class: some stretching, and working on side kicks with a low green belt.

Or an embroidered obi. I was thinking that as well.

Yes, we look forward to updates!

6/12/2019 Strength Training Warm-up: Jump and throws. 5 standing broad jumps, 5 box jumps, 10 medicine ball chest passes. Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 250x5, 250x5, 250x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 160x5, 160x5, 160x5. Power Cleans: 95x3x2, 130x3, 130x3, 130x3, 130x3, 130x3. Today was really kind of fun in the gym, because Kendall and I worked out together. He was squatting just 10 or 15 pounds under my work set, so we just adjusted accordingly. We used two separate benches and two separate power clean stations, but worked together in the gym. Lifted, chatted about stuff, and got stronger together. Good stuff!

6/10/2019 Strength Training Warm-ups: 5 standing broad jumps, 5 small box jumps, 5 medicine ball throws. Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 245x5, 245x5, 245x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 85x3, 115x5, 115x5, 115x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 270x5. Barbell Rows: 135x10, 135x10, 135x10. MA Training TKD Class: 6:00 - 7:00 pm. Basics; these were abbreviated somewhat, because the instructor wanted to spend more time in class working on new material after promotions. We did basics standing in place, blocking and striking, and kicking in place with the front leg. Forms; I worked with low orange belts, low green belts, and a low brown belt on their new forms. One-steps; low orange and low green belt. Post-class; did a little bit of stretching. Weights and class were pretty much back-to-back today. I got done lifting about an hour before class started, so had a little time to recover.

I agree! It sounds like it was a good week!

6/7/2019 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 240x5, 240x5, 240x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 155x5, 155x5, 155x5. Power Cleans: 95x3x2, 125x3, 125x3, 125x3, 125x3, 125x3. LTE: 55x10, 55x10, 55x10. Lat Pull-downs: 122.5x10, 122.5x10, 122.5x10.

That sounds great! You might get a small board that you can punch lightly at first, and gradually build up speed and power against. Just to get the feel of hitting a hard target with your knuckles, and getting the arm lined up. Maybe even making light contact with a solid wall. Or a Makiwara if you have access to one.

I agree with the above, this is definitely a good idea to consider. In the past, an instructor of mine used stripes on a belt to indicate what the student knew, and what they needed to work on. This might be a helpful tool for you to see at-a-glance who needs what work done. However many requirements you have (forms, one-steps, board breaks, terminology, etc.), but a stripe on the belt indicating that the student has demonstrated acceptable proficiency in that requirement. This could be done by conducting a mini-testing on that material at the end of a class, or at the end of a week, or at various times scheduled throughout the testing cycle, providing a path to the goal of getting to the grading.

Our testings are not the long, marathon tests. The time it takes has more to do with how many students are testing than anything else. Colored belts do their rank forms, one-steps, sparring, and board breaking if applicable. Our students testing for 1st Dan are required to write a one-page paper, the topic of which is what attaining their black belt means to them (and reads it aloud to the audience), and then perform all colored belt material, forms and one-steps, plus their own, along with sparring and board breaking during their testing. So it takes longer, but isn't drawn out terribly.

6/5/2019 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 235x5, 235x5, 235x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 85x3, 112.5x5, 112.5x5, 112.5x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 265x5. Barbell Rows: 130x10, 130x10, 130x10.

Olympic lifts are great lifts to do. I highly recommend including Olympic lifts in a regular weight lifting routine, as well. One can't neglect the squats and deadlifts at the expense of the Olympic lifts. In fact, what commonly get referred to as the "slow lifts" (that is not what they are, so it's a misnomer), are important for driving the progress of the Olympic lifts.

I agree. When it comes to the katas, I think taking a few each day to focus on will be more helpful than doing all of them once. You'll be able to focus on troubled sections or techniques.

I get that! I'm getting kicked pretty regularly myself, between work, kids, etc.

It sounds like you are pretty well in touch with how you are, how you act, how you train, and how your body responds to various situations. That's very important, because at least you know, and you are able to discuss it openly and honestly. That's a good first step in figuring out some answers. If you want to try to fix this punching issue in self-defense, you may need to work on mind set. This is going to be difficult, and I'm not sure I have any options that would help you out. Go over scenarios in your mind, and use some form of self-talk to work yourself into that mindset where you know that you may have to hurt someone really bad in order to defend yourself or someone else. It's a switch you have to learn to flip.

Anytime! Please keep us posted as to how you progress!

5/30/2019 MA Training TKD Testing: 6:00 - 8:30 pm. We were fortunate to have the highest ranking Instructor in our organization (after our GM) to guest judge at out testing. My instructor and him came up the ranks together, and are very good friends. It was a special day to have him there at testing. He got to observe several of our skunk belts test for 1st dan, a few 2nd Recs test for 2nd Dan, and quite a few colored belts testing through the ranks. Board breaking went over well, and he had great things to say to us all at the end to testing. Topping it off was that it was our instructor's birthday, so he got a Happy Birthday song at the beginning of testing, suggested by some one of the kids. A good day. 5/31/2019 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5,185x3, 205x1, 230x5, 230x5, 230x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 100x5, 150x5, 150x5, 150x5. Power Clean: 75x3, 120x3, 120x3, 120x3, 120x3, 120x3. LTE: 52.5x10, 52.5x10, 52.5x10. Lat Pull-downs: 120x10, 120x10, 120x10. I put the belt on for the squat work sets, and that seems to be the way to go moving forward. I did the lat pull-downs with a chin-up grip, so they hit the biceps just about as well as the curls did, and I get the back in with it.

That sounds really good! Too bad I don't have access to Cinemax...

There's someone I've not seen in some time! Good to see you back!

5/29/2019 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5, 225x5. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 80x3, 110x5, 110x5, 110x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 260x5. Barbell Rows: 125x10, 125x10, 125x10. MA Training Taught TKD Class: 5:30 - 6:30 pm, Beginner's kids class. Class consisted of white belts through a low green belt. We covered basics, forms, one-steps, and did some combinations work instead of sparring getting ready or testing the following day. 6:30 - 7:30 pm, mixed class. Basics, forms, one-steps (doing all lower ranked one-steps for those testing), and instead of any sparring exercise, we did some work on board breaks.

5/28/2019 Firearms Training Three and a half hours at the range today. We shot pistol and rifle, doing several different drills. Worked on some transitions, worked on shooting something moving, and also shooting on the move. Worked on some shooting with the pistol at the 25 yard line, too. MA Training TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Basics: working on the same back stance focus, and also really focused on balance in the three-move combinations we do. We did our cross-over side kicks, and then step-behind side kicks, and I need to clean up my step-behind side kicks a little bit. Stretch: seated splits, and standing back stretches. Forms: Choong Jang; had a little hiccup for some reason, but straightened that out and did ok. One-steps: blue belt, then the first three-step. Sparring: some light testing sparring without pads with testing coming up. Post-class: played the attacker for a black belt reviewing green, blue, and brown belt one-steps. My left knee was really, really bothering me. I couldn't do jump front snap kicks with my right leg, because jumping and landing on my left was too painful. I relegated myself to doing a stepping front leg snap kick instead. I'm going to look into getting some kind of knee wrap to see if that can keep my knee more stable.

Welcome to KF, and welcome back to the MA journey! I'm sure you won't be disappointed in finding friendly advice here! As a matter of fact, it's our specialty!