bushido_man96

11/7/2012 Cardio Treadmill: 10 min jog, covered .76 miles. No walking, except for a brief warmup. Rowing machine: 6 minutes. Love that thing! Stretch Forms Choong Moo x5 Shim Jun x5 Stretch Forms sucked today. Higher ranking forms, with a little more complexity, and the ATA black belt forms are notoriously long. Choong Moo is the TTA's high brown belt/recommended black belt form. Its a fun form to do, but requires some athleticism in spots that is starting to slip away from me as I add poundage, which I hope to fix. Lots of open hand techniques, a flying side kick (that I need to focus on again, as I have to do a board break with it), and a jumping spin that goes from being in a back stance to landing in a back stance and performing a double knife hand block. This form also has a few kicking combinations in it; a back leg round kick followed by a reverse side kick, and a back leg side kick/back leg side kick combo. Shim Jun is the ATA 1st dan form. This form has 81 moves in it, and follows a shape that is similar to an infinity symbol. There are introductions of different "black belt" techniques used in the ATA curriculum, where there are hand techniques done without a retracting arm, so you have to use the hip motion minus the pull-back of the other arm. There are also compound double blocks where one hand will be open and the other closed, along with circular blocking methods and crossed-arm blocking methods. This form also has two front leg jump hook kicks, two jump front kicks, two step-spin hook kicks, a triple consecutive kick with a low side kick followed by repeat round kicks going up the scale. At the end of the form, there is a one step then jumping side kick that I pretty much butchered each time because my legs were so fatigued by the time I was done with the form. 5 times of that, sucked.

No one mentioned an MMA gym for a beating. Guess that brutality doesn't come to mind as often as we thought....

I agree with this. Its hard to come off the back leg and keep that table top position; it makes it long and clunky, and telegraphic bad. I prefer to keep the knee tight, and then burst with the hips and pivot to get power into that kick. But, even when I'm side on, I still tend to bring the knee up into more of the front kick style chamber now, because as along as I pivot and twist, I can still get good hip power into the kick, too. Again, I base my bias here on my body build more than anything, and it feels better to me to utilize my rather ample legs in this way.

I wish there were FMA near me. It would be so valuable.

Welcome to KF!

Thank you!

I think the point of the grading is to put the pressure on the student to do what he has been training to do. I try to make sure that every student that is going to test is ready to test. But, once they get there, its up to them not to botch it. If they do, then its called a testing for a reason; there is the possibility of failure. Look at it this way; is the reward greater if you know it won't be taken from you, or is it greater because you know you had two options; fail or succeed?

11/6/2012 Cardio Rowing machine: 2 sessions of 6 min, rest between. I really liked rowing, but the insides of my legs are sore! Stretch Forms Hwa Rang x5 Choon Jung 2 x5 Stretch Hwa Rang is the TTA middle brown belt form. Its a fairly short form, but fun to do. A tricky spot is where you do reverse punches from a back stance, and we don't do them to the angle, we do them straight forward, so getting good twist is a point of focus. Choong Jung 2 is the red belt form of the ATA. It contains some tension movements, a similar reverse punching in back stance series like Hwa Rang, more consecutive kicking with a round kick/side kick, and a jumping round kick.

If you stay high, you raise your center of gravity. Against someone built like a Sumo Wrestler, with a naturally wider base and a lower center of gravity, I think you tend to put yourself at a disadvantage when it comes to leverage. I think the point JusticeZero is trying to make here is that there is a fallacy in pointing to the immobility of lower, deeper stance. The real reason the stances tend to be more immobile is a lack of proper mobility training in these stances.

For those of us not in a Japanese style, or not Japanese, English terminology would be great here...

This may be true for some, but I have a several new techniques that people have not seen, at least to my knowledge. I've heard this before, but really, how much new under the sun can there be in regards to how the body works and moves? I've read current books on BJJ and also Medieval manuscripts...not much has changed. But, I'd be interested to see what you've come up with. I think weapons training would be a good idea. Some stick and knife style training would benefit anyone, as well as covering anti-weapon training. The fact of the matter is that weapons are a part of our society, and neglecting that facet of training out of the desire to uphold some kind of honor code is a mistake, in my opinion.

You're lucky, Patrick. I just try to make sure there is nothing sharp around when I watch the Chiefs now.

Those are good points. I don't think a runner's stance would buy me too many more seconds. Fast is not something I've ever been.

There isn't really much credence to the 30 min window. I don't know that there is any study that shows how or why that would work, but they are mainly bunk. The power guys I've spoken with on various sites just say to get it in after the workout. If you do so within 3 hours, you are still ok. The time frame isn't going to make that much of a difference.

Social spar is always a good time!

Yes, Danielle, pretty well. I'm just not tied by either to a specific target or movement. Like the first one you discuss, it doesn't necessarily come off the back leg in a front facing stance. I'll try to put some brief videos on youtube, link them here, and see if that helps.

That's what they were designed for, really. When you can see your accomplishments recognized that way, it puts a sense of desire to achieve other goals in you as well. The belt system is basically a reward system, along with being a rank system. Great minds think alike! We differ here. I don't think MMA is merely a product. I think it is an art form/style, just as much as any other out there. I think we've been fortunate as a society to be able to watch how this style evolved and developed right before our eyes into the style it has become today. That's part of what's exciting about MMA, to me. None of us got to see the process that took place when Funakoshi came to Japan from Okinawa and began to establish Shotokan the way he did. But, what he did isn't a whole lot different than the way MMA has changed along the way. But everyone excepts what we have in Shotokan as a style and somehow legitimate, but not as many people want to see what and how MMA is becoming what it is becoming and give it the same credence.

Its too bad some clubs can't be more flexible on when they schedule their gradings. I understand how you feel, but in the long run, it won't make too much of a difference. Its ok to rant about it to, though. It shows you feel confident, which is good.

That guy's an incredible athlete. Lots of fun to watch. I imagine he's likely on the far end of the talent spectrum. Always fun to watch things like this.

This is what I was taught early on, as I think a lot of us are. Long, deeper stances had more stability, but sacrificed mobility; higher, narrower stances sacrificed stability for mobility. So, when its all said and done, it does appear to be teaching methodology that is the issue. Perhaps some things changed along the way, and just like the initial intentions behind the forms, the initial intentions of the stances lost their way, too, and training hasn't made up for that yet. When we do our basics in class, we are moving from front stance to front stance quite often, but its in a straight line, for the most part. We also land the foot at the time the technique is performed, which kind of lends a bit of a pause to allow the technique to penetrate with that mass behind it. Perhaps this causes a bit of a slow down, I don't know, though. I am impressed by the physics lesson you gave, JusticeZero. Nicely laid out, and it opened my eyes some (as well as had me scratching my head a bit....I'm not a big science/math guy). You've given me something to think more about it my training. I'm going to experiment with moving from stance to stance more, and not think about doing techniques with it, for now. It should help build the legs up, too. Your opening post starts in regards to discussing a small person using these stances to gain power. But does a larger person suffer the inverse of not benefiting as much from a deeper stance, or do you feel its down to practice?

Well, this is an interesting topic. Do you have a name for what you plan to put together, or do you have a main curriculum of what you plan to teach will contain? Have you taught classes before, and do you feel confident in doing that? I just ask because teaching is a whole new ball game, and I don't recall from any of your previous posts if you have teaching experience or not. As for "bread and butter" techniques...back leg round kick is fun for me. A good front kick is useful, and side kicks are good, but require a bit of setup, in my opinion, but I don't discount them at all. Wrist locks are ok, but shoulder locks are nice, too. As far as how I like to learn, I prefer to have a lot of two person work going on, going back and forth on various defense and offense, working a concept that way, with varying levels of resistance so you really learn how to make it work. Finally, best of luck in your endeavor. I won't tell you not to begin teaching your own style, but I will say just make sure you've got a good plan in place to teach your curriculum, and that you are solid in all of it. Whenever someone mentions creating their own style, there are many that become dismissive of the idea.

Congrats!

And likely with your back turned to them...

11/2/2012 Cardio Treadmill: 20 minutes, 1.34 miles. It was tough today. Bike: 1 mile cool down, 4:16. Stretch Forms Toi Gye x5 Choong Jung 1 x5 Stretch Toi Gye is the first brown belt form in the TTA curriculum. The dominant feature of it is the mountain blocks, which go from a sitting stance, swinging the back leg up almost like an inside crescent kick to gain momentum and twist the body, then landing down into a sitting stance with the blocking hands up. The goal is to keep the hands up high in the blocking position for the most part, not dropping them as you turn. You do two to the left, three back to the right, and one back to the left. The form layout is a modified I pattern. Choong Jung 1 is the brown belt form in the ATA. It has 44 moves, and follows a rectangle along the bottom half of the Songham Star. This form is unique in that it goes backwards first, in a series of techniques facing forward, but moving to the rear. Then it goes along the bottom right half of the rectangle, up to the top, all the way across to the left edge, down, then back to the middle of the bottom of the rectangle, and back up to the start position. Unique to this form are tension moves, done in 5 second counts, back leg front kick/consecutive round kicks, and jumping side kicks and outside crescent kicks.

Well, I guess go after it and have a good time.