bushido_man96

Sounds like a good week of training, getting lots of different things in. Definitely seek out that opportunity to train with that high rank!

7/31/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 235x5, 235x5, 235x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 115x1, 137.5x5, 137.5x5, 137.5x5. Barbell Rows: 105x10, 105x10, 105x10. TKD Class: Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Went through all the one-steps, then started on three-steps; I focused on the first two so I can start getting them memorized. After that, we sparred. Had three good matches, felt like things went pretty well, had some things working for me. Got pretty gassed at the last match. I did manage to to take a knee into the rump, and an elbow on the ankle, but it's all good.

Welcome to KF!

I felt the same way.

This right here is the reason why the first thing i say to any new prospective parents is "hope you are blessed with a good sleeper" usually gets met with a slightly odd look as they wonder what possible relevance that could have... Nowadays I just wish I could be blessed to be a good sleeper myself!

I tend to do this at least once a week, on a night that I have class and need a quick one to cook up after. I usually season it with lemon-pepper, fresh rosemary, topped with lemon slices. I either steam or bake a vegetable and make a side of rice.

Home Improvement was always great. Step by Step. Family Matters. Fully House. I remember enjoying Spin City briefly.

7/28/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 230x5, 230x5, 230x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 115x1, 135x5, 135x5, 135x5. Barbell Rows: 100x10, 100x10, 100x10. Kicking off a big weekend of TKD for our school this weekend. Friday night, we had testing with our association's grandmaster and his daughter (senior master) in as guest judges. And on Saturday, the school hosted it's first ever tournament. TKD Testing: 6:00 - 7:30 pm. The black belts did a little bit of demo breaking at the beginning (I did not), with the CI doing his 6-board palm heel smash. The kids tried some new things, which went well. Other than that, we had several white belts test, and one green belt tested. Our adult white belt impressed the GM so much that he jumped her in rank to high orange belt, which was pretty cool. She's pretty technically sound for a white belt, so I think it's a good call. At the end of testing, the GM had our three teenage black belts do their first-ever round of three-for-all sparring, while two second degrees did a regular sparring match (it was a father-and-son match, so always fun). 7/29/2023 TKD Tournament: 9:00 am - 2:00 pm (including teardown time). I got in early to help with sign-ups and what not, then we had our black belt meeting, and then lined up as a group. Our CI and the Salina CI did some black belt introductions after our CI introduced the guest of honor, Grandmaster Yi. This was a small, interschool tournament involving the 4 KS schools in the association, so we had just under 50 competing, I believe. Next, we did a brief demo involving some basics and one-steps and three-steps (my and my partner, a very talented 4th dan, only did one-steps). After that, it was time to break off and go to work. The formalities handled, we started the competition proper, and I spent the day center judging a ring for forms and sparring. I have to say, our school has always had a high standard for technique, and it has carried on since the instructor that founded the school has moved on. I have to say, compared to some others I've seen out there, our school upheld its reputation. We had a pretty good day sparring, too. Good news that came out of this is that the headquarters school is planning on finally having another national tournament next year, around the same date we just had ours. This is a good thing, as the association hasn't had a national tournament in several years. Overall, I enjoyed being a part of it, and enjoyed judging the rings. One of the other area CI's came up with a forms judging system that streamlined things pretty well, and once he explained the system, I rather liked the simplicity of it. Much easier than what I had done in the past. Our CI is also looking at trying to host an open tournament at some point in the future, which I think would be a lot of fun, but will also come with it's own challenges. This was a good learning experience, and I expect some good things going forward.

How do you do it with your back?

Congrats!

7/24/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 225x5, 225x5, 225x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 125x5, 125x5, 125x5. Barbell Rows: 95x10, 95x10, 95x10. A jumbled schedule at work this week, so I missed a few more days of training. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. We have a tournament coming up this weekend, so after doing a brief warmup, the CI, another instructor and myself watched our black belts do forms, and then gave them critiques for tournament competition, things to clean up, space out, etc. 7/26/2023 Strength Training Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 130x5, 130x5, 130x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 275x5. The first set of presses made me question how much I loaded. Sets 2 and 3 went more smoothly, though. TKD Class: T-shirt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Rolled out a bag to do some bagwork tonight. Ended up toying around with 360 side kicks, and then jump 360 side kicks, along with the CI, who was asking about some technical aspects. Wore me out pretty good. At the end of class, we did some breaking with the rebreakable boards, doing a palm heel smash. I did two grey boards, then 3, then did 3 grey boards and one green board. Will keep working up next week, hopefully.

That sounds like a really fun week! You'll have to share some pictures when you are finished!

I can see how that will work well for someone who is really fast. Explosiveness tends to be a genetic trait, though, and when one isn't really explosive, using the hips to help generate power is a good alternative.

7/14/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 230x5, 230x5, 230x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 125x5, 125x5, 125x5. 7/17/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 235x5, 235x5, 235x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 110x3, 127.5x5, 127.5x5, 127.5x5. I had thought about adding pull-downs back in, but I was truly gassed after that final squat set. TKD Class: Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Tonight was a forms review night, which I was ok with. If there were any issues with a form, we did it again before advancing. White belt through middle brown belt. I had good power throughout, and was a little sore in the arms the next day.

Welcome to KF!

I think the main reason it is difficult for the general martial arts instructors to teach this kind of material is the equipment needed to make the training worth having. At work, we will train with simunitions rounds and the appropriate protection. The guns aren't cheap, the rounds aren't cheap, and the protective materials aren't cheap, making it very tough to make a good curriculum for your typical martial artist who owns a school to put together. We might only do this training once or twice a year, as well. It is possible to train the strategies and tactics that go along with these scenarios, but your really don't know what it's like until you have rounds hitting you in the chest and you get that adrenaline dump. I do believe the main issue is the cost.

Been a while since my last post here....it was a bad stretch for about a month. Finally, things came around, and I made it back to the gym. 7/10/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5, 225x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x5, 115x5, 115x5. Starting over...again. On the last two sets of squats, I had a little lightheadedness after the racking the bar. Going to monitor this going forward, and if it continues, change my rep scheme. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. My schedule has rotated, so back to class, too. It was a self-defense focused class tonight, and we worked on knife defenses. I focused on redirecting the attack and controlling the weapon hand, then counterattacking with lots of strikes to take the bad guy's focus off the knife. 7/12/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x5, 205x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 120x5, 120x5, 120x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 275x5. Lost so much on deadlift (and didn't have much on it to begin with). The long road lingers ahead.... TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt Class. I went through forms, white through high blue belt, and they went well. I haven't forgotten them, at least. The body was sore and didn't want to move much, but getting some work in was good. I broke the class up by helping a young student with his deadlift technique, and then the CI was working on a palm heel smash breaking boards. He's working up to concrete slabs. I was tempted to join in with him, but will likely need to work up a bit.

Kudos to both of you for sharing here. Those are a great handful of questions to ask, Zaine. Very helpful. I find myself in a slump in training quite often. I'm not sure quite how to get around it. My shift rotates, though, and sleeping during the day is not productive for me, so I think I'm often just tired when it comes time to train. On those days, I still try to do something, even if it is just a walkthrough on forms. It can be a tough thing, for sure.

Happy Independence Day to all the US members celebrating! Enjoy your day, and stay safe around those fireworks!

I don't. I know lots of devices, like Apple Watches and the old FitBits do that stuff for a lot of people. I've personally never been interested in making sure I hit a step count every day.

Welcome to KF, Nick!

I'm the oldest of three as well. I did some mean stuff at times; I recall throwing big rocks at my middle brother's head often. Both of my brothers got bigger than me, though....

My dad introduced me when I was really young, probably around 6 or 8 or so. He just drug me along to a few classes he went to. I wasn't a committed student at that time, but the seed had been planted. Fast forward to my 8th grade year, a buddy of mine talked me into coming to a TKD class. That was it.

6/14/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x5, 225x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 152x5, 152x5, 152x5. Snatch Grip Deadlift: 185x3, 225x2, 250x5, 250x5. 6/16/2023 Strength Training Rowing Machine: 2 minute warmup. Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 270x5, 270x5, 270x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 135x2, 153x5, 153x5, 153x5. Barbell Rows: 95x5, 115x5, 135x8, 135x8, 135x8. Iso-Lateral Bench Press: 115....pain! Iso-bench didn't go today. Got in, tried a rep, and it just hurt way too much. I tried adjusting the grip, and it still hurt way too much. As I type this, it's 6/30/2023. So, I've not had a training session in some time. Things have gone really south for me lately. Meniere's disease has flared up with vengeance, and I'm not sure why. My head has been a mess for going on three weeks now; lots of lightheadedness and general discomfort. Trying to lift heavy while that's going on isn't great, and my balance has been affected, too. 6/26/2023 DT Training Session: I did 4, 2-hour blocks of training at the department today. Even though I haven't been feeling the best, the sessions still went pretty well. We covered a lot of choke defense stuff, various headlocks, etc. After the training session, I was at home running around the kitchen, trying to get supper around....I bent down to get foil out of cupboard, stood up, and the world spun for hours. Ended up medicating myself and crashing out for 13 hours. It really sucks.

Thanks for that layout, Wado Heretic. Lots of really good points here. And you're spot-on about TKD.