bushido_man96

9/18/2019 Strength Training Warm-ups: 5 box jumps, 5 med ball throws, 5 med ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 265x1, 295x5, 295x5, 295x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 175x5, 175x5, 175x5. Barbell Rows: 95x5, 115x5, 142.5x8, 142.5x8, 142.5x8. Lat Pull-downs: 125x8, 125x8, 125x8. Stretch: Kick stretches, quads, and the stretching machine.

9/16/2019 Strength Training Warm-ups: 5 box jumps (taller box), 5 med ball throws, 5 med ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 290x5, 290x5, 290x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 120x5, 120x5, 120x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 285x5, 225x5, 225x3. Stretch: kick stretches, quads, and sat in the stretching machine; got it up to 130 degrees. The squats seemed tough today, and I'm not sure why. My bar speed was decent, but it just felt tough out of the hole. I added a few sets after the deadlift work set to try to work on grip strength a little more. Sitting in the stretching machine was really nice. It made me feel more loose afterwards, which I think will help me out more in getting back to class. I'm going to keep this up, along with my other stretching.

Going hand in hand with balance is agility, which could be looked at as "dynamic balance," maintaining balance while moving. Even more important would be learning to do so against an external force, trying to work against you. Ebb and flow and whatnot.

9/13/2019 Warm-ups: 5 box jumps, 5 med ball throws, 5 med ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 285x5, 285x5, 285x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 170x5, 170x5, 170x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 280x5. Stretch: kick stretches and quads. I probably could have added 10 lbs to the deadlift. The pulls came off the floor with good speed.

It is frustrating. Unfortunately, it's the nature of the beast. In the end, when all is really tallied up, you'll have way more students that quit than stayed with you.

9/11/2019 -- Always Remember Strength Training Warm-ups: 5 box jumps, 5 med ball throws, 5 med ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 280x5, 280x5, 280x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 115x5, 115x5, 115x5. Barbell Rows: 95x5, 115x5, 140x8, 140x8, 140x8. Lat Pull-downs: 122.5x8, 122.5x8, 122.5x8. Stretch: kick stretches.

When you mention rotating students in and out, during what sessions of the class do you do this? After our basics, all students sit at the back of the class, and the lowest ranks come out first, and we do forms. They usually do the forms twice; once at the instructor's count, and once at their own count. Then that group sets and the next group comes up and does their form the same way. It's worked well for our school, and depending on how many students are in the class, it goes quicker or slower, but works out well.

I agree with you about a lot of American males being "top heavy." But it's not for lack of training something like footwork. It's because of the most common question asked among males when determining masculinity: "How much you bench, bro?" It's a lack of willingness to work the legs under heavy loads. Not many squats going on in the vast majority of commercial gyms. Bench press for days, but not squats. And I love hearing the term "leg day." One day a week for the legs, but the upper body gets worked like 9 days a week. It comes from the image culture, where a vast majority of fitness advocates only really care about the muscles they can see in the mirror. This means chest, biceps, and quads. And the squats I do see tend to be half squats or worse, with all kinds of funky motions. Or even worse, squatting in the Smith machine. I would also mention that the advent of the bench press has led to the decline of the use of one of the best (and most useful) upper body exercises ever used, the overhead press. It's a much better exercise than the bench press, because it engages the entire body with the load. It's downfall is that bench press numbers go up faster, and no one wants to hurt their ego by getting caught in the gym doing a standing overhead press with only 25 lbs plates on each side. Many years ago, before the bench press came along, the press was the strength standard, and strong men had strong presses. The removal of the clean and press from the Olympic games also lent to the decline of the focus of training the press. Ok, rant over.

Congrats! Well done!

9/9/2019 Strength Training Warm-up: 5 box jumps, 5 med ball throws, 5 med ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 280x5, 280x5, 280x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 115x5, 115x5, 115x5. Barbell Rows: 95x5, 115x5, 140x8, 140x8, 140x8. Lat Pull-downs: 122.5x8, 122.5x8, 122.5x8 Stretch: kick stretches. So, this next two month stretch will be a blessing and a curse. A blessing to my lifting schedule; I'm working the mid-shift, and will be able to hit my three day per week lifting schedule in the mornings. Prior to this, I was missing Mondays and getting two days in a week, and my numbers were diving. Now, I've just backed everything off to my warm-up sets, and am working from there. I'm also dropping the power cleans/snatches for the barbell row in the middle of the week, and deadlifting two days per week. The power movements just aren't necessary for a guy at my age to necessarily be doing, and I'll get more benefit in moving more weight with the barbell row and saving my knees and worrying about hitting the rack position on the power cleans. The curse is that my TKD classes are now covered up by my work shift, which means all TKD training will be solo, which I'll hopefully start up here soon.

The major trend seems to be "7 years old." Lots of kids that age have trouble focusing on something, or with the concept of putting in work to get rewards down the road. Unfortunately, I think a new breed of parents have trouble understanding that, too, and here we are. I'd say far and away you're doing really well, and the future looks bright! Getting adults into classes is tough. Many don't want to do much after they finish work for the day, and feel that those days of being an athlete are behind them. Those that do get started tend to commit for at least a year, I've found.

KISS is the way to go, for sure. For kids, I'd probably teach them how to break away from various holds and grabs, using distraction techniques at the same time, and then using their lungs to call for help, draw attention to themselves, and use their feet to get away. I'd keep it very simple.

Do you have enough funds saved up to run the dojo sans profit for about three months? When I was in school (some years ago now, so take that for what it's worth), this was the suggested norm; being able to run your business for three months out of your own pocket, and then hopefully afterwards your profits start to take over and pay for running itself. Congrats on starting your own dojo! You're going to do great!

In the second video you list, I think the best footwork drill out of it was the first one. Most practical for moving while fighting. The rest are just what is described in the video, "sports fitness." Just moving for the sake of moving, really. Some of the cone movements seem to have some value, too. The last video was a good one. Showed application and explained it well. Looks worthwhile to learn, and I'd be interested in street applications.

So what's next?

8/28/2019 Strength Training Warm-up: 5 broad jumps, 5 box jumps, 5 med ball throws, 5 med ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 275x3, 285x3. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 165x1, 192.5x5, 192.5x5, 192.5x5. Power Snatch: 75x2, 100x2, 100x2, 100x2. 9/4/2019 Strength Training Warm-up: 5 box jumps, 5 med ball throws, 5 med ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 275x1, 295x5, 295x5, 295x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 115x1, 135x5, 135x5, 135x5. Barbell Rows: 95x5, 115x8, 135x8, 135x8, 135x8. Lat Pull-downs: 120x8, 120x8, 120x8. Stretch: kick stretches, quads.

What I'd been told when I first started my MA career was a 10% rule: 10% of the people you start training with will end up testing to black belt with you. After that, 10% of those that made 1st dan with you will hit 2nd dan with you...and so on. I've found over the course of my career, that rate is probably about right, if it's not a bit high. That's not an exact representative number, but I've found some truth in it.

Bob, I may not have been clear in my response. My meaning was pertaining to these drills that we are discussing. Perhaps there's a better way to train than with the traditional step-sparring scenarios.

8/23/2019 Strength Training Warm-ups: 5 broad jumps, 5 box jumps, 5 medicine ball throws, 5 medicine ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 265x1, 300x3, 300x3, 300x3. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 115x1, 135x5, 135x5, 135x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 275x1, 295x5. With the kids going back to school, my schedule has really gone to the pot, and I've not been able to consistently train three days a week like I want to. So I'm plodding along with the squats, trying to maintain some level of strength right now. 8/26/2019 MA Training TKD Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Do-kangs 1-4, three-steps 1-4, and we started on Ho Sin Sul. Brief stretch after class; my hip flexor area kept cramping up on me.

It's a good question. Maybe there isn't any?....

Most don't. But, I do think that it can be worthwhile in putting yourself out there to find perhaps a few new students that will come in and put in the work. I do think there are those who do gain some value from these types of seminars, and who knows if you might end up teaching someone one thing they remember that saves their life or changes the course of things for them just enough to make a difference. To me, it isn't about the money. Every one that I've been a part of has been offered for free. It's about teaching awareness and simple, effective responses to common attacks or situations. And then stressing how important it is to continue to train...

8/21/2019 Strength Training Warm-up: 5 broad jumps, 5 box jumps, 5 medicine ball throws, 5 medicine ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 265x1, 295x3, 305x3, 305x3. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 165x1, 190x5, 190x5, 190x5. Power Snatch: 65x2, 75x3, 95x3, 95x3. Stretch: kick stretches and hamstrings. With school starting up, the schedule is getting crazy. Lots of running kids back and forth to stuff, and more inconsistency when it comes to lifting. In order to try to keep the intensity up on my squats, I've cut the sets of 5 to 3, but am still struggling with the missed time. I've decided to switch to the power snatch from the power clean. I may get back to the clean, but I prefer the snatch as I don't have to mess with the rack position of the clean, and I like the longer pull. MA Training Taught TKD Class: 5:30 - 6:30 pm. Basics, forms, one-steps, and sparring. Mainly spent time harping on the kids about how the next testing is their testing, and not my testing, and they have to start really pushing themselves to improve, and not wait for instructors to get after them. Taking ownership of their training. Kicking Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. We got through about 4 and half stations of kicking on the powerlines and paddles. I made sure to control myself on the axe kicks again, and I'm not having as much trouble with the muscles pulling. Been spending time breaking down the crescent kicks and hook kicks, too.

Oooh, this is a good conversation. Thanks for starting this one off, Wastelander! I'll preface this by saying that one-step sparring (which is what we call these drills; step-sparring) is a part of the curriculum all the way up through our colored belt ranks. Each rank has it's own set; usually 5 for the lower grade, and an additional 3 for the higher grade. The colored belt are one attack only, and then a series of defenses. I have pretty mixed feelings on most of these one-steps. For the most part, I chalk them up to skill development exercises that teach how to put combinations of moves together, and learn how to target these techniques, control these techniques, and learn distance. Now, the downside is the formalized style of declaring attacks and then blocking. I do feel it is a good introductory method of learning to recognize an oncoming attack from a less-than-advantageous ready position, learning how to react to said attacks, and then developing a proper response to said attacks. Proper focusing when performing the blocks and attacks will show the student if they blocked properly and if they are at a proper distance to actually contact with counter attacks. However, the downfall of this process is that it continues in this manner, all the way up to the black belt level, only with more complicated ways of punching and kicking. The formalized way of attacking and defending is still present. This is the downfall. I truly feel that it is important to move beyond the formalized way of setting these drills up, and using different attacks that might be more common out in the world. After all, if we as instructors are going to train a series of responses, it's pretty important that we are sure these responses will work. To that end, I've found that (at least with some of the lower level one-steps in our system) these drills can be adjusted to work to that end. I move from the down block and kihap ready to a more aggressive, posturing stance for the attacker. The defender moves from the hands-at-the-sides ready position to a more staggered stance with the hands up in a "fence" position. From there, the defense techniques are executed in a less formal and structured manner, but still done as proper techniques with the goal being to end the assault. As much as I've enjoyed working these things out on my own, it isn't done in class, and I feel that not many of the more advanced one-steps are as adaptable as some of the lower ranking ones are. Now, with all that said, as black belts, we've begun doing three-step sparring, and these steps have become requirements for black belt testings now. I unfortunately see flaws in them, and wonder quite a bit about how much they help. Of the steps we've done so far, the attacks are all face level straight punches while advancing forward. What is newer is the inclusion of some joint manipulations to restrain the attacker and facilitate some kicking, but the problem is that the attacker is probably not going to just leave an arm hanging out to be manipulated after being punched three times. I do think there are some useful concepts that can be taken away from these drills, but some considerable time has to be spent to decipher it all, find what will work, or what works better for certain situations, and move forward from there.

Time to keep you posted!! I can now kick muay thai style well... with my left leg For some reason doing it with my right leg is harder. I'm getting better, but I am not quite there yet with my right side. It's funny, I am right handed, but for martial arts or sports I definitely favor my left side. Could be that you feel more comfortable balanced on your dominant side leg.

8/14/2019 Strength Training Warm-ups: 5 broad jumps, 5 box jumps, 5 medicine ball throws, 5 medicine ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 256x1, 320x5, 320x5, 320x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 165x1, 197.5x5, 197.5x5, 197.5x5. Power Cleans: 115x3, 115x3, 115x3, 115x3, 115x3. Stretch: kick stretches and quads. MA Training Taught TKD Class: 5:30 - 6:30 pm. Basics, forms, one-steps. Hit on some key points on our step-over side kicks and the hop-side kicks, and the importance of getting the body lined up properly to execute a proper side kick. Kicking Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Another decent class, working three stations on the powerlines and three stations on the paddles, with probably getting around 300-500 kicks in total. And I made sure not to really pull down too hard on the axe kicks, and my leg did not suffer for it. Stretch after class. 8/16/2019 Strength Training Warm-ups: 5 broad jumps, 5 box jumps, 5 medicine ball chest passes, 5 medicine ball slams. Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 265x1, 295x1, 325x5, 325x5, 325x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 115x1, 142.5x5, 142.5x5, 142.5x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 275x1, 305x5. Stretch: kick stretches and quads.