The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

10/29/2012

Treadmill: 1.37 mi in 20 min.

Bike: cool down, 1 mi, 4:56 min.

Stretch

Forms

Won Hyo x5

Songham 5 x5

Naifanchi x5

Ge Baek x2

Stretch

Won Hyo is the TTA's 5th gup form. It follows the similar I pattern we've been seeing for the past few forms. We do double blocks, with the lead hand in a fighting guard position, or outer forearm block, and the rear hand in a high block position. The opening sequence has the double block, a reverse upset knife hand strike, followed by a lead punch. Its a nice opening sequence, which I think shows power through good hip motion and twisting, with some good self defense applications. There are two side kicks and two front kicks in this form.

Songham 5 is the ATA 5th gup form. It follows the rectangle line once again, but this time you start in the middle of the long line on the back, then move to the right to the first corner, up the short side, across the top line to the next corner, back down, and to the beginning. The hand attacks are all head level, and includes the introduction of the ridge hand strike. The new kicking challenge is the stepping reverse side kick, which still causes me problems. But, its something to work on. There are also quite a few of twin and double blocks, with twin low blocks followed by twin inner forearm blocks.

[tallgeese]

10/29

Drilled taking back from guard.

30 min free roll.

Still a bit light after Saturday.

[tallgeese]

10/30

45 min free roll.

[bushido_man96]

10/31/2012

Treadmill: 20 min, 1.36 mi.

Bike: 1 mile cool down, 4:37

Stretch

Forms

Yul Gok x5

In Wha 1 x5

Po Eun x5

Stretch

Forms session today was 4th gup session for ATA and TTA forms, with Po Eun thrown in for fun.

Yul Gok is the TTA's first blue belt form. I like this form, as I feel I can really power it out. Its one of my favorite colored belt forms. This form follows a modified I, with some angle work, and some tension moves. The TTA does tension knife hand strikes, where as other ITF stylist do this more as a hooking, grabbing motion. The way I see it is that any time you have an open hand in a form, you should look at grabbing applications, as well as striking or passing type blocks. This form also has a nice series in which you do a one leg stance and guarding blocks, followed by a side kick and land into an elbow strike, then turn and repeat the combination on the other side. This shows balance, power, and body control, and is a fun section. Anslow refers to this form as "the grabbing form."

The ATA purple belt form is called In Wha 1. "In Wha" means "Unbroken Glory," and there are two of these forms. This form introduces the high/low block, and also the "square block," which the TTA just describes as a double block. The square block is the same move found in the opening sequence of Won Hyo, but it is done a bit differently. One hand to the opposite chest, and the other to the ribs, the chest hand moves across to an outer forearm block position, and the hand at the ribs moves up to a high block, but comes up and passes across the body to block anything coming to the center line on its way up. Both done simultaneously. This form also adds vertical punches, forward and back elbow strikes, and single outer knife hand blocks to the moves list. New kicks in this form are inner outer crescent kicks, repeat round kicks with same leg (at different levels, mid and hi, if the student can do that), and also a consecutive kicking sequence with the same leg; back leg front kick to the front, rechambered and followed by a side kick with the same leg to the side.

The layout of this form is new, too. It is basically two squares stacked like boxes, and is like a figure 8 pattern. Just think of the 8 as a square, digital one . You start on the right edge, which is the top of the bottom square and the bottom of the top square. You go to the left, down, to the right, back up to the start, and then left from the start point to the right again, then up to the top of the top square, back right, and down to the start. Kind of tricky, with some 3/4 turning into square blocks.

ATA purple belt really starts to up the difficulty as an intermediate level form, delving more into the TKD double kicking, and more turning in the form. Here, basics are starting to come together into more advanced techniques. This form has 44 moves.

My black belt form of the day was Po Eun, mainly because it is short and sweet. Po Eun is a lot like Naifanchi in that it is done mainly in sitting/horse stances, with some back stances and cross legged stances thrown in. It follows a -- pattern, as well. This is the TTA 2nd dan recommended form.

[bushido_man96]

11/01/2012

Cardio

Treadmill: 20 minutes, 1.53 miles. I hate running.

Bike: 1 mile cool down, 4:18 min.

Stretch

Forms

Joong Gun x5

In Wha 2 x5

Stretch

Forms today were 3rd gup colored belt forms. Joong Gun is the high blue belt form in the TTA. Anslow refers to this form as "the elbow breaking pattern" in his book, and the opening sequence is indicative of that. Both this form and its ATA counterpart have upward elbow strikes, along with crossing X blocks; this form has high X blocks, and a particular fun series of moves going from front stance and double forearm block, back leg side kick and landing in another front stance (very tough transition for me), double forearm block and another back leg side kick into a fighting stance. There are also U shaped staff blocks, and a hook punch. I get a decent pace with this form, and has some palm pressing blocks that help give it power, as well. Joong Gun's floor pattern comes back to the familiar I.

In Wha 2 is the blue belt ATA form. Also consistent between these two forms are ridge hand blocks. Both forms have a considerable amount of open hand blocking. The square blocks in this form are open hand this time, too. The kicking sequences become tougher, with a repeat hook kick/round kick combination on each leg, and a side kick followed by a step together hook kick combination. A front leg jumping front kick from a parallel stance also makes an appearance. This form has 42 moves. This form follows the stacked squares pattern of the purple belt form, but movement is to the right from the start, as opposed to the left.

[yamesu]

1 Nov 2012

- 6km cycle including hill sprints.

- 140 pushups divided into multiple sets (which included two competition sets with a training partner to see who could pop out the most in one go).

- Quick Abs routine.

- Kicking for cardio and stretchnign purposes after the cycle (approx 100 kicks).

[bushido_man96]

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.

[yamesu]

2 Nov 2012

- Pull ups, 3 sets to exhaustion.

- Abs 2 sets, including: crunches, sit ups (rocky style with punches), leg raises and reverse plank.

- Splits stretching.

- Drilled combinations (20min).

#Gedan Mawashi, Oi Tsuki, Gyaku Tsuki, Jodan Mawashi.

#Oi Tsuki, Gysaku Tsuki, Mae Geri, Uchi Mawashi Kakato Geri.

#Oi Tsuki, Gyaku Tsuki, Kage Tsuki, Shita Tsuki.

- Drilled Uchi Mata (5min).

- Kata: Yantsu and Seichin.

- Shadow boxing (10min).

- Stretch warm down.

[yamesu]

4 Nov 2012

- Carried ~1 tonne pine logs uphill 100 metres.

- Machete work (also on pine) for approx 1 hour.

- Got carried away, katana tameshigiri for approx 30 min.

- Heavy bag work (10 min).

- Abs workout (10 min).

- 200 various kicks to finish.

[tallgeese]

11/6

After a week of self imposed workout denial due to family in town, I finally make it back to the gym.

60 min free roll. Yes, I had some fun with it.