The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

11/12/2024

Range:  6:00 - 9:00 pm.  Night shoot.  We shot pistols, back-ups, rifles, and shotguns.

[sensei8]

How long have you been a LEO now, Brian??

[aurik]

On 10/22/2024 at 8:54 PM, bushido_man96 said:

10/22/2024

Strength Training

Leg Press:  135x10, 185x10, 225x5, 315x3, 360x5, 360x5, 360x5.

Bench Press:  45x5x2, 95x5, 115x3, 135x2, 160x5, 160x5, 160x5.

Lat Pull-downs:  172.5x10, 172.5x10, 172.5x10.

Press was on the agenda for today, but my head wasn't feeling it, so I did bench instead.  I put the belt on for the work sets, and I noticed a difference.

Have you considered swapping out the lat pull downs for barbell rows?  If you do 160x5 on the bench press, turn around and do 160x5 on the barbell row.  Keeps your front and back balanced.

[bushido_man96]

On 11/14/2024 at 7:10 AM, sensei8 said:

How long have you been a LEO now, Brian??

Almost 19 years now Bob.

 

11/18/2024

Aikido:  Morning Class:  8:30 - 9:30 am.  After stretching and aiki-taisos, we worked techniques that I'll be tested on.  We did kokyonage, kotegashi, ikkyo, and nikkyo.  There was a few times where I noticed I was getting on my heels when stepping and moving, so I tried to fix that.  I also worked on doing a big circle on the kotegashi technique to get the positional results I wanted.  For the nikkyo applications, we did a dynamic and a static version.  On the static version I was able to really focus on my hip movement.

[bushido_man96]

On 11/14/2024 at 10:29 AM, aurik said:

Have you considered swapping out the lat pull downs for barbell rows?  If you do 160x5 on the bench press, turn around and do 160x5 on the barbell row.  Keeps your front and back balanced.

I've done rows before, and I don't mind doing them.  The main point behind staying with the lat pulls is to work towards doing chin-ups.

 

11/20/2024

TKD:  I did a pretty brief solo training session, about 20 minutes in total.  I alternated forms, doing Choong Jang, Yoo Sin, Choong Jang again, Gae Baek, and Choong Jang one more time.  In Choong Jang, I was working on my stand-up from the a section in the form were we go to one knee, do a round kick to the groin or lower, followed by a punch to the groin section, and then stand up and move into a back elbow strike.  My knees hurt often, and the standing doesn't help, so I'm playing with ideas to make the stand cleaner.  I finished doing all 12 three-steps, then stretched in The Rack.  I stretched up to 140 degrees, and focused on leaning forward into the stretch.

 

11/21/2024

Aikido Class:  This was an extra morning class added this week due to having a visiting Sensei in to teach.  After stretches and aiki-taisos, we worked on kotegashi, doing a "big turn" method.  We focused on dropping the opponent's hand to our hip as we turned.  We finished by adding a pinning technique.  Then we worked on sankyo, adding a takedown and pin as well.  It was a fun class with the guest instructor.  Afterwards a group of us went to breakfast and got to talk shop.  Great time!

[bushido_man96]

12/2/2024

Aikido Class:  Morning Class:  8:30 - 9:30 am.  After stretching and aikitaisos, we worked on some of our testing requirements.  We started with shomenuchi kokyonage.  I was working through the technique in pieces, which was making it tough to get the flow down.  After doing that a little bit, and getting a little more clarification from sensei on a few things, especially dropping the elbows down and "rowing" in to break their balance, things started to click.  Then sensei decided we would just "rep it out" over and over without thinking about it as much.  That really helped out, and I ended up with some quality reps.  It made the technique smoother for sure, especially getting the hips turned through.

Next was nikkyo, from a same side lapel grab.  After securing the hand/wrist, we actually go into ikkyo and then bring it back to the nikkyo position, with the hand braced to our chest.  Here is where I have to make sure there is no gap between his hand and my chest, in order to secure the hold.  Then it was about keeping a proper safe distance from counters, securing the other hand over their elbow, and applying pressure with a slight bow with the hand secured to the chest.

I felt like this was a really productive class.  I also took some breakfalls and was able to fall down and get up without my head betraying me, which is a good sign that I'm hopefully on the back end of all those issues for the rest of the winter season.  If all goes well, this is testing week for my TKD 5th dan.

[DarthPenguin]

Best of luck (not that you will need it!) for the 5th Dan test

 

At your school will that officially grant you the 'Master' honourific or is it 6th Dan for yours? I look forward to hearing about it  

[bushido_man96]

On 12/3/2024 at 3:20 AM, DarthPenguin said:

Best of luck (not that you will need it!) for the 5th Dan test

 

At your school will that officially grant you the 'Master' honourific or is it 6th Dan for yours? I look forward to hearing about it  

Thank you, @DarthPenguin.  Yes, the title that comes with it is Master.  I'd refer to myself as more of a Master Instructor than a "master of the martial arts."  I've got a paper I had to write for the test, as well.  It got rather long, so I parsed it out just talking about the duties of the master instructor.  I will post the elongated article here at KF after testing and after I get it smoothed out.

 

12/4/2024

TKD Solo Workout:  10:30 - 11:30 am.  Trying to get some work in to see how my head will react to all the action, especially spinning.  I warmed up with Chon JI, then moved to Do-Gon 6.  It felt pretty disconnected, but it's been some time since I've been able to train.  Next I did Yoo Sin and Choong Jang (3rd and 4th dan forms, respectively).  I paced myself, and they went well.  I did all colored belt one-steps, then three-steps 1-6.  I backtracked a bit on the one-steps, but feel I've got that handled.  I finished with a brief stretch in The Rack up to 140, then sat in the sauna for about 10-15 minutes.

[bushido_man96]

12/7/2024

TKD Testing:  10:00 - 1:15 pm.  The day of testing, finally.  Worked until 11 the night before, got home, went to bed, and prayed my head would not betray me.  Got up early to start the drive at 6:00 am, and arrived about an hour early, like I had planned.  Warmed up going through various forms and all.  During the actual testing, I did Yoo Sin and Choong Jang, and felt really good about both.  Instead of doing all one-steps, like I anticipated we would do, I did three-steps 1-6, which I had been preparing for.  Got through them no problem.  Had one round of sparring with a 5th dan who was actually one of our students many years ago.  When one waits 10 years to test, people tend to pass one up.  Athletic kid, tall, good technique.  I didn't feel that it was my best spar, but then again, I hadn't sparred in probably a month or month and a half.  Finished off with board breaks, and nailed them all:  knife hand strike, jump front snap kick (bounced on the first attempt, but I blame the holders on that one; I kicked the board and it rose about 6 inches.  A more experienced holder took it the next time, and I smashed it), spin heel kick, and then flying side kick over obstacles (three kids kneeling).  All 2-board breaks, and all went down.

National Instructor Seminar:  1:45 - 3:00 pm.  After the testing, we got a little break and then started up the seminar.  We spent a lot of time on Do-Gons.  We had a lot of instructors in the room, so after the initial line-up and punching warmup, GM split the room and we alternate doing Do-Gons in groups.  We did 1-4 this way, then we did each segment of Do-Gon 4 with a partner back and forth, 4 segments total.  Then we did Do-Gon 6 the same way, 4 segments total.  There were some who weren't quite up to speed on the Do-Gons, so it was good review and practice.  After Do-Gons, we did Ho Sin Sul, but these are all pre-set, and they do them regularly at the HQ school.  Hopefully between our school owners and I we can remember them and jot them down for reference.  We finished up doing combination work back and forth with a partner, three techniques back and forth.  I had not been to an instructor seminar in quite some time, and it was good to see a lot of the higher ranks from our organization.  I have to say, our school represented itself well.  We take pride in being technically sound, and I think we demonstrated that.

[sensei8]

Did you pass??

Congrats to your school on how well you all did at the National Instructor Seminar!!