The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

1/25/2025

This update to the training log is the first session of a two-day, multi-style cross-training seminar that was hosted by the Aikido dojo in town.  Today's first session was three hours of BJJ from three different instructors.

BJJ:  12:30 - 3:30 pm.

Hour 1:  This first hour was pretty basic stuff.  We did some warming up running around the mat (I hate running, even more than tapping out in BJJ), then we did some shrimping across the mat and back, and then a hip/shoulder movement across the mat and back on our backs.  That one was really tough, basically being in a crunch position the whole time.  After those warmups, the instructor, who is an Aikido student who also started a BJJ club at the local college and also had some training while he lived in the KC area, showed the basic positions we'd find ourselves in on the mat: close guard, open guard, full mount, side control.  He did step-by-step walkthroughs for technique, starting with an armbar from guard, then from mount.  We just did reps on both sides and switched positions, getting lots of reps in.  The last thing he covered was an elevator sweep that he did from a seated, hooks-in position.  One foot moved to the hip, the other hooked, and hooked side elevated.  I had not seen it from that position before, so that was interesting.

Hour 2:  This session was taught by the coach that I was training with before wrestling season got started up.  He lays out his drills in a series of 'games' that make the students have to experience the concepts in real time with set parameters.  I really enjoy it, and it's also a great workout. 

For Game 1, the object was to establish connection with the partner at two points, then touch one of the other partner's knees to get a 'point.'  Three points wins and rotate out (round robin style).  You had to use the connections to move your partner around and get kazushi, and thus open up your chances to score. 5 min.

Game 2, started the same way with establishing two connections, and one person would try to trip/sweep, and the other would try to get arms wrapped around one knee (1 point), two knees (2 points), or get both arms around the hips (3 points).  I was working on the tripping/sweeping part, and felt like I was getting better.  5 min.

For Game 3, we started from the front head-snap position, with the top person locking their hands around the bottom person's torso while having pressure on their upper back/shoulders/neck area; his job was to hold this position as long as possible by moving with the opponent; this person could not win.  Bottom person's job was try to break the connection, move, posture up to reverse/escape, or get the top person's hips on the ground.  That was a win and switch roles.  I did pretty good at posturing up and getting close, and getting my shoulders over my hips when doing so.  That would often allow me to put enough pressure on to break the grip without having to fight the hands.  5 min.

Game 4 started the same as Game 3, but top person now tried to isolate head and arm or just the head.  Same goals for the bottom guy, and only the bottom guy can win.  5 min.

Game 5 was the same as Game 4, accept now the top person could try to sink a submission; D'Arce choke, anaconda, or head-and-arm guillotine.  I think he showed one other option, but I forget what it was.  This parameter made the drill much more active than it was before.  I didn't hit any submissions, but it was a lot of fun.  5 min.

Hour 3:  This hour was taught by my old DT instructor from the college Defensive Tactics Club.  He took a more self-defense approach to his hour, talking in the beginning about the red, yellow, and green zones, (red zone is in front of the attacker, don't want to be there, yellow zone is to the flank, and green zone is behind the attacker with their back available).  He showed everyone standing up in base, and then went into how to set a rear naked choke, and then defending it by feeling the arm come around and pulling down on the arm and looking away as it slinks around.  He also showed a "bicep pass-off" that you can probably get away with once in order to help sink it in deeper, especially if it isn't quite there.  The final defense he showed was if the hold was already set, from a seated position with attacker behind and hooks in.  You'd sit all the way back, drive head into their jaw if possible, and arch up (bridge) to put as much pressure as possible onto their head, hopefully the jaw area.  He next covered defense against a standing bully choke that I've done quite a bit and have a very close version I use in DT when training at work.

After hour 3, there was an hour and a half break before the next session started up, so I rolled with my coach from the second session a couple of times.  I felt like I was doing some things better, and even had a takedown on him, but he's just too smooth and experienced for me to keep up with.  We finished up about 4:00 pm.

And that was it for the first session of this cross-training seminar.  All in all, the seminar included BJJ, TKD, Aikido, and Shorin-Ryu Karate.

[bushido_man96]

1/25/2025

Three Style Cross Training Seminar, Day 1, Session 2

This session was the TKD session.  The CI of our school taught the first session, I taught the second, and an instructor from out of Colorado Springs taught the third.  The three of us got to talking, and we all hit it off really well, and hopefully will be doing some networking in the future.

TKD:  5:00 - 8:00 pm.

Hour 1:  Our school owner taught this one, and I went around and assisted.  He covered some of our basic stances, and how they differ from how others do them.  We did some basic punching in sitting stance, stepping and lunge punching in front stances, and did advancing front kicks and side kicks.  With advancing and punching, he talked about what I call "hand-foot timing," getting that strike out just as the foot lands for maximum power and weight behind it, along with generating power from the hips.  He spent quite a bit of time on the technical aspects of techniques, especially the side kick.  He finished with a partner drill where one partner would just move in and present a target and the other partner would move into a position to strike a vital point or valid target area.  Some students ended up turning it into a bit of free-flowing back-and-forth, but it seemed like everyone was having fun.

When doing the techniques, he spent some time in breaking down the differences from how some of the other styles would approach them; like our front stance has both feet pointing straight forward, whereas the Karateka tend to have the back foot pointed out at more of a 45 degree angle, maybe a little less than that.  He was pushing for them to work with our way of doing it to see the difference.

Hour 2:  This was my session.  Some time ago, I came up with a class idea to hopefully work with our black belts on focused around tai-sabaki that shows up in our one-step sparring.  The focus wasn't on doing our TKD one-steps, but on using the initial movements to get into positions to avoid being attacked and to hopefully gaining a positional advantage while avoiding the attack.  I started by demonstrating a few of our one-steps with the CI, showing the order of operations for starting the one-step, attacker doing his attack, and the defender responding with the one-step and then finishing and resetting for the next.  This was also mainly to show some of the initial body shifting that we'd be using in the session.  Then I had everyone partner up.  The attacker would go to the traditional start position, which was step back right leg into left front stance, left down block and kihap/kiai.  The Karate students were familiar with ippon kumite, so they were pretty well set here.  It was new for the Aikido students, though.  The defender would then yell to signal ready to start, and the attacker would step forward and right lunge punch.  At this point, I showed them what body shift I wanted them to work with, and do that back and forth.  After a few, I had them add a block of their choice while shifting (in case their shift was a little late, or to help control a limb), then after some reps they would add an attack after the block, or just attack if the block was not needed or wanted.  I also made them do the drill from both sides, which meant the attackers had to step back and block on the opposite side to start.  This threw off our own students a bit, as they had never experimented with that.  Here are the shifts I had them work through:

1. Stepping straight back into a back stance.  It doesn't really gain positional advantage, but it is basic and gets away from the attack.

2. Stepping forward at an angle to the outside of the attack in front stance.  This provides great target opportunities on their flank and reduces the number of weapons they can bring to bear.

3. Stepping to the inside of the attack at an angle in a back stance.  This usually involved the inside foot shifting slightly towards the outside foot to make a good angle.  This direction is not as ideal as #2, due to the attacker still having all his tools to bring to bear.  However, it does provide the defender with lots of targets on the attacker, and it can put the defender in a position I refer to as "crossing the T," where the defender is side-on to the attacker, who is full facing the defender.  Great for sparring.

With each of those, we went up the ladder of adding blocks, blocks/strikes, or just strikes, or joint locks for the Aikidoka or takedowns for the grapplers.  I didn't assign specific techniques for the students to do.  I'd give suggestions here and there, and offer up my feedback as a TKDer if they asked.  My goal was that I wanted them to see how they could apply their art or what they had learned earlier in the BJJ session.  The last variation that I did was to make the drill more real-life scenario.  Instead of the front stance/down block start position (because that's how fights start, right?...), I had the attacker take a more aggressive stance, and the defender was put in a "fence" position (hands up and open, strong leg back, in a placating position to deescalate, but also ready to move and defend/attack).  I allowed any attack the attacker wanted to throw; punch, kick, takedown attempt, etc.  I thought it went really well, and the students were thinking and exploring, which was the point of it all.  I think they all liked it, and I had a blast teaching it.

Hour 3:  This Master Instructor talked a lot about having a self-defense mindset and being aggressive with blocks and strikes.  He demonstrated how to shorten the blocking and striking techniques from the more traditional variations done in forms/hyung/katas while still getting power into the techniques with the hips.  We drilled getting outside on straight punches with a quick block, then to securing the arm by staying connected for a break or some other control option.  We did the same for push front kicks, getting outside and blocking, then turning the block into a hooking/scooping motion to secure the foot, then strike to the knee with a hard "inside block" technique.  He also talked about de-sensitivity training (he uses a drill where he lets students slap in the face) to show that taking a glancing blow won't derail your chances at successfully defending yourself.  This had more to do with that self-defense mindset.  His goal was to make their day a bad day by choosing the wrong target.  He finished with a drill in using the double knife hand block (with chamber folded in front, as opposed to reaching back for the chamber, which I like better anyway) to defend a haymaker style punch in much the same way that I've taught the startle-flinch response in SPEAR DT training.  Very cool.  He had a great approach to training, and it was all great stuff.

This finished out day one of the seminar.  Lots of good training, and everyone was so appreciative of everyone's different styles and approaches.

[bushido_man96]

1/26/2025

Three Style Cross Training Seminar, Day 2, Session 1.

Aikido:  12:30 - 3:30 pm.  This session was taught solely by the sensei of my Aikido dojo.  We started talking about some body mechanics and how the "unbendable arm" theory applies to the connecting of the body together in order for it to be strong and structured.  After some time experiencing this principle, we did a couple variations of iriminage.  I'm getting a little better at picking up the little nuances of the techniques.

We did some weapons defenses, using a tanto upside down as a beer bottle/club attack, defending with a "buddy drop" technique after getting behind the attacker.  Next was a kotegashi defense against a knife thrust with a takedown and disarm to finish.

Next was some rolling work.  I help up ok doing this.  I started very low and really tried to focus on the nuances of the roll.  We augmented the rolling by getting some help from a partner to simulate more of a breakfall.  This, I seemed to struggle with.

I know my descriptions here make it seem like there wasn't as much accomplished in this session, but we did quite a few repetitions on each section and really got a lot done, and I really enjoyed it.

[bushido_man96]

1/26/2025

Three Style Cross Training Seminar, Day 2, Session 2.

This was the Shorin-Ryu session, and it's the second time I've been exposed to the Shorin-Ryu senseis.  They are a great pair, and their students are awesome.

Shorin-Ryu:  5:00 - 8:00 pm.  We started out with variations of push-ups, and learning their basic stances.  Along with the stances they covered some of their basic blocks, which don't differ too much from some things we do, just some different nuances in technique.  We did body conditioning, to include a forearm striking drill with blocks, kicking the inside and the outside of the upper legs, punching to the stomach, and slapping the sides up and down.  From there, the first instructor went into some self-defense techniques.

On the first one, the attacker would do a "walk by and grab" at the forearm.  The defender would re-grab with a knife hand and then go into an armbar.  After working that variation, it was changed up by bringing the arm you re-grabbed up at the elbow and reversing the armbar into a shionage.

Next was a defense against a bear hug attempt from the front.  Defender would either drop step or step forward into a front stance while sending double palms to the abdomen/ribs and jolting them to a stop.  The instructor also showed "hikite" from that position, grabbing handfuls of skin on the sides, high up on the ribs.  Then we would close by stepping behind the attacker (or in front, depending on the leg that is forward) and load them onto the hips for a hip throw.  Finish with an armbar.  With the initial step, being in an open stance with the attacker is ideal, as it allows for the step behind hip throw, whereas stepping closed stance requires you to step forward in front of them, really deep, and load the hips and throw.  It can still be done, and I liked both variations (I actually liked the challenge of the closed stance variation).  

Then we did defense of bear hug from behind.  The defense started like the beginning of Yoo Sin hyung, dropping into sitting stance/raising elbows up to prevent grab.  Ideally, you shift the left or right slightly to split the center.  Then it was headbutt backwards, shove the hands forward and hips back to break their balance and make space, and then they'd reach down and grab the attacker's foot and pull it up between your legs, tripping them by sitting on their knee.  Finish with a kick.

That concluded the first half of Shorin-Ryu session, and the other instructor took over from there.

We finished with one more self-defense technique, a bully choke defense.  It was very similar to those that I've taught in the past.  Turn away from the choke, strike to the groin and drop to a knee, with the "up" knee behind them.  Reach inside hand around to hook chin or face or eye or something, and pull them back over the knee to drop them to the ground.  While pushing the head down, grab/hook the leg or grab clothing and pull the leg up as you push the head down (turning a big steering wheel).  We could drop the knee down to allow for a nicer fall for our partner.  We could finish by securing an armbar.

After that, we went into some technique work.  We did front thrust kicks (as opposed to snap kicks, that we do mostly in class), then we kicked the shields.  More pad work followed:  jab/cross/adjust to front thrust kick on the shields, then we did elbow strikes on the shields (forward elbow strikes).  We finished on the shields with knee strikes in a clinch, and then moved to mitt work.  We did jab/cross/duck the mitt.  The mitt work was finished with a really fast repeating round kick drill.  Mitt was held out, and the kicker would do a step together round kick, strike the mitt, then step down feet together and step back to the start position, then repeat.  So it was step up kick, step back, then step up kick again, over and over, till it burned and you wanted to stop.  We did both legs that way.  Good time.

After the bag work, the instructor had his students demo their forms, each one doing a different one.  I saw some Pinans, some Bassai, and a Naihanchi in there, too.  They were fun to watch, and they were very solid in their performance.  After the demo, he talked about bunkai, and the process of working bunkai from the techniques.  He put together a "kata" on the spot, 3 moves to the left, 3 to the right, and then demonstrated the process for pulling bunkai out for each segment.  It was a lot of fun, and it's a part of forms practice I've always studied on and wanted to spend more time doing.  We finished with some meditation.

This last section was a tough one on me, one, because my body was pretty sore from the rest of the weekend.  Two, because the AFC Championship game was on!  I offered apologies ahead of time because I turned on my phone to keep track of the game while we were training....

Overall, this was a fantastic weekend of training, led by a bunch of great martial artists that really enjoyed training and learning from others.  Everyone was super gracious and appreciative of what they took from each session.  This kind of training is what the Martial Arts community is really all about.

[bushido_man96]

1/27/2025

TKD Class:  Traditional Class:  5:30 - 6:30 pm.  Taught this class.  Had a blast.  After basics, forms were Dan Gun, Won Hyo, and we reviewed Chon Ji and Dan Gun some more with the green belt and low orange belt, respectively.  They did their one-steps, and then a brief bout of sparring.

Black Belt Class:  6:30 - 7:20 pm.  Just me, and a green belt stayed to get some extra work in.  I did all my forms:  Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, Won Hyo, Yul Kok, Jung Gun, Toi Gye, Hwa Rang, Choong Moo, Kwang Gae, Poe Eun, Gae Baek, Se Jong, Yoo Sin, Choong Jang, and Choi Yong.  10 minutes of floor stretching, then about 10 minutes in The Rack, up over 140 degrees.

Edited February 12 by bushido_man96

[bushido_man96]

1/30/2025

TKD Class:  Traditional Class:  5:45 - 6:30 pm.  The CI had a 2nd dan high schooler come up to the front with him and lead basics.  He was nervous, I could tell, and he was stumbling on the commands a bit.  It's good experience for him, though.  In basics, we did a back leg round kick/spin outer crescent kick combo that isn't usually done, but was good to do.  Black belts also did a combination from Do Gan 6, a stutter step round kick, step behind hook kick, stutter step round kick, spin heel kick combination.  Good practice.  For forms, I did Choi Yong, then helped with white and green belt one-steps.

Advanced Class:  6:30 - 7:30 pm.  Did all Do Gons; balance was bad.  Finished by working on three-steps 7-12 multiple times.

[bushido_man96]

2/2/2025

Dry-Firing:  10 minutes of dry-fire practice, drawing, getting the red dot on target, then squeezing off a few rounds.  I worked on trigger control and controlling the shake in my hands.  I've found that if I put more pressure on the frame with my left thumb, it tends to help.

[bushido_man96]

2/6/2025

TKD Testing:  6:00 - 7:20 pm.  Only three testing today, but one was a high brown belt testing for recommended black belt.  All the testers did well and passed.

[bushido_man96]

2/10/2025

TKD Class:  5:30 - 6:00 pm.  Forms/One-Steps Class:  Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung hyungs (white/orange belts), then I took the high orange belts and the recommended black belt and had them go through Chon Ji, Dan Gun, and Bo Chung again, first on my count and then they went their own count.  The rec. black belt I also had do Do San hyung at his own count.  Then the students did one-steps.  I helped the orange belts with 1-4.  The orange belts (twin girls, early teens) are very quiet and reserved, and it's been difficult to get them to put more confidence into their techniques.  They know the material.  They just need to DO it now.

TKD Class:  6:00 - 6:30 pm.  Sparring Drills:  We started with high-knees up and down the floor; going back, we walked backwards and lifted the knees.  Then it was stretch kicks down, and front snap kicks going back, but instead of re-chambering the kicks, we tried to hold the leg out extended for as long as we could before it dropped, working the muscles.  Next, we faced the mirrors in a side-on stance and did 180 degree forward switches (by forward I mean switching towards the front shoulder), back and forth, with as little jump as possible; 20 total.  After that, we broke out the focus mitts.  We did a step-together-round kick-step-back drill, continuously, 10 each leg.  Then we did the same kick, but instead of continuous, the mitt holder flashed the mitt and the kicker then had to react.  We could pull it back fast to make them try to go faster, but my partner needs a bit of work on it, so I wasn't really pulling it back all that much trying to make her miss.  This was 10 each leg as well.  We did two more mitt drills after that wearing two mitts; first, was just flash the mitts out and they had to do an appropriate technique to each pad, for a total of 20 techniques.  The next drill was the same, adding movement around the ring, for 20 total techniques.  After the class, I briefly went through Do Gon 1 with the recommended black belt.

Then after class, I had the conversation with the rec. black belt that stated he was planning to quit after getting his first dan:  

Aikido Class:  7:00 - 7:45 pm.  Weapons Classes:  I caught the last bit of the previous class (went til 7:15) and then the next class.  When I came in, they were working with the jo, and addressing where the power leaks tended to be in the various thrusts and strikes.  We did some work striking the bags, and also went through jo kata 1 several times.  In the second class, we worked with the bokken, doing bokken kuchimata tachi #6, which is a two-person drill.  I loved that, it was a lot of fun, but there are quite a few intricacies within it.  We went through each segment as attacker and defender solo for some reps, then worked with a partner.  Lot's of strikes, counters, and movement, and exploring various principles with the sword.  Sensei said it's part of their 3rd dan's testing curriculum, but I think it's great that he gets students started on those things early.

 

You might notice above that the TKD classes were only a half hour in length.  The CI, while talking with the Aikido Sensei at our Three-Style Seminar, talked about "the need" to adjust the curriculum based off information that another student presented from studies on curriculum design for schools, or so it sounds to me.  Basically, that the human attention span, even that of adults, isn't maximized after about 30 minutes, and therefore the need for shorter classes.  I'm not sure I'm sold on this, not for the adults at any rate, who are more invested in coming to class than many kids might be.  The results from the study may be more true for younger students, but I think there is a difference between class-room style lecture and physical education.  Personally, I want at least an hour long class in order to get a good sweat going and to really delve into some material.  As it stands right now, the black belt class on Mondays and the open class on Wednesdays are still hour long classes, so we'll see how this new schedule works out.  I've already seen an issue arise though; the orange belt twins that came to the forms/one-steps class didn't stick around for the sparring class.  I'm afraid that we might run into students taking a "TKD buffet" approach to coming to classes, avoiding what they want and attending what they are comfortable with.  I'm afraid this will stunt their development and will fail to push students to work on the things they need the improvement the most in.  Time will tell; perhaps I'm just the old man yelling at the clouds.

[bushido_man96]

2/11/2025

Aikido Class:  6:15 - 7:45 pm.  Thankfully, this was a long class!  After stretching and aikitaisos, we got into technique work, and the Sensei had us work on techniques for our testing requirements.  I did shionage from a same-side wrist grab, both omote and ura versions.  We started by just working the entry over and over, which were good reps to get.  Then we got into the whole technique with a finish.  Lots of reps.  The entry and the footwork were feeling really good, but I was having trouble with the turn into the arm control position.  I needed to squat lower on the shorter student to get the balance broken.  I also felt like I was going to really twist off the hand, so I ended up letting my grip go at times, which didn't help either.  The ura version seemed more direct, but the omote version actually seemed easier to do.  After shionage, I did nikkyo from a same-side wrist grab.  This technique had the same kind of entry that the shionage version I did had, so that made the transition easier.  I only worked the omote version.  Lots of good work, and I really enjoyed it.  I'm hoping to get set up to test soon.

Falling wasn't too bad on me today, either.  I mostly did breakfalls, but did do one back roll that didn't cause me any fits.  I never know how that's going to go, and I'm always a little anxious about it.