The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

2/17/2025

TKD Class:  Forms/One-Steps Class:  5:30 - 6:00 pm.  Got right into it, doing Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, and Won Hyo hyungs.  Followed that up with Choi Yong, Choon Jang, Yoo Sin, Se Jong, and Gae Baek.  I finished by walking through three-steps 1-12.

TKD Class:  Sparring Drills:  6:00 - 6:30 pm.  Loosened up with high knees down the floor, and same walking backwards back.  The CI and I did some body conditioning work:  punches to the abdomen, and then leg kicks to the inside and outside of the front leg, going back and forth.  Then we moved to footwork drills. 

He put a focus mitt on the ground that acted as the point of revolution (I guess you could say; we worked around the mitt).  The front foot starts close to the pad.  We started with simple stance switches, then moved to a 45 degree angle side-step.  The idea is to step with the back leg to the 45 degree angle forward to line you up with the next side of the mitt.  The 45 degree step is much like stepping into a front stance, and if the mitt is the opponent, you are keeping the body bladed  and cut off from them as much as possible.  The other foot then just slides into place as the front leg in your fighting stance.  We went around the mitt this way twice, then switched stance and went twice around the other way.  I like to add in various attacks as I'm at the angle; strikes and kicks, depending on the distance. 

After that footwork, he simplified it a bit to just stepping the back leg to the 45, and then stepping back to stance you started in, hands kept in defensive positions.

Next was focus mitt work, with two mitts.  Flashed out for five techniques, then we switched.  We did this several times.  Then we moved to the kicking shield, and flashed the kicking shield forward for a front leg side kick.  Towards the end, I was throwing switch reverse side kicks.  We did three each side and then the next person took the shield.

Aikido Class:  Weapons Class:  6:50 - 8:00 pm.  We worked with a shinai today, doing two-person drills.  We started with tips crossed and feeling the line, and attacker's job was to apply slight pressure to "flick" the defender's shinai off the line, then spring forward for a shomen.  After doing that for quite a few reps, the defender got a job; when the attacker sprung forward to attack, the defender moved forward off the line (tai sabaki) and blocked high while moving, then followed up with shomen to the attacker's head.  I love the two-person drills, and getting several reps in was lots of fun, and I'm picking up on little things I need to fix.  That session finished with a game of "The Last Samurai" since we had a young one in the class.  Although it was a game, I did find myself applying the sword principles and learned a few things while doing it.

After the youth session was over, the sensei and I worked on a knife disarming technique called udegarame, which basically translates to "entwining the arm."  I found it easier to do on the right side than I did on the left side.  It finished with a great pinning maneuver that I found very tactically sound.  As we were working and talking about some transitions in the technique, kazushi came up, and he talked about how by focusing on my own structure, and keeping it sound throughout the technique, it will do the work of kazushi for me.

 

2/18/2025

Martial Arts Nerd-Out Session:  6:00 - 9:30 pm.  The Aikido Sensei, me, and the other TKD 5th Dan all got together tonight for a meal and a chat.  We've done these before, and they are always such a good time.  We just nerd out on Martial Arts together, talking about our experiences, complaints, understandings, and misunderstandings.  We talked some MA history, some theory, some technique, and the state of our current TKD association and the standards in it.  We talked about laying down keeping the high standards that our dojang keeps, and how we can talk with other instructors in the association about doing the same.  Along those lines, we discussed what the possibility of going to visit other dojangs in our association to see what they are doing and what their approaches are in classes.

[DarthPenguin]

On 2/14/2025 at 10:10 AM, bushido_man96 said:

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.

yeah that seems a little bit 'off' to me. Without having read the research myself it has a whiff of someone only reading the abstract or misinterpreting the study. My partner has a masters in Sports Psychology (with a focus on improving human performance) - though she doesn't use it! and my brother in law was an international sports person for more than a decade and is now a professional s&s coach for pro teams (plus several other people i know who have competed nationally / internationally) and none of them hold to such a rule! Pretty sure one of them would have mentioned it. I have a feeling the research mentions a break every 30min or so (which also meshes with study approaches i have covered at work) which neatly fits with a water break and then you get back to it.

I could definitely see people skipping the 'bad bits' and becoming less well rounded as a result

[bushido_man96]

It seemed to me that what was found in the research is more tailored towards kids.  That makes some sense, as they have shorter attention spans.  Our Little Lions classes typically only last half an hour.  But as an adult, I really prefer a longer class, if for more than anything to get lots of reps in.

The only really good thing I've seen come out of it so far is that each of the half-hour sessions is really focused.  That first being forms and one-steps is good for memory retention and warming up for the sparring drills that come in the next session.  I still stay for the hour, so it really isn't changing how long I attend class.