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.

[bushido_man96]

2/20/2025

Traditional Martial Arts Alliance TKD Club Instructor Evaluation:  2:00 - 2:45 pm.  I did double-duty here, participating in the class along with evaluating the club instructor.  Two birds, one stone!   First off, I'll just talk about the class and what we did, then get into the evaluation.

 To warm-up we did jumping jacks, push-ups, and a brief stretch.  Then we went into footwork ladder drills.  Most of it was both feet on the ground, hopping and switching in different directions, but we also did some single-leg hopping, which sucked for me, probably because I'm too heavy to enjoy it.  After that, we did some technique work in stances:  down blocks in sitting stance (which wasn't as wide of a stance as I'm used to), and then some inside middle blocks.  These were done in preparation for Tae Guk 1.

Next was step-sparring, and the club instructor had the seasoned 3rd dan that has been assisting and working with her lead this section.  Many years ago I participated in classes with this instructor, so I was familiar with his approaches to step-sparring.  It's different than the pre-arranged one-steps and three-steps I do with the TTA and that I did with the ATA years ago.

3-step sparring:  attacker does three stepping punches as the attacks, defender retreats and blocks, then executes a 3-5 move counter combination, all random, but hopefully done with meaningful techniques to meaningful targets.  Blocking the last attack can be a body shift to an angle instead of a straight back retreat.

2-step sparring:  attacker does one punch and one kick as attacks, defender defends and counters the same as in 3-steps.

1-step punch:  attacker does one punch, defender defends and counters same as above.

1-step kick:  attacker does one kick, defender defends and counters as above.

Doing the one-steps this way was fun and refreshing to do again.  There were times when I tried to be practical with techniques, and there were times where I just had some fun with some flashier stuff.

The club instructor took over after step-sparring, and lead the class through the first half of Tae Guk 1, the first WT poomsae.  Me and the instructor that lead step-sparring finished it out on our own, with him helping me through the rest of it.  This finished out the class.

 

Evaluation Discussion:  To start off, this would be pretty tough for anyone in her position, because we had to reschedule the initial evaluation date due to school getting canceled.  She has some little ones of her own, so if school is canceled, she has to stay home with the kiddos.  So with the reschedule, she was teaching a class with me, the 5th dan CI of our school, the Aikido Sensei who is a 3rd dan, and the other 3rd dan TKD instructor that had been assisting her.  I would love to be able to see her work with a class full of low ranked students, but it is what it is.  This is the list of comments the Aikido Sensei took down as the class was going on that he planned to broach with her, and we discussed these topics after the class:

1.  You only know what you know.  Don't try to "fake it," and don't be afraid to defer to another more experienced instructor in the class.

2.  Feel free to do TKD research to help expand your knowledge or refresh your memory on forms or drills.

3.  Show parallel respect to the instructor you have assisting you.  I'm not sure if this was a result of just being lax, or being nervous, or the idea that "I'm teaching the class, so I have to show these guys I can control a class," or some combination of all those.  She wasn't disrespectful, per se, but it was a little off.

4.  A suggestion in class design was to perhaps move static stretching to the end of class, and do more ballistic warm-ups at the beginning of class to get the body ready.  Personally, I've approached warm-ups by using TKD as the warm-up, that way there is more TKD being done overall in class.  I like using basics as a warm-up modality.  It just leads to more TKD getting done.  Calisthenics can be a good warm-up for the body as well, but more jumping jacks doesn't help make a side kick better.

5.  If you don't know the answer to a question, it's ok to say so, but also tell the student that you will refer to another instructor and find the answer.  It can be tough in the moment to admit you don't know the answer when others see you as the authority, but trying to answer a question you don't know the answer to will not end well in the long run, and students will eventually see through it.  Better to admit you don't know it, seek the answers, and you both learn and grow.

Now, some of my own thoughts on the class and her teaching:

When we were performing the down blocks and inside middle blocks, she brought up my twisting action.  It sounded to me like she was going to tell me not to twist, and I headed her off at the pass and said "I'm gonna twist."  She went with it, stating it was a good approach.  Afterwards discussing this with the Aikido Sensei, he was under the impression that she adjusted what she was going to say when I stated I wasn't changing anything.  I'm not sure what her approach was going to be there, but in the first eval session she tried to do some corrections on me like that.

Here are the positives I took away from her teaching sesssion:

1.  The session had much better structure throughout the class.  She started with a warm-up and the footwork drills (which I think still fall into the warm-up category), moved into stretching, then technique work, then step-sparring.  It was good, simple approach to class, and she had some focus to the drills.

2.  She brought up the instructor that has been assisting her in some segments of the class, showing she is willing to refer to the experience of other instructors.

3.  She had a decent method and approach to technique instruction, and she broke technique down better (she still needs work, but experience is the best teacher).

4.  We agreed as a group that she is good for another semester of instruction, with perhaps one more evaluation.  The only other caveat I had was that if she planned to do any sparring with low ranked students, I would want to evaluate how she handles a sparring class or session.  I'd want to see if she can control the room and dial someone back if necessary to conduct a safe sparring session.

Overall, I was pleased to see the changes she made and I was pleased to see her improvement.  She's a young instructor, and should continue to improve.

 

TKD Class:  6:30 - 7:00 pm.  Sparring Class.  Prior to class, I warmed up with forms:  Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, Won Hyo, and Yul Kok.  There were 4 of us black belts there, and we all sparred each once in kind of a round-robin fashion.  I hadn't sparred in some time, and it went ok.

7:00 - 7:45 pm.  Situational Self-Defense Class:  The CI/owner so enjoyed the varied step-sparring approach we did in the earlier club session that he decided to do it again tonight.  We did three reps of each version back and forth with our partners.  We did 1-step punch, 1-step kick, 2-step (punch and kick attacks), 3-step, then changed some things up; 2-step kick (2 kicking attacks), then 1-step attack/1 counter (we referred to it as the "one-hit kill" approach, so the counter had to be a good one to a good vital spot).

After class, the CI and I finished things off with some body conditioning:  punches to the body (20 each), leg kicks (20 each leg, 10 inside/10 outside), then the blocking sequence on the forearms, 10 sequences total.

[bushido_man96]

2/24/2025

TKD Class:  Forms/One-Steps Class:  5:30 - 6:00 pm.  I helped with this class, leading the white belt through Chon Ji several times.  She's pretty raw, and we went through it at least three times.  On the last go-through, I had her just focus on stances.  Then I switched to the rec. black belt, and went through Do-Gon 1 twice, once at his count, focusing on getting the hips involved in striking, and making sure he wasn't one-handing techniques like the high blocks, which I see happen commonly in Do-Gons.

Sparring Drills:  6:00 - 6:30 pm.  I taught this class, and used it as an opportunity to do the hogu sparring drills I've been working on.  Started with hop side kicks, back and forth, making contact with the hogu.  After that, the defender would defend the side kick by side-stepping forward and to the outside of the kick and blocking, putting him on the attacker's back.  From there, they'd find a counter combo to the front of the hogu or to the head, or just step past and reset on their other side.  We then worked side-stepping forward and to the inside of the attack and block, putting them in a position I call "crossing the T."  From there, they can unload a combo on the attacker and put them on the defensive.  I stressed on them to finish with a kick that creates distance, either a side kick or a front pushing kick.  After those drills, I had them start again with a hopping-in front leg round kick for contact, then added block and spin side kick counter.  They had to play with shifting back slightly to make distance for the spin side kick.  Most of these drills were done in closed stance, but we did switch it up to open stance a little to see what it's like.

Aikido Class:  Weapons Class:  7:00 - 7:50 pm.  Started with bokken cut/thrust sequences moving across the floor.  Then we went to knife defenses.  We started by working on the entries, one stepping forward into the arc of the attacking arm (yokomen strike), and the other stepping back and away from the strike while blocking with both hands (one stopping the attack, the other securing the wrist, much like an x-block).  After working the entries, we did a gokyu defense (armbar), with a takedown and disarm.  The key is keeping the weapon away from you while securing the arm and wrist while moving around.  From there, we did an ikkyo defense; the key here was getting to gokyu first, then extending it away from you with ikkyo, and getting to the takedown and pin/disarm.  Fun stuff!  The entry came together nicely after several reps, and I made sure to work it both ways, and both felt pretty comfortable.

[bushido_man96]

2/26/2025

TKD Class:  Forms/One-Steps Class:  5:30 - 6:00 pm.  Prior to class, I warmed up with ATA forms again, doing white, orange, and yellow belt.  Then in class, we did Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Choong Moo, Yul Kok, and Jung Goon.  My head was not feeling great today, and my balance was very off.  I paced myself through the forms.  One-steps:  low and high orange belt, getting through them all.  The student I was with knows them, she just needs to do them with more confidence. 

We've had an 80 degree temp swing here in good 'ole Kansas, going from -20 windchill lows to 66 highs during the day.  It really messes with my head.

We had our twin orange belts in today, and they are so very meek.  They have demonstrated decent technique up to this point for their rank, but when they do their hyungs, they are hesitant, assuming they are doing the wrong technique.  I told them I wanted them to be "confidently wrong."  If they think that first technique is a knife hand, then I want them to do a strong, powerful knife hand.  If it's the wrong technique, we'll fix it, but I want to see strong technique, even if it is not the correct technique in the form.  Hopefully it helps them gain some confidence in their technique.

Aikido Class:  7:00 - 7:30 pm.  We worked kotegashi and kokyonage, starting with just the entry and getting a feel for the initial movement for entering around the outside of the attack, which was cross-hand wrist grab.  After working the entry, we did kotegashi.  I did some very slow falling today so as not to upset the apple cart inside my head.  After several rounds of kotegashi, we moved to kokyonage, using the same entry.  I have a little trouble on this one, reaching over and around the head too far and hooking the chin, as opposed to just getting the jawline and then pressing the head to my shoulder.  Again, slow falls.  Before the end of class, we switched the attack up a lunge punch, which changes the defense on the entry a little, but it's a good variation, and I can see that type of movement in other stuff I've done in self-defense and forms.

[bushido_man96]

2/27/2025

TKD Class:  Rank Class:  5:45 - 6:30 pm.  Prior to class, I warmed up with some ATA forms again, reviewing the camo belt form, and then doing Songham 1-4.  For class, we got through most of basics, then I had a nice floor stretch while other students were doing their forms.  I led the white belts in stretching while they were back there.  After forms, I did white belt one-steps, really focusing on the proper front stance/down block to start.  The CI brought the 2nd dan up to lead class again, so it was slower paced, and he took quite a while with basics, hence they got cut short.

BJJ:  7:00 - 8:15 pm.

Warm-up:  Nice, easy roll, about 15% speed, just getting back into the swing of jiujitsu.

Game 1:  Bottom guy in half-guard, trying to keep it.  Top guy try to get connections up top and pike up to pass (win).  Switch positions if the top guy passed.

6 min.

Game 2:  Same, but bottom player could try to get to a knee shield to prevent the pass.  Top player still passing (win and switch).

6 min.

Game 3:  Same setup, but now the bottom player could try to sweep or transition to otherwise take the back.

6 min.

After those drills, it was open mat rolling.  I rolled two rounds with Kendall, and helped him not freak out about being on his back (still a wrestler), and I also talked him through an armbar and an Americana to finish.  Then I rolled with coach.  He lets me work, but keeps the pressure on.  I got another decent takedown, but he just positions well and makes space and frames.  He took my back once, and set me in a choke once.  When he moves around, it seems so effortless, and it almost seems like he's moving slow, but I can't do anything about it.  I also had him help me with chaining together takedown attempts.

[bushido_man96]

2/28/2025

BJJ:  7:00 - 8:15 pm.  We worked in gi tonight, which was waaaay different.  I don't know that having the gi on helped me any more than not, but it did slow the scrambles way down, which was helpful in it's own way.

Warm-up:  moving back and forth just focusing on getting grips on the gi.  We'd start on one side, work up the arm and to the lapels, working across to the other arm.

The rest of the night was a guard focus.  We started off drilling how to set the triangle from guard, focusing on using grips to control structure and posture.

Game 1:  Top player started in either x-guard, the start of the knee cut position, or the camping position, and his job was to try to pass.  Bottom player's job was to try to hold position and prevent the pass.  5 min.

Game 2:  Same setup, but now the bottom player's job was to try to off-balance or sweep the top player.  I think I had some success here.  5 min.

Game 3:  Same as Game 2.  5 min.

Game 4:  Top player starts standing, and the goal was to get grips on the knees or at the ankles and pass to the side, then work to complete the pass.  Bottom player's goal was to try to prevent them from passing, sweep, or off-balance them.  Kendall is pretty good at getting pressure, and I struggle.  I would try to knee shield and get on my hip, and he'd just crush and pass.  5 min.

As we went along, I was starting to try to figure out when and how to posture away or bring them in.

Open mat:  I rolled with Kendall several times.  On one of the rolls, he connected, drove in deep to a knee while pulling my arm and just threw me over the top.  It was a slow-motion type of throw.  Fun, but not fun, in that "that was really cool, but wished it wouldn't have happened to me" sort of way.  He also got a sub with an armbar.  During one of the rolls with him, I got to the front headlock position, but we had to stop and reset as we got too close to another group rolling.  Once we got reset, I lifted his chin and ran an Iowa on him!  Took him straight to his back.  I remember when he was around 10 letting him drill that move on me over and over and over again.  That year he rode that move all the way to the state podium, and I finally got to do it myself.  He said I cheated because I improved my position when we reset....I claimed that I "improvised."    At any rate, I'm taking that win.  I rolled with coach once, and he did some nasty gi choke on me using his own lapel.  I was on my back in side control, which seems to be where I live in BJJ, whether I want to or not, so I couldn't see him set it up.  He showed me what he did afterwards.  It was pretty cool, but it sucked.

[bushido_man96]

3/3/2025

TKD:  Forms/One-Steps Class:  5:30 - 6:00 pm.  I taught this class tonight.  We started by going through all colored belt forms: Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, Won Hyo, Yul Kok, Joong Gun, Toi Gye, Hwa Hwrang, and Choong Moo, and then Do Gon 1.  I joined in with the class to do these as well.  After the forms, the 1st degree rec. black belt went through all the colored belt one-steps.  I sat and had a nice floor stretch while watching and critiquing.

Sparring Drills Class:  6:00 - 6:30 pm.  I got to teach this one as well, and put my hogu on and jumped in on the drills as well.  I went back to the kicking drills class format I had laid out and started them on last week, and went deeper into it.  We started with the hop-in round kick, making contact with the hogu, then added to it by hopping in, round kick, then hop back out, then adding a reverse side kick.  It looks like skip in, kick, skip out (brining the kicking foot back down next to the base foot and stepping the base foot back to the original position) reverse side kick.  The goal was to get the footwork right and make contact with both kicks on the hogu.  After working that, we went back to the offensive player doing the skip-in round kick, and the defensive player blocking/shifting and countering with a reverse round kick.  We worked actually blocking then kicking, and countering right off the attack with less focus on the block, but still keeping the arms in good defensive position, just in case.  After repping the reverse side kick, we switched the counter to the spin heel kick, then to the spin outer crescent kick.

Black Belt Class:  6:30 - 7:30 pm.  We all did Do Gon 1, and then had the rec. black belt do it on his own so we could watch and offer feedback.  Then the 3rd dan and I did Do Gon 2 while the rec. black belt did Do Gon 1 again.  Next, I had the rec. black belt do his form, Choong Moo, first on his own count, then by my count so we could offer feedback and clean up various parts of the form.  There is a flying side kick in that form, and I spent time breaking it down so he could get that kick locked in.  Here's the breakdown, done using a Wavemaster standing bag for feedback.  The student starts in a left foot forward back stance, double knife hand block, just like in the hyung.  The only difference is I'll have them switch and do both sides.  The kick is only done with the right leg in the hyung.

1.  Back leg side kick.  The flying side kick is done after taking two steps, then jumping by throwing the back leg up and using it as the momentum to get up, turn sideways, and kick.  It's not done like the traditional ITF version of Choong Moo; this version is easier.  This version is basically a back leg side kick just done in the air, and I like to break down things down all the way to the most basic movement.  The big focus in a good back leg side kick is getting the knee chambered up tight and around so the body is side-on to the target, and then finishing by pivoting the base leg foot and turning the hips to get power.

2.  Back up, add steps, at my count, 1st step, then 2nd step, then chamber position, focusing on getting the chamber around and tight.  Three counts, no kick.

3.  Same, at my count, then adding the last count to kick.  So four counts at this point in the progression.

4.  Same drill, but now the student has to put it all together and at his own pace and count.  Here is where you start to see them cheating on the chamber, and have to correct it.  Slow and smooth, smooth is faster.

5.  Now the student does the flying side kick, all together at their own count.

6.  We practiced from a back stance and double knife hand blocks, bringing the back leg up to that chamber position, getting the chamber around while jumping into the air (no kick).  The goal is to "throw" the back leg up while "pivoting" in the air to get the body turned side-on, keeping the knee tight.  The knee is thrown up to gain momentum in the jump, much like we do with our jump front snap kicks in basics; we just add the turn here.  I have them finish by landing and setting down into the double knife hand block in back stance with the other leg forward.  This makes for a nice floor drill.  The next time I teach this progression, I'll add this step before doing the actual kick.  I thought of this drill after I had him doing the flying side kicks.  This was another way to get him to focus on getting the chamber around tight.

7.  We went back to the bag and put it all together again.

The next progression I'll add is the "cannonball" aspect (that's how my previous instructor referred to it).  When running and jumping, you want to pull the knees up as high as possible.

I kept reminding him that he has to keep the knee tight and get it around so he doesn't end up kicking with the toes or the ball of the foot.  The pivot is just as important when done in the air as it is when done on the ground.  This was a fun progression to work through with him, and I'm going to keep all this in my back pocket to work with the other black belts, and to use as the teaching tool for future high brown belts that have to learn this hyung.

[bushido_man96]

3/4/2025

TKD:  Rank Class:  5:45 - 6:30 pm.  I helped out while the 3rd dan led the class.  After basics, I went through Chon Ji with the new white belts.

Sparring Class:  6:30 - 7:00 pm.  I led this class, and participated as well.  We sparred round-robins, each getting at least four 1-minute rounds.  After that, we did three 30-second rounds of mirroring footwork, with one person designated to lead.  We finished with a few more rounds each of sparring, 1-minute rounds again.  Floor stretch afterwards.