The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

12/10/2025

Heavy Bag Workout:  10 rounds, 1:20/1:00.  Alternated orthodox/southpaw.

Rounds 1-4 boxing only.

Rounds 5-8 added in kicks.

Rounds 9-10 speed bag.

PNF stretching in The Rack.

[bushido_man96]

12/11/2025

Aikido:  8:45 - 9:45 am.  Loosening exercises, basic strikes/kicks, back falls (3 levels), some brief internals.  Then 5th kyu requirement technique work:

Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage:  Omote is decent.  I need to focus on the pull-through/twist with the hikite hand.  For ura, I need to focus on staying upright in the tenkan.

Katatatori kaitennage:  we worked this to a shoulder stretch to cool down at the end of class.

Unfortunately, the dojo is on winter break and going to Chicago for black belt testings and camp, so I'll be on video study for a little while to supplement.

[bushido_man96]

12/12/2025

Heavy Bag Workout:  4 rounds, 1:20/1:00, bare knuckle.

Alternated southpaw and orthodox rounds, boxing.  Just a brief workout today.  I didn't even have workout clothes with me, but was able to get a little work in.

 

12/15/2025

Defensive Tactics:  8:00 am - 12:00 pm, 1:00 - 5:00 pm.  Eight hours of DT instruction for our department today.  Covered some basic armbar/lock takedowns, some punch blocking exercises, then tying it all together.  Finished with a more "live" scenario in which they had to fight off an initial attack, then a secondary attack, and then either control into cuffing or create a safe amount of distance to transition to Taser.  I ran four, two-hour sessions.  It seemed to go pretty well, and I had some pretty good feedback.  I have a mix of some seasoned officers with some training, seasoned officers with no training, and some newer employees with some athletic backgrounds, and some with no backgrounds at all.

[bushido_man96]

12/19/2025

Heavy Bag Workout:  1:00/30 sec.

4 rounds, orthodox/southpaw alternating.

Went to spot Kendall in the gym.

4 rounds, orthodox/southpaw alternating.

Went to spot Kendall in the gym.

4 rounds, orthodox/southpaw alternating.

[bushido_man96]

12/26/2025

Speed Bag:  1:00/30 sec.

4 rounds.

Spot Kendall.

4 rounds.

The bag that was hung was a smaller bag than the one we usually had, and it moved much faster and I was able to get a much better rhythm going.

[bushido_man96]

12/30/2025

Pre-class, I did some speed bag work and some crescent kick stretching over a kid Wavemaster.

Taekwondo:  5:45 - 6:30 pm.  Traditional Class.  I ended up teaching this class (first class back after rotating shifts).  I did do some basics along with the class and got a little bit of work in.  It was a nice dive back into things.  Went through white, low orange, and low green belt forms.  With one of the low orange belts I emphasized for them to try to "see everything, but don't look at anything."  Concentrate on awareness and focus during forms work.

One-steps were done for the same.  The other two school owners were present so they jumped into class and were partners with the students, so I focused on the low orange belts working on their one-steps.

Sparring:  Several rounds of free-sparring and combinations (for the white belt).  Then went into blocking drills:

1.  Lined everyone up into one line down the room, facing the mirrors.  Sparring stance and moving, I came by with a blocker and swung to force them to block on the side the attack came from.  Again during sparring I saw too much "fencing" trying to parry everything with the lead hand.  This forced them to block with the rear hand on that side.  I had them add a counter after the block.

2.  I put everyone facing a partner in a sitting stance and had them do blocking contact drills that are basically conditioning drills on the forearms.  The main thing I was looking for was good arcs of travel for the blocks contacting each other.  I did this with inside blocks and then with low blocks.  Then I briefly showed them a "six-star hit" where you contact low with the top of the forearms, then the same arm circles up and contacts with the inner forearms, then the same arm circles back to a low block contacting with the outer forearm.  The students kept their forearm pads on so it wasn't a taxing conditioning drill, but more of a timing and rhythm drill, and getting the arms traveling in the proper arcs.

[bushido_man96]

1/5/2026

Afternoon shifts have ended, so now I can get back to classes!

Aikido:  6:15 - 7:15 pm.  Weapons Class.  Jo warmups, 4-hi, 4-low, 8-hi.  Then we did kumi jo and kumi tachi, which are pre-formated paired work with the jo and bokken, respectively.  Class was given a choice in each exchange in numerical order, or "dramatic" order, i.e, the ones that tend to look more flashy.  To my chagrin, the majority chose flashy, so I'm a little lost on the numbers we were doing.  I think for jo #6.  Maybe #4 on bokken.  Either way, they are fun exchanges, and I always prefer my weapons work to be partner-based anyway.

[bushido_man96]

1/6/2026

Taekwondo:  5:45 - 6:30 pm.  Traditional Class.  Focused on kime in one-steps, getting tight upon completion of techniques.  Had a stretch after basics.  White and blue belt one-steps.  Good review.

Sparring:  6:30 - 7:00 pm.  I assisted with this class.  Our school is going to start attending some different tournaments that allow hand strikes to the head, so in sparring today hand strikes to the head were allowed.  I helped some students out with some combinations using the head as the target with the hands.

[bushido_man96]

1/12/2026

Aikido:  6:15 - 7:15 pm.  Weapons Class.  Jo warmups, 4-hi, 4-low, then 4-hi x2 followed directly by 4-low x2, then starting it over again.  Kumi jo again, reviewed #6 and then did #5.  Kumi tachi, #4 review (at least I think it was #4).

Virtual Class:  7:30 - 8:30 pm.  After a nice stretch, this class started up.  The sensei holds this virtual class for former students of his that have moved away.  I was the only in-person attendee, other than sensei, so I got some one-on-one work.  After loosening up and doing some aikitaisos, we reviewed some 5th kyu technique:

Katatatori sankyo, omote and ura, with pin.  Once again, hikite is showing up.  Then worked the nage waza from the same.

Shomenuchi ikkyo.  Focused on getting the blend right and getting my arms to do the right stuff.