The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

3/4/2024

Aikido Class: 8:30 - 9:30 am. We did weapons today, lucky for me. Jo kata 1, and I got stuck a few times in the middle. From there, we did jo kiji, which were some partner drills with different attacks and finishes. A fun class.

I also got in 10 minutes of dryfire training today.

[bushido_man96]

3/11/2024

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Three of us in class tonight, and we worked on forms. We did white and our two orange belt forms to start as a warmup, and then from there we each went up and did the next form one at a time, evaluating each other and giving each other pointers and things to work on. There were a few spots where I lost my balance, and had a few other mix-ups in some spots, but by and large ok. We made it all the way to our 1st degree form, Kwang Gae.

As we talked about this after class, we talked about how the exercise would be helpful for our younger students. One of he guys mentioned how he liked it, but by the end of the night so many things get mentioned that it's hard to remember it all. I suggested that everyone bring a notebook to class and then jot down a few notes on each form after the critique. The guys thought it was a good idea, and will be implementing it next week. I think I'll use mine to jot down after every class, and even when I read MA material and something strikes me as intriguing. I think when we do this exercise in the future we should also pick out something positive in each form done.

I've suggested to students in the past to keep a journal of their MA journey, starting at white belt. I think if I ever run a school again, I'll provide a notebook to each new student and tell them to just start tracking things, writing down key points they remember from their classes. It would be fun to look back and see how they progress in their own eyes.

3/13/2024

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-Shirt Class. I worked the bag early, mostly kicking. I worked on cutting the angles and kicking from a more traditional sparring stance, and also worked on some kicking from a side-on stance (think Bill Wallace style). For the last 15 or so minutes of class, the CI and I sparred, just open, free sparring with no time set and no one calling points, just on our honor, and stopping when we got tried, and then we'd discuss what we'd been doing or trying to do, or what we saw the other doing. It was really fantastic, I got dinged up a few times, and had a lot of fun. I even worked on the side-on sparring style with some success.

[bushido_man96]

3/16/2024

Firearms Training: I did 10 solid minutes of dryfire work. Drawing, acquiring red dot, and transitioning between two targets.

3/17/2024

Firearms Training: 10 minutes of dryfire training. I focused on drawing and acquiring the dot. One of our rangemasters gave me a tip of indexing the off hand at the chest on the draw, bringing the gun hand up to the indexed hand on the chest and then punching out. That helped with acquiring the dot more consistently. A lot of draw, fire, re-holster, repeat.

[bushido_man96]

3/18/2024

Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Weapons class. Got through jo kata 1 after some hiccups at the same place halfway through. We did some cutting work up and down the floor with the bokken, and then went back to the jo for some kumi jo partner work. I need to focus on weapon pressure when doing partner work to get better at blocking and countering.

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Pre-class stretch in The Rack. Warmed up with Do-kangs 1-3. After warmups, it was Ho Sin Sul work. The CI worked us on a throwing counter to a bearhug from behind. The premise was to base out somewhat, and then on the side where the space was, turn your hips and throw the attacker from around behind you. You'd basically roll on top of them and then have a chance to attack and escape after knocking the wind out of them or hurting them by landing on them. I didn't like it, and when the attacker started adding resistance, I couldn't get it to work at all. I may do some checking online to see if there is some more breakdown of such a technique, but at this point in time, it will not be a technique I'll go to.

After that throw work, we did punch/pass flow drills. Me and my partner expanded things quite a bit as we went, adding multiple passes and counters. We also changed up attacks to a haymaker, which altered the blocking scheme some. This was much more productive work in my eyes.

[bushido_man96]

3/20/2024

Range: Put in 3 hours at the range. We started out with just drawing the gun and getting on target and acquiring the dot. Reholster and do it again. Lots of reps. Then we went to drawing and firing one shot, then reholster. We did that with 10 rounds from the 10 yard line, then from the 15 yard line, then from the 25 yard line, shooting at steel. Indexing the off hand at the chest when punching out on the draw helped in acquiring the dot more consistently. I was still pretty shaky at 25 yards, making consistency hard to come by. Next, we did some shoot and move drills, switching hands, strong hand/weak hand only, etc. A couple run-throughs of each drill, working to improve our time on each run. My one-handed got pretty frustrating, and there were times when reacquiring the dot was harder due to not punching out with two hands. Finished with another proficiency drill for time, and that was it. About 200 rounds.

3/25/2024

Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Weapons class. It was just me today, so lots of work with the instructor. Warmed up with high 4, then low 4, then high 8. I mixed myself up in spots, but it was a good warmup. Next we did jo kata 1, and I think I've finally got it memorized. Then he explained about performing the kata with a rhythm to certain segments, which was a nice change of pace. We worked on Kiai in spots too, and one spot has kind of a longer, drawn out kiai over two moves, which is weird for me. I'm used to brief kihaps in my TKD. Last thing we did, very briefly, was jo disarm from a kotegashi.

Notes: on the kata, I need to focus on the "high blocks" (my terms, not theirs) in which I do a high strike to a descending sword. Need to make sure I don't drop the staff down to circle around the side of my head, but above my head.

Instructor said my base and power transfer into the weapon was good. I tried to focus on where my hands were positioned when striking from above my head. When going from thrust to guard to yokomen strike, not letting my hands be too far out in front when I transition.

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Pre-class stretch in The Rack, and class warmup was Do-Kang 1 and 2. Again, just me and the CI, so we did forms and three-steps. We took an approach where we did our form, Choong Jang, and then another black belt form, then our form again, and so on until we got all the way through the black belt forms. So it went like this:

Choong Jang

Yoo Sin

Choong Jang

Se Jong

Choong Jang

Gae Baek

Choong Jang

Poe Eun

Choong Jang

Kwang Gae

So 10 forms, 5 of which were Choong Jang. My knees were hurting, and my head was wonky today, making everything off. I started the forms out slow and taking it easy, warming up, and my third run through of Choong Jang was probably my best. What I need to focus on when doing forms more slowly is to work on a rhythm and a pace and flow to the form. Even though it's not at full power, it still has to have life.

[DarthPenguin]

3/18/2024

Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Weapons class. Got through jo kata 1 after some hiccups at the same place halfway through. We did some cutting work up and down the floor with the bokken, and then went back to the jo for some kumi jo partner work. I need to focus on weapon pressure when doing partner work to get better at blocking and countering.

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Pre-class stretch in The Rack. Warmed up with Do-kangs 1-3. After warmups, it was Ho Sin Sul work. The CI worked us on a throwing counter to a bearhug from behind. The premise was to base out somewhat, and then on the side where the space was, turn your hips and throw the attacker from around behind you. You'd basically roll on top of them and then have a chance to attack and escape after knocking the wind out of them or hurting them by landing on them. I didn't like it, and when the attacker started adding resistance, I couldn't get it to work at all. I may do some checking online to see if there is some more breakdown of such a technique, but at this point in time, it will not be a technique I'll go to.

After that throw work, we did punch/pass flow drills. Me and my partner expanded things quite a bit as we went, adding multiple passes and counters. We also changed up attacks to a haymaker, which altered the blocking scheme some. This was much more productive work in my eyes.

That bear hug escape sounds very similar to one i was shown before as a 'Gracie Self Defense' move in my old bjj school (if that helps looking it up online). Personally i wasn't a huge fan of it as it really only seemed to work reliably when i was a lot bigger or when you know the opponent is just in practice.

I have seen a couple of variants of it: one where you base out wide and then straighten one leg and try to take them over it in a throw (pretty like a tai-otoshi), but tbh i doubted this would ever work. Other variant, you step one leg behind the opponent, grab round their waist and lift them, either dropping them on their side or back in an ura-nage type motion. Again i didn't think it was terribly practical as i doubt you could easily step behind the opponent in reality (plus it needed a fair amount of strength in reality to pull off)

[bushido_man96]

I felt the same in a lot of what you mentioned. The problem with trying to step one leg behind the opponent is that I just don't see how that's done without keeping your hips close the the attacker, which is what they want so they can hoist you up and keep leverage and throw. I'd personally rather base out and start walking my hips out to keep the throw from happening.

I'll have to take a look at those online to see if I can see anything I was doing wrong that I could fix. Thanks for the suggestions.

[DarthPenguin]

I felt the same in a lot of what you mentioned. The problem with trying to step one leg behind the opponent is that I just don't see how that's done without keeping your hips close the the attacker, which is what they want so they can hoist you up and keep leverage and throw. I'd personally rather base out and start walking my hips out to keep the throw from happening.

I'll have to take a look at those online to see if I can see anything I was doing wrong that I could fix. Thanks for the suggestions.

that part is exactly what they miss out when it is drilled as 'self defence'. The person who is attacking typically just holds you in a bear hug and squeezes you, they don't do what they would really do and use it for a takedown (i think it's a 'mat return' but my knowledge of wrestling terms is almost as bad as my actual wrestling!).

A Bas Rutten style 'heel to the balls' would be more effective! (i have just remembered how much i loved the old Bas Rutten self defense vids - i'm going to go round the house shouting ' looky, looky' now!)

[bushido_man96]

Bas Rutten was great. I've seen some of his clips, and they are highly entertaining.

3/27/2024

15 minutes of dryfire. Trying to smooth out the trigger pull and get a good grip on the gun.

4/1/2024

10 minutes of dryfire. Drawn, fire, return; then draw, fire twice (double tap), and return to holster. I tend to slap the trigger on the second pull, and trying to stop doing that. Trying to keep better pressure with the support hand in the grip. Indexing the support hand at the chest is helping with consistently acquiring the dot. I'm also using that index to drive my support hand into the same place as I punch put, helping the grip to be more consistent.

Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Weapons class. Partner warmups with jo, 4-hi, 4-low, then combined. Next we did jo kata 1, and I got through it at least 4 times. I feel I have it memorized now, problem is I rushed it. Then we did bokken warmups cutting, then thrusting with a partner in front of us to work on keeping distance when approached and also seeing the line for the thrust. Did bokken kata 1, which I have down (but is pretty easy). Finished with a little knife defense, and for fun, we did "crease control" knife defense, Ameri-do-te style (since it was April Fool's day).

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. We have a few black belts getting ready to test, so tonight was kind of a testing focused class. We did Do-Kangs 1-3 (black belt basics), and then some forms work. I did Choong Jang and Bo Choong. I felt really disjointed early on. My left knee was really hurting just getting into a front stance, and I didn't feel stable during Do-Kangs. Choong Jang felt better, and in between I was able to stretch a little and get a little looser. Next was three-steps, which I was able to get through, so maybe they are starting to stick. We finished working on some of the breaking techniques. I tried to do flying side kick over three obstacles, and I honestly don't know if I can do it anymore. I can't get as much air as I used to, I don't explode off the floor, and it just kills my knees to jump like that.

[bushido_man96]

4/8/2024

Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00. Weapons Class. Stared with jo warmups, then went to jo kata 1, and I got it on the right and the left side. Next was bokken warmups and bokken kata 2. It was quite a change from bokken kata 1, so I didn't quite get it down. When thrusting, I need to focus on not drawing the blade back, but going to the blade as I step, in order to keep contact with the other blade. I also need to focus on keeping my body upright when cutting, and not leaning forward with the cut. Lastly, we went back to the jo and learned Shirata Kata. It was 4 segments that flip-flopped similar move sets, and was done on both sides. It was confusing, and I'll need more practice to remember it.

TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. We sparred today. Against the tall kid, I need to do a better job of using my footwork to control the ring. We didn't time our rounds; we just kind of went until we were done. I sparred to the point of exhaustion and then kept going, which was very much needed. Doing spin back kicks with my right leg made my left knee hurt quite a bit.

4/9/2024

Dryfire Practice. 10 minutes of dryfire, sticking to draw and fire once, or draw and double-tap. I had some improvement on some of the double-taps.