The Martial Artists' Training Log

[bushido_man96]

9/9/2025

Aikido:  6:15 - 7:45 pm.  Head was feeling funny today, so I didn't know how class was going to go.  I only took a few falls; lots of taking techniques to a stretch point.  We did aikitaisos, then technqiue.

Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage (5th kyu):  I'm making improvements on this, flowing better.  I worked on not standing up tall when entering with arm across chin.  Also worked on drawing the other arm back (hikite) and getting it twisted to break balance.  The finish is the aikitaiso sayu undo/sayu choyaku undo; key at the end is not a drop but a thrust/downward thrust across the shoulders.  Then we did a variation on it using a pass-through block/intercept (I likened it to a block/pass/pin minus the pin), then to the iriminage or gokyo.

We also hit lots of tangents on different approaches and applications.

[bushido_man96]

9/11/2025

Aikido:  9:00 - 10:00 am.  Aikitaisos, then worked on kaitenage for our rank.  There are 4 variations for the test, and we did 2 of them.  I need to draw the "cut" parallel w/uke's initial direction.  We talked about atemi - I need to think about my striking principles more w/my techniques.  If I'm in a good striking posture technically, then the technique is probably going well.

Taekwondo:  5:45 - 6:30 pm.  Traditional Class.  Basics, then real brief stretch.  Choi Yong, then low orange and blue belt one-steps.  Head wasn't feeling great.

6:30 - 7:00 pm.  Sparring.  I ran drills in this class to start.  From closed stance, assigned attacker did a front leg round kick to the body and the defender would block with the rear arm.  I've been seeing low ranks doing too much "fencing" while sparring, trying to block all the kicks with the lead hand while the back hand/arm does nothing.  The attacker could do a #1 round kick or a #3 round kick for distance.  After some rounds of that I had the attackers do a higher or head level front leg round kick so the defender could start using the upper hand on the cross block to defend the high kick.  The cross block is a double block with the rear hand staying low and the lead hand going high to cover for the possibility of the kick going to the body or the head, or a double kick.  We did several rounds of this drill and had the defenders add a counter punch after blocking.

BJJ:  7:00 - 8:15 pm.  Three rounds of warmup rolling, then into class focus.  The focus this month is on side control (ugh, my favorite...).  We played games where the bottom person tried to re-guard and the top player tried to maintain position.  We then progressed the drills to the top player trying to isolate the far arm, head and far arm, or near arm.  Then we progressed to trying to get the bottom person up on their side.

While drilling and trying to maintain the top position, I found that by getting off my knees and onto my toes (like I used to yell at the boys to do when wreslting) I could circle and maintain the top position better and for longer.  I didn't free roll tonight as my head was bothering me too much and I didn't want to set anything off.

[bushido_man96]

9/12/2025

Strength Training

Squats:  45x5x2, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 195x3, 205x1.

Press:  45x5x2, 65x5, 75x5, 80x3, 85x3, 90x3, 95x2.

Barbell Curls:  45x10, 45x10, 45x10.

Triceps Push-downs:  50x15, 50x15, 50x15.