DarthPenguins Training log of an unfit person!

[DarthPenguin]

Wednesday 7 June

Karate Session

Warm ups

same as per usual

Kihon

Slightly different to usual as one of the other 3rd dans was filling in to teach the class. Very much focusing on technique and breaking things down. Some nice drills for kicking technique that i will do at home i think too

Kata

Ran through several kata. Each time half speed first to focus on technique then full speed. Heian Shodan, Heian Yondan and Tekki Shodan.

Got some useful feedback on Tekki that for the knee lift and stamp i need to pull it more in front of my torso. I was deliberately pulling it out to the side so this was fine to adjust. Other feedback was good so pleased with that

Kumite

Just did a few 5 step drills, punches and mae geri. Instructor made us emphasise blocking everything (even the kicks) rather than evading as he wanted us to work on forearm conditioning which he thinks we should do more of! Don't really disagree tbh

Overall was a good class - week and a half to go now until grading!

[bushido_man96]

Testing is approaching! You mentioned doing kata twice; one fast and one regular speed; the first to focus everything, to help the second. I once read that Chuck Norris did a similar thing, but he added a third performance, in which you don't necessarily hold to the technique and bust out the form faster than you thought you could, even if it gets a little sloppy. His concept was that the extra fast form would help with to improve speed when doing it at the "normal" speed. An interesting concept, I thought.

[DarthPenguin]

Testing is approaching! You mentioned doing kata twice; one fast and one regular speed; the first to focus everything, to help the second. I once read that Chuck Norris did a similar thing, but he added a third performance, in which you don't necessarily hold to the technique and bust out the form faster than you thought you could, even if it gets a little sloppy. His concept was that the extra fast form would help with to improve speed when doing it at the "normal" speed. An interesting concept, I thought.

thats an interesting idea - i might play with that idea for out of class training. I can think of ways that this may help. Good suggestion!

[DarthPenguin]

Friday 9 June

Lifting Session

Squats

20kg x 5

40kg x 5

65kg x 5

75kg x 5

85kg x 5

65kg x 5

65kg x 5

65kg x 5

65kg x 5

65kg x 5

These felt good. Knees felt fine too. Really concentrated on 'pushing them out'. When doing it i realised i might have been being slightly lax on it near the end of a rep (i felt a slight difference on way up) so maybe that was the issue!

Single handed standing KB press (L+R = total reps)

20kg x 12

20kg x 12

20kg x 12

20kg x 12

20kg x 12

KB Swing

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

Banded Triceps Pushdowns

25kg x 13

25kg x 13

25kg x 13

Banded Pull aparts

12.5kg x 10

12.5kg x 10

12.5kg x 10

Really trying to concentrate with these on feeling the rear shoulder doing the work.

[DarthPenguin]

Tuesday 13 June

Lifting Session

Bench Press

20kg x 5

40kg x 5

52.5kg x 5

60kg x 5

67.5kg x 5

52.5kg x 5

52.5kg x 5

52.5kg x 5

KB Swings

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

24kg x 18

Banded Triceps Pushdowns

25kg x 14

25kg x 14

25kg x 14

25kg x 14

25kg x 14

Banded Pull Aparts

12.5kg x 10

12.5kg x 10

12.5kg x 10

12.5kg x 10

12.5kg x 10

[DarthPenguin]

Wednesday 14 June

Karate Session

Extremely warm (for Scotland) today (27 Degrees C) so we trained in gym gear

Warm ups

Same as usual

Kihon

Went through grading kihon as needed for Saturday. Everything seemed to go smoothly

Kata

Ran through a lot of kata today. Several run throughs of Tekki Shodan before grading. Also did all of the Heian katas once each and Kihon kata too.

Kumite

I did multiple rounds of the grading required ippon kumite. Myself and two black belts worked together with them rotating in so i did lots of reps. Good comments and one useful tip, on the yoko geri i am being too nice and leaving the kick out a little longer than needed to give them a change to block it nicely, was suggested i should snap it back faster and if that causes them an issue then thats their problem!

Final session before grading on Saturday so hopefully all good. Am attending a BJJ seminar on the Sunday too so this will be a hectic martial arts filled weekend!

[DarthPenguin]

Saturday 17 June

Grading and pre-grading course

Course

Course was excellent (as usual) lots of details and little suggestions which i always like. Was pretty tough as i ended up having to hold kiba dachi for ages while the black belts were being given pointers on their kata and we were all going through them to a count

Grading

Hall was absolutely boiling and very humid so it was a tough one. Passed fine though so was pleased. Was also happy that in his post grading feedback he didn't pick up on a couple of things he has mentioned in the past (which i worked on a lot for this grading) so they must have improved. Couple of useful comments from him which made perfect sense and i will try to implement straight away.

Thats me back to brown belt (3rd kyu) now, so gradually working my way back through the grades Am enjoying the learning and (most importantly) i can feel like i am gradually improving again with each belt level and regaining prior skills - regrading from scratch was definitely the right decision to make!

[DarthPenguin]

Sunday 18 June

BJJ Seminar

Attended a BJJ seminar at my academy with Jon Thomas ( a well known American BJJ instructor). Seminar was covering open guard, collar and sleeve particularly. The day before was double sleeve which i had to miss due to grading.

Seminar was split into 2 x 2hr blocks with a lunch break in between.

Really enjoyed it, material was good and he delivers things very articulately. Only slight negative i would say is that his superb online videos are sometimes easier to follow as he runs through the techniques quite quickly in person.

He did say though that he tries to get through as much material as possible in a seminar so that people have something to work on and have ideas of what can be done in each position rather than a huge amount of detail on one technique.

He gave quite an interesting speech on the benefits of a system as opposed to principles, which meshed really well with my mathematical mind (i think he has a mathematical background too and it showed). He believes that having a system of in this position i can do moves X,Y and X, opponent has moved in this manner so no i can do X, Z and A etc is much easier to utilise in practice.

Took a couple of techniques from it that i will try to make use of in future which i liked a lot.

Overall an excellent seminar!

[bushido_man96]

Sounds like you had two great Martial Arts days there. Congrats on grading up! The seminar sounds like it would have been a good time, too.

[DarthPenguin]

Sounds like you had two great Martial Arts days there. Congrats on grading up! The seminar sounds like it would have been a good time, too.

Thanks - was a lot of fun but (I think this may be a Scottish only phrase) i was left feeling a little like a burst couch afterwards! All fine now though

Couldn't do my usual scheduled deadlift day at the weekend either as didn't want to interfere with the grading and seminar in any way so going to blend it together with overhead press day today