Thursday’s Class, 8-28-08

 

Tuesday’s class was physically taxing, but Thursday’s class was mentally taxing.  A real mind-bender.  We worked on a lot of patterns with Kali sticks.  Not only does the Kali training enhance coordination and body mechanics, but students are learning gross motor skills; all of this carries over into everything else we do in Gutterfighting.

 

Blend 25

 

We looked at the first 12 strokes of the Inosanto Blend 25.  Other students reviewed the first 12 and were able to work on 13 through 25, including the use of lateral triangle footwork.  Using BOBs really helped the students understand what they were doing with their sticks because they had a target they could touch.  Everyone did very well. 

 

Patterns Called What?

 

Okay, so there are a lot of terms I cannot recall for Kali.  Eventually, with very good luck and persistence, I will remember them.  But not this day!  Anyway, we practiced the first five strokes of the Blend 25 on BOB.  No problem:

 

Forehand downward diagonal to right ear or collarbone (Blend #1)

Backhand downward diagonal to right ear or collarbone (Blend #2)

Forehand horizontal to elbow or rib (Blend #3)

Backhand horizontal to elbow or rib (Blend #4)

Thrust to solar plexus (Blend #5)

 

 

Then came the “big X” pattern:

 

Blend #1

Backhand upward diagonal on same line, from left hip to right shoulder (Blend #12)

Blend #2

Forehand upward diagonal on same line, from right hip to left shoulder (Blend #11)

Blend #5

 

This includes four strokes of our open 8-Count:

 

Blend #1

Blend #2

Blend #11

Blend #12

Blend #5

 

Perhaps I will get ambitious and type up descriptions of Blend 1 through 25.  But not this day!  J

 

Double Sticks

 

It was a lot of fun grabbing two sticks and hitting BOB with Blend angles #1 through #12. . .with both sticks.  It takes some coordination and really forces us to use the whole body.

 

Follow-Ups

 

We defend and can follow-up with one of these patterns.

 

Crossada: Cross pattern with horizontal strike to mid-section (Blend #3 or #4) and Redondo. Forehand and backhand.  I have often begun with the horizontal strike, but it is probably more logical to hit the head first with a Redondo.

 

Tres Caballero: Witik (hit and retract), Redondo, Loptik (pull through with stroke, Blend #1 or #2).  Forehand and backhand—all three strikes are on the same side. 

 

Kilot: “Lightning”.  Backhand—Abaniko, Blend #2, Blend #1.  Forehand—Blend #1, Abaniko, Blend #2.

 

Split the Bamboo: This one is so much easier to demonstrate.  My brain might hemorrhage at this point with explanation.  Ha ha ha.  J

 

Patterns

 

We learn patterns/combinations because they teach us important body mechanics and the beginnings of flow.  But, at some point, we have to break out of those patterns in our training.  It’s easy to get stuck in them and never truly learn to flow in a dynamic environment.  The fight is never static.

 

 

Tuesday’s Class, 8-26-08

 

Whew.  Tuesday night’s class was ugly.  Ugly in the sense of fatigue.  We rolled around on the ground a lot, which is always exhausting.  Hmm.  What didn’t we do?  We enjoyed some kicking, ground and pound, and rolling with an angled pad or Thai pad while working from guard, side mount and mount positions. 

 

Then, we went into our circuits.  With each round, we added new implements to the mix: two and three minute rounds with about a minute of rest in between.  In the end, there were lots of sit-ups on the Abmat.  Rows, curls and presses with Jump Stretch bands.  Slamming medicine balls.  Wheel rollouts (from the knees)– This is one of my most-hated exercises, probably because I’m not very good at it and it is just plain hard.  I thought my core was strong until I met this nasty little device.  Oh well.  There’s always new challenges, right?  At least I don’t fall apart on jackknifes on the Swiss ball, or even planks, so all is not lost!  I almost forgot that we also did rounds of upper body exercises, with dumbbells, and blitzed on the BOBs. 

 

After we were very tired, we worked on our attack sequences without resistance.  I must say everyone did a pretty good job on this following a workout.  This is truly what Gutterfighting is all about.

Saturday’s Kettlebell Seminar, 8-23-08

 

 

The Gutterfighters (that’s what we are at heart, after all!) of Combat Hard Fitness & Fighting put on a seminar at Gold’s Gym in Dacula.  In attendance were a physical therapist, a general fitness client, and trainers learning to use these awesome little implements with their clients.  We, of course, use them quite a bit for strength and conditioning, too.  We would like to thank all the participants who joined us and made this day a success.  Everyone worked hard and learned a lot.  We hope they get out there and whip folks into some serious shape!

Thursday’s Class, 8-22-08

 

Ground

 

Breakfall!  Then, we rolled from side to side, doing sets of kicks with both legs while grounding ourselves on the forearm or posting with the arm.  We even threw in an Abmat and did ladders with situps and kicks.  We also worked on the technical stand-up.  Full-body conditioning, right after the warm-up.

 

Double Sticks

 

We warmed up with Open 4-count, Open 6-count  and Open 8-count patterns.  Moving on, we worked on Heaven 6 pattern and introduced the Standard pattern.  These drills are excellent for coordination, especially when both partners begin to move around.  At first, we circled around one another.  Then, one partner would spin on an axis, so to speak, as the other partner circled around.

 

We have already looked at the first five strokes of the Inosanto Blend 25.  Students have played around with Largo Mano (long range) drills with the soft sticks, wherein the technician is fed angles one through five and has to meet or follow the strike.  We introduced strokes 6 through 12, let students practice, and then added some footwork with the lateral triangle.

 

O’ou Tek

 

We drilled these combinations with a front kick:

 

Kick—Cross—Hook—Cross—Kick

Kick—Cross—Body Hook—Cross–Kick

Kick—Cross—Uppercut—Cross–Kick

Kick—Overhand—Uppercut–Overhand–Kick

Kick–Cross–Body Hook–Head Hook—Cross—Kick

 

Stretching

 

I showed some basic stretches at the end of class that I have pulled from the book Stretch To Win.  I think this book is excellent and very practical.  I have a lot of books on stretching and flexibility, but this is one of my favorites.  Some basic stretches (cool-down) combined with joint strength/mobility exercises (during the warm-up) go a long way towards making movement more joyful through increased range of motion.  It’s a shame that more people don’t take the time, as it certainly improves quality of life.  I had a martial arts teacher tell me once: “we should all be striving to move with efficiency and grace.” 

Tuesday’s Class, 8-19-08

 

We talked about motor skills within the context of training and close quarters combat situations.  Our motor skills can be divided into three categories: fine, complex and gross.  Fine motor skills require a lot more dexterity, often hand/eye coordination, and as the name implies, they include very precise types of movements like, for instance, a knife disarm.  Complex skills also require hand/eye coordination and movement with multiple muscle groups, timing, several components requiring precision, etc.  They require more cognitive processing.  A takedown would be a good example.  Gross motor skills are the “bigger movements”, and we tend to focus on these a lot in Gutterfighting.  Punching and kicking in combinations, like our attack sequence, would be good examples. 

 

Why do we focus more on gross movements as opposed to the “sexy” techniques?  As we get into stressful situations, such as those involving interpersonal human aggression, our heart rate increases.  For the mass majority, the fine motor skills start to deteriorate at 115 beats per minute.  As the heart rate reaches 145 beats per minute, complex motor skills start to deteriorate.  What we have left to rely upon if we are down and out, so to speak, are our gross motor skills.  We can still strike and/or run. 

 

Now it is worth noting, according to research, that some of our highly trained warriors can maintain fine motor control at 165 beats per minute.  With the right training and consistency, fine can become like gross for the rest of us, too.  It is our opinion that training skills in all categories has value.  Nevertheless, it is still important to keep everything in the proper perspective and to have skills in our arsenal we can use immediately until we reach a high level of proficiency (think of unconscious competence) with more complex techniques.

 

In mastering martial arts, it makes sense to move from static to fluid, and from fluid to dynamic training.  I think some people are able to learn to flow a lot quicker than I did, and that is simply because I had a more difficult time disengaging my brain and just allowing my body to feel techniques.  The right teacher or training environment can make all the difference in the world in this respect.  Some teachers will over-correct students and try to fine-tune when the basics have not been mastered yet.  Some instructors never pressure-test their students or impress upon them the reality of violent confrontation.  To do the latter, you must add emotional content to the training, which takes it to the next level for more advanced practitioners.  What makes the best of the best (Olympic champions also come to mind right now) is the consistency under any kind of pressure.  If we train with this in mind, we win.

 

Speaking of the realty of violence, check out some terrific articles by Darren Laur:

 

http://www.personalprotectionsystems.ca/safetyarticles.htm

 

Tuesday’s and Thursday’s Classes, 8-12-08 and 8-14-08

 

Warm-Up

 

We’re building up our endurance on jumping rope, so it was up to 2-minute rounds this week.  Just like any other exercise, our form breaks down after we get tired.  Hopefully everyone will keep that in mind and not get frustrated.  I don’t know why this one activity frustrates so many of us.  I can only imagine it is because we think we should already know how to do it, especially since many did it very easily as children.  Nevertheless, it is a skill to be mastered, just like punching or kicking.

 

We did rounds of shadow boxing again, including stand-up, ground and weapons techniques.  Everyone was looking a lot more comfortable.

 

I added in some leg swings and hip mobility exercises.  So many need these to regain range of motion in the hips for all the kicking we’re starting to incorporate.

 

O’ou Tek Drills

 

I love these, even though I never seem to remember all the sequences correctly.  Either I have a bad memory, or they must change at every JKD seminar.  J  The only thing I would say about these is that most technicians have a tendency to under-commit on their punches.  It seems darn near impossible to keep the pace slower, and I have always found this to be true.  I am guilty, too!  It takes a concerted effort not to escalate and rush through the drills.

 

Double Stick Drills

 

Everyone did a great job with these.  I just want all our Gutterfighters to be patient with one another.  I have empathy towards anyone who feels REALLY uncoordinated swinging two sticks around, trying so hard to create order out of what begins as unpredictable and downright scary.  I guess I began somewhere in the middle; I was not overly uncoordinated, but not particularly gifted.  It was still difficult because I often got stuck with a partner who would sigh and roll his eyes at me because I wasn’t a phenom right out of the womb.  But I digress.

 

We looked at the 4, 6 and 8-count drills, and I thought everyone was catching on fairly quickly.  I appreciated that everyone was not trying to hit the sticks too hard and really exercised control.  This helps a lot with hand fatigue in the beginning of stick training.

 

Turkish Get-Ups

 

I introduced these first without weight, and then we tried it with kettlebells.  I want to emphasize how important it is to keep the arm locked into the shoulder joint and to keep the eyes on the bell so the weight does not sway around overhead.  This is really difficult for some people because they want to constantly look down at their legs and feet.  There’s nothing to look at down there—keep your eyes on the weight!  These students should practice first without the weight until they feel comfortable looking up AND they have the ability to balance while looking skyward.  It is a complex movement and quite effective for core training.  So much stabilization is going on—very good stuff, and a lot of bang for your buck.

 

Circuits

 

Fun stuff.  Punch presses with kettlebells, Russian twists with medicine balls, wailing on BOBs with sticks, squats and push presses with Dynamax balls, knuckle push-ups, bicycles, kettlebells rows, situps with punches AND some nasty little exercise I’ll try to describe.  It probably has a name, but I don’t know what it is.  Kneel, then go to your feet while remaining in a low squat.  Now, go back to kneeling and repeat.  The challenge is keeping your bum low because your legs are burrrrrning.  If you are long-legged, it’s even harder.  Some folks found their style, though, and it sort of reminded me of Russian dancing.

Thursday’s Class, 8-7-08

 

Fightin’ and Sweatin’

 

BAM!  We definitely kicked it up a notch on Thursday.  Let’s just say that it was ugly.  On the fitness side, we did some dumbbell complexes, ball squats (Crossfit style), slam balls, situps with punches, jump rope, animal walks (bear crawls and crab walks),etc.  On the fighting side, we did some kicking and punching on the focus mitts, ground and pound (palm strikes), stick sparring with soft sticks and head gear, and attack sequences on BOBs. 

 

One of our students is going back to school next week, so we sent her out with a bang.  We appreciate her enthusiasm and will certainly miss her bubbly personality until she returns.

Tuesday’s Class, 8-5-08

 

Solo Training Rounds

 

We continued on Tuesday night with working our techniques on one focus mitt.  This time we used the boxing timer and completed rounds.  This is really an awkward exercise for many.  I found that it really sharpened my movements.  I think we have a tendency to get lazy when we’re feeding and do not force our technicians to stay tight with their movement.  Feeders: do your partners a favor and feed each punch and pad properly, to the best of your ability.  Make them work and help them improve.

 

Ground

 

We went back to the ground last night and rolled to each hip, throwing before performing technical stand-ups.  These are about as much fun to me as doing burpees over and over.  Whatever makes me tired and cranky is what I need to work the most.

 

Target Kicking

 

Rounds, rounds, rounds.  Punching combinations, sprawls, front kicks, side kicks and round kicks on focus mitts.  Kicks had to be toned down a bit because we were just using focus mitts, but we were mostly concerned with everyone actually hitting the target.  I tried to really mix it up with my feeding.  The students did a great job.

 

Awareness

 

I wanted to talk just a little about awareness because one student brought up a very good point the other night.  She was recently unloading at a recycling station and trying to stay alert.  Unexpectedly, a jogger appeared out of nowhere.  Nothing happened, of course, but she was a little disappointed in herself and thought she had failed a test.  The other instructor explained that she was expecting assailants, but not a jogger.  We do our best to expect many possibilities, but we would be fooling ourselves to believe we can pre-determine every situation.  We are certainly expanded and simultaneously limited by our personal experiences in the world.  Meeting the world head-on and living our lives fully goes far to keep us from being armchair quarterbacks.  Training with other, more experienced people is also great.  Any time I have an opportunity to learn from another’s experience, I take it.  It saves me the time and hassle of learning it the hard way.  I was at an Olympic lifting seminar this past weekend and Coach Burgener said that in our practice, he hoped we would make some mistakes.  That is how we learn.  I did half of my job by getting instruction and supervised training.  The other half of my job is the solo training and learning the hard way.  To open our awareness and make great strides in any endeavor, it behooves us all to do both.  In the case of our student, she should be proud that she is thinking and acting more aware in her environment, and that she’s analyzing the “mistake” after the fact.  I am pretty sure she won’t be surprised by a jogger again (even an unsavory one).  It was not a costly mistake that negatively affected her health and well-being, and she gained valuable experience.  Kudos to her.

Monday’s Class, 8-4-08

 

Warm-Up

 

Part of the warm-up last night included some gems from the Parisi Speed School.  Jump rope is almost always on the menu. 

 

Solo Training. . .In a Group

 

We did rounds last night of punches, hammer fists, elbows, palm heel strikes and knees on one focus mitt. We were working with. . .ourselves.  Holding the pad, pummeling the pad.  It looked quite hilarious, yes, but it was very effective.  I beat the tar out of my own elbow as I visualized driving it into the opponent’s upper back.  I got some real power going with hammer fists and horizontal elbows.

 

Ground Movement

 

Trying to build a foundation, we worked on shifting back and forth from the back to each hip.  Once on the hip, we based with the upper/free leg while kicking with the lower leg.  Instead of just rolling, we were grounding one foot to propel us to the opposite hip.  We focused on keeping the hands up to protect the head.  This is movement worth practice—it seems so simple, but is a little tricky for some.  Even if you never become a full-on grappler, you need to know what it feels like on the ground and to be able to strike from various positions.

 

Kicking

 

We kicked in the air, on the angled pads and on BOB.  Front kicks with the instep, side kicks and round kicks.  The beautiful Thai kick will always be my first love (though I learned all the snapping kicks first).  The Thai kick is rumored to “take a thousand kicks or more” to get the hang of; I would tend to think even more.  It then takes much, much more than that to do it really well.  Francis Fong and logging hours of time on the pads and banana bag helped me “kick like a mule”.  Not very practical for Gutterfighting, though worth knowing in the long run.  We focused on getting the pivot to open the hips and on flowing to avoid telegraphing the movements.  If one pivots during the kick, one can be assured that the base foot is not flat.  This takes some balance and coordination, which come over time.  Beginners may find it helpful to go ahead and plant the base foot at the proper angle before kicking; however lifting and pivoting is crucial for speed and power.  I want the Gutterfighters to be patient with themselves.  It’s a good idea to build up hip strength by balancing against a wall or sturdy furniture and practicing in the air.  Many will find this greatly improves their hip mobility.  I would also recommend warming up regularly with fire hydrants and hip circles towards this end.  Both sides, rear and lead legs, must be trained.

 

 

Thursday’s Class, 7-31-08

 

Shadow Boxing

 

Eight minutes of shadow boxing.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I was certainly feeling warm.

 

Catch and Return

 

We practiced boxing covers and returning with different combinations.  Then we launched into controlled punching, or as I see it, punching with intention.  It’s so easy just to flail.  We performed combinations first with gloves.  The feeder would throw a jab, and the technician would slip and return with a right uppercut, right hook and in this case, a left cross (we stepped in with a right lead during the slip).  The technician would touch the feeder’s face with a VERY controlled fist and push.  The same technique was performed off the feeder’s cross.  The other instructor is taller than I am, so my left hook looked more like an overhand (it got the job done).

 

Then, off came the gloves.  I found it beneficial to make contact, knuckles to jaw.  We get so involved in drills sometimes that it is easy to forget what we’re actually aiming to hit.

 

We eventually took this drill in a slightly different direction and followed up with a sweep and takedown.  Good times, man!

 

Ground Work

 

The basics were covered here.  We looked at breakfalls and made it clear that folks don’t really want to slap the asphalt with arms and hands (I believe the other instructor would classify that as one of those self-correcting problems.).  We looked at ground mobility, kicking and blocking.  There was a discussion about the power of kicks from the ground—if we have rolled to one side, which kick is most powerful, from top or bottom?  The top kick is mostly leg, while we actually engage the hips with the bottom leg.  I’ve got to work on this one, myself.

 

Defenses

 

We ran through all of our choking defenses, wrist grabs, and the headlock from the side.  Everyone was really looking great and comfortable with all of these.  It will be a bad day for any unsuspecting schmoe who decides to pick a fight with our women Gutterfighters.  Poor judgment call, there!

 

Pictures

 

I really wanted to get pictures of everyone last night, but it seems that I’m experiencing a real comedy of errors with my cameral lately.  Some nights I forget the CF card.  Others, I’m having issues with my battery.  Next week, it’s all going to come together in a beautiful symphony: my camera body and all the extra bits.  I’ve discovered that digital cameras are pretty worthless without memory or juice.