# Training on odd terrain.



## theletch1 (Mar 30, 2008)

How many of you train outdoors on odd terrain?  We get so used to training in our gi on cushioned floors that I wonder how badly our movement would suffer in a real world, imperfect terrain situation.  The first Sunday of each month at our dojo is a street clothes training day.  You wear the same clothes you'd wear during your regular work day, shoes included.  This day is dedicated to defense against dynamic attacks, weapons attacks and obstacles.  It's really a different feel to do alot of the techniques in steel toes (what I wear at work) and jeans than in a gi.  

My wife and I has taken it a step further.  We each have a pair of MMA gloves and will work attacks full speed in our back yard.  The yard slopes somewhat in two directions and has plenty of dips and soft spots (thanks to the dang moles this year) to act as hazards.  Again, a completely different feel from the dojo.  The attacks are thrown at FULL speed and power.  It's amazing how a change in the terrain can affect your movement and causes you to assess the ground you're on in a heartbeat.

And, Yes, Tom, Erica hurts like hell when she connects.:uhyeah:


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## exile (Mar 30, 2008)

theletch1 said:


> How many of you train outdoors on odd terrain?  We get so used to training in our gi on cushioned floors that I wonder how badly our movement would suffer in a real world, imperfect terrain situation.  The first Sunday of each month at our dojo is a street clothes training day.  You wear the same clothes you'd wear during your regular work day, shoes included.  This day is dedicated to defense against dynamic attacks, weapons attacks and obstacles.  It's really a different feel to do alot of the techniques in steel toes (what I wear at work) and jeans than in a gi.



Unfortunately, I'm the only one in my family who trains MA, so I can't do serious partner drills on _any_ kind of a terrain around here. But I try to work outside, on our cracked-asphalt, somewhat sloping driveway, and on grass (mole-holes and all) as much as I can when the weather permits. Increasingly I'm doing all aspects of my training workouts in streetclothes. The difference between being barefoot vs. wearing shoes with even a slight bit of internal cushioning and some pivot-unfriendly tread is an eye-opener in itself, and when you combine that with oddly-contoured terrain... yeah, it's different, all right! 



theletch1 said:


> My wife and I has taken it a step further.  We each have a pair of MMA gloves and will work attacks full speed in our back yard.  The yard slopes somewhat in two directions and has plenty of dips and soft spots (thanks to the dang moles this year) to act as hazards.  Again, a completely different feel from the dojo.  The attacks are thrown at FULL speed and power.  It's amazing how a change in the terrain can affect your movement and causes you to assess the ground you're on in a heartbeat.



Way back in the day, when I taught and raced downhill skiing, one of our training exercises was going down a (very) familiar slope _with our eyes closed_, making lots of very short-radius turns. It's astonishing how much more you come to rely on the evidence of your senses, and how much faster you adjust to changing conditions when you do that. Not for the faint-hearted, at first, at least, because when you shut your eyes your sense of balance is immediately challenged (and you're on seriously sloping ground, after all)... but it's amazing how fast and how well it's possible to compensate via increased kinæsthetic awareness. You just have to pay attention to those sensations in a different kind of way...


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## theletch1 (Mar 30, 2008)

Ya know, Bob, it's only a seven hour drive from Columbus to my town.  Get in the car and come on out to the country.  I'll let Erica beat on you for a while.  

At some point this summer we'll be doing a class or three in the park just up the road from the dojo so that all of my Sunday students get the chance to feel the difference in terrain.  I'll let ya know how it goes.


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## exile (Mar 30, 2008)

theletch1 said:


> Ya know, Bob, it's only a seven hour drive from Columbus to my town.  Get in the car and come on out to the country.  I'll let Erica beat on you for a while.
> 
> At some point this summer we'll be doing a class or three in the park just up the road from the dojo so that all of my Sunday students get the chance to feel the difference in terrain.  I'll let ya know how it goes.



We were just down in D.C. over spring break&#8212;and yes, it was about seven hours, and easy hours at that (compared to the martyrdom of that godawful twelve hour drive we've done to Long Island...). Some that sounds like a good plan, at one point, if you're finding yourself getting black and blue on too regular a basis and need some recuperation time! :lol:

I think it's an essential part of MA training to try to work under normal (i.e., way less than dojo-ideal) conditions, and I applaud your efforts in actually doing some teaching along those lines...


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## Yari (Apr 8, 2008)

Well, in the dojo I pratice now, this doesn't happen enough. Maybe just once a year, come to think of it.... every second year (got to change that...). 

I do/did it alot in jujitsu to get the reality feel of it. We even made competitions of it. Wlaking through the forest, and had people waiting to attack you. And at each post a judge then looked trough your technique and scored it. Even had a day and night route. 

/Yari


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