upnorthkyosa's reflective training journal

[Makalakumu]

10-29-2007 - Practice Entry

Martial Arts Workout A this morning. Felt good for the most part. My back feels pretty healthy. Hopefully, I can keep it that way.

 

[Makalakumu]

10-30-2007 - Practice Entry

I woke up at 5:30 am and did my weights this morning. No class tonight because of conferences.

 

[Makalakumu]

10-31-2007 - Practice Entry

I did Martial Arts Workout B this morning. I made the decision to start adding nunchaku to the mix. I've got a pretty good resource, but that's about it. No teacher, so it's never going to get as good as it could get.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-1-2007 - Practice Entry

I've got a doctors appointment that will take a while today. So I have the day off from work. Conferences again tonight though. Anyway, I worked my weight program this morning.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-2-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout C this morning. It was great to work a new weapon into it. The nunchaku has always been my least favorite weapon. But now, I have a few new ideas...and I can directly attribute those ideas to MT.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-5-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning. It wasn't too bad. Thank goodness daylights saving time!

 

[Makalakumu]

11-6-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my weight routine this morning and did some cardio. I need to find new ways of getting in cardio now that its too dark and cold to run in the morning. Damn tilting earth!

 

[Makalakumu]

11-6-2007 - Teaching Entry

I worked my students on my tournament stuff. We worked some hard critiques on forms and I came to the conclusion that I am going to help these guys do their forms in the best way I want to do them. Not neccesarily what I know will win. Oh well, we are TSD not SBD. Also, the point sparring is killing us. We are probably going to get a little crazy once this thing ends. No contact makes me crabby.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-7-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout B this morning. I finally added nunchaku, my most hated weapon. Managed to not knock myself out...

 

[Makalakumu]

11-8-2007 - Teaching Entry

OMG class was a blast. I worked the kids more into a traditional format. They are starting to pick up the discipline better, so this is getting to be about time. I also ran the kids through a martial arts obstacle course that had them all breathing heavy by the end.

My other classes we fine. They were pretty normal. I was having a problem with my balance though and we were doing some kicks and I almost wiped out, so that was a little embarressing. Anyway, at least I can laugh it off to their faces...in my mind I'm like, "Okay, need to get a little more serious about practice."

Which I'm not sure how to do. I feel like I take it pretty seriously. Maybe I was just a little off today...

 

[Makalakumu]

11-9-2007 - Practice Entry

I tried something a little different this morning. I got up, had a cup of coffee and just tried to relax a little bit in order to way up before I hit the weights. I found that my workout was much more enjoyable. We'll see how that works with my martial arts workouts. I'm afraid I won't have enough time...

 

[Makalakumu]

11-10-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout C this morning. I taught myself this kata...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APTur6EEqaY&mode=related&search=

It's about as simple of a nunchaku kata as you can get and in reality, its all I really want to know about this weapon. It's not my favorite, but I can see places where one could be improvised in a self defense situation.

I'm not expecting a perfect kata especially since I learned it from Youtube, but I didn't really have a choice. There isn't a school for hundreds of miles that has real kobudo. It's all tournament crap.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-11-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my weight lifting program before I got down to all of my sunday chores today. That in and of itself is a good workout.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-12-2007 - Practice Entry

I stayed up last night and watched Sicko again. So, I skipped working out this morning. When I came home from work, I did my weight lifting routine again. I'll hit some MA tomorrow morning.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-13-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning. I could have sworn I typed this entry, must be some sort of dejavu. Anyway, things we great. I'm thinking of altering my workout schedule so that my weight lifting days fall after my teaching days. Class wipes me out and getting up in the morning afterward is just not giving me enough recovery time.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-13-2007 - Teaching Entry

Okay, class today was great. I went in with the attitude that we were going to kick some serious *** and nobody was going to walk out without totally sweating their gis through. We busted out all of the stops and worked through a lot of material. Best of all, my students were really into it. I could see confidence in certain techniques starting to build and I could see that certain criticisms were starting to sink in. Overall, I was really happy with tonight's class.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-14-2007 - Practice Entry

Woke up early this morning and went no way. My body was pretty sore from last night. I get in there and bang with my students just as hard as anyone else. In fact, that's one of the reasons I like to keep the class sizes small. Anyway, I didn't think I'd get a workout in today, but thanks to my wonderful wife, who came home early from her coffee date with her friends, I was able to work in my normal weight routine.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-15-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout B this morning. It was a good workout and it was the first weapon based workout where I worked nunchaku basics. I'm still coming up with my routine for that.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-15-2007 - Teaching Entry

Class attendence was light tonight. I worked my kids through some basic kicking drills, just trying to work on balance and proper form for front kick. Then I started working front stance with the six year olds. As far as the traditional stuff goes, I've found that I really need to go slow in order for the young ones to pick things up. I can't teach a concept like front stance in one class. I can teach them how to stand up straight and use good posture, but its really going to take a while to put all of the pieces together.

During the last two classes, I only had one student. I took some time to really work through forms and explain how my required ill soo shik are kind of like phonics for reading forms. I think it finally clicked with him. Now its just a matter of getting to work on it.

 

[Makalakumu]

11-16-2007 - Practice Entry

Slept in and worked my weight lifting after I got home from work. This actually seems to be working out fine. The weather is getting colder, so its harder to get outside and play and then its pretty much dark when I get home, so that changes things also. I'm going to buy a standing heavy bag soon and put up my makiwara again. That will put my weight lifting workout back in the morning so I have time to mix it up a little more.