upnorthkyosa's reflective training journal

[Makalakumu]

2-26-2007 - Practice Entry

Well, back to the same old routine. After break, it always SUCKS to get up at 4:30 am and start working out. I can't believe that I do it! Anyway, I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning. I had a hard time focusing. Maybe it was a lack of coffee, but it always bothers me. I don't want to fall into the trap where I just let the kata flow out without any sort of thought. To me, that is like reading a book outloud and not really taking in any of the information it is attempting to give. Several times during the workout, I had to stop and refocus.

 

[Makalakumu]

2-27-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my normal weight lifting routine and then went outside to shovel some snow. It was good cardio. Speaking of good cardio, WE HAVE SNOW!!! This is going to rock! I've been waiting to get out cc skiing all winter. I have to get my gun back from my brother so I can give the biathalon course a go.

 

[Makalakumu]

2-27-2007 - Teaching Entry

My beginning students are getting ready to test. I need to order them some uniforms. I'm really impressed by Lori and Kaia, they are really working together well and they seem to be taking the mother and daughter thing really to heart. I just hope that my wife and my daughter can have a similar relationship.

The other classes were really fun. We worked very hard on forms and kicking sequences and then we broke down the fourth kicking sequence. We worked hook punches, spinning backfists, spinning wheels, and splitting power in two directions with kicks. In the end, we were all very tired.

When we were all worn out, I took the last class and we worked armbars from the ground. This mostly consisted of showing my students how the armlocks in the forms could be applied on the ground and then we drilled some of the ways that this could happen. In the end, we worked five different armlocks...straight arm, kimura, ude garame, grapevine, and standard.

Good class!

 

[Makalakumu]

2-28-2007 - Practice Entry

Ugh. I woke up this morning and moved and I was really sore. 4:30 am is a really tough time to wake up and start cranking out a workout session, especially after a hard class. Thus, I reset the alarm and went back to sleep...determined to let my body get the rest that it needed. When I did wake up, I found that I was just as sore, but the soreness eventually went away. After about an hour of being awake, just doing normal things, like getting ready for work, I figured that I could have been ready to work out if I had time.

When I got home from work, I got my daughter ready for swimming and I got my son working on some play dough and then I got to lifting some weights. I made it through my normal weight lifting routines with a few breaks to play with my son and get some chicken marinading in my special thai peanut sauce.

When my wife came home from working out...while my daughter was at swim class, she was feeling kind of feisty, so we grappled a bit. We worked the guard position and some of the various armlocks that could be done from that position. We also worked on developing a base on the ground so that it was much harder to sweep.

In the end, it was alot of fun. I hope that we can figure out an arrangement with our kids so that she can join us in class at least once a week.

 

[Makalakumu]

2-28-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout B this afternoon. We are in the midsts of a blizzard right now, so there really isn't anything else to do. Practice went fine. I think I need to spend a little more time with a partner with some of this. The problem is finding people at my level that know what I'm trying to do.

sigh...

 

[Makalakumu]

3-1-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my normal weight lifting routine and then took some time to work on applications for Chinto this afternoon. This blizzard was pretty bad, so bad, its almost impossible to get out of the house. We've had over 20 inches so far and we've got 60 mph gusts off the lake. It's pretty intense.

Anyway, Chinto. This form is amazing. I worked a section today that had three spread blocks, with the third one being done with a complete turn. I figured that the first two spread blocks where showing a block and forearm strike to the ribs on both sides. While the third one was showing either a neck crank or a seionage.

Everytime I work bunkai, I'm always left with the thought that we have too many forms. If I took the time to teach all of the bunkai from all of the different forms that we know, we do nothing but bunkai in my dojang...and that is assuming that I could perform bunkai for every move! There is so much more to being good at TSD then that.

 

[Makalakumu]

3-5-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning. I had a hard time focusing and made a few mistakes on some forms. I think that after this weekend, with staying up so late, I was overly tired. Also, I think the winter is really starting to wear on me. It's been really cloudy and dark lately and the lack of snow most of the winter has kept me kind of cooped up. Although, I have been able to get out fishing lately, which has brightened my mood. I'm going to try supplementing melatonin to see if that can straighten things up a bit.

 

[Makalakumu]

3-6-2007 - Practice Entry

This morning was terrible. I just couldn't get out of bed. I felt stretched and thin like too little butter on too much toast. Thus, I didn't get a workout in this morning. It had to wait until I got home from work and I was able to do my weight lifting routine. I'm increasing my water intake and I've starting drinking some different teas. I'm even contemplating taking a multivitamin just to get some of this funk cleared up. I don't feel sick...just tired.

 

[Makalakumu]

3-6-2007 - Teaching Entry

Teaching was fun tonight. Despite having to cancel my first class because of job conflicts with my spouse, everything seemed to really click along. The two students who showed up are both green belts and they know almost everything on the requirement sheet for red belt. Therefore, they are just practicing things in order to get ready to test. It's nice to work with these two because they are ready to start to take some of this material and expand it in different directions. This is quite a contrast from just working on the basic angles and mechanics of various techniques. We still work on some of that, but its different, the ball is moving.

It will be interesting to see how they prepare to test. I hope they are continuing their journals. I hope they are trying to take some of the lessons they learn in class to their private practice sessions. Heck, I hope they are practicing!

Sigh.

I would never ask a student to do something that I myself wouldn't do...

 

[Makalakumu]

3-7-2007 - Practice Entry

This morning I worked on Martial Arts Workout B and I woke up and felt great. One day of taking a little melatonin and already I started to sleep better. Anyway, the workout went great. The weapons stuff came out nice and smooth...and then the kids woke up at 5:15 am. They were restless and ready to go and my wife was nice and cranky that they were up so early. I gave them some toys and they got down to business and so did I.

 

[Makalakumu]

3-8-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my normal weight lifting routine today. Interspersed between sets, I have begun to work my makiwara again. I am determined not to over due it this time, not like last time. Anyway, I started a couple of basic drills...punch and twist. Punch and twist. Punch and twist.

 

[Makalakumu]

3-8-2007 - Teaching Entry

Today's classes were very informative. My first class, the red belt class, was interesting. We worked on Naihanchi and corrected a few things and tied it back to application. It seemed to click. Next, we worked on the seventh kicking sequence and that looked okay. It's just going to take more practice to get those iron broom techniques around. Last, we started the third chil sung...just the opening sequence.

The next classes really picked up in pace. I've decided to rearrange some of the weapons work in the upper ranks. It was just too much and I had to wonder if I'm just an over acheiver and my teacher just made me do all of that stuff for bb because of that. The truth is that for alot of the stuff, like the cane form, he doesn't even broach that until 3rd dan now. Anyway, we're just focusing on the basics...and that is enough. I figure if we can get stick and knife basics down, then learning the more advanced stuff will be that much easier.

Last class was our sparring class. We haven't done this in a little while, because we've been working on grappling instead. So we strapped up and got out on the floor. The first 12 round for each of us, we just worked on the some sparring drills. Block and counter, pi-hagi, and stop/hits. The last two rounds, we hit up some free sparring for a total of 14 rounds. The thing that stuck out most to me was the reach advantage of my students.

Yeah, it's gonna get ugly now...

 

[Makalakumu]

3-12-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning and everything went pretty smoothly. For some reason, my spin kicks were off. I think that I may have unconsciously switched to a more aggressive stance after sparring the other night. We'll see. Anyway, at the end of my workout, I did some Dragon Breathing. That always gets the fire moving...

 

[Makalakumu]

3-13-2007 - Practice Entry

Daylight savings time sucks. It feels like its 3:30 am when I'm getting up even though I know its 4:30. I fought the urge to go back to bed and "realign" my body to the new time though. This morning's workout was my typical weight lifting routine. I worked some conditioning exercises and then noticed how dirty the floor was. And everytime I hit the makiwara after I noticed that, I couldn't concentrate anymore. Thus, the end of my workout consisted of some cleaning...

 

[Makalakumu]

2-13-2007 - Teaching Entry

Class was very productive tonight. My beginning students getting ready to move into the regular classes and my more advanced students seem to be picking up the concepts that I am working. In particular, I worked the push/pull concept with foot sweeps tonight and that was really fun, even though I happened to take alot of falls. Anyway, things are moving and that is good.

 

[Makalakumu]

Practice Interuptus!

The last two days have been difficult! Sick kids! Long nights and long days. No time for practice. I'm chomping at the bit!

 

[Makalakumu]

3-15-2007 - Teaching Entry

At tonight's class, I covered more of chil sung sam ro. My student has said that this is probably his favorite for so far...and I can totally see why he would think that. It is really cool and it certain combines many aspects of other forms that are pretty sweet. I don't focus on the chil sung forms though. These are more of an addendum to my curriculum and I've actually considered dropping them...or at least making them optional...because I'll never be able to learn the whole set. There are seven and I'll most likely only learn five. They stay for now, just because they have so much worth. Maybe a student in the future will make it his project to actively practice more of their applications.

At the second class tonight, things went pretty typically. Both of my senior students showed up and we had the opportunity to run through forms, kicking sequences, and some weapon work. Last week, I made the decision to move alot of the advanced weapon work into the dan levels. The basics were taking so long to teach and pick up, that it just seemed like the right thing to do in order properly show them how to use these implements. I'm starting to see the wisdom in how many arts save weapon work until after dan. However, I still see nothing wrong with at least going over the basics.

 

[kyosa]

I have made the first chil sung a requirement as i feel it teaches soft and dynamic technique better than any other form i have seen. I too have also discovered that weapons work should be more of a focus at the Dan level than pre-Dan....however it is always fun to throw in at any level.

Just an fyi my focus this past 2 months has been in running, pushups and sit ups...with full riot gear and gas mask. In a couple weeks i go to SERT (special emergency response team) which is similar to the older SWAT team training. Im almost 44 years old and many of the 20 year olds get thier butts kicked at this training so that is my focus lately. I would like to get up to Duluth/Superior though in the month of april more so toward the end of the month.

Tang Soo!

 

[Makalakumu]

Good morning, kyosa. We would love to have you up here. Perhaps you could stay a few days and we could work on a few things...namely chil sung O ro.

 

[Makalakumu]

3-16-2007 - Practice Entry

This morning I worked Martial Arts Workout B again. I can get a better cardio workout with that set up, better the A because it goes faster. Missing the two days wasn't so bad. My body was all messed up with the time change and I really needed to readjust my schedule so that I could get up early and still function. Anyway, it's getting easier. 3:30 am is becoming 4:30, slowly but surely.