upnorthkyosa's reflective training journal

[Makalakumu]

4-9-2007 - Practice Entry

Ah break. Got the kids ready and went back to bed. When I woke up, I got down to work on Martial Arts Workout A. Good work out. I focused on prepping myself to go down to my teacher's dojang on Wednesday. That will be kind of a test in a way. I think my students will give a good showing though.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-10-2007 - Practice Entry

This morning I took some time to do my normal weight lifting routine, but I changed it a little bit. I've moved my weight set up around so that I can do squats. I don't have enough weights to really challenge myself like I can at the YMCA but I can do lots of reps at 250 or 260 with a good focus on form. We'll see how this develops my leg muscles. I really wish I could do cleans. Those explosive lifts really helped when I was testing for blackbelt. My kicks definitely had some omph. Not that they don't have omph now, its just that they would have MORE omph if I could do cleans.

Anyway, after the weights, I worked on some forms and applications. I really want to do well when I take my students down to my teacher's dojang tomorrow and I know that every class he is looking to see how ready I am to test. I've gotta put my best foot forward every single time.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-10-2007 - Teaching Entry

This morning, I worked Martial Arts Workout A and did a weapons segment in order to supplement and prepare for tonight. I know for a fact that my teacher will probably pull out some crazy stuff when we get down there and my reaction to this crazy stuff had better be instinctual. When I was finished, I worked some meditation and visualization exercises. Mainly, I tried to picture large and heavy objects swinging in my direction.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-10-2007 - Learning Entry

A couple of things before I write about my teacher's class. I just realized that this is FIRST learning entry I have written in my journal. It's NOT that I don't learn stuff when I'm training or teaching. In fact, I do. Those two things go hand in hand. However, these journal entries describe more formalized instruction. With that being said, I think that I need to find more avenues for formalized instruction. My teacher encourages cross training and any place where I can get in and mix it up a bit is only going to help.

Now to class...

I didn't even know if we were going to make it. There was snow across the southern portion of the state and it is a two and a half hour drive to my teacher's dojang. We left here about 1:00 pm and the drive went fine. We got down to St. Cloud State University at about 10 to four and we drove around a bit. Class started at 5:00 pm.

Finally, we got in and my teacher got there early I got to introduce my students and we got to talk a little bit. When class started, one my old training partners took all of the other students to warm up and my teacher took the blackbelts back to do some knife fighting. We worked empty hand defense and we worked knife to knife. Good stuff. I felt like things went okay. I was protecting my centerline fine and I seemed to get in some good counter strikes that were kind of deceptive.

After that, we worked on empty hand vs staff. At first, I did great. I stuck to my game plan of closing the distance and working at places where it was disadvantagous to use the staff. Then, I decided to try some dodging on the outside to practice that and I started to get creamed. Some of my angles were wrong.

After that, we worked on some dodging exercises with everyone. We threw slow strikes with the staff so that people could find the right angles and get out of the way. We aso worked on striking the brachial plexus, some combat breathing exercises, some forms, and some grappling exercises.

Lastly, my teacher threw me up against four on one with weapons and without them. My first reaction surprised everyone when we worked weapons...I rushed the guy closest to the door, took him out and ran out of the room. People laughed, but then I made it clear that that would really be my first reaction if I was facing a group of people with weapons. Then my teacher limited the space and I was forced to do other tactical things, like lining people up and spreading them out so they could all attack me at once.

In the end, I think I still made some mistakes, like not getting off the mark fast enough with some of my defense, but I think that I did okay overall.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-11-2007 - Practice Entry

I'm sore today from yesterday. I'm going to do some stretching, some breathing exercises and some weights. I have to teach class tonight and I'm really conscious of over doing it. My plan is to take a day off and go fishing tommorrow, so we'll keep it light especially after last night.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-11-2007 - Teaching Entry

Attendence for class today was light. Only two green belts showed for both classes. I figured everyone would be nursing their bruises from last night.

Anyway, this gave me some time to really focus on the two that came. I got to cover stuff that they really hadn't seen before and then work them really thouroughly on it.

All in all, I felt it was a pretty good class.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-16-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout B this morning. It was kind of hard to wake up this morning. A week of spring break really throws off the body schedule. Anyway, the weapon work seemed to flow well and after my teacher's class, it seems as if the stuff that I'm working on has been totally affirmed. I thought I did pretty good when we were sparring...and my teacher thought so to.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-17-2007 - Practice Entry

I found out yesterday that I would be serving Jury Duty this morning, so I thought I might be able to sleep in, but alas this wasn't the case. I had to report to the courthouse by 8:30 am AND get my sub plan into both schools that I teach at. Thus, my workout started at 4:30 am as usual. This morning's workout consisted of weight training and cardio - which took the form of running. The weights went fine, in fact, I was really breaking a sweat by the end, so I know that my routine is working well. The running is starting to affect my right knee, however. I injured it in a car accident 15 years ago and it still bothers me. Anyway, I'm going to take a few days off from running just to let the joint bounce back.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-17-2007 - Teaching Entry

I used class time tonight to run through the requirement sheets and evaluate students on as much stuff as could be performed during the class. My reviews of all this are mixed. Ideally, I would like to see my students abilities rise in all levels across the board, however, in some areas, it was a tad hit or miss.

This is one of the curses of education though. A teacher and present the material and a student can learn it, but there is only so much that the teacher can do in order to strive towards excellence. At some point, the student has to pick up the ball and go.

With that being said, I expect my students to strive for excellence. I want them to care about learning and increasing their skills and I want them to be movitivated enough to chase after that goal. That peice is just as important to me in terms of advancement, as is actually learning the techniques.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-18-2007 - Practice Entry

My wife and I were up a little later then we usually are on school nights, so I slept in. I was able to work in my normal weight lifting routine while my daughter and son were at swim class though, so it all worked out. The only thing of note that I can say about this is that the squats that I've been working into the routine are starting to cause a little pain in my knee. I hope that the pain goes away and that my body gets used to it, but if it doesn't I know that I'll have to stop. That kind of sucks, because I like doing squats. I really feel an effect from them.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-19-2007 - Teaching Entry

Class tonight was productive. During the first class, I was able to stick to my plan for the night and get through what I wanted to. This included some realistic Ho Sin Shul at the end.

During the second class, I focused on some kicking techniques that my students were struggling with. I had my three senior students, so felt it was a good time to do this. Anyway, I took the time to analyze their technique and really provide detail feedback for them to improve. Hopefully, they wrote that stuff in their notebooks...

Lastly, we worked on positioning in grappling. Two of my senior students still need a lot of work on this in order to improve on their grappling. We reviewed the basic positions and then drilled getting into them against a defending opponent.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-20-2007 - Practice Entry

I got up this morning and I was determined to get in a practice session. I worked Martial Arts Workout A and when I was finished, I attempted to convince myself that 4:30 am really wasn't that early and that I was just being a wimp for skipping that last two mornings.

Hmmmm

 

[Makalakumu]

4-21-2007 - Practice Entry

I had some time during nap time to lift some weights. It was rainy and I had been cleaning the house all day, so this was a nice break. Anyway, I went through my normal routine and found that my knee really didn't ache when I was doing my squats. This is what I had hoped would happen, so I'm pretty happy about that. Now, we'll see if that holds up...

 

[Makalakumu]

4/23/2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning. Getting going this morning was okay and the workout itself seemed to flow nicely. I'm making a conscious effort to take all of the techniques that I practice and focus on each one. With a repeating workout regime, the danger always comes when you try to just rush through things to get it done.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-24-2007 - Practice Entry

Fabulous workout this morning. I woke up right before the alarm went off, stretched a little in bed and then hopped right out like I hadn't even been sleeping. I did my normal weight lifting routine this morning and then went outside to run by the bay. It was a beautiful morning and I got to see the sunrise, I only wish that I would have grabbed a sweatshirt. It was in the 30's this morning and that's a tad chilly. The funny thing is that only my arms and hands got cold. The rest of my body stayed pretty warm.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-24-2007 - Teaching Entry

I ordered the new uniforms for my beginner students last week and they came in the mail a few days ago. Thus, I had planned on testing my new students during the first class. When everyone showed up and I told them they would be testing, the look on their faces was classic. Their anxiety level shot up visibly. They did fine during the test. I knew they would, otherwise I wouldn't test them. The purpose of all of my tests isn't an assessment of learning. I do that everyday in class. My tests are assessments as learning. They are designed to show the student their weaknesses so that they can learn to self-identify them. My intent is to create the realistic self-critical sense in all of my students so that they can become better artists.

Anyway, I think it went well. After the test, I asked them what they thought they could most improve on and they pretty much self identified what I thought they needed most improvement on.

During the second class, we really worked hard. I ran through forms and kicking sequences for warm ups. Then I worked them on kicking techniques, in particular, making them smooth and powerful so that they are more effective. Then we worked on some of the required bunkai and everyone seemed to be getting the basic moves down for that. There still exists lots of little things that I could correct, but I want them all to have the general idea of these things first.

Lastly, I worked some ankle locks and variations of toeholds. In particular, I focused on the heel hook and talked about how this lock in particular was dangerous because the damage is often done before you feel the need to tap.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-25-2007 - Practice Entry

My daughter had Kindergarten Roundup today so I was able to sleep in and workout a little later in the morning. I got started about 6:30 am and pretty much worked through Martial Arts Workout B. My intent this morning was to work through my weapons in detail, because I took the day off and I didn't need to be at my daughter's new school until 9:30.

Biology got in the way of that. Right before I was about to start my weapon work, I was practicing jump spinning side kicks. The very first one was awesome. It had good lines and lots of power. The second one wrenched my lower back.

It's the same problem I've been having for the last couple of years. I've really cut back on the amount the the variety of kicks that I've been able to do because my lower back has a partially fused vertebrae and this was building up some scar tissue and causing quite a bit of pain. This episode is just another step in eliminating certain kicks from my repotoire that just don't work for my body.

Anyway, I worked through my weapon's stuff. Really slow, just to see how bad the back was wrenched this time. It's not as bad as last time...thank Ktulu, I could hardly walk then. But, it's still not any fun. I have a real hard slowing down and letting these things get better on their own, so that is going to be a major challenge.

I did figure something out that may help, though. I took my daughter to swimming lessons this evening and I decided to give swimming a try, to see how it affected my back. I got her ready for class and then went to the hot tub to stretch for about 10 minutes. Then I walked over to the pool and swam for about 25 minutes, working on a bunch of different strokes, just to turn and twist my body in different directions. Lastly, I went back to the hot tub and stretched. When I got home, my back felt great! I could hardly tell that I had wrenched it earlier that day.

Needless to say, I'll be doing that some more. Also, needless to say, I'll be visiting my chiropractor alot for a while.

Wish me luck...

 

[Makalakumu]

4-26-2007 - Practice Entry

I did my normal weight lifting routine today, except, I did it really slow just to test how my back was feeling. It felt okay, except for a few twangs here and there. I think, just to be safe, I'm going to take a break on MA until Monday.

 

[Makalakumu]

4-30-2007 - Practice Entry

Wow. What a weekend. I spent most of it outside. We had temps in the mid-80s on Sunday and I was able to clean out the garage and work the muscles in my back a little. Everything felt fine. I'm glad about that because I was/am really concerned about hurting it as bad as I did last time.

I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning. This mornings practice felt okay. I took it easy and went through my range of motion without pushing myself to the level of execution I usually go to. As this week progresses, I'll probably ramp things up slowly and maybe get to 80-85% by the end of the week.

 

[Makalakumu]

5-1-2007 - Practice Entry

Well, I've had this journal going since January. I've taken a little time to look back and I can definitely see that I've put in the hours of practice. My hope is that when my students come and check our forum, they can see that I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

Anyway, this morning, I went through my normal weight lifting routine. I went slower then normal, just to see how it would affect my back. Things felt okay. Maybe this afternoon, I'll get in a run. I think I'll be able to do okay tonight at class.