I just can’t do it…

… Those were my thoughts at our last training session. My body is letting me down! I know I’ve not been training in TKD for long, so this will probably not be the only time I’ll have to pass this hurdle. However this is the first time for me and I know it’ll require a lot of work to get over it.

The situation is simple, I’ve started learning the basic side kick just as I got promoted to green belt (we start using kicks rather late in our school and the reasons why are more than apparent to me at the moment) at the beginning of July, and I’m really struggling with it. Not that I have bad coordination, or for the lack of trying, but my body is letting me down good and proper. I lack the strength (the main issue) and the flexibility (a minor problem just now, but this will become more of an issue for higher kicks) in my hips to execute the technique correctly. I know what I’m doing wrong, I know how I should do it correctly, but I physically can’t. I’m not even trying to kick high, hip height at most.
So far I’ve progressed really well in my training (disclaimer: this is my personal opinion and may not reflect the thoughts and views of my master or my fellow students. Hahaha) and, given enough practice, I managed to at least get the techniques I’ve learnt reasonably correct. But no matter how hard I try, the side kick eludes me. This to me is very frustrating, but I will not give in that easily!
So my plan for the next two months is to really focus on building up strength in my hips and working on my flexibility outside of our regular classes, with the ultimate goal of finally nailing that elusive side kick. I shall try and post regular updates on my progress, but I can’t promise anything at this stage :-P
Wish me luck…

In your face

Last night I had one of the enjoyable training sessions for months. I’ve been going through a rough patch lately and it has really affected my training, but last night I was really motivated and in good spirits, which really made a difference.
One of the main lessons from this session was how we interact with an opponent, which was demonstrated through an application of Steps 17 and 18 of Taekwondo pattern Dan-gun (my master actually describes this in his blog much better than I ever could). Anyway, as we were performing the application our instructor stepped in and demonstrated it again to us, focusing our attention on the facial expression of his opponent. And indeed there was a sincere look of fear/surprise, which none of us had managed to invoke on our respective opponents. Why was this so? As he demonstrated the application again on each one of us, we realised that his hands were much closer to the opponents face right after the block than when we had tried it. This created a false impression of proximity, which in a situation like this was very intimidating, which in a real life threat situation can win you vital seconds.
So what’s the lesson? Stay in your opponents face!

Playing the Game

In our school, we start sparring relatively late compared to other schools. Basic sparring techniques are introduced at orange belt level, limited to movement in relation to the opponent, defence against slow and predictable arm swings and breathing techniques.

About a week ago, maybe two, I had my first sparring session with our master, which to me is always a daunting (he is freakishly fast and his technique is awesome!), after my promotion to green belt, so unlike the “usual” arm swings I was expecting, he started laying it on me good and proper with kicks (some/most of which I’ve not even been taught yet) and punches. I was a bit overwhelmed to say the least. At least I managed to avoid a major catastrophe, but I recon that was more a result of my physique (I am after all about 20cm taller and 15 kg heavier that our master) than my technique.

Last Sunday’s training session saw me sparring against our master again. This time however he said that I can use (or better: try to use) a centreline punch as a weapon against him. (I must have done something right the last time we sparred to deserve this). Anyway, about 2 minutes into our session I hadn’t fired off a single punch and my master stopped to ask me why I wasn’t attacking, so I told him why. I simply couldn’t get myself to do it. Not because I was hesitant or afraid of hurting him (although that was part of the reason; there was no way I could properly control my punch in the midst of a sparring session), but because I was more focused on not getting the sh*t kicked out of me. I put all my focus on defending and wasn’t even looking for a way to land a punch.

At this stage my master made a really good analogy. Sparring is like playing numerous games at once. The main game is how you move in relation to your opponent and the environment. Then you have the game of defending against strikes, which is going on at the same time. By allowing me to attack he just added another “mini-game” to the mix. Attacking basically involves finding an opening (while still playing the other two games) and then going for it at the right time and then going back to playing the other two games; or, if the opening closes before you can profit from it just resuming with the other two games. My guess is that this “mini-game” will expand a bit, once I can (and I mean when I’m able to, rather than allowed to here) use a few more techniques, and probably include opening/creating a gap in addition to finding one sooner or later. But these are things I’ll not worry about for now. At the moment I’ll need to learn how to play the games’ basics.

Changing the way I think

This entry is as a response to one of my master's blogs.

I was surprised to actually see this blog entry, because I initially thought of this as a relatively insignificant event. However, the more I think about it, the more significant it becomes. It is a very good example of something I've noticed regularly in classes lately.

When I first started training TKD, I thought of it as a rigid concept with exact patterns and established applications. Therefore, I’ve never allowed myself to look beyond the specific application I’ve been taught. But now that I see others going through the same learning process this is changing. Incidents such as the one described by my master, where other students learn a slightly different variation of an application of a technique, made me think that maybe our style isn’t as rigid as I originally thought.

When we train applications of a technique in class these days, I catch myself more and more often trying out my own variations. This includes looking at different angles of entry, following up a block or evasive manoeuvre with different counter attacks, etc. I wouldn’t go as far as doing this with techniques I’ve just learned, but more with those I’ve been taught a while back and am more comfortable at performing. As I stated above, I’ve “caught” myself doing this, i.e. I’ve not consciously tried to come up with a variation to an application, hence these variations are minor. I think however that in time (and with a lot more practice and experience), I might become a bit more adventurous. For now though, I’ll keep “my” variations to little things, but perhaps with a more conscious approach, incorporating thoughts as to how I could make a technique work better for my own needs/abilities.

The main thing to take from this for me is that I should no longer look at our style as rigid, but rather as fluid and constantly adapting to the situation. For my study of applications this will perhaps take the focus from the “how is it done” (which is still the main focus when practicing specific techniques, particularly with new ones) to “what is it trying to achieve”.

Application of a Technique

Yesterday’s training sessions saw us doing a variety of different applications and although the actual techniques varied there was a red thread running through them… at least for me there was. I was struggling with one particular aspect, which I haven’t focused on before, in all applications irrespective of the technique. I just wasn’t able to react to my opponent (actually, I don’t like that expression much, because it implies some element of animosity. I’ll refer to it as training partner or partner from now on) in the way I should have, or better wanted to.
I’ve never been so conscious of the difference between performing a technique and applying it against a training partner. I’m not sure if this is a reaction to my increasing awareness of how techniques (should) work or something else, but in any case I felt like I just couldn’t apply the technique properly. When doing the technique without a partner I seemed to do ok, but as soon as I tried to apply the technique I couldn’t control what I was doing.

I tried assessing why this was the case during class and came to the conclusion that this is only natural. When practicing on your own you don’t have to account for another person’s presence, movement, timing, weigh, etc. Hence, being off by a few centimeters or seconds won’t affect your technique all that much (or so it seems), but when you have to apply the technique and have to account for another person’s behavior, things are very different.

Unfortunately, this insight didn’t help me much and as class progressed, I became increasingly frustrated with my inability to perform the techniques properly. My instructor must have picked up on this frustration and wisely told me that it’s all just a matter of practice and that in time I will get better; very good advice and probably very true as well. However, I’m notoriously impatient and always want to get things perfect right away, so I enquired how I could practice applications at home. My instructor’s simple answer: “You can’t!” This makes perfect sense; there is no way to practice training against a partner without a partner, seems logical, doesn’t it? What does this mean for me? I’ll just have to put maximum effort into every training session we have and make sure that I practice the execution of the techniques as much as I can outside of class, so that I can focus on the application when I have the opportunity.

Back in green

Well, it’s been a while since my last entry. The main reason for this is probably because I haven’t been training all that much over the past few weeks. Between my holidays, my instructor’s holidays and a brief illness, I have only attended about 2 or 3 training sessions since my grading. Speaking of… for those that care, I did pass and I’m now a loud and proud green belt. Our two white belts have also passed their grading by the way. Congratulations Nicole and Daniel, well done.

So what have I been up to? As I said, I’ve only started proper training again last week, so there hasn’t been much news. The main two points would be the side kick (which is killing my ridiculously underdeveloped hip muscles) and various applications of wrist locks (which are killing my… you’ve guessed… wrists).

My main focus at the moment is the side kick though, because I think I have a very long way to go before I’ll feel comfortable with it. For the first time since starting to train in TKD I feel that my physique is letting me down. I simply lack the strength and flexibility in my hips to properly practice the side kick. Therefore I’ve been doing a lot of exercises outside of class to remedy this (constant muscle soreness included).

In general the weeks without training have left me in a worse physical state than I’d like to admit. I’ve gained a good bit of weight and lost a considerable amount of flexibility and strength. It will take me a good few weeks to get back into shape, but I should get there, if I set my mind to it. Wish me luck…

It’s done…

Well, Sunday was grading day, and despite an ill timed night out on Saturday, I dragged myself up on Sunday morning with a hangover-deluxe.
Again, my training kicked in and I was able to focus on the task at hand, thank god for that.
To start off the day, we did a short training session consisting of our usual warm-up routine and then line drills performing most of the basic techniques we would be graded on shortly after. This had two purposes, one to give us a chance to rehearse the techniques one last time and two to fatigue us. Why fatigue us you ask? Simple, part of our training requires us to be able to control our thoughts and perform the techniques despite physical exhaustion.

But I’m sure the question on everyone’s mind is how I did. Well, I don’t know, I’m glad it’s not my job to assess my performance. I did the best I could and some things went well, others didn’t. I recon this time around I did show the best commitment I have done in all my gradings to date. Overall I had a pretty good feeling, but my perception is still that of a beginner and I’ll have to wait for my instructor’s feedback. I really do hope I passed, but even if I didn’t, I won’t worry about it too much, because I can always have another go, once I’ve practiced a bit more.

For what it’s worth, I thought our two white belts (also going through their grading on Sunday) did exceptionally well. Some of the techniques they performed were the best I’ve seen from them. Well done guys!

The next step

In class we are currently preparing for our upcoming grading. It’s due next Sunday, which is well timed, since I’ll be on holiday for 2 weeks afterwards and unlikely to train.

So at the moment all our focus really is on refining the techniques we need to master for our grading and practicing katas. I now start to appreciate katas more than I have in the past. I’m not sure why, but I just do.
I’ve dedicated myself to an extra training session with one of our white belts, which should give me the opportunity to practice some of the techniques and particularly my katas. Chon-ji should be at the top of the agenda, so that the white belt can benefit from our session as well, but I will try to put at least as much effort into Do-san and Dan-gun. My intention is to go through each pattern at least 5 times to get the sequences nailed and an additional 3 times paying particular attention to the individual techniques. It will be a long evening… I’m looking forward to it.

Let’s hope it’s worth it in the end and I pass my grading. Fingers crossed.

Emotions running high…and low

This will be a very personal entry to my blog, but I think it’s worth sharing.

I’ve gone through an emotional rollercoaster over the past couple of weeks, with the (anti-)climax occurring on Friday night. I’ll spare you the details, but needless to say it involves the opposite sex, a friend I hold in very high regards. I wanted more than the friendship and she (dealing with the situation extremely maturely, which I thank her for) explained to me that she just didn’t see us working out as a couple. Now despite the fact that I kind of expected this outcome (I chose to close my eyes at the obvious, I always do that and hope for the best), I was still devastated and am currently going through the phase of what another friend of mine referred to as the “emotional shock”. It will take a bit of time, but eventually I will bounce back…

Now what does this have to do with TKD, you might ask. To me TKD is the trampoline that allows me to bounce back. Whenever I’ve had problems in the past year or so since starting to train, TKD helped me a lot in re-focusing my mind. Training to me is a great way to take my thoughts away from the things that trouble me in my life, be it work, family issues or (as it is in this case) heartache.
Usually when I have a major problem in my life, it engulfs me entirely, I struggle to deal with other things, I loose concentration and can be a real pain in the a** to my friends. But whenever I train, I seem to be able to shut out everything else entirely and just focus on the moment. It helps me clear my mind and reset, it allows me to look at things in perspective.
What’s curious is the fact that during these times I seem to really make good progress (or at least I think I do). I feel motivated to push myself harder than usual and surprise myself as to what I’m capable of achieving.

So here is a call to those few people who actually read my blog. Do you have similar experiences when you train? Is TKD, or whatever style you train in, a way for you to escape your everyday life for a few hours? Share your thoughts!

How (not) to hurt yourself

Last night’s training session had a lot of diversity, none of which contributed to my wellbeing. Quite the opposite actually, I’ve bruised pretty much everything from my lower shins up to my head…

Starting at the bottom, we first did an application of the hardan marki (lower block) against forward kicks. The aim was to evade and block the oncoming kick and trap it by using the folding motion of the block and then taking down the opponent with the opening motion. I found this to be a very interesting application, as it allowed a number of small variations, targeting different areas of the body to be attacked. Our instructor showed us a number of ways to really work the opponents trapped leg, with me as the guinea pig. Hence I’ve got some nice bruises on my shins and my quads are quite sore from an overenthusiastic elbow strike. But as they say, no pain, no gain…

Next up I got a bit more practice on my forward roll, which was working remarkably well. That is, if we ignore the inevitable bump on the head (it was quite a good one actually) on my first attempt.
Going on from this, my instructor thought it would be a good idea, if I learned the forward break fall at this stage as well. It’s not part of my grading requirements, but fits in nicely with the forward roll. So I struggled my way through that as well. It turns out that it’s actually a lot easier, with some external assistance providing you with the spinning force. I need to remember to keep my left leg straight though, when I roll over the right shoulder. I got that wrong a few times and when actually doing the break fall in earnest, this can lead to a world of trouble if done incorrectly.

Finally the low point of the session, as my instructor asked me to perform Do-san, the kata for my current belt rank. I really struggled remembering all the steps and made some serious errors, as I haven’t practiced the form for a few weeks. Taken that my instructor wants to grade us in a month’s time, I really have to put some time back to practice. The way it’s looking at the moment I’ll not only fail the grading, but will make a huge fool of myself as well. I should also revisit Chon-ji and Dan-gun, as I’ve become a bit rusty with these katas as well.

Back to Basics

In yesterdays class I joined the white belts in their exercises, as I’ve been progressing rather well with the requirements for my current rank.
It turned out that this was a good wake-up call. I’ve not practiced my basic techniques (lunge punch, lower block, middle block) for a few months now and I’ve become quite sloppy. Particularly my power generation had suffered.
So, I’ve set myself on practicing these basic techniques to get back up to speed.

Protecting your jewels…

Every man who’s ever been hit/kicked/fallen onto their twig and berries will know that this is one area of the body you’ll want to avoid a blow to. Not only can it cause you the god given power to create life, but it will cause a paralysing pain, literally. Therefore in an aggressive environment it is vital to protect your groin area.

This is exactly what we practiced in yesterday’s training session. The pattern associated with my current belt rank (Do-san) has block/punch just before moving into an upper block (chukyo marki). To see how this works in a combative environment, my instructor set out to kick me in the nether region and I was to block the kick by punching down onto his leg/foot.
As an answer to my question what the best target was to the downward punch, my instructor resorted to his tried and tested method of “learning by feeling”… So, I was to hold up my foot while he tapped (I wouldn’t call what he did a punch) areas all over my foot and along my lower shin. Afterwards I concluded that it doesn’t matter where you hit the foot or the lower shin, because it will always hurt your opponent… a lot!

Once I managed to protect my privates from a stance I was instructed to practice covering while performing a forward kick. This seemed easy enough (or so I thought), but on my first try I quickly realised that I needed to adjust my balance quite a bit in order to stay true to my target. But again (and I suspect this will be an ongoing theme in my TKD career) “practice makes perfect”, and I’m still far from that…Key things worth remembering from the downward punching exercise are covering underneath your groin as much as in front and keep your cover throughout your kick, because that fatal blow can come at any time in its lifecycle.

I’m rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

It’s been a while since my last entry, but I’ve been very busy and didn’t have much time to keep mu blog/log updated. So rather than backtracking all that I’ve done over the past few weeks, I’ll just pick up again from here.

Last night saw me doing one of my favourite pastimes: rolling around on the floor. Usually I do this in a very drunken state, but this time it had a purpose: how not to kill yourself doing a forward roll! It was the first time I’ve done this in a TKD environment, so a few bruises were to be expected.

The main points about the way we learn to do the forward roll are:
a) Keep close to, but not on the spine and cross it about half way through the roll. If you are too far to the side however you will hit your shoulder blade, which is quite uncomfortable. I found this out the hard way.
b) Keep your head tucked in, looking at your belt. Not doing this causes you to hit your head on the floor, which again is very uncomfortable. I found this out the hard way too.
c) And this is the really important one! Always push forward. This is a forward roll, not a downward roll. Not pushing forward enough causes you to fall on your shoulder, which will wind you and hurt a lot. This too I found out the really hard way, and the considerable bruises to my shoulders bare witness to this.

In the end though I did manage to get a few good ones in, but as they say practice makes perfect and I assume that I will have to bear a few more sessions of aching shoulders before I get this one right all the time.

After the rolling around, I did some practice on my kata for this belt level (Do-san). I need to ensure to keep my punches crisp and on a centreline and generally be a bit less sloppy.
Finally I joined in with the white belts to practice some lower blocks (hardan marki)

I’m back, and lazier than ever!

It’s been a busy few weeks, hence I didn’t have time to write on my blog. To make things a bit easier on myself, I’ll not try and recap what I’ve done, but rather take things on from here.

And to make things really easy on myself, I will from now on only write about my actual TKD experience and leave out all the other things, i.e. strength and cardio training as well as flexibility. However I will pick up on those topics provided they are relevant to TKD, for a particular technique for example.

I survived...barely

Training was very interesting today. We had a few guests with martial arts experience to join our class. Furthermore, my instructor thought it was time to start me out on basic sparring exercises, but more of that later.

We started off with our usual warm-up, which seemed to be a lot harder than usual after this morning’s cycle. We then did a few applications for the basic straight punch, this time using the theory of the punches life cycle. We’ve done this before, but this time we started the punch along its usual flight path, rather than finishing it “premature”.

After that we did front kicks and some close quarter defence, all of which I’ve done before but needed practice in, so practice is what I got. I was quite happy not to do anything too challenging, like a new technique, due to my less than perfect form.

My instructor thought differently though, so, with the benefit of having two experienced martial artists as guests, he started us with some very basic sparring exercised. First of all we covered how to move with respect to the opponent and how to avoid running forward into a kick or a punch; sounds simple, but isn’t for someone unused to this sort of exercise. Then my instructor added some very obvious arm swings with the challenge to us to block them with the elbows or lower arms (not the hands). We did this for a couple of rounds each. Despite building it up very slowly by using basic techniques I felt a bit overwhelmed, particularly because I was still a bit tired from the bike ride in the morning. However, on a good note, I apparently (this coming from my instructor, because I wasn’t really in any position to notice) I kept my breathing under control quite well. This made me feel a bit better about myself. I guess sparring is just like everything else when it comes to TKD, practice makes perfect; well, maybe not perfect, but better at least.

Catch-up blog

Yeah, I’ve been lazy again, so here’s an update of what I’ve done since my last blog.

On Wednesday I went to the gym and did my routine with the increased weights, so nothing interesting to write about.

Thursday we had training, and to mix things up we focused on hand locks for various scenarios. The main lesson for me: Listen to your instructor and do exactly what he does or tells you to do. When it comes to Aiki, the devil is in the detail and a small change in what you do can make a world of a difference. Yes, Aiki is taught in our school, but only very slowly and focused on a few techniques, which are progressively introduced at different belt ranks. So for now I’ll leave it at that and will go into more detail as the techniques become part of my grading requirement.

Friday and Saturday then were rest days, although we did go body boarding for a couple of hours on Saturday morning. But this rest phase had a purpose, as today was the big “race” day. The HBF (that’s a health insurance in WA) freeway bike hike was on this morning; 60km down the freeway. I managed to do it in less than 2 hours (1:55 to be exact). A pretty good effort I recon, considering I was on my cheap and nasty mountain bike, with tires resembling those of a tractor (a quote by my flatmate I found very appropriate). I didn’t even have the opportunity to race in a group of riders (apparently this really helps a lot for bike races), because I started in what turned out to be the wrong starting group. There was no one I could have ridden with, as I was overtaking slower clusters of riders all the way to the finish... I’ll remember to start in a faster starting group for next time.
And this afternoon TKD training, that will be fun with legs that feel as if they were made of concrete.

Burn baby, burn!

Ok, I’ve been lazy in updating my blog yet again, but there’s nothing exciting I’ve done lately.

On Monday I did my usual gym session, but I’ve finally increased the weights a bit (10%-25% depending on the exercise and the availability of weights) and reduced the reps to 10/set while keeping 4 sets for each exercise.

Yesterday then I did some work on my hip muscles before stepping onto the cross trainer, which I haven’t done for a while, despite the cross trainer being one of my favourite machines in the gym. My ankle was a bit sore, so I didn’t want to go for a run. Anyway, I set the cross trainer to “random” and by god did it give me a challenge. Most of the 45 minutes I was on there it was in the top quarter of the possible resistance setting, it’s enough to say I was sweating like I haven’t been for ages. However my heart rate was never really that high, the max was about 150bpm the average I would say at about 140bpm. This suited me well, because the aim of the day was burning fat. And let me tell you, there’s much more of that to burn than I’d like. I’m going on a holiday to Las Vegas in June and by then I want to be in top form. This means that I’ll be training like a crazy person for the next 3 months or so; I just need to be careful not to injure myself.

The importance of a training log

What a perfect example of why to keep a training log, and more importantly why to maintain it properly. By maintaining it properly I mean writing down lessons from class right away.
I was going to write about yesterday’s class just as I got home (after having a shower first though), but then forgot about it. Now I’m sitting here about 30 hours later struggling to remember what the key points were. Not that I can’t remember what we did, but it’s the fine details that make all the difference which elude me at the moment.
So here’s what I can scrape together.

First off we did some basic lower block (Hardan marki) applications. In this case we used the folding action to block against a straight centreline punch to the head and the actual down block against a strike to the solar plexus. I’ve not used the lower block in this variation before, which shows just how much I still have to learn. I do enjoy these basic exercises though, because they are exactly that; the basics. If you don’t get your basics right, how can you expect to manage the more advanced techniques? My guess is you won’t, so practice your basics! The other reason I like doing basic techniques is that I don’t feel completely at loss when doing them, or learning new applications. Lately I’ve been feeling at loss quite often during class due to the huge amount of new things thrown at me. So basics were quite welcome for a change.

Next thing we did was some self defence work against someone grabbing your clothes (e.g. jacket) at chest level. The basic strategy is to hold your arms up and let them drop down on the opponents arms. At the same time raise your feet and tighten your muscles, so that your body is linked to your arms at the point of impact. This way essentially your entire body weight is dropped on the opponents arms, which can be quite distressing, as the jerk form the arms is transferred directly into the neck. Very unpleasant, trust me, I’ve been on the receiving end of this technique many a times.
The technique doesn’t sound difficult, but in the words of my instructor: “That’s it, well done! It only took you 6 months to learn that!”

From this we went straight into using a wrist lock (yes we do locks and throws as well in our school) to really rid ourselves from the opponent. The lock starts by grabbing the opponents hand (the actual hand, not the fingers, although this is acceptable, but definitely not the wrist) “pistol grip” style and turning it inward until the wrist is vertical while keeping the opponents elbow down. At this stage your hand should be in front of you with your fingers pointing upwards, were you to extend them. Now simply turn your hand forward, so that your fingers would be pointing downward. This induces excruciating pain on the opponents wrist (again, I speak from experience) and will let you quite comfortably control his movement, as the entire body will be locked into position. This wrist lock can then be followed up by a forward kick or a takedown.

Finally we worked on some close quarter punches, based on the premise that any point along the life-cycle of the punch is a legitimate strike irrespective of the rotation of the fist (wording kindly stolen from my instructor). As seems to be a common theme through all the techniques I’m taught at the moment, the punch is powered by “snapping” of the hip. And as seems to be a common theme in learning the techniques, I don’t quite get it yet… Time will tell if I’ll ever manage it, but my instructor is confident, so I shall be as well.

It seems like I’ve managed to recollect a good bit from yesterday’s class in the end, but how much of what I’ve been taught this actually is, I don’t know…

What a day!

Yesterday was a busy day for TKD

I picked up my balance board from the depot (at the end of the world, or so it seemed. Let’s just say I had an extended lunch break.) and had a good play with it after work. I was amazed as to how bad my balance really was, but after about 20 minutes or so I really felt more comfortable on the board. I guess it’s one of those things you just have to practice.

And then later on … training, after 2 weeks of TKD withdrawal.
Since it’s been a while, our instructor thought it’d be a good idea to push us a bit during warm-up. So instead of doing our normal push-up, crunches and leg-work routine, he doubled the count for all exercises. I’m really glad I spent all that time in the gym while he was on holiday (yes 2 weeks of training do make a difference!)

As mentioned before, I’ve recently been promoted to a new belt rank and associated with this, there are a number of new techniques I have to learn. New techniques really take me out of my comfort zone, but then how else are we to learn? Anyway we started off with a small combination of block-strike-strike, which I really struggled with, as the technique used for the strikes is still relatively new to me. I’d leave it to my instructor to explain the details at this stage…

Next was more work on the forward kick. I recon I’m moving ever closer to what I’m meant to be doing. We worked on a bit of application (read I kick my instructor and he kicks me) and this gave me a better understanding of how I’m meant to actually execute the technique, particularly when my instructor started obstructing (I wouldn’t call it blocking or covering at this stage) my approach a bit, which showed me where I was going wrong. I always find it more insightful to work with a target than simply performing a technique in air (any thoughts on this are welcome).

Finally, we did yet another new technique to teach us how to use the full flexibility of the arm to “escape” from it being held to the body by an attacker or if the direct path to the target is obstructed. This is a very new concept as up until now all techniques were very linear from A to B. Needless to say, I’ll need to do some considerable work on this in order to get it right.

It was yet another challenging training session yesterday and today I feel the aftermath more than I’d like to admit. At this point I’ll give a heads-up to a little something I’ll be posting in the coming weeks, which will includes a short notion on pain “the day after”.

Same old, same old…

I’ve been a bit negligent in maintaining my blog/training log in the past few days. There’s no real reason for that, other than being lazy, really. But in fairness, there’s not much to report.

Tuesday evening I went for a short run (4km) and managed to knock about 1”30’ off the last time I did that run. However, it is still far from what I used to run “back in the days” when I ran 10km at a pace 15”/km faster than what I’m doing now, that was after about 6 months of dedicated training though.
I’m just glad I did go out for a run after what must have been about a month, where all I did for cardio training was cycling. I recon once I’ve completed the 60km bike ride on the 22nd March (i.e. a week from Sunday), I’ll go back to running/jogging.

Yesterday I did my routine (I guess I can call it that now) at the gym. I must admit I do notice some improvement, as it seems to get easier as I go along. I’m now contemplating to increase the weights for some of the exercises. I can give that a go on the weekend.
I’ve also been good regarding my stretching. I’m now working on my flexibility for about 20 minutes every time I go to the gym, which is really quite a lot considering that prior to starting TKD I never used to stretch at all. Even when I first started TKD, the only stretching I did was during training sessions. How stupid that was! I really feel like I’m making good progress. Not that I would call myself flexible, but I’m definitely more flexible than I was a few months ago. So hopefully if I keep it up, I’ll some day be flexible enough to actually look like I know what I’m doing during our warm-up.

One final thing, my balance board arrived yesterday (I ordered it last week), however I wasn’t at home, so I need to pick it up today. Now I can start getting serious about working on my balance as well. I just need to work it into my routine and I’ll be all set up for becoming the next best thing in TKD (hahaha, just kidding); I’m training for strength/power (gym), flexibility (gym), endurance (cycling/running), balance (balance board) and of course technique (regular training sessions, next one tonight! Yeah baby! I’ve really been missing it over the past couple of weeks).

Nothing out of the ordinary

Yesterday was a routine strength and flexibility day. The same procedure as last week's sessions, so there’s nothing big to report.

However, I have set myself a goal in terms of flexibility; I want to be able to rest my hands flat on the floor, while keeping my knees straight. I can manage to get down to the thumb, so I’ve got about 5-7cm left to go.

Taken that I struggled to get my fingertips on the floor a few months ago, I’d be interested to see how long I’ll take to achieve my goal. Let’s see how far I can get by the end of the month, I recon it might take a bit longer than that though, maybe the end of April is more realistic.

The next thing after that will be the full splits, but that is something that will take at least till the end of the year

An active weekend...

Since I did skip my planned run on Friday (I was way too tired, I actually went to bed at 10pm...on a Friday!!!), I wanted to get as much out of the weekend as I could.

Yesterday I did a session in the gym doing the same routine as the other days this week (this time including the legs again), before heading out for a nice sailing trip :-)

This morning then I did a 40km bike ride in the hills with some mates. Really good workout for the legs and, since a few of the guys are pretty decent cyclists, I got a really good cardio training out of it as well.

I can’t wait for training on Thursday though; I’ve not been very good about training for TKD these past couple of weeks.

Getting into a routine?

I didn’t have time to write something yesterday, because we were meeting up with a colleague who’s in town for a couple of weeks (he’s transferred to our Houston office recently).

I did use my free-time to put in a session at the gym though. I basically repeated my program from earlier this week; however I left out the squats. My leg muscles were in more pain than I’d like to admit, let’s just say today is the first day I can get up form my seat without looking like I’ve injured myself.

Tonight the plan is to do a bit of running; I was thinking about 10km, more a jog than a run though. I haven’t done anything that far for a while now, so I don’t want to push myself too hard (have I mentioned I became really unfit while I was at Uni and haven’t recovered from that yet…4 years later).
I’m really looking forward to Thursday when we finally recommence training. I’ve really missed our sessions this week.

Another day on the bike

Today I went for yet another bike ride, surprising myself, as the muscles in my bum are extremely sore from the squats I did yesterday.

I did about 25km. I was joined by one of my mates, who is a much better (i.e. faster) cyclist than I am and he was setting the pace. It’s enough to say that compared to today, my excursion on Sunday felt like a cruise, despite being twice as long.

I think I may just give my legs a rest tomorrow...

Building Strength and Flexibility

After my bike ride yesterday I didn’t feel like cardio exercise again, so I decided to focus on some of the other physical requirements of TKD; in this case strength and flexibility. Both of these I lack, so it’s probably a good idea to work on them.
Increasing flexibility isn’t actually difficult, as all it really requires is stretching of the muscles you might think. That statement is very wrong indeed. I find proper stretching quite challenging, because there is a high potential for injury if done incorrectly. I’ve made that experience firsthand when I pulled a muscle while stretching. The reason was of course improper warm-up and trying just that bit too hard. I’m actually always fascinated how many people start stretching without a decent warm-up, maybe having experienced where this can lead has made me more aware of this.
Anyway, I started with a slow paced 2km jog to get my blood flowing and my muscles warmed up before I started to stretch all major muscle groups (at least those I could think of, which means I probably forgot a good few of them), starting from top to bottom (i.e. my feet, not actually my bottom) I tried holding each stretch for about 30 seconds on one side before stretching the opposite side, 2 sets each side.
I should really start measuring the extents of my stretches on a regular basis to monitor my progress. That’s something to do for next week...

In terms of strength exercise I repeated the exercises from Tuesday, but with slightly lower weights and 4 sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise. I prefer switching the frequency of my exercises, even though I know it’s not the most efficient way of building strength, but otherwise I get bored too quickly and stop doing it.
Today I included some squats with added weight on my shoulders to work the legs a bit as well. I usually don’t work on my legs when I do strength exercise, but today showed me that I really should. I shall include regular leg work in my strength program from now on.

Easy Rider

Today was a fairly relaxed Sunday. Unfortunately my instructor is not in town at the moment, so there was no training this morning. I decided to take the opportunity to sleep in and catch up on some well deserved rest.

Not wanting to be an absolute sloth I went for an easy 2-hours-and-a-bit bike ride. On the way I managed to fall off my bike (not such a pleasant experience with your feet strapped to the pedals, but there’s not too much damage) and get lost (twice!), I had a good time though and I’m sure I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.

The Beginning of the End

I appreciate that this one is a bit late, but I haven’t been at home for the past two nights. So when I’m referring to “today” I mean last Thursday (not that it really matters)

Tonight’s training was yet another interesting one; in fact, I can’t say I’ve ever had a boring session. I’ll take two, perhaps three major points away from it.

Number one: Forward kick
Retracting my leg as fast as sending it out is still not coming naturally to me and I really need to focus on this, but there’s progress and in time I recon I’ll manage. However today’s session wasn’t just focusing on that. Today was about power generation, or as my instructor likes to refer to it: Juicing it up.
One of the other students kindly held up the kicking shield and my instructor and I laid it on him by alternatively kicking with plenty of force. Initially I really used all the muscles in my leg to really put pressure on the shield and although there was plenty of power there, it wasn’t quite the point of the exercise. My kick was very slow and unbalanced, nothing like a proper forward kick. The power of the humble forward kick is generated by thrusting the hips forward, not by much, but enough to really put some grunt into this actually rather fast and “unspectacular” kick. The other aspect is balance; we were doing the kick not from a standing position, but by slowly walking up to the target. The way to keep you balance through the kick then becomes more “interesting”, because when walking naturally your balance is between the two legs and not on one leg as you would have it for a kick. To shift the balance to the supporting leg when kicking you simply chamber the kicking leg coming through the path of the supporting leg, simple. And so easy to remember, as it is what we’ve been doing this for all punches all along!

Number two: The mindset
This lesson came about as we were playing a little game to teach us how we should move when faced with multiple opponents and how stressing this can be, both physically and mentally.
Our instructor told us a nice little story about a tea master and a samurai and the way our mindset influences our ability to perform at martial arts. I’ll not repeat the story at this stage, because a) I’m lazy :-) and b) I’m not a good story teller.
Enough to say that the main lesson from the story is that when we perform any martial arts technique, we will have to have our mind calm and focused on what we are doing. Sound simple, but when exhausted and faced with the danger of imminent death it’s not simple at all. This is why we train our techniques in a controlled environment and spar, to prepare us for the (hopefully never occurring) situation where we have to put our lessons into practice.

Number three: The beginning of the end
The way our instructor’s syllabus is structured is in my opinion very clever. Rather than dumping all sorts of techniques on beginners, we are taught the very basics and as we progress through the ranks the complexity of the techniques increases.
I’m not sure if it is as a side effect of this, or if it is intentional (I shall ask at our next training session), but this leads to an interesting fact when looking at the sequence of a fight. What we learn as beginners, through the first three belt ranks, is in fact the end of the fight. The final blow or takedown, when our opponent is weak and we focus all our energy on ending the fight with a single technique.
This is the mindset we should have when performing these techniques; focussing on executing them with precision and determination.

That’s it for now. Unfortunately our instructor will be travelling for the next couple of weeks, so I will have to train in my own time, more so than usual. I’ll focus on the forward kick and losing a bit more of that excess fat I’m carrying around (damned be that lovely food at Christmas time).

My training is suffering

Just a quick post today, as I don’t have much time...

I’m on a training course for work this week and all participants were invited to a lovely dinner last night, so training had to take a break. Not that I mind, because my back was very sore from windsurfing on Sunday afternoon.

Today wasn’t the most active day either. I just had a quick session in the gym. Basic strength training on the major muscle groups in the chest, back, arms and shoulders; no legs today, because I’ll be going for a long bike ride tomorrow. I did 5 sets of 6 reps with near one rep maximum weight to really give those muscles a go. I expect to feel this in the morning.

Information Overload

Wow, this must have been one of the more intense training sessions I’ve had in recent times. Not just physically, but also mentally.

I’ve recently been promoted to the next belt and so I’m learning a few new techniques. At this point I must say, I’m not a quick learner and need more time than others to get my head around a new technique, so today was a big challenge.

We’ve had a few additions to our training group since the beginning of the year, so we do a good bit of very basic exercises, which suits me well, because it allows me to revisit some of the things I meant to have learned when I first started (not that long ago). So first off we did an exercise to learn how to generate power through rotation and linking our body to our weapon (in this case the hand) to increase the effective mass. I still use too much strength in my arm and shoulder to generate power rather than linking the arm and hand to my body and using its rotation. I think towards the end I managed to do it a bit better.

Closely tied to the initial exercise was a new punching technique, which uses hip rotation and the shift of weight from back to front leg as the main source of power. It’s a very subtle technique meant to be used while the opponent is distracted by a hand in front of his face, or a similar diversion.
As I expected I started using my shoulder to generate the power again, which meant I was raising my elbow. This completely defeated the purpose of the technique, as it gives away the intent. The challenge was therefore in trying to keep the elbow tucked in, pressed to the ribs, and using rotation of the hips to shoot the arm forward. It proved to be more difficult than I expected.
The second aspect of the technique is using a snapping or whipping motion (remaining pretty linear mind) rather than pushing through the target as you would for a lunge punch. This therefore involved a quick forward action and equally quick retraction of the arm. Throughout the technique there is little tension to allow for a quick acceleration. Only at the instance of impact will the whole body be tensed to transfer the maximum force possible.
I will need to practice this technique quite a bit I recon, if I ever want to nail it. But then, I’ve just started learning it, so I shall not despair quite yet.

Finally, I got to practice my forward kick (just started learning that one last week) by kicking a tree for what seemed like hours, but was probably only 15 minutes. Nevertheless, the muscles in my hips were burning from lifting my leg. I never used to use these muscles in my life before TKD, so they are quite underdeveloped, I hope in time they will get stronger. Anyway, the main thing I need to focus on with this kick for now is the quick snapping motion and making sure I stretch my foot at the point of maximum extension. This too is quite a new concept to me, lifting my toes while the leg and foot are extended/stretched.

Lazy Day

Today was a lazy day. I had a few chores that needed attention (picking up my new belt being one of them), so there was little time for training. I did manage to squeeze in an hour of cycling though.

At the moment my training focus is very much on cardio training and fat burning. I gained a few kg over the Christmas season and I’m struggling to lose them again. Saying that, I did have a bit of surplus “insulation” to start with, so I need to lose a bit more than just Christmas dinner. We’ll get there eventually.

So as I said, today I only did an hour of cycling at a fairly moderate pace, I tried to keep my heart rate to about 65% max, i.e. fat burning pace.

It has begun

Ok, I guess this is a big step on the route to becoming a blogger: my first post.
I’m not sure what to write, so I’ll just go with what comes to mind.

I’ve started training Taekwondo about 7 months ago, which pretty much makes me a complete newbie. I’ve learned a lot since I’ve started, but I’m still very far away from what I would consider competent.

Recently (and by recently I mean about a month after starting my training) my instructor requested that I start a training log to write down all the lessons I’ve learned and to monitor my progress.
Well, it took me long enough and after months of “nagging” by my instructor, I’ve finally started a log. Here it is! Right here... you’re reading it. This blog will be my training log, for the whole world to read.

This blog is not intended to provide a platform for others to learn from (there are plenty of other blogs much better suited for that), but to show what I’ve learned and how I progress as a martial artist. I encourage anyone to comment on my posts, as long as they help me on my journey.