Sunday, March 22, 2009

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.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

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.

Monday, March 16, 2009

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…

Friday, March 13, 2009

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”.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

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).

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

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

Sunday, March 8, 2009

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.

Friday, March 6, 2009

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.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

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...

Monday, March 2, 2009

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.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

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.