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.

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 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.

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”.

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).

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.