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.

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)

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…