Traditional month has continued in the same veign as it started, although i think all of the instructors are desperately trying not to slip back in to sports karate mode. The punishments are still coming thick and fast though... the students may have forgotten to say adress us correctly but we havent forgotten to punish them! I dont actually know how many press ups i ahev done this month! Not as punishments but simply from joining in the class. I do need to practice some more flashy ones though.
Training has continued in much the same as normal, visits to the gym and Coalville twice a week to train. The new timetable for instructors now means that we have our CIT training in the evenings again and not in the mornings. The timing of this means that again i will miss out from time to time but having a purple belts and over class starting soon at Coalville means that more specific higher level drils and self defence will now become a far more regular affair. In additon, and this is a big one!, no longer training in the mornings for cit now means i can do my own training before work again. The advantage being i can now taylor what i do to what i need to concentrate on and in additon, to a lesser degree, on the days where i do feel truely knackered and know that i should rest i can have an extra hour in bed. Although knowing me i wont take adavantage of this, purely down to my nature.
Sleep is defiantely an area i need to work on. To improve and stay more motivated i need more rest, i may not a champion world class 'as seen on tv' fighter or athelete but i do push mybody quiet hard most weeks and having done so for almost 18months 2 years now, there are time where my whole body just feels heavy.
Tommorrow is the WUMA euro open in Worcester. Having not fought in a points competition for a while Sensei Craig has put me forward to fight as part of the The RSL Sponsoured Stealth Black Belt Academy - elite squad. Checking up on the website i have noticed that there is a kata section as well as points and will be entering the Korean section of this in order to see how i fair against some god quality opposition. In additon i WANT one of the trophies from this event they are nice and big will look very good in Barwell studio. I could do with the ego boost at the moment!
I am some what nervous about tommorrow, purely ring rust though. Ross has a great deal of drive at the moment for winnig competiions, i wanted to know where he got his energy from....
but thinking back i realised when i was a purple belt i was exatly the same, i wanted to compete and did so, sometimes twice or even three competitions a month. In doing so you condition yourself to fight in competitions, the nerves, the wainting and what to eat and when. The break from pushing for my second dan may afford me more space to do this.
Craig seems to think so, having signed me up for a light contact fight at a fight night in two weeks time, having wanted him to set me up a fihgt ina few months so i could train for it and nothing but that, two weeks is not what i had in mind. Having cut weight to meet put myslef a the top of my catagory tommorrow come sunday night i will start the opposite approach.... eating!!! Plenty of carbs but all the good stuff.
Best practice continous, BIG STYLE!!!!!!!!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Eleven days later
Almost 11 days since my last post and much has happened. One of the main reasons for another large gap is down to the grading date.
With my counter part Matt Smith from Stealth Scaffolding, fully involved in his new business and doing very well by all accounts, there has been a time of reflection and evalution. Richard and myself have been busy sorting out the Barwell Academy our training had dropped off, especailly as Richard has been injured on and off for near on two months now. Concerned about his ability to take his next grade ( black and brown ) and feeling a lack of progression from being injured he decided to speak to Sensei Craig and voice his concerns.
The combination of this and Matts invovlement with Scaffolding has meant that the black belts and 2nd grading at the end of the year has now been postponed until spring 2010. Lucky as all of the poeple in question are instructors and long standing memebers of the club, everyone undertsands the reasons. I am a little disapointed but the extra breathing room gives me chance to complete soem fo the other tasks in the sylabus is a more relaxed time frame. As i mentioned at the begining of this process to complete 2 years of training in 10 months was going to be a challenge, although i can quite hapily stand up and say 'i would have been ready'.
Both myself and Mat had already missed one deadline by both being so busy, we hadnt crossed paths and had chance to present our charity event proposal. That said, as i mentioned at the begining of this process to complete 2 years of training in 10 months was going to be a challenge, although i can quite hapily stand up and say depsite missing a dealine i could have pulled it back and 'i would have been ready'.
With my counter part Matt Smith from Stealth Scaffolding, fully involved in his new business and doing very well by all accounts, there has been a time of reflection and evalution. Richard and myself have been busy sorting out the Barwell Academy our training had dropped off, especailly as Richard has been injured on and off for near on two months now. Concerned about his ability to take his next grade ( black and brown ) and feeling a lack of progression from being injured he decided to speak to Sensei Craig and voice his concerns.
The combination of this and Matts invovlement with Scaffolding has meant that the black belts and 2nd grading at the end of the year has now been postponed until spring 2010. Lucky as all of the poeple in question are instructors and long standing memebers of the club, everyone undertsands the reasons. I am a little disapointed but the extra breathing room gives me chance to complete soem fo the other tasks in the sylabus is a more relaxed time frame. As i mentioned at the begining of this process to complete 2 years of training in 10 months was going to be a challenge, although i can quite hapily stand up and say 'i would have been ready'.
Both myself and Mat had already missed one deadline by both being so busy, we hadnt crossed paths and had chance to present our charity event proposal. That said, as i mentioned at the begining of this process to complete 2 years of training in 10 months was going to be a challenge, although i can quite hapily stand up and say depsite missing a dealine i could have pulled it back and 'i would have been ready'.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday 10th - EMTA Instructor Training
Far, far away from the Stealth Black Belt Academy…. In Littleover - Derby a young Instructor attended his first Tae Kwon Do instructor training course.
The group was 10 strong, 4 instructors and 6 ‘students’. Being the first course of its kind for us since we joined the AMA.
We spoke on many subjects, most of which you’d expect in a instructor training course such as; child protection, new students, insurance, duty of care, stretching and health and safety.
Having done essentially 2 years of instructor training, much of what they did I knew already. But it is never a bad thing to refresh and there were a few basics that, although not forgotten, we re-emphasised to me. These points I will be working on with Richard in the near future.
Having established a comfort zone with Sports Karate and kickboxing, to then have to demonstrate how you teach to black belts was daunting. Especially given the super technical nature of Tae Kwon Do. I made a few mistakes on my tuition of basic moves and didn’t even notice. Although these were basic errors I guess it is important to remember that the way in which TKD clubs run in our federation is so far removed from the upbeat chirpy fitness based methods of the Stealth Academies and thus I shouldn’t expect to be instantly brilliant at teaching TKD.
Overall it was well worth attending, one so I am recognised within the EMTA as being capable of teaching TKD, but also to simply add more weight to my experience, I don’t think you can ever knock having another certificate on the wall, providing you’ve earned them!
The group was 10 strong, 4 instructors and 6 ‘students’. Being the first course of its kind for us since we joined the AMA.
We spoke on many subjects, most of which you’d expect in a instructor training course such as; child protection, new students, insurance, duty of care, stretching and health and safety.
Having done essentially 2 years of instructor training, much of what they did I knew already. But it is never a bad thing to refresh and there were a few basics that, although not forgotten, we re-emphasised to me. These points I will be working on with Richard in the near future.
Having established a comfort zone with Sports Karate and kickboxing, to then have to demonstrate how you teach to black belts was daunting. Especially given the super technical nature of Tae Kwon Do. I made a few mistakes on my tuition of basic moves and didn’t even notice. Although these were basic errors I guess it is important to remember that the way in which TKD clubs run in our federation is so far removed from the upbeat chirpy fitness based methods of the Stealth Academies and thus I shouldn’t expect to be instantly brilliant at teaching TKD.
Overall it was well worth attending, one so I am recognised within the EMTA as being capable of teaching TKD, but also to simply add more weight to my experience, I don’t think you can ever knock having another certificate on the wall, providing you’ve earned them!
Thursday night – Friday and the mysterious back injury
Well its happened again. The mysterious weak muscles in my back which likes to go from time to time has emerged once again. This time was the first time a muscle spasm has caused me a pulled / damaged muscle. I was stood bolt up right doing nothing waiting for he next explanation in a kata and suddenly, gripping pain and a need to flat on my back took over.
The result of which was no visit to the gym, other than a sauna and stream. Although the ones at the gym are quiet cold you don’t feel like anything is happening. I trip to Finland is definitely in order for a good sauna, swiftly followed by a plunge in either fresh snow or a deep lake!
Friday night was TKD again. We touched on the usual stuff and did a little sparring. I’m looking forward to having more space when we move premises, then I can actually spar properly. It the moment it gets cramped and I cant really use my speed to catch the guys out.
The result of which was no visit to the gym, other than a sauna and stream. Although the ones at the gym are quiet cold you don’t feel like anything is happening. I trip to Finland is definitely in order for a good sauna, swiftly followed by a plunge in either fresh snow or a deep lake!
Friday night was TKD again. We touched on the usual stuff and did a little sparring. I’m looking forward to having more space when we move premises, then I can actually spar properly. It the moment it gets cramped and I cant really use my speed to catch the guys out.
Thursday 7th - The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle!
Thursday was a manic training day! loved it though.
No cit in the morning so i headed down to Coalville at 6am to get personal training in. Knowing i might not be training at lunch time i had a thorough warm up and lots of reps in mind.
I warmed up using the bleep test, again out of pratice with this, got to level 14.2 - over a level off my best. After that i headed to the weights bench and worked arms, shoulders and especailly the chest and abs. In addition i forced myself into a really horrible 3 minutes of the knee in using the trx.
I returned to Coalville for 18.45 and went back into the gym with dozer to again work the abs. 19.30 and class rolled round and we were straight into traditional mode. Thoes that forgot their etiquette were punished with pushups and the poor sods on their left hand side paid for mistakes as well. All in good fun. We continued with reverse punch, and introduced lunge punch. After serveral drills of 50 we learnt a bloke followed by a grab sweep defence.
Black Belt club introduce traditional kumite sparring for the first time. I have tounched on this before but simply as a one off. It was pretty painful to begin with, but once the body strating pumping adrenalin the pain eases and the will to win comes back. I sparred twice, found me feet against johny and scored a few nice points, including two kicks round the chops!!! muhahahahaha
Great stuff, looking forward to developing it.
No cit in the morning so i headed down to Coalville at 6am to get personal training in. Knowing i might not be training at lunch time i had a thorough warm up and lots of reps in mind.
I warmed up using the bleep test, again out of pratice with this, got to level 14.2 - over a level off my best. After that i headed to the weights bench and worked arms, shoulders and especailly the chest and abs. In addition i forced myself into a really horrible 3 minutes of the knee in using the trx.
I returned to Coalville for 18.45 and went back into the gym with dozer to again work the abs. 19.30 and class rolled round and we were straight into traditional mode. Thoes that forgot their etiquette were punished with pushups and the poor sods on their left hand side paid for mistakes as well. All in good fun. We continued with reverse punch, and introduced lunge punch. After serveral drills of 50 we learnt a bloke followed by a grab sweep defence.
Black Belt club introduce traditional kumite sparring for the first time. I have tounched on this before but simply as a one off. It was pretty painful to begin with, but once the body strating pumping adrenalin the pain eases and the will to win comes back. I sparred twice, found me feet against johny and scored a few nice points, including two kicks round the chops!!! muhahahahaha
Great stuff, looking forward to developing it.
Wednesday 6th - Barwell Tag Test
Lunch time was the usual gym workout.
Last Wednesday was a weird one for Barwell. The Jedi's and Adults were due to complete their tag tests. This tag test was based on two things, pad holding being the main one. Having nOticed that the pad holding quality in the lower grades needs work, we deliberately gace them drills that would test their ability to hold pads correctly. In additon, for their parteners striking the pads it was a chance to demonstrate their proficiancy at the drills we have been doing over the last month or so.
Last Wednesday was a weird one for Barwell. The Jedi's and Adults were due to complete their tag tests. This tag test was based on two things, pad holding being the main one. Having nOticed that the pad holding quality in the lower grades needs work, we deliberately gace them drills that would test their ability to hold pads correctly. In additon, for their parteners striking the pads it was a chance to demonstrate their proficiancy at the drills we have been doing over the last month or so.
The drills were as follows
- jab cross front leg roundhouse
- jab hook trailing leg round house followed by spinning hook.
- straight punches, jab cross
- 45 degree thai kick followed by axe kick. Not dropping the leg.
As the adults came into the class, it was clearly going to to be busy. In fact we had more Coalville students doing a catch up tag test than Barwell students. It was nice to see them though despite how full the room was.
This is how it should be, The Stealth Black Belt Academy is one team, we simply train in different places. Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays it humbles me to know that our counter parts at Coalville are training at the same time as the Barwell guys.
Tuesday 5th - Feudal Japan
CIT – 6.30 am – Coalville
Started off with a chat and a bombshell, although I was half expecting it. Craig has puzzled for a while now over the way the two clubs run in an effort to improve certain aspects of Stealth we now have monthly themes. Last month we worked on a bit of power and plenty of kicks. The month of May is the first official ‘out of phase’ month. During the entire month all sports karate class will be purely traditional karate based.
Sensei Craig laid down the ground rules, specifically the etiquette which we need to instil in the students. This will be a lot of fun to implement, I especially like the idea that if a student does not do what is expected of them, they have to do 50 push ups and the person on they’re left must do 10! Brilliant. Al though we will conduct this new way of doing things in a fun and ‘stealth’ fashion the underlying reason is to gain back some of the clubs traditional roots.
Once we had discussed this we began to look at the three fundamental kicks in traditional karate. Side, front and roundhouse. As much as hours and hours of kata or patterns can get boring, I’m thoroughly looking forward to both teaching at BArwell and especially taking part in these classes.
Lunch time was down the gym as usual, working the upper body.
7.30pm – Core Class – Coalville
After our discussion in the morning we cracked straight on with traditional month. All the students were introduced to the new rules and after that they were lined up and the traditional May truly began. I loved it. Plenty of reverse punches with the rear hip, loads of untapped power there and nice old school warm up. I can already see the effect this is going to have on the club. As far as I can see its all positive.
Started off with a chat and a bombshell, although I was half expecting it. Craig has puzzled for a while now over the way the two clubs run in an effort to improve certain aspects of Stealth we now have monthly themes. Last month we worked on a bit of power and plenty of kicks. The month of May is the first official ‘out of phase’ month. During the entire month all sports karate class will be purely traditional karate based.
Sensei Craig laid down the ground rules, specifically the etiquette which we need to instil in the students. This will be a lot of fun to implement, I especially like the idea that if a student does not do what is expected of them, they have to do 50 push ups and the person on they’re left must do 10! Brilliant. Al though we will conduct this new way of doing things in a fun and ‘stealth’ fashion the underlying reason is to gain back some of the clubs traditional roots.
Once we had discussed this we began to look at the three fundamental kicks in traditional karate. Side, front and roundhouse. As much as hours and hours of kata or patterns can get boring, I’m thoroughly looking forward to both teaching at BArwell and especially taking part in these classes.
Lunch time was down the gym as usual, working the upper body.
7.30pm – Core Class – Coalville
After our discussion in the morning we cracked straight on with traditional month. All the students were introduced to the new rules and after that they were lined up and the traditional May truly began. I loved it. Plenty of reverse punches with the rear hip, loads of untapped power there and nice old school warm up. I can already see the effect this is going to have on the club. As far as I can see its all positive.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Bank holidays are for training!
After a long weekend of naughty food and beer, and spurred on by Damon's seminar. I decided to get myself down to Coalville and run the basics. 1 hour thorough warmup with a good 15 minutes stretch and sticky kicks. Warmed up and ready to rock i set about working each basic technique for a minimum of 5 minutes. During the hour period i worked on the following backfist, offline backfist, Static reverse, blitz reverse, goofy (less dominant hand) reverse. Offline reverse coupled with spinning off line reverse, saving that one for the ginger!
Moving upto the kicks, static hook kick, projecting roundhouse, projecting side kick followed by round house. Fresh from Damons seminar reverse- ridge-roundhouse-backfist-roundhouse-spinning hook ( more work required me thinks!).
Finally, drawing on the efforts of Jacey '24' Cashman AKA 2fast4u.. I decided to have a crack at some sidekick followed by jumping backkick roundhouse combinations. It will take time to perfect these but i have high hopes of unleashing them at the next fight night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kyL9Ii3lFE&feature=channel_page
Gum Shields, my new best friend – Saturday 2nd May
After teaching at Barwell we headed over to Coalville for the long awaited Damon Samson Seminar. World Champ Damon is a long standing friend of Sensei Craigs and they both trained at the same camp back in Scotland. Having attended the last seminar Damon did I knew it was going to be good. I wasn’t disappointed.
Before the seminar we had a chance to warm up with a little sparring with Damon and his friends Chris. As u can imagine, most of us didn’t get near him and having seen what he can do on the dvd of combat32, I think all of us, with the exception of Craig felt a little embarrassed and apprehensive. 30 minutes later this apprehension was justified. Tentatively sparring with him I foolishly didn’t commit to a backfist as was punished by an almighty whack around the chin. I later found out this was a hook kick. I thought I had lost my teeth and as I walked to the toilets to look in the mirrior I had visions of missing teeth. Thank god for gum guards. A little bleeding around the gums, a red mark on my chin but other than that, nothing to worry about.
Lesson learned: commit, commit, commit!
Following this little instructors only session we cracked on with the seminar. There we a good number who turned up and it was very beneficial for all of us. The pad work we did was very good and agian it showed that this is an area, myself and stealth as a whole do need to work on. Through out Damons visit one thing became very obvious, a training camp has a style.
Craig, Damon and Keiran all fight and conduct themselves in a similar fashion. Purely down to thier tradional roots. Knowing now that Stealth and even within Stealth, my students will essentially be minis me's and mini Craigs and Matts means that as a group we need to ensure that we teacdh them the best we can and act as good role models. Especially for the children.
As this is a retro spective post, i now know Craig felt the same and as the catch up entries will show, he had a plan.
Before the seminar we had a chance to warm up with a little sparring with Damon and his friends Chris. As u can imagine, most of us didn’t get near him and having seen what he can do on the dvd of combat32, I think all of us, with the exception of Craig felt a little embarrassed and apprehensive. 30 minutes later this apprehension was justified. Tentatively sparring with him I foolishly didn’t commit to a backfist as was punished by an almighty whack around the chin. I later found out this was a hook kick. I thought I had lost my teeth and as I walked to the toilets to look in the mirrior I had visions of missing teeth. Thank god for gum guards. A little bleeding around the gums, a red mark on my chin but other than that, nothing to worry about.
Lesson learned: commit, commit, commit!
Following this little instructors only session we cracked on with the seminar. There we a good number who turned up and it was very beneficial for all of us. The pad work we did was very good and agian it showed that this is an area, myself and stealth as a whole do need to work on. Through out Damons visit one thing became very obvious, a training camp has a style.
Craig, Damon and Keiran all fight and conduct themselves in a similar fashion. Purely down to thier tradional roots. Knowing now that Stealth and even within Stealth, my students will essentially be minis me's and mini Craigs and Matts means that as a group we need to ensure that we teacdh them the best we can and act as good role models. Especially for the children.
As this is a retro spective post, i now know Craig felt the same and as the catch up entries will show, he had a plan.
Friday 1st May
Heading into the bank holiday I was on early shift and thus no squad training for me… Shame really haven’t done it for what seems like months. Hit the gym with vengeance at lunch time. Again concentrating on the upper body trying my very best to get some form of armour plate round my torso. I don’t mind admitting this is as much a pride thing as useful tool for defending myself from sparring knocks and bruises as well as Sensei Craig and his need to whack us when we are not looking, usually before class starts.
Polished the day off with 2 hours at TKD. This time round I was asked to take the class for the warm up and stretch. Training with children in the class can prove very challenging, especially with the warm up. One thing that stands the Stealth Black Belt Academies out is our ages specific classes. There are those that argue that 45 minutes 2 or 3 times a week is not enough time to train. Before joining Stealth I would have agreed. However, having been exposed to both ways of doing things 45 minutes is plenty of time if its non stop with an age group with a similar training ethic.
Polished the day off with 2 hours at TKD. This time round I was asked to take the class for the warm up and stretch. Training with children in the class can prove very challenging, especially with the warm up. One thing that stands the Stealth Black Belt Academies out is our ages specific classes. There are those that argue that 45 minutes 2 or 3 times a week is not enough time to train. Before joining Stealth I would have agreed. However, having been exposed to both ways of doing things 45 minutes is plenty of time if its non stop with an age group with a similar training ethic.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A recap!
Well despite the resolutions i keep, making it seems that the regular blogging has gone out of the window. For now i'll reside to the fact that it may have to be one or a week.
Anyways enough of that. Tuseday is here a full week since my last entry by all accounts so its time for a catch up. I am currently buzzed up on building my club. I have come to the conclusion that marketing activities, when building a club, do not have to be hours upon hours of leafletting or tireless letter writing etc. Working on the little, but often principle, i have deliberately neglected my training in order to spread the word.
Although i do feel some what ashammed for missing out, i'm trying to up my training in other areas to compensate.
Last weeks training included:
Anyways enough of that. Tuseday is here a full week since my last entry by all accounts so its time for a catch up. I am currently buzzed up on building my club. I have come to the conclusion that marketing activities, when building a club, do not have to be hours upon hours of leafletting or tireless letter writing etc. Working on the little, but often principle, i have deliberately neglected my training in order to spread the word.
Although i do feel some what ashammed for missing out, i'm trying to up my training in other areas to compensate.
Last weeks training included:
- 2 stints in CIT before work,
- squad training - point stance training maintaining balance and using less energy
- 4 sessions in the gym
- I nice technical session of Tae Kwon Do on friday night
- black belt circuit and stretching training.... whilst the other instructors were 'on manourvers'
- Finally, Sunday TKD Black Belt training in Derby
Monday, April 20, 2009
Saturday 18th – CIT and the Black Belt Circuit.
Saturday morning was again instructor theory training at the Stealth Black Belt Academy. These days I tend not to enjoy it so much as I know that we have to rush off to Barwell and teach. I guess its not that I don’t enjoy it I’m just wary of getting to Barwell and relaxing ready for the mornings classes.
In CIT we looked at our Stranger danger lessons plans we had created and then were given further assignments based on these. Myself and lazy have been tasked with creating a assembly plan that we can take into schools, in promotion for stranger danger days on the 8th of May. From there we moved onto the main thrust of CIT session which was listening to Tony Robbins and discussing the concept of choosing your own destiny.
This re-iterated to me that in order to achieve my dreams of being a full time instructor I need to work harder… you get out what you put in. Over the next ten days I intend to make a noticeable difference to the academies prospects!
After class, once the students had left, I treated dozer and Sophie to the black belt circuit. 6 rounds seems hard at the moment, but I loved it. I reckon if we start training like this now I can get them 8-10 rounds fit by November, or even two circuits back to back…Now there’s a challenge for Dozer!
Friday 17th – Tae Kwon Do
Friday 17th – Tae Kwon Do
TKD was good fun on Friday, not to technical plenty of fitness. After the usual warm up and a bit of technical we moved into patterns. From there me and the other black belts did our advanced patterns for 30 minutes. After which Mitch decided that we should work on our fitness and do 15 secs hand 15 feet and 30 combined drill on the wave master. After each one another person steps up to the bag and we rotated in our group of 5. Despite using more techniques, some of which are more tiring than continuous, with such a long rest between your turn I found it pretty easy, ended up doing press-ups whilst waiting.
We did this for about 20 minutes on and off amongst all of us. Good calorie killings stuff and formed the inspiration for the adults fitness class on Saturday
16th April - Back on the straight and narrow!
Having my focus removed from training recently with all the things I have discussed already… boring. Sunday night I decided that this week would be a good productive one.
Been back to the gym; mixing cardio, and weights to get into the swing of things. The cardio side was moiré to ensure I get back to the trim physique I once had. I want my body shape to be bigger but toned.
Last night went back to Coalville for 1st time in what seems like ages. Did a small 2mile run before class, still feel heavy and fluey when the cardio kicks in, and the sore ribs are still preventing full / easy breathing. But I have resided to the fact that students don’t know this and hence if I slack off or take it easy then the students will think I’m unfit and not capable of keeping up. Neither my pride nor my opinion on instructor fitness levels will allow this.
The core class consisted of an arm workout, using medicine balls, kettle bells and gloves. In groups of three, punching combo’s with gloves, then change to the kettle bells, before finishing on arm busting exercise with the medicine ball. I enjoy almost all classes but these horrible ones I particularly like, especially when I see little old me pushing myself to do one more rep when my arms are burning and the bigger guys who should be knocking the reps out have long since stopped. One for the ego I reckon!
Sparring class consisted of 20 minutes light points sparring just warming up, nice and easy changing partners after a minute. Initially I felt heavy, having not stretched my legs properly after the run. With only Mat in the class to really challenge me, I concentrated on teaching the lower grades and trying to loosen my legs up. Felt more confident towards the end and really enjoyed dispensing a few pearls of wisdom to the younger students. Although they play me up from time to time, in a more sparring context they seem to give me more respect. Perhaps cos they think they might get whacked!!!
Last 15 minutes we did side kick, sweep and back fist drills. Need to improve these.
Been back to the gym; mixing cardio, and weights to get into the swing of things. The cardio side was moiré to ensure I get back to the trim physique I once had. I want my body shape to be bigger but toned.
Last night went back to Coalville for 1st time in what seems like ages. Did a small 2mile run before class, still feel heavy and fluey when the cardio kicks in, and the sore ribs are still preventing full / easy breathing. But I have resided to the fact that students don’t know this and hence if I slack off or take it easy then the students will think I’m unfit and not capable of keeping up. Neither my pride nor my opinion on instructor fitness levels will allow this.
The core class consisted of an arm workout, using medicine balls, kettle bells and gloves. In groups of three, punching combo’s with gloves, then change to the kettle bells, before finishing on arm busting exercise with the medicine ball. I enjoy almost all classes but these horrible ones I particularly like, especially when I see little old me pushing myself to do one more rep when my arms are burning and the bigger guys who should be knocking the reps out have long since stopped. One for the ego I reckon!
Sparring class consisted of 20 minutes light points sparring just warming up, nice and easy changing partners after a minute. Initially I felt heavy, having not stretched my legs properly after the run. With only Mat in the class to really challenge me, I concentrated on teaching the lower grades and trying to loosen my legs up. Felt more confident towards the end and really enjoyed dispensing a few pearls of wisdom to the younger students. Although they play me up from time to time, in a more sparring context they seem to give me more respect. Perhaps cos they think they might get whacked!!!
Last 15 minutes we did side kick, sweep and back fist drills. Need to improve these.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Military Fitness gone mad!
Its is always dangerous / scary when Sensei Craig Smith, The Chief Instructor of the Stealth Black Belt Academy, gets ideas. For the everyday students the ideas that he brings to class are fun, different and usualy hard work. However for his devoted instructors, these 'ideas' have first to be tested and moulded before they can be used with his students.
This morning was no such exception to the 'testing' of such ideas. Using the US marine Corps martial arts system, as seen on 'The Human Weapon', me and the other instructors were subjected to one minute rounds of weights. Not particualry heavy but the emphasis was one continual effort and burnout making your arms and body as tired as possible.
Whilst we toiled with the weights the remaining two would fight in an almost full contact fashion, using boxing gloves rather than mma gloves to put more emphasis one using your arms and hitting hard. Work rate and accepting what was coming your way was pretty much the name of the game.
All in all it was great fun, loved it and i'm sure the barwell guys will tommorrow night too. I have adapted it in order to make it safer and also included thoes without sparring kit. Can't wait.
Barwell Boys and Gals... tommorrow bring a drink, towel and good work ethic, your gonna need it!
This morning was no such exception to the 'testing' of such ideas. Using the US marine Corps martial arts system, as seen on 'The Human Weapon', me and the other instructors were subjected to one minute rounds of weights. Not particualry heavy but the emphasis was one continual effort and burnout making your arms and body as tired as possible.
Whilst we toiled with the weights the remaining two would fight in an almost full contact fashion, using boxing gloves rather than mma gloves to put more emphasis one using your arms and hitting hard. Work rate and accepting what was coming your way was pretty much the name of the game.
All in all it was great fun, loved it and i'm sure the barwell guys will tommorrow night too. I have adapted it in order to make it safer and also included thoes without sparring kit. Can't wait.
Barwell Boys and Gals... tommorrow bring a drink, towel and good work ethic, your gonna need it!
Back to the Black Belt!
Had to pop upto Barwell Bank Holiday Monday to grab some things and also take up the studios new fan dangled play items. Namely a climbing ladder and some hand swinging gymnastic ring type affairs.
Whilst i was there i decided, that having been in what can only be described as the early signs of an 'alcoholic', i would put some training in.
With dozers first dan this year and also my second, i thought what better way to get back into the mind set than to start back on my back belt solo training method. Dozer helped me with this during my time at Desford and i think its fair i should repay the favour.
This method, which i dont think anyone other than dozer is aware of, came about from BB syllabus which stated that during my grading i would be subjected to 6 rounds of 2 minutes continuous drills on the wave master with 30 sec break in between each round.
I adapted this in order to make it more difficult and thus 'over train' for this particular part of the grading, in addition i also trained with a weighted vest and added a further 8k's to my body weight. The end result was greater fitness and by far my best ability to perform round by round. With this tried and tested method in my pocket i set to work on what i simply call:
'the black belt circuit' PLEASE SOMEONE FIND A LESS BORING NAME FOR THIS!
using a round timer set to 2 mins rounds 1 minute rest you do the following
After the last (6th) round you finish with a whole S30.
After this your pretty bushed, especially if you have given it everything. As with everything in life, you get out what you put in.
Both Dozer and Sensei Craig will be subjected to this very soon, especially as one of my 2nd Dan targets has been to ensure that Craig gets under 100kg.
Whilst i was there i decided, that having been in what can only be described as the early signs of an 'alcoholic', i would put some training in.
With dozers first dan this year and also my second, i thought what better way to get back into the mind set than to start back on my back belt solo training method. Dozer helped me with this during my time at Desford and i think its fair i should repay the favour.
This method, which i dont think anyone other than dozer is aware of, came about from BB syllabus which stated that during my grading i would be subjected to 6 rounds of 2 minutes continuous drills on the wave master with 30 sec break in between each round.
I adapted this in order to make it more difficult and thus 'over train' for this particular part of the grading, in addition i also trained with a weighted vest and added a further 8k's to my body weight. The end result was greater fitness and by far my best ability to perform round by round. With this tried and tested method in my pocket i set to work on what i simply call:
'the black belt circuit' PLEASE SOMEONE FIND A LESS BORING NAME FOR THIS!
using a round timer set to 2 mins rounds 1 minute rest you do the following
- 2 minutes hands and feet on wave master
- 30 secs - (1st part of s30) Push Ups
- 30 secs rest
After the last (6th) round you finish with a whole S30.
After this your pretty bushed, especially if you have given it everything. As with everything in life, you get out what you put in.
Both Dozer and Sensei Craig will be subjected to this very soon, especially as one of my 2nd Dan targets has been to ensure that Craig gets under 100kg.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
“gold luck is heavier than silver”
I think I’m going to have to stop making excuses for missing writing the blog. Basically I need more time in my life. Trying to write it sneakily at work is currently not working very well for me. Well what have I been upto since last week at Garys.. truth be told, not a lot . The dreaded man flu well and truly took hold last Friday, despite being on the cards for 3 days before I though I might be able to shake it off. My failure to orange juice, vitamin and lemsip the hell out of it before it really took hold has meant I have felt complete crap all week, with no motivation for training.
2 weeks of trying to work on the club during lunch times rather than going to the gym combined with the dreaded man disease has basically left me feeling very unfit and loosing my body tone.. As sensei Craig would say the last 7 days I have been about a ‘6 coat’.
One saving grace was the ITF Tae Kwon Do regional competition Held last Sunday at the Moore ways Centre in Derby. Having only passed my black belt in November I headed to the competition with mixed feelings. Having won my sparring category comfortably last year I was confident I could hold my own, yet apprehensive about how differently the BB category might operate.
After what seems like a very long wait finally my category was called. Having been there near on 6hours already and the pills and relaxing bath from the morning wearing off I began to feel slow, tired and heavy. Truth be told by now I was not looking forward to it and just wanted to get it over with. Totally the wrong attitude to step on the mat with.
Won the 1st one, the guy had no idea what I was doing… fighting points confuses the tkd guys the second the ref shouted ‘fight’ I threw the best reverse punch I could muster and the look on his face was price less.. Tough fight though, being a less experienced opponent he just wanted to brawl and the end result was both of us expending far too much energy.
After that and thanks to some brill coaching from a very knowledgeable guy, who I’d only met that day,I managed to fight in a tactical fashion and made short work of the second opponent
Then into the final with for 2 1.5 minute rounds… god it was hard work. I got a full on roundhouse in the ribs and 100’s of sidekicks in the arm. One thing about adopting a more point based style in a tkd competition is that you inevitably get kicked, a lot. You have to trust the judges to make the right decision and realise that despite taking a battering you are in fact not being scored upon. My opponent’s size and weight advantage certainly helped give the barrage of yop chagi’s extra clout.
After the 1st round I was struggling to lift my arm, being knackered I had nothing left in the tank to see past the pain. The end result was that I narrowly missed out on first place. At the time I was elated, having worked so hard and taking away a 2nd place in a pretty tough category. With the benefit of hindsight I can see that had I have not felt quiet so awful and stiff I could have taken it.
Pat was proud though and said I had done exceptionally well. Although, as my new found coach on the day said “gold luck is heavier than silver”.
2 weeks of trying to work on the club during lunch times rather than going to the gym combined with the dreaded man disease has basically left me feeling very unfit and loosing my body tone.. As sensei Craig would say the last 7 days I have been about a ‘6 coat’.
One saving grace was the ITF Tae Kwon Do regional competition Held last Sunday at the Moore ways Centre in Derby. Having only passed my black belt in November I headed to the competition with mixed feelings. Having won my sparring category comfortably last year I was confident I could hold my own, yet apprehensive about how differently the BB category might operate.
After what seems like a very long wait finally my category was called. Having been there near on 6hours already and the pills and relaxing bath from the morning wearing off I began to feel slow, tired and heavy. Truth be told by now I was not looking forward to it and just wanted to get it over with. Totally the wrong attitude to step on the mat with.
Won the 1st one, the guy had no idea what I was doing… fighting points confuses the tkd guys the second the ref shouted ‘fight’ I threw the best reverse punch I could muster and the look on his face was price less.. Tough fight though, being a less experienced opponent he just wanted to brawl and the end result was both of us expending far too much energy.
After that and thanks to some brill coaching from a very knowledgeable guy, who I’d only met that day,I managed to fight in a tactical fashion and made short work of the second opponent
Then into the final with for 2 1.5 minute rounds… god it was hard work. I got a full on roundhouse in the ribs and 100’s of sidekicks in the arm. One thing about adopting a more point based style in a tkd competition is that you inevitably get kicked, a lot. You have to trust the judges to make the right decision and realise that despite taking a battering you are in fact not being scored upon. My opponent’s size and weight advantage certainly helped give the barrage of yop chagi’s extra clout.
After the 1st round I was struggling to lift my arm, being knackered I had nothing left in the tank to see past the pain. The end result was that I narrowly missed out on first place. At the time I was elated, having worked so hard and taking away a 2nd place in a pretty tough category. With the benefit of hindsight I can see that had I have not felt quiet so awful and stiff I could have taken it.
Pat was proud though and said I had done exceptionally well. Although, as my new found coach on the day said “gold luck is heavier than silver”.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
hand foot way of life!
With the ITF competition fast approaching on Sunday and none of my black belt patterns down just yet i thought it best to get some TKD training in today. With that in mind it was M1, A50, A38 and 90 minutes with Sabum Gary and the guys at the Littleover Tae Kwon Do club.
http://www.littleovertkd.co.uk/Welcome.html
Ordinarily i love training at Stealth and no doubt today i would have just as much, however it way nice to break the cycle
and travel. Again this type of experience i find truly beneficial. Also i was somewhat of a pilgrimage to the hall where i earnt
black belt belt, having not been there since the grading.
We touched on the usual stuff, a gentle warm up before cracking on with patterns. Hopefully it will help me avoid making
mistakes on sunday. Although my main aim is to win the sparring section. More difficult this time due to the
advanced category. As a colored belt you only compete at your belt level. This time round its black belt and beyond.
bring it on ITF i won last year.. i can do it again. Make me a regional champ
DREAM IT - BELIEVE IT - ACHIEVE IT!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Motivated?
Again it appears that the blog entries have detiorated on my part. My motivation has dwindled a little also. Truth be told there has not been many developments on the training front since the krav seminar. Last week i attended the usual mix of classes although didnt use the gym, in preparation for my continous fight on the Saturday just gone. Thought it best to keep nice and loose and not risk pulling anything.
As it happend the fighter withdrew and the night before the Stealth Battle of the Flags i found out i was now going to have to fight points! Not a problem but... knowing my continous opponent was good, and i having not fought competitvely at cont for over 18 months, decided that staking on the weight was a good idea to give me a bit more clout. Unfortuately my week of increasing what i was eating fel flat on its back as soon as i discovered i was fighting points again.
Thus a rather fat feeling Steve made an appearance on the mats saturday night, rather than the racing snake i'm used to. Overall my performance at the fight was pretty good i reckon i was far more aggressice than normal and managed to dispel the fear of getting whacked. Something which tends to come back from time to time when i havent fought in competitions for a while.
I was gutted that i lost, not really for me but becuase some of my young students from BArwell had come to watch and were stood right behind me. I so wanted to win for them rather than me.
Barwell wise things have been pretty good and with being ill with man flu this week i have decided not to go to the gym again and concentrate on things which can help build the club. Paperwork and such like.
Pics from the fight night can be seen here http://www.stealth-uk.com/gallery.php?galleryId=5&image=20#picture
As it happend the fighter withdrew and the night before the Stealth Battle of the Flags i found out i was now going to have to fight points! Not a problem but... knowing my continous opponent was good, and i having not fought competitvely at cont for over 18 months, decided that staking on the weight was a good idea to give me a bit more clout. Unfortuately my week of increasing what i was eating fel flat on its back as soon as i discovered i was fighting points again.
Thus a rather fat feeling Steve made an appearance on the mats saturday night, rather than the racing snake i'm used to. Overall my performance at the fight was pretty good i reckon i was far more aggressice than normal and managed to dispel the fear of getting whacked. Something which tends to come back from time to time when i havent fought in competitions for a while.
I was gutted that i lost, not really for me but becuase some of my young students from BArwell had come to watch and were stood right behind me. I so wanted to win for them rather than me.
Barwell wise things have been pretty good and with being ill with man flu this week i have decided not to go to the gym again and concentrate on things which can help build the club. Paperwork and such like.
Pics from the fight night can be seen here http://www.stealth-uk.com/gallery.php?galleryId=5&image=20#picture
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Krav Seminar
A baptism of fire ensued as i attended my first official Krav Maga lesson today. It was a workshop design to warm up the Kravists ( that is actually a word you know!) before their grading in the afternoon.
ONe thing you notice about the Krav guys is all the different shapes and sizes of people you get. There are a few hyper fit looking guys but most are about average build and not particularly athletic looking. Admittedly it means less in this art but you'd think that with having such a dedicated following there would be some more fanatical on thier fitness.
We did quite a few drills in the two hours we were there but all of which were very basic. Thats not the say they were in effective, anything but, they were very simple to learn and easy to recall. The defence from strangles and chokes was particularly good and despite the number of groin strikes and the size of my partner i thoroughly enjoyed all of it and am currently going through a 'krav buzz' where along with u tube and books i'm attempting to increase my knowledge and find new drills to learn and warm up with.
I wish to say a big thans to the Guys at Krav Systems for making us feel so welcome.
I wish to say a big thans to the Guys at Krav Systems for making us feel so welcome.oh yeah and so bruised as well ;-)
Letting it slip!
I have become what can only be described as lazy on the blog front in the last few days. Time constraints mainly but i'm back with a vengance now. Although we are not supposed to do these blogs retrospectively here is a quick run down of the last few days.
Thursday 18th
Again went all out in a major way on the fitness side of things. Training was purely legs only as was sparring. Tricky, must do better! Craig made me do a public commitment to quit my job on May 31st. I need to affirm this goal and take it more seriously, my mind has already started a paradigm shift in favour of quitting work on this date. Just need to get the students in!
Friday 19th
Unfortunately, no squad training. Shame really apparently it was awsome. running over bridges and up stairs etc.
TKD - 18.45 - with pats foot playing up the torch was passsed to me to warm the guys up.. With a few joking comments from the club about kic boxers being unfit i made sure that the warm up they got had them blowing... it did and to be fair it really wasnt that difficult in the grand scheme of things. I'd love to have an adults only class with them... they'd really find out how we rock it at Stealth if i did. The older guys, Trevor and Steve both thanked me for giving them a good warmup and appreciated the variety i bring to the club.
Saturday - CIT - based around the idea of first impressions and how the club looks for first timers. Ideas and habbits to be followed at Barwell were discussed. After that me and Craig headed off to the Krav Seminar in Redditch... tbc
Thursday 18th
Again went all out in a major way on the fitness side of things. Training was purely legs only as was sparring. Tricky, must do better! Craig made me do a public commitment to quit my job on May 31st. I need to affirm this goal and take it more seriously, my mind has already started a paradigm shift in favour of quitting work on this date. Just need to get the students in!
Friday 19th
Unfortunately, no squad training. Shame really apparently it was awsome. running over bridges and up stairs etc.
TKD - 18.45 - with pats foot playing up the torch was passsed to me to warm the guys up.. With a few joking comments from the club about kic boxers being unfit i made sure that the warm up they got had them blowing... it did and to be fair it really wasnt that difficult in the grand scheme of things. I'd love to have an adults only class with them... they'd really find out how we rock it at Stealth if i did. The older guys, Trevor and Steve both thanked me for giving them a good warmup and appreciated the variety i bring to the club.
Saturday - CIT - based around the idea of first impressions and how the club looks for first timers. Ideas and habbits to be followed at Barwell were discussed. After that me and Craig headed off to the Krav Seminar in Redditch... tbc
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday 16th
Really pushed myself again today, loved every moment of it. Finally finding my fitness again and seemingly getting back towards the level l i was at when taking my black belt.
Tuesday morning i dropped into Stealth Black Belt Academy Coalville and did 30 mins of kicking practice, aiming mainly at trying to build up my basic hook and axe kick technique. After a 30 mins training was cut short by the arrival of craig who them proceeded to tell me about the new Stealth multimedia / school software. Its very impressive, cant wait ot start using it and i reckon it will eliminate about 80% of the paper work that we dont do but should. All good.
Lunch time i was down the gym yet again. Decided to break my usual routine and went for slightly heavier weights and 8 reps rather than the usual 10. Hopefully this should improve muscles and size as well as endurance.
Tuesday night i teamed up with Ross and went on the 3 mile run. I've got my heart rate monitor working now and from here on in i will be providing detailed information on my performance, heart rate and calories burned. If nothing else having a gadget to play with whilst doing exercise routines makes it far less boring and i enjoy being able to look back at what i have done and compare it.
After the run it was straight into the beginners class. Craig put us through an intensive cardio class which involved the 'all new super nasty' for lenghty periods of time. I gave it loads and once Craig had bigged me up in front of the class saying "this is what it takes to be a black belt" i was fired up and gave it even more. Its been along time since i got complemented like that in class. It doesn't bother me, but its nice to know that i can still be surprised and spurred on by such comments.
To top that off me and Keek worked on kankasho (must look up spelling of this) for 30 mins. Trying to remember a kata and perform it well is bad enough for me and my fish brain anyway, to be run ragged for 45 mins first just makes life more difficult. The jumps in the is pattern are critical and in order for the kata to look good they have to be spot on. Practice is required!
Tuesday morning i dropped into Stealth Black Belt Academy Coalville and did 30 mins of kicking practice, aiming mainly at trying to build up my basic hook and axe kick technique. After a 30 mins training was cut short by the arrival of craig who them proceeded to tell me about the new Stealth multimedia / school software. Its very impressive, cant wait ot start using it and i reckon it will eliminate about 80% of the paper work that we dont do but should. All good.
Lunch time i was down the gym yet again. Decided to break my usual routine and went for slightly heavier weights and 8 reps rather than the usual 10. Hopefully this should improve muscles and size as well as endurance.
Tuesday night i teamed up with Ross and went on the 3 mile run. I've got my heart rate monitor working now and from here on in i will be providing detailed information on my performance, heart rate and calories burned. If nothing else having a gadget to play with whilst doing exercise routines makes it far less boring and i enjoy being able to look back at what i have done and compare it.
After the run it was straight into the beginners class. Craig put us through an intensive cardio class which involved the 'all new super nasty' for lenghty periods of time. I gave it loads and once Craig had bigged me up in front of the class saying "this is what it takes to be a black belt" i was fired up and gave it even more. Its been along time since i got complemented like that in class. It doesn't bother me, but its nice to know that i can still be surprised and spurred on by such comments.
To top that off me and Keek worked on kankasho (must look up spelling of this) for 30 mins. Trying to remember a kata and perform it well is bad enough for me and my fish brain anyway, to be run ragged for 45 mins first just makes life more difficult. The jumps in the is pattern are critical and in order for the kata to look good they have to be spot on. Practice is required!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Barwell, the cardio club!
Having got stuck at the 9-5 until late, i missed out on taking the Little Ninja's. However the Junior Jedi's were treated to a fast track session on break falling. Ensuring i tried to ensure they knew enough about what they needed to do to remain safe but not to bamboozle them with break falling technique which would ultimately confuse them. Overall they seemed to enjoy it, they will have stiff necks and a few bruises but they need toughening up ;-).
The ladies got a pad based calorie cutting session. Thoroughly enjoy taking these, great fun.
The adults got a good sweaty session, not to technical just a good workout with odd bits of points drills thrown in. The main drill involved a stamping back fist followed by jump back away from an incoming back fist followed by a blitz attack.
The ladies got a pad based calorie cutting session. Thoroughly enjoy taking these, great fun.
The adults got a good sweaty session, not to technical just a good workout with odd bits of points drills thrown in. The main drill involved a stamping back fist followed by jump back away from an incoming back fist followed by a blitz attack.
Friday 13th
Friday the 13th.... Was all good for me.....
A triple whammy on the training front, good job really considering the dirty weekend (diet wise) i had coming up.
6.30 am - Squad training - Today's squad training consisted of a drills based on a staic reverse punch defence. In addition a healthy does of fitness work was chucked in, this involved jogging around the room and on the call of 'break' we had to sprint to all 4 walls and do 3 pressups in the sparing area. Being last meant 10 nastys.
12.30 - Into the gym and i belted through as many arms and shoulders exercises as i can. Felt good although a week hitting the weights hard was taking its toll.
18.45 - Tae Kwon Do - A pretty usual session, working primarily on floor and patterens.
A triple whammy on the training front, good job really considering the dirty weekend (diet wise) i had coming up.
6.30 am - Squad training - Today's squad training consisted of a drills based on a staic reverse punch defence. In addition a healthy does of fitness work was chucked in, this involved jogging around the room and on the call of 'break' we had to sprint to all 4 walls and do 3 pressups in the sparing area. Being last meant 10 nastys.
12.30 - Into the gym and i belted through as many arms and shoulders exercises as i can. Felt good although a week hitting the weights hard was taking its toll.
18.45 - Tae Kwon Do - A pretty usual session, working primarily on floor and patterens.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Crap days and R&R
Early shift at work meant no training in the morning. Something i think clearly affects how my day is going to go. I've come to the conclusion that, if i dont do somehting that i want to do before i have to go and work for someone else, then that day is backwards.
Selfish as it might be, there is a school of thought, mentioned in Rhonda Byrnes Fabulous 'the secret', that says if you look after yourself most of the time then through your happiness those around you will benefit.
Some see this as uncaring, apparently my family seems to. At this point i refer myself back to the self help cd's and dvd's i have. Brian Tracey, Geoff Thompson and many others all have stories about when they were striving to better themselves and they had to ignore or put thier loved ones feelings and wishes on hold in order to suceed. My life, certainly over the last 18 months has seen a gradual increase in this. It can often lead to resentment, but again its no coincedence that success and sacrifice begin with the same letter.
After a crap morning at the 9-5 i hit the gym for a 30 minute session, getting as much done as i could. This was the some total of my training on thursday.
Selfish as it might be, there is a school of thought, mentioned in Rhonda Byrnes Fabulous 'the secret', that says if you look after yourself most of the time then through your happiness those around you will benefit.
Some see this as uncaring, apparently my family seems to. At this point i refer myself back to the self help cd's and dvd's i have. Brian Tracey, Geoff Thompson and many others all have stories about when they were striving to better themselves and they had to ignore or put thier loved ones feelings and wishes on hold in order to suceed. My life, certainly over the last 18 months has seen a gradual increase in this. It can often lead to resentment, but again its no coincedence that success and sacrifice begin with the same letter.
After a crap morning at the 9-5 i hit the gym for a 30 minute session, getting as much done as i could. This was the some total of my training on thursday.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Whacky abs and Exclamation Marks
Action packed Tuesday, exactly what I was looking for after a relatively light Monday. Gym was nice quiet so I managed to get a reasonable number of exercises in using my usual 4 x 10 rep method I worked mainly on my arms and shoulders with some crunches thrown in for good measure.
Arriving at Coalville early I went for a 3 mile run with Ross, managed to keep pace with him until the last 1000 meters when he kicked his heels and got some distance on me. Clearly he is the SBBA Cardio machine at the moment, on the running front. I felt like I was really flagging at the end of the run, again I reckon this is down to a lack of running practice, but I’m in far better shape now than 1 month ago. With the weather improving I’m looking forward to to nice long runs with the guys from Stealth, in preparation for my 2nd dan grading in November.
On returning to the studio I had a few minutes rest before heading into the gym. Again using my favourite 10 x 4 method I played with some other exercises which I cant easily do in the gym due to the equipment and time restraints. These included incline dumbbell flys, v’s around the world, standing dumb bell presses and stading cable push downs.
A quick change and a squirt of deo and its straight into the S/K beginners class. Working on this weeks drills, the class consisted of partner work and practicing the drills on the wave masters. All of which kept the heart rate high before craig introduced the newest exercises in abs family! Brilliant, hard work and whacky a definite for Barwell Wednesday night!
To finish the marathon off, was kata class. With Craig and Keiran I ran over one of my second dan patterns, which I have since found out.. I have to do at the fight nigh! Great! practice practice practice then!
Oh and Just to cap off a cracking day, Sesnei Craig Smith after 2 years of trying has managed to get our instructors course nationally recognised for nvq level 2. Making The Stealth Black Belt Academy the only Martial arts club we know of to have a nationally recognised qualification as well as a federation specific one! Woohoo pad out that CV!
Drills and Drilling!
Instructor training at 6.30 this morning. No Dozer today as his leg is still in a bad way. Myself and Craig have got a taste for continuous still and off the back of that we worked on three drills which are a direct conversion from the self defence seminar with did with Zara a few weeks ago.
The first was a jab, duck and circle and lead hand upper cut to the stomach
The second a jab, duck and circle followed by a lead hand hook to the stomach stepping out wide.
Moving into the direct conversion from the self defence seminar, a jab, duck and circle followed by a lead hand hook to the stomach stepping out wide. Leaving the hook hand trailing as an anchor to the opponents stomach, step two large steps round the opponents back to their offside and finishing with a cross or hook to the side of the head. Speed is clearly the key as well as staying close to the opponent.
A variation of this is to follow the cross to the side of the head with a rear leg sweep, using the crossing / hooking hand to take the opponent of balance and assist with the sweep.
Very short gym session today at lunch as I had phone calls to make. In addition the gym, which is about the size of a shoe box, was packed so I just did what I could and left.
Being on the Late shift I didn’t arrive at Barwell until just after six. When I arrived I saw Richard was making a very good job of teaching the Jedi’s. We have had a few ‘issues’ with the Jedi’s recently, as mentioned in a previous entry, and it was excellent to see Richard is continuing our united front, no messin yet still fun approach.
The ladies were treated to a good continuous class. We tend to make the weekday classes good calorie killing occasions and really go for the burn in the mixed class on Saturday.
The adults class seemed a little flat, we were however missing a few people. We did the drills we worked on in the morning. Overall they seemed to get the idea, although the changing direction for the cross and sweep follow up did fox them a little. Admittedly they are drills which you need to drill, as it were.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Headless Man, the Horse and the Sports First aid Course
The weekend also saw the Instructors from the Stealth Black Belt Academy, brush up on their first aid skills. Having recently passed an intensive week long course allowing both himself and Sensei Matt to teach the HSE 1st aid at work course to the general public and businesses alike. It was time for all the instructors to be re qualified to a higher standard, helping us keep up to date with the latest practices and procedures.
Legally there is no requirement for an instructor to be first aid trained however, at Stealth we like to tick all the boxes and Craig has a bee in his bonnet about 1st aid and believes everyone on the planet should be trained, having had to help with gunshot wounds and giving cpr to a bloke with half his head missing i can see why he is keen on the idea.. hence the new grading criteria.
As well as ticking the boxes we are now trained above and beyond what is expected, to a 'sports first aid' specific qualification, this includes the use on cpr on children. Hopefully not something we shall ever need.
Doing the course was thoroughly enjoyable and not the usual head ache you'd get from these things. Craig is a great instructor for first aid and having been in some horrid situations in the past, in his RAF and civy days, he brings a light hearted, experienced and professional approach to a serious subject. Nice one boss ;-)
Kimber Hill and the determined instructor!
Actioned packed Saturday as usual. Again despite my best effort the weekend puts me in relax mode, which in turn awakens the 'lets eat like a pig' reflex and yet again i cannot master my palette enough to avoid eating plenty of things i shouldn't.
No CIT today but me and dozer did spend an interesting 2 hours with Craig this morning at 7am discussing forth coming events, marketing for the club and also the workshop i attended on Tuesday.
Over to Barwell for 10ish to try and get things in order before everyone arrives. Last night both myself and Richard watched the NEST dvd featuring Kimber Hill. We had been discussing for a week or so the reasons why we had felt that we had maintained the same level of discipline and control we had previously had. The answer is three fold, firstly with many new faces not all of them have settled in yet, second many of the newer guys know each other and so, at times. they act each other up. Finally, myself and Richard have forgotten to have fun whilst maintaining a united front on the discipline side of things.
I was keen for Richard to watch the DVD with Kimber in it and i also looked forward to the refresher and 'buzz' i would get from re watching it. Being a highly successful school owner and the spokesperson for the Little Dragons programme in America the women definitely knows her stuff.
On the Road to Barwell i made a firm commitment to Richard that i would run one of the best children's classes i had done for weeks, both on the discipline and fun fronts. Determined i stepped onto the mats and with Kimbers words still in my head i'd like to think i did not disappoint. I saw their energy was high and so to quote Kimber "the second they are on the mats i set them running", it worked a charm and the new secret weapon i think!
No CIT today but me and dozer did spend an interesting 2 hours with Craig this morning at 7am discussing forth coming events, marketing for the club and also the workshop i attended on Tuesday.
Over to Barwell for 10ish to try and get things in order before everyone arrives. Last night both myself and Richard watched the NEST dvd featuring Kimber Hill. We had been discussing for a week or so the reasons why we had felt that we had maintained the same level of discipline and control we had previously had. The answer is three fold, firstly with many new faces not all of them have settled in yet, second many of the newer guys know each other and so, at times. they act each other up. Finally, myself and Richard have forgotten to have fun whilst maintaining a united front on the discipline side of things.
I was keen for Richard to watch the DVD with Kimber in it and i also looked forward to the refresher and 'buzz' i would get from re watching it. Being a highly successful school owner and the spokesperson for the Little Dragons programme in America the women definitely knows her stuff.
On the Road to Barwell i made a firm commitment to Richard that i would run one of the best children's classes i had done for weeks, both on the discipline and fun fronts. Determined i stepped onto the mats and with Kimbers words still in my head i'd like to think i did not disappoint. I saw their energy was high and so to quote Kimber "the second they are on the mats i set them running", it worked a charm and the new secret weapon i think!
T.F.I Friday!
Being on the early shift today automatically i loose out on squad training. Which blows to put it mildly. The 'day job' really messes with a budding martial artist desire to improve. One day this year with out a doubt i will remove this burden from my life. Todays stint at work as made me even more determined to get out of my job. Making mistakes and being made (mostly by myself but but others as well) to feel like an idiot as well as feeling stressed and bored beyond belief demonstrated to me that menatlly i cannot go through another summer of this. Traditionally the summer months are by far the busiest periods in the construction industry calendar and having done 2 years worth in my current position already, i'm simply not prepared to go through a third. I need to pull my socks up and get out of here!
To unwind the Friday gym session was the traditional trip to the steam room and sauna. To relax my acing muscles from Thursday night and just spend 5 minutes in my life actually doing 'nothing'. What a joy!
Being Friday its back to Tae Kwon Do in the evening and having not been for two weeks i get the usual 'frosty' reception. Its a combination of pleased to see you and also 'where the hell have you been' but rolled into "hi Steve". Its good to be back though, despite the kids acting up at times and not always getting a great deal done. Unlike the Stealth Black Belt Academy, where the classes are 45 mins of action packed exercise and drills. TKD is a slow and steady affair where in 2 hrs we get the same amount done as a typical Stealth 45 minutes but with a more in depth look at technique and a lot of chatting. tut tut
This evening was a typical class and we worked on a whole range of things. These days only training once a week and missing two weeks my patterns have already gone fuzzy round the edges. A bit of Mr sheen is in order to polish out the rough bits.
To unwind the Friday gym session was the traditional trip to the steam room and sauna. To relax my acing muscles from Thursday night and just spend 5 minutes in my life actually doing 'nothing'. What a joy!
Being Friday its back to Tae Kwon Do in the evening and having not been for two weeks i get the usual 'frosty' reception. Its a combination of pleased to see you and also 'where the hell have you been' but rolled into "hi Steve". Its good to be back though, despite the kids acting up at times and not always getting a great deal done. Unlike the Stealth Black Belt Academy, where the classes are 45 mins of action packed exercise and drills. TKD is a slow and steady affair where in 2 hrs we get the same amount done as a typical Stealth 45 minutes but with a more in depth look at technique and a lot of chatting. tut tut
This evening was a typical class and we worked on a whole range of things. These days only training once a week and missing two weeks my patterns have already gone fuzzy round the edges. A bit of Mr sheen is in order to polish out the rough bits.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday nights Alright!
Thursday was a bit of an epic day on the training front. Having met Mat doing bleep test and going to the gym. The evening was just as prolific. Arriving at 6.50 i went for a 3 mile run. Initially this was only going to be a 1 one mile but half way round the stealth course, i decided i want to run up a hill.
So i thought i'd go as far as MC 'ds over the bridge, before i knew it i had persuaded myself to go the full 3 mile route, backwards, which finishes with a large hill upto the Ashby roundabout.
After that i fell into class which was pure leg work. Chamber roundhouse to start and followed up by 3 drills starting with hook kicks and adding in roudhouses and spinning roundhouses. Quite tought. Each drill was preceded by aa nasty. Todays was jumping legs a meter appart in the air and punching twice and landing in squat. The First time was 20, after next drill it was 40 and finally it was 60... this was getting very hard.
Straight into sparring class after that, started with 80 nastys !!!!! having not long done 60 and then light contact continous sparring. Loved it! to be finished off with 100 nasty ones!!!!
great day... absolutely shafted by the end of it!
So i thought i'd go as far as MC 'ds over the bridge, before i knew it i had persuaded myself to go the full 3 mile route, backwards, which finishes with a large hill upto the Ashby roundabout.
After that i fell into class which was pure leg work. Chamber roundhouse to start and followed up by 3 drills starting with hook kicks and adding in roudhouses and spinning roundhouses. Quite tought. Each drill was preceded by aa nasty. Todays was jumping legs a meter appart in the air and punching twice and landing in squat. The First time was 20, after next drill it was 40 and finally it was 60... this was getting very hard.
Straight into sparring class after that, started with 80 nastys !!!!! having not long done 60 and then light contact continous sparring. Loved it! to be finished off with 100 nasty ones!!!!
great day... absolutely shafted by the end of it!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Bleeping Axe Kicks!
14.4... is that good or bad? essentially this is the thought wish has been passing through my head most of the day. This morning i dragged myself from bed and down to Coalville. On the way there i decided that i cant let ross have all the glory on the fitness front. Although at present he is by far the fittest in the club, this used to be my crown. Admittedly i'm trying to bulk up a little and thus i'm choosing weights over cardio at the gym, but i would like to remain in contention and now and again remind him that i'm hot on his heels. 
With this in mind i decided to try the bleep test for the first time since november and use it as my warm up. As my ankles are still shot trainers are the order of the day. The end result was 14.4 and my best is 15.4 . So here's the dilemma.. is that good or bad considering i havent done it for 3 months.. With Ross knocking out 15.9's , have i reached my plateau at 15.4 or can i make a bid to regain my crown. Annoying thing this competitive drive.
When Matt arrived we moved onto practicing that projection side kick plus axe... slowly i'm starting to get the body angle and the footwoork in place. I might try it out tonight, maybe on Ross ;-) (see photos for the break down of technique, demo'd by Matt)
Lunch time was a gym sesssion. Struggling for 30 minutes workout i looked on me
ns health and found the workout generator. You choose the area you wish to work, the time frame and whether your outside or in the gym.. The prgramme then creates a workout for you. if you dont like the look of the owrkout or maybe dont have all the kit, you hit reset and a new one is created for you. With the option to print this may prove very handy. I will loook to adapt this for the fitness cricuit classes i teach at Barwell.
http://www.menshealth.co.uk/base/workoutgenerator
With this in mind i decided to try the bleep test for the first time since november and use it as my warm up. As my ankles are still shot trainers are the order of the day. The end result was 14.4 and my best is 15.4 . So here's the dilemma.. is that good or bad considering i havent done it for 3 months.. With Ross knocking out 15.9's , have i reached my plateau at 15.4 or can i make a bid to regain my crown. Annoying thing this competitive drive.
When Matt arrived we moved onto practicing that projection side kick plus axe... slowly i'm starting to get the body angle and the footwoork in place. I might try it out tonight, maybe on Ross ;-) (see photos for the break down of technique, demo'd by Matt)
Lunch time was a gym sesssion. Struggling for 30 minutes workout i looked on me
ns health and found the workout generator. You choose the area you wish to work, the time frame and whether your outside or in the gym.. The prgramme then creates a workout for you. if you dont like the look of the owrkout or maybe dont have all the kit, you hit reset and a new one is created for you. With the option to print this may prove very handy. I will loook to adapt this for the fitness cricuit classes i teach at Barwell.http://www.menshealth.co.uk/base/workoutgenerator
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Dont forget about that workshop!
Today seemed like a fairly unproductive day on the training front. I had agreed to meet Dozer at Coalville for 6.3o this morning. However late last night he backed out because of his knee. My dilemma came at 6.00 this morning, realising dozer still had my Coalville keys having got up and got ready for training i now was in the position of not being able to get in to the studio. Feeling knackered i toyed with the idea of going back to bed for an hour unsure whether Matt would turn up. As it happened he was planning to however it was already 6.25 by this point. By the time i had got to Coalville, waited for Matt and warmed up it was 6.45.
By this point i was feeling dejected and not really in the mood for training. Despite being short of time we worked on a few kicking drills which Matt intends to teach this week.
countering a side kick with a hook kick to the body. This involves throwing a hooking kick before the opponent can fully extend his leg and using your hook to parry the attack and score a clean hit on the opponents chest by changing your kick to a roundhouse. Tricky but nifty. Might be worth a shot in the club sparring sessions.
The next one i have stolen straight from Matts blog as i couldn't quite remember how it went
'fake a stamping back fist, then as your opponent leans back with a side kick, project a axe over the top it will hit every time as there off balance.'
Finally to finish of i asked Matt to show me how he can project a hook/axe kick from 4 meters away from his opponent. In typical Matt style he was able to demo it almost straight away and gave a cracking explanation of how to do it.
I have many intentions when it comes to practicing technique but this is definitely one i'm going to practice!
Lunch time was spent on the phone trying to sort out my bank accounts. I complete waste of my time and hence no gym sess today. Grr bloody call centres and crap banks!
Finally, rather than training this evening i spent 3 hours at a workshop about gaining funding for your club. Overall useful-ish but definitely the 80 / 20 rule applied with it. 80% of the information came in the last 20% of the workshop. It seems there are plenty of schemes out there its just having the time and patience to fill out the bloody paper work.
By this point i was feeling dejected and not really in the mood for training. Despite being short of time we worked on a few kicking drills which Matt intends to teach this week.
countering a side kick with a hook kick to the body. This involves throwing a hooking kick before the opponent can fully extend his leg and using your hook to parry the attack and score a clean hit on the opponents chest by changing your kick to a roundhouse. Tricky but nifty. Might be worth a shot in the club sparring sessions.
The next one i have stolen straight from Matts blog as i couldn't quite remember how it went
'fake a stamping back fist, then as your opponent leans back with a side kick, project a axe over the top it will hit every time as there off balance.'
Finally to finish of i asked Matt to show me how he can project a hook/axe kick from 4 meters away from his opponent. In typical Matt style he was able to demo it almost straight away and gave a cracking explanation of how to do it.
I have many intentions when it comes to practicing technique but this is definitely one i'm going to practice!
Lunch time was spent on the phone trying to sort out my bank accounts. I complete waste of my time and hence no gym sess today. Grr bloody call centres and crap banks!
Finally, rather than training this evening i spent 3 hours at a workshop about gaining funding for your club. Overall useful-ish but definitely the 80 / 20 rule applied with it. 80% of the information came in the last 20% of the workshop. It seems there are plenty of schemes out there its just having the time and patience to fill out the bloody paper work.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Working them hard
Back to work this week. As much as i would much rather be doing other things! at least it helps me regulate my eating habits better. Structure is the name of the game.. as soon as i loose my structured 8-5 life my diet goes out of the window.
Today's training consisted of a 40 minute stint in the gym.
This included 4 x 1o reps :
seated rows
vertical rows
biceps curls
side rows
30 full situps
Today at Barwell i took the adults and the Jedi's. From the TCFS seminar yesterday i adapted a few drills to make them fun for the kids and more continuous based for the adults. Using the 'sprawl' command that we utilised yesterday ( getting the guys to jump to the floor and stand back up in fighting stance) both the kids and the adults we treated to a good sweaty workout building on basic boxing drills with movement for realism. I especially enjoyed teaching the adults using my round timer to give them full 2 minute rounds with 30 seconds breaks.
I thoroughly enjoyed today's classes and looking forward to giving the Adults some more continuous training on Wednesday.
Today's training consisted of a 40 minute stint in the gym.
This included 4 x 1o reps :
seated rows
vertical rows
biceps curls
side rows
30 full situps
Today at Barwell i took the adults and the Jedi's. From the TCFS seminar yesterday i adapted a few drills to make them fun for the kids and more continuous based for the adults. Using the 'sprawl' command that we utilised yesterday ( getting the guys to jump to the floor and stand back up in fighting stance) both the kids and the adults we treated to a good sweaty workout building on basic boxing drills with movement for realism. I especially enjoyed teaching the adults using my round timer to give them full 2 minute rounds with 30 seconds breaks.
I thoroughly enjoyed today's classes and looking forward to giving the Adults some more continuous training on Wednesday.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Sunday, the day rest.. and re-learning how to walk!
After last nights grading presentation i was all martial art'ed up when i woke up this morning. Its great feeling like this, its a feeling like i know that today i will learn something / will advance myself / gain a new insight into the 'arts'. In addition despite his rotten behaviour last weekend, seminars like this allow me to spend one on one time with Craig. The car journeys are very often my favourite part and i have the pleasure of learning more about him and his background. In addition it allows us time the discuss the state of play at our schools and bounce ideas around about possible events and improvements. Overall a constructive way to spend 45 minutes in the car.
Today was the first of many seminars i'm expected to attend on my journey towards my second dan. Again with having only passed my first in october to be eligable for a scond stripe in just over a year, i need to gather 24+ months worth of experiance before October rolls around.
Today we travelled to Mansfield, the home of Zara Phythian and her Personal best Academy http://www.personalbestacademy.com/the_facility.
The seminar we attended was about the Total Combat Fight System, which is a realistic self defence system developed using aspects of many martial arts including; the keysi fighting system, Jeet Kun Do as well as Western boxing and Ju Jitsu to name but a few. For Sensei Craig to Achieve his 4th Dan he has set himself the target of attending such events and utilising what he has learnt to create his own realistic self defence programme which we can teach in the Stealth Black Belt Academies.
The session began with a light warm up of shadow boxing before moving into shadow boxing with the other memebers of the group in a confined space. This meant that we had to be far more aware of our surroundings and also adjust our shadow boxing according to whom ever had stood in front of us and what position or technique they had put themselves in. This moved on further to pyhsical contact but rather than striking, checking the other students attacks or moves and positioning ourselves accordingly. Certainly an interesting start and nothing i have ever done before. Imediately it was obvious we had a few different styles int he class as both myself and craig had adopted a kickboxing style stance and movement coupled with additional elbow strikes and open plam techniques, whilst the keysi / TCFS guys were moving with hi elbow guards and consistantly changed their body height to keep you guessing.
From there we moved into some pad work, by way of a warmup. Being a slow learner ( and i say that with no hang ups, i have now realised i am a complete student of repatition) i struggled the 8 move pad combinations which we went into straight off the bat. Apparently this is a basic boxing rountine, according to the instructor, does make me worried that my continous skills are no where near good enough. An area to work on perhaps? As the afternoon progressed we touched on strikes, guarding as well as clinch and takedown moves. All of which were talyored far more to the street that towards sport.
One move was particulary nasty, it involed defending a straight jab before following with hooks to the face and then ducking low and hook punching the side of the knee. This started off fine but i soon realised that without the body conditioning you get from the more rough and tumble arts, like JJ and Keysi etc, parts of the body become very sorer very quick. After being struck on the knee about 20 odd times i could feel the swelling coming up and was hoping that another combo with that strike would not be thrown at us. Luckily we had a small respite, until about 20 minutes later i got caught there again. The pain was pretty intense by now i have to admit i yelped a bit when the strike landed, then something occured which i havent felt for a long time, i became dizzy and almost felt like i might be sick if it happened again. Clearly myself and Craig by all accounts need to toughen up and get our bodies condtioned for this sort of punishment. Back in my Brief Ju Jitsu days, this type of thing would not have phased me as much as we worked on condtioning our limbs to take shots, knocks and locks etc.
Overall the seminar was an eye opener and its clear that the guys from TCFS know what they are talking about, their fuidity between moves is extremely impressive and their ability to change position and movement is a site to behold. I only hope that i can in the future demonstrate such proficiancy in such a system.
Its now 00.20 and bed is calling. For my finale i will attempt to climb the stairs.
Cheers to Craig and everyone at the PBA and TCFS for a cracking day. Loved it. Cant wait to do that knee thing on Dozer!
Saturday came and went
Similar to my colleagues it seems, with something more pressing on the agenda.. in this case doing up our Barwell studio, my focus has slipped from training to that of simply 'getting things done'. The weekend however, despite yet again sticking two fingers up at my so called diet, has proven very useful and informative for me.
Instructor training didnt really happen saturday morning as there was a great deal of discussiona about the grading night which was scheduled for the eveing. We did however ( me matt and craig) critique dozer on his performance at the grading on friday night. Dozer was in charge of running the grading allowing me and the other two to give the students our full attention and really look at how people are progressing and also what areas we need to focus on.
Saturday saw me teaching the kids at Barwell. I had invited my parents down to see what the academy lookds like in full swing, as it were. Unfortunately the classes were not as busy so i was a little disapointed. The reason for me inviting my parents down was two fold: one to see them as they have only just got back from lanzeroti, jammy gits! and secondly to increase the pressure on me to perform at my best and demonstrte to my parents that thiS Martial arts instructors thingy was not just a phase and as of 3 months ago a complete way of life. Saturday classes are typically non technical so the kids were treated to 45 mins of games with a few techniques thrown in for good measure. To round off Saturday at Barwell i managed to get 30 minutes worth of cardiio training in by joining in dozers Joint adult fitness class.
Saturday night was the first official Stealth grading presentation evening. The aim of which was simply to give the guys more of an official recognition for them passing thier belts. Overall the eveing was a sucess and i quite look forward to the next one.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
DIY destroys the Diet at BAR-well
Monday and Tuesday went with a flash it seems and before i know it the diet has gone completely to toffee and training is back to a minimal! not impressed....
Basically in the process of doing up the Barwell reception area and adding a bar / counter both myself and dozer have resorted back to our bad ways and let conviencece and speed dictate how we eat. In additon a few extra cans of amber nectar have past mylips in the evenings as i am technically 'on holiday' and thus giving very little thought about tommorrow.
Overall today has been a busy one. In instructor training at 6.30a we did nothing but assisted stretches with our parteners. This was a great, and despite how much it hurt i have to admit my legs felt very loose in the classes i was taking and getting involved in. Today is the first day i have ever taken two fitkick classes in one day. With Matt and Craig on a first aid course the batton was passed to me to look after Coalville morning classes whilst they were away. I was quite happy doing this despite the fact that thisw favour completely through out todays game plan and basically wrote off 4 hours important work. Today basically looked like this:
6.30-7.15 instructor training : stretching
8.15- 9.00 leaflet drop : centre of Barwell + school areas
9.30- 10.15 teaching : s'karate at Coalville - mini version of squad fit test + roudhouse and reverse punch combo drills
10.30 - 11.15 teaching : Coalville fitkick - cardio combo's
12.00- 15.00 - diy at Barwell - new bar area
15.00- 15.35 leaflet drop : centre of Barwell + school areas
17.30 - 18.00 Teaching : little Ninja's at Barwell
18.45 - 19.30 Teaching : Disco Fitkick at Barwell - cardio combo's
To round it all off i let Dozer take the Sports karate class so that i could get some training in. Starting to feel slow and useless. Finally the last order of the day was teaching black belt club at Barwell. A very very relaxed class with light stretching and a q & a session about the grading.
This week i have also done a little research etc into other martial arts and dancing arts. This includes watching a very amature dvd about the application of the banned moves in cage fighting and thier use in the street. Overll all pretty amature but with some good points which i waill take n ote of when doing 1 step and self defence at TAe Kwon Do. The other film i have watched recently was a Fitness pople dancing instruction video. This video was very good, well put together and very informative. Just how any instruction video should, each move was broken back to stages. The strecting section of this dvd was very helpfuf and i intend to use them again shorty.
Basically in the process of doing up the Barwell reception area and adding a bar / counter both myself and dozer have resorted back to our bad ways and let conviencece and speed dictate how we eat. In additon a few extra cans of amber nectar have past mylips in the evenings as i am technically 'on holiday' and thus giving very little thought about tommorrow.
Overall today has been a busy one. In instructor training at 6.30a we did nothing but assisted stretches with our parteners. This was a great, and despite how much it hurt i have to admit my legs felt very loose in the classes i was taking and getting involved in. Today is the first day i have ever taken two fitkick classes in one day. With Matt and Craig on a first aid course the batton was passed to me to look after Coalville morning classes whilst they were away. I was quite happy doing this despite the fact that thisw favour completely through out todays game plan and basically wrote off 4 hours important work. Today basically looked like this:
6.30-7.15 instructor training : stretching
8.15- 9.00 leaflet drop : centre of Barwell + school areas
9.30- 10.15 teaching : s'karate at Coalville - mini version of squad fit test + roudhouse and reverse punch combo drills
10.30 - 11.15 teaching : Coalville fitkick - cardio combo's
12.00- 15.00 - diy at Barwell - new bar area
15.00- 15.35 leaflet drop : centre of Barwell + school areas
17.30 - 18.00 Teaching : little Ninja's at Barwell
18.45 - 19.30 Teaching : Disco Fitkick at Barwell - cardio combo's
To round it all off i let Dozer take the Sports karate class so that i could get some training in. Starting to feel slow and useless. Finally the last order of the day was teaching black belt club at Barwell. A very very relaxed class with light stretching and a q & a session about the grading.
This week i have also done a little research etc into other martial arts and dancing arts. This includes watching a very amature dvd about the application of the banned moves in cage fighting and thier use in the street. Overll all pretty amature but with some good points which i waill take n ote of when doing 1 step and self defence at TAe Kwon Do. The other film i have watched recently was a Fitness pople dancing instruction video. This video was very good, well put together and very informative. Just how any instruction video should, each move was broken back to stages. The strecting section of this dvd was very helpfuf and i intend to use them again shorty.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Yet another face lift for Barwell....
This week myself and dozer have booked holiday to complete a task, we have but one aim, one mission.. to finish to Barwell! Since our studio opened in January on Aurther Street in Barwell we have been hard at work trying to complete the place fully. But outside commintments and the 9-5 grind have made this very difficult and progress has been slow. It has long be a wish of ours to get a bar / counter where we can sell drinks and pro shop from. In addtion it also gives the reception a focal point and will help us to run the academy far more effectively and organsised.
First port of call today was CIT at 6.30. We worked a combiniation starting with a projetion round house. The combo then moved to a rdhse, reverse punch, rdhse and finishing with a backfist. We worked this as a line drill for 20 minutes trying best to make it and eefective techniqe. This was building from craigs observatins at the fight night on saturday.
I taught all of the classes today and concentrated on teaching th kids there new kata for saturday, well as a good dlice of pad work.
First port of call today was CIT at 6.30. We worked a combiniation starting with a projetion round house. The combo then moved to a rdhse, reverse punch, rdhse and finishing with a backfist. We worked this as a line drill for 20 minutes trying best to make it and eefective techniqe. This was building from craigs observatins at the fight night on saturday.
I taught all of the classes today and concentrated on teaching th kids there new kata for saturday, well as a good dlice of pad work.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Fight Night in Wales
The first fight night of this year, saw us travel to Wales to take on the ADMA. Majority of my night was coaching our fighters as Craig was comparing and Matt was reffing. Being at another venue and surrounded by the Welsh supporters i have to admit it was slightly more uncomfortable than usual. After half the fights Craig came and spoke to me and explained how i could better coach of fighters. Not to say that i was making a bad job of it but clearly he thought i could have done better. Coaching a fighter in a competition is pretty tricky, there are ways to coach but i have never really been taught i have simply used the benefit of my experiance. Again an area i need to work on, although i reckon time will have alot to say on this.
The evening also saw my dusting off my competitive gloves for the first time since August. The fight seemed to last a matter of seconds, The entire fight was evenly matched, but in the end i slipped up and couldnt seem to find my form. Matt was my coach and although i could hear him i just couldnt put what he was saying into practice and fought my own fight. Eventually loosing by 4 points. I was angry at myself in the end for letting it slip away from me, it was clear to me that i could have easily taken the fight had i listened to Matt and been more aggressive. In addition my confidence in my basic techniques meant i wasnt throwing them with conviction. I hyper analysed my performace for about an hour afterwards, as usual with me, feeling sick to my stomach having lost a bout i should have taken.
It has however given me the drive to get better and before the return leg in a few weeks i intened to start back on the path to the best sparring of my carreer.
fingers crossed
The evening also saw my dusting off my competitive gloves for the first time since August. The fight seemed to last a matter of seconds, The entire fight was evenly matched, but in the end i slipped up and couldnt seem to find my form. Matt was my coach and although i could hear him i just couldnt put what he was saying into practice and fought my own fight. Eventually loosing by 4 points. I was angry at myself in the end for letting it slip away from me, it was clear to me that i could have easily taken the fight had i listened to Matt and been more aggressive. In addition my confidence in my basic techniques meant i wasnt throwing them with conviction. I hyper analysed my performace for about an hour afterwards, as usual with me, feeling sick to my stomach having lost a bout i should have taken.
It has however given me the drive to get better and before the return leg in a few weeks i intened to start back on the path to the best sparring of my carreer.
fingers crossed
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday night training.. Must do better!
Managed to get back from work a little earlier today. Gave me enough time to pop down to SBBA’s hq in Coalville in enough time to get a leisurely jog in with Ross, one of our Junior instructors.
This evening class, taken by Matt, concentrated on, strangely enough, travelling distance and closing the gap between yourself and your opponent. From there throwing a leg technique. As clearly Matt took onboard what I said in the morning about me wanting to get as good as him at that technique.
Sparring class afterwards was again on basic techniques ready for Wales tomorrow night. I feel so slow at the moment, I’m getting better but with not fighting competitively since July last year, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I don’t mind not winning, I just want to do myself proud.
Fingers crossed
This evening class, taken by Matt, concentrated on, strangely enough, travelling distance and closing the gap between yourself and your opponent. From there throwing a leg technique. As clearly Matt took onboard what I said in the morning about me wanting to get as good as him at that technique.
Sparring class afterwards was again on basic techniques ready for Wales tomorrow night. I feel so slow at the moment, I’m getting better but with not fighting competitively since July last year, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I don’t mind not winning, I just want to do myself proud.
Fingers crossed
Thursday, February 19, 2009
9-5 is an interferance!
christ! danger danger! the nut case i'm inn the car with about killed us! not in the office today getting a lift to the quarry. wish i'd driven myself. aa i'm traveling in the back i can blog en route.
this morning i warmed up continuing with my goal of being able to skip like a boxer and eventually do tricks. mainly for my own personAl gratification.
after which i moved onto some basic bfist practice on bob the bully. With a no show from dozer me and mat continued with some line drills .
only had time for 30 min session today, had to be at work early. watched matt do some projection hooks from 3m's. looked impressive. definately an area i wish to improve in.
this morning i warmed up continuing with my goal of being able to skip like a boxer and eventually do tricks. mainly for my own personAl gratification.
after which i moved onto some basic bfist practice on bob the bully. With a no show from dozer me and mat continued with some line drills .
only had time for 30 min session today, had to be at work early. watched matt do some projection hooks from 3m's. looked impressive. definately an area i wish to improve in.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Barbells and Barwell
Being on the early shift today and teaching at Barwell has meant that i could only train once today.
11.45 was the time, the gym was the place. Again with limited time and a very small number of machines the routine is never set until i arrive. Today my stint in the gym consisted of the following:
Finally the adult sports karate concentrated on backfist and then moved on to leg techniques with projection. From there we combined the two together, fast legs dropping to get traction to fire a back fist or reverse from. Nice and basic to prep the guys and me for saturday night in wales!
11.45 was the time, the gym was the place. Again with limited time and a very small number of machines the routine is never set until i arrive. Today my stint in the gym consisted of the following:
- 4 x 10 vertical rows
- 4 x 10 pull downs
- 4 x 10 barbell chest flys
- 3 x 10 v's round the worlds
- 30 leg raised situps
Finally the adult sports karate concentrated on backfist and then moved on to leg techniques with projection. From there we combined the two together, fast legs dropping to get traction to fire a back fist or reverse from. Nice and basic to prep the guys and me for saturday night in wales!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Morning, Noon and Night - Team Competitive Fires are Re lit!
YES!!!After yesterdays bad start to the week today felt far more successful. Admittedly i forgot my breakfast again so a rather high sugar cereal bar day occurred much like yesterday but apart from that everything went right.
6.20 - 7.15 Coalville Academy:
I arrived a little early to meet dozer and Matt and took full advantage of the 10 minutes i had to myself. I warmed up with 5 minutes skipping, i like skipping and its a great way to get warmed up, i'm not to hot at it just yet, above average though, definitely one for my personal goals list which i intended to run side by side with my 2nd requirements. After skipping i proceeded with 1 min tai leg kicks on the heavy bags followed by 2 minutes jog round the dojo and repeated this twice.
Once mat and Dozer appeared after their little jog we decided just to work a line drill with back fist. The defender had the option to try different defensive techniques out. Despite being a three we all concentrated on something different. I was trying to improve my foot work as best i could. Definitely an area i need to work on, i need more traction, more commitment and less rhythm i reckon. Makes me too predictable.
Just before leaving me and Matt discussed the press up challenge. Matt and i both commented that we think Craig is trying to get us into the Guinness book of records with a feat like that!
I had a quick crack to see roughly how many i could do without stopping for too long. In roughly one minute and 30 seconds i managed about 80 odd. He wants 300 in 6 minutes!! the guys a mad man.... but i do like the challenge!
12.45 -13.15 Gym
I faced the gym with far more enthusiasm than yesterday. The one thing i do struggle with is a consistent program to follow. Definitely an area i should look into. I think setting up a 'research' section in this blog might be a good idea, that way i can demonstrate what areas i have looked into and also provide others with possible clues about where to look if they have similar goals or interests to me. Today's sessions consisted, as usual, or working on my arms, pecs and shoulders in a desperate attempt to improve my upper body strenght and tone.
50 kneeling should rows, each arm
30 crunches
4 x 10 dumbell bench press
4 x 10 curls
4 x 10 vertical rows
4 x overhead curls ( correct name?)
7.30-8.15 Beginners Class, Coalville Academy
With Craig getting the training bug, it is inevitable that his enthusiasm to cut weight and improve his cardio transfer directly into his classes. Tonight was no exception and i loved it. in groups of 4 we have two stations. You were either running or doing an exercise / drill. Basically this occured for 40 minutes odd interspersed with his newly discovered 'hot poker' crunches. These involved both feet and shoulders off the floor and a small range of movement. In his words after about 30 seconds it feels like a hot poker being pushed in your chest! nice.
Again, as with the circuits on Saturday, i love this type of class. A few drills with a bucket load of cardio and a few weights / body weight exercises thrown in for good measure. Thoroughly enjoyed it. In addition i really feel i'm getting my fitness back up now, i take pride in being one of the fittest in the club. I strongly believe that by having a black belt round my waist i should push myself and keep pushing during the classes. I'm a firm believer, especially now, that you should train all the time your at training and not slack off because you have already got your bits of paper.. or in this case, black bits of cloth.
I feel the team competitive spirit returning to occupy the dojo once more......
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