tough workout

Very tough workout today...not sure why. I did 8 rds of 3 mins, on 1 min off with sword and shield, at a low intensity....working on material from my lesson yesterday with Devon of Acadamie Duello. I was focusing on neural ingraining, and fluidity.  Then i did my long cycle work out. I am focusing on 20 mins of long cycle, 20k, unlimited switches. I may compete at this, at a recreational level. However, from my triathlon experience, I have learned that I like to have some leeway, ie, the ability to go farther than the competition time or distance, so I increased from 20 mins, to 21.  By 7 mins in, my Inner Schweinhund was whining, by 11 mins, he was in full howl.  I had to switch from doing 5 reps per hand to 4.  My cadence was in line with previous efforts, but it was tough not to just put the weight down.  I finished the set, and wanted to just lie down and whine, but instead cooled off with 2 rds of arnis. Not sure what the problem was, the set should have been within my limits, and was, but what a struggle. Maybe i just used up all my focus on the sword.  I feel like it made me stronger to finish, to do the hard thing...but WTF, the human mindbody is a strange beast sometimes.

Do the hard thing

Has it been since November...I,m sorry (you, though, probably are not).  New Year, new sorrows : my dog Sammo had to be put down..it was necessay, but sorrowfull.  There is an old Basque saying :`Who must do the hard thing...the one who can. `  These words are true in life, and in training. Do the hard thing.  Lift the weights...go to practice, even you are soul weary.  Share what has been shared with you. Teaching is a privilege, and an obligation.  Go to new teachers and teachings....Acadamie Duello has deepened my appreciation and understanding of weapon arts, as has Hurstwic.  I next plan to incorporate the teachings of Luis Preto.  We are lucky to live in an age of open information, but the blessing can be a curse. Pick your teachers well, and your students. And remember, do the hard thing.

Todays workout

Finished my charity Long cycle challenge­. Was aiming for 10 rpm, or 600 reps, but the group energy carried me to 667 reps, or 11 rpm. However my Code 5 kbell workouts have indicated that in my quest for extreme kb endurance, I sacrificed some power. So I am now working with the 20kbell, or bells.  Todays workout was 15 min sets, with 2 minutes rest between. First I did sidesword and shield.  This warmed up for my power sets, and I like to do sidesword when I am fresh, otherwise my technique degenerates.  Then I did an EDT set of one arm snatches. My goal is to increase the number of reps that I get in 15 mins each week, thus EDT, or escalating denisty training.  This works my power, my endurance and my heart. Then I moved on to freeplay with push ups, two 15 lb clubbells, a 45lb club, and the TRX. I was emphasising circular movements, and also the frontal plane. For combatives, or self defense, your opponent is more likely to be in front of you, rather than straight overhead.  From there, my next set took my fatiqued muscles into arnis, using various weapons, empty hand, tools (cellphone), standing, sitting, or on the ground.  I then finished with gladius, using a heavy kicking shield as my scutum, or Roman shield.  I only got in 3 mins before my technique got too sloppy.  I will increase this to 15 mins. Ancient warfare must have been intensely draining, and this lets me get a small feel for that.  Notice that each sement of the workout sets up the next. This is either because the workout is very rational, or because I very good at rationalizing doing what I want to do...or a combination of both.  Your work, whether it be martial, or just pure exercise, should be progressively more challenging, and it should be enjoyable, maybe not always, but enough to keep you going.

today`s workout is inspired by Rossboxing.com`s burpee sprints. He alternates burpees with shadowboxing, 30 secs burpees, 30 shadow box, for 3 mins rest one minute. This equals one round. Repeat as desired. This is a nice workout, but can`t do burpees with a fake hip, and arnis has lots of weapons not just hands. So today i did :

2 rounds alternating clubbell swipes with empty hand shadow boxing, or carrenza (FMA for shadow work)  instead of the swipes, you could do kettlebell, or dumbbell swings, or even burpees, something full body.  Whatever exercise you pick, count the reps first time through, and try to stay within 2 reps.  this is sprinting.

2 rounds alternating williams pushups with stick work. A williams pushup is a push up where on the up portion, you pull the knees into the gut (like the bottom half of a burpee), on the down, they shoot out again.  You do this like i do, with my feet on furniture sliders so that there is no impact, except on the cardio system. Again full body.

2 rounds alternating self row with knife, or small tools work (ie, cell phone, i pad, etc, usually in pikal)

1 round resisted squats, or jump squats. I use resistance bands with a bar, and do a zercher squat where the bar rests in my elbow crooks, and i keep my hands in a high guard, this makes me concentrate on staying upright. I like the resistance band because at the bottom, where my hip is most vulnerable there is low to no resistance. I alternate this with ground work that may include tools.

Notice there is no sidesword and shield work here.  Two reasons, one, takes too long to get the shield on and off, and two, and most important, my technique is not wired in enough yet.... it would quite possibly degenerate as i went.  Only do this work out using techniques that you have thoroughly wired in.

Big shout out to my Cut Above students....you inspire me to keep training and researching.

Inner Schweinhund

To paraphrase Baron Von Richthofen, first you must overcome your inner Schweinhund. To me that is fear, and that little, or sometimes big, part of you that says....i'm hurt, or i'll be stronger tomorrow, or sundry other things.  Little bastard is cunning, sometimes he brings up medical issues, or lack of sleep, or sometimes he just grabs the controls, and you discover that you just put down the kettlebell half way through the set. He got me today, but I helped him.  A little background. I am getting ready for a one hour long cycle for charity.  That means you take  a kettlebell, 12k in my case, and you clean it to your shoulder, pause and then jerk it overhead (think sophisticated cheat press).  Repeat. Switch hands as often as you want ( i switch every 10 reps). My plan was to increase my time from 45 to 50 mins. Dumb. Way too big an increase for me at this time.  Then I got up and sat around (normally i start my workout asap in the morning) while it got hotter and hotter. Then i failed... not surprising considering i set myself up for failure.  Got 30 mins.  funny thing is 3 weeks ago i would have been happy with that.  Right now, as close as i am to my envelope, i should have been going for a one or two min. increase, not 5.  In training, it is important, no, crucial, to increase in small increments.  Set yourself up for sucess, and send the Inner Schweinhund to the dog park, not the workout area.

On a recent trip to Rome, I had the pleasure of doing a gladiator workshop, with a Roman Reenactment group called   .  It was very interesting to experience their training methods.  They used shaped a shaped wooden gladius called a rudus.  There were 5 strikes delivered weapon side forward, and five parries, performed weapon side back.  4 of the parries were strong, the 5^th, which was against the center thrust, was designed to get the defender towards the back of the attacker.   The texture was similar to Balintiwak Escrima, however  the emphasis was on angles that would avoid gladiator helmets and armour.   The instruction was 1^st class. Marcus had 5 tiros (untrained gladiators) of varying ages from 8 to 58 (me), and varying degrees of experience and athleticism.  He managed in an hour and a half, to teach every one something about how to use a short sword without a shield.  I was honored to be his demonstration partner, as he saw immediately that I had weapon training.   We practiced the strikes, and then the parries in sequence, first solo, and then with a partner.  Then Marcus began calling random numbers.  This was very interesting to see that even in a beginner`s class they did not want tiros to become pattern fixated.  This is something that I will carry into my own classes.   At the end of the class Marcus brought out iron demonstration gladius (blunt), and he ran through the attacks with me parrying.  He allowed me to experience success, but made me work for it. 

All in all, it was a wonderful  experience.  I learned enough to practice at home, and got a few new teaching ideas. I also train with a group called Acadamie Duello in Vancouver. Here I study Medieval sidesword (one hander) and shield. Maestro Devon Boorman and his instructors have given me new insights into edged weapon use, and are wonderful people to talk with and hangout with. I highly recommend sampling arts from other cultures.  It gives a different view of technique, and training,  and is a chance to meet new friends, and ideas.

Long time no post....

Today’s topic is footwork…footwork and bodyshifting are crucial to FMA.  We all know the standard patterns, male triangle, female triangle, linear entry. The * is a very good conceptual tool.  However, all too often we train just one part of it…we’ve all seen it, we’ve all been it : the player doing male triangle for a minute, then female, then????.  This is allright for learning the steps, but it is not sufficient for usage.  Think about it, number one strike comes in, you step forward right  in the female triangle / …do you then step back to parallel feet,  and then step forward left ot continue this pattern  V for a minute?. Perhaps not.  In my misspent youth, I had the privilege and misfortune of hanging with a very good member of the Canadian fencing team. The privilege was to see another way of working footwork,  the misfortune was in the social, or anti-social activities in pubs, etc..  Fencing footwork, due to the piste, or narrow strip used in competition is primarily forwards and backwards, with various degrees of commitment, and some pivoting.  What intrigued me was that once footwork was learned, patterns went out the window.  The instructor would call out movements, very rapidly, and seemingly in no pattern, although I later realized that he was visualizing an opponent’s response (retreat, counter  into the attack, etc.).  I then got my fencing friend, Cliff, who loved to order people around, to lead the drill for me, but using FMA footwork,  so he would call ie, angle right, pivot, backstep (some of these are terms we developed for clarity and speed of command).  What I found is that I was a happy little robot, as long as I was in the patterns, but less facile, when he called sequences I wasn’t used to….Ungood.   However, a few sessions, and I got to the point where I could blend different footwork very nicely.  I was able to flow through different steps on the * in no set pattern.  My sparring improved expotentially, as did my ability to flow, to blend with someone else’s footwork in novel ways.   So here’s an idea…develop your own terms for each step on the *, i.e., or better yet,  number each angle. Then find someone who wants to order you around…spouses are good.  Have them just call out numbers randomly, so 1 would be directly forward with right foot, 2 could be forward right, 3 side step right, 4 angle back right, 5 straight back right, 6 angle back left, 7 seven side step left, 8 angle forward left. 9 forward with left foot.  Other commands could include pivot back = 90 degree pivot towards your back, pivot front = 90 degree pivot to your front, or leading with your chest, duck, or sprawl, for you guys who grapple.  They don’t even need to be paying much attention, just calling random numbers 1-9.  Do this for three minutes…the faster the numbers the tougher the workout…repeat as needed. ..break those restrictive patterns, and rediscover your flow.