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.

challenges

Challenges, no not the kind where GG (gnarly guy) comes in and asks to try you out...although i have had those.  I mean the ones you set for yourself. These can be a great tool, and a great motivator. I just finished one...I did 10,000 kettlebell swings this month...well, 10375 to be exact. It was a challenge that my kettlebell instructor Trish Dong found on line. It gave me a focus, a theme, for this month`s physical training. Next month, I will be doing less reps, more power and explosion. I also have an ongoing challenge. I am preparing to do 1 hour of clean and jerk, in October 2012. I have made a committment to Jason Dolby, and to myself, to be able to do this.  That will be my organizing theme for 2012.  You can make the challenge a martial arts one.  I used to do 1000 kick workouts, once a week, I did this for a year. I had great kicks, I now have a fake hip. These events may, or may not, be related. That is one of the hazards of challenges. They can lead us from the realm of improvement to the land of overtraining, overuse, and in some cases, self abuse.  Some guide lines are : select exercises that are minimally hazardous. Swings do not have an extreme range of motion, you can vary the load, and the range. I never take mine above horizontal, as a safety check.  I would not do an extreme high rep challenge with snatches, because you are firing a weight into a locked, extended range. If you fatigue, and let the weight carry too far back, your shoulder will suffer. If you rotate your hand non optimally, the back ward stress falls on the elbow. For me, with my technique issues, and age, this is ungood. I find that clean and jerk are a safer range, and swings are safest, FOR ME.  Another guideline is to build up slowly.  Don`t jump from 100 reps max to 300, just to get the numbers. Build up. In my swing challenge, i realized that i could not immediately do the required amount of daily reps. So I put together a progression that started below the average, and built up to above it, in order to hit the monthly total. I built in enough leeway to allow for missed days (didn`t have any, so finished early. Another guideline, have easy days. I used 12k, 16k, 20 k and 24k bells for my swings. Obviously the 12 were easier.  Have recovery modalities, for me these are Tai Chi, Yoga, hot baths, whirlpools. Have days off of any hard exercise.   Plan the work, work the plan, monitor the body. Adjust as needed. Repeat. Have great year.

variable speed training

This is an idea that i stole from Chuck Norris back in the day, when he still did push ups, not planet pushaways. It works for empty hand, or weapons. Right now, I am using it on my sidesword technique. I do a set number of reps, usually 5, at each speed. Start out super slow, as slow as you can move, so slow Tai Chi players are screaming speed up dude. Then move to slow speed, then to medium speed, then to as fast as you can go with perfect form,, then go fast enough that form slips just a bit (hint, if you have just sliced your leg off, slow down just a tad). Go back to super slow, repeat until ....hell, I don`t know, just do enough, whatever that is for you, on this day.

Varied speed practice

This is an idea that i stole from Chuck Norris back in the day, when he still did push ups, not planet pushaways. It works for empty hand, or weapons. Right now, I am using it on my sidesword technique. I do a set number of reps, usually 5, at each speed. Start out super slow, as slow as you can move, so slow Tai Chi players are screaming speed up dude. Then move to slow speed, then to medium speed, then to as fast as you can go with perfect form,, then go fast enough that form slips just a bit (hint, if you have just sliced your leg off, slow down just a tad). Go back to super slow, repeat until ....hell, I don`t know, just do enough, whatever that is for you, on this day.

Hills for leg power...rewrite.

Just finished a short,  nasty uphill hike, including a section called cardiac.  If you want stronger stances, more explosive footwork, hills are your friend, your training buddy.  If you are young, you can run them, but for older folks, like me, a steep uphill hike is best. They are also best for  anyone who wants more extended endurance/power, the ability to sustain .  You can also do lunges up the hill...., oh, you're tired, sure stop, lay down, put your face on the ground, and then push yourself up. ...repeat until you don't notice if your legs are tired, then stand up and hike.....carry some tubing and do rows the next time you're tired., or look,   a tree branch, lets hang at arms length and stretch out, and then pull up, put your chin on the branch, rest, there isn't that nice, now repeat until you're legs quit complaining, then hike, or lunge some more....and when you need a real rest, lie down,with your head down hill, to let the blood drain out of your poor tired legs, then situp, now lie down, repeat...you do this Tony Blauer style, twisting and throwing elbows, hook punches... legs stopped complaining, get up and hike. Say is that a piece of dead tree, lets get it off the trail, say howabout a little over head lift, just to get the kinks out the arms and shoulders, or maybe just put it  on a shoulder, and lunge for lungs.....  Get out there and enjoy the colours of fall...before you are condemmed to the gym for winter.  Got to go...did I mention that at the University, we have a pub just moments from the end of cardiac ?

workout

Todays workout was to target the anearobic system, specific to weapon use. Used the classic 30 secs on 30 off interval.  Warmed up with 10 mins of sword, then into the workout.  Started out with 10 sets of  2 hand swings with the 45 lb clubell 21 reps per set up to chest high.  Working the whole body, learning to swing an implement from the ground up, using the whole body. Hands, legs, lungs back were fried. One minute rest, then on to atomic pushups. This is a push up whereI have my feet in the TRX stirrups. When I raise into the pushup,I tuck my knees to my chest, when I  lower, I extend the legs.  With no TRX, you can put your feet on a towel on the floor, and slide them in as you go up, or you can do an explosive push up, and bring the feet in quickly, almost like the bottom of a burpee.  5 sets. This one really hurts.  Then 5 sets of barbarian squats with a light clubbell (15 lbs). At the top of the squat, the club is straight over head, as i come down explosively, i drive the butt of the club down almost to arms length (leave some give in the elbows) On the way up, i thrust the tip of the bell towards the ceiling. Again, you are learning to drive an implement with the whole body..  Done. 30 mins workout, 20 mins huff and puff.  Then I did some Tai Chi and yoga to finish.  Short and nasty....just like me.

Meditation....

Have really been enjoying having Datu Shishir in town. He is the man who started my journey in FMA, and is still guiding it. He is also my Spiritual Advisor. We have been working on flow, and on mediatation. They are connected. Flow in martial arts requires us to be in the moment, to be dealing with the attack that is really happening, not the attack that we want to be happening. Sometimes an attack and parry looks the same, but the texture, the energy is different, our parry is not strong enough, and we need to move around the attack, to ride it out and move in behind it, or maybe boom, we are strong, and early, we catch it early, and jam it before it can extend, then we are already inside, and different opportunities present themselves. Or maybe we neither win nor lose the crossing, so, now, we need to create an opportunity. What is true in FMA is true in sidesword and shield, just the names are different. I encourage all Martial Artists to explore some form of meditation, being in the moment will improve your art, and your life.