Kung Fu Diary

Discussion in 'Training Logs' started by Heraclius, Jan 6, 2014.

  1. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Cheers mate. Reading through your log I don't recon a cold like I've got would even register in your training :)p), but it's really knocked me for 6. Energy and motivation have just bottomed out.

    Segueing neatly off that:

    Wednesday, 26 February

    30 mins bagwork. Most of the time was spent on the roundhouse and back kick. The roundhouses lacked spirit, but the form was ok. Back kicks annoy me. At one point I had to do some side kicks to soothe my temper. I recon it's because I can't see when I'm doing a back kick properly. I look, but I can't see :mad:. It makes targeting and range much more difficult.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2014
  2. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Friday, 28 February

    20 mins bagwork. the usual, roundhouse and back kicks mainly.

    15 mins shadowboxing. Nice to get back into this again. Jab+cross and jab+backfist+cross while working on movement and timing. Did a bit of hook and uppercut drilling.

    My cold has almost gone, so I will hopefully be able to get back into the swing of things as concerns MA practice. Next week I also intend to look at the facilities of the gym at uni. I'm not fussed about lifting, because I find that sort of thing boring :p and also it would mean getting proper training which seems too much like hard work. But having a place where I could do my bodyweight routine and work on my shadowboxing without getting reported to security would be nice. I also cycle to uni, so having access to showers would be great; for myself and anyone with the misfortune to sit near me! :D
     
  3. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Saturday, 1 March

    10 mins bagwork.

    10 mins shadowboxing.

    End of week 8 (yay). Total time: 1:56 + 18:43 = 20:39.
     
  4. Wooden Hare

    Wooden Hare Banned Banned

    A little a day is better than nothing. Gung fu is about consistency more than anything else. The underlying concept is discipline.

    If you ignore your gung fu for a day, it will ignore you for two.

    A little wisdom from my sifu.
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2014
  5. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Been a bit preoccupied the last few days, so we get a big update. OK, well not that big.

    Sunday, 2 March

    45 mins bagwork. I don't remember what I did. Probably more kicks.
    5 mins shadowboxing.

    Monday, 3 March

    5 mins shadowboxing.

    Wednesday, 5 March

    15 mins shadowboxing. Correcting my stance and punching "down". I don't understand the mechanics of this but it feels like "down" and it seems to work so what the heck. Trying to loosen up my shoulders and get some more hip into the punches.

    Tuesday night went to a goshin jutsu class after a week off. We worked on punches all night. Basic jab+cross, then jab+cross+jab, then 1+2+1+2. My sensei teaches chains of 3 or more punches from a different stance; feet shoulder width and almost parallel and hands at the side of the jaw, superficially like a boxer's guard (as opposed to having the lead leg over a shoulder-width in front and lead arm guarding the center). The idea is that multiple straight punches is for when you opponent is overwhelmed and cornered, and you can afford to just lay into them. Anyhow, we followed with an 8 punch drill; jab+cross+lead hook+power hook+lead upper+power upper+lead & power of some kind of downward punch like you would do if you wanted to crack a midget on the top of the head. Or punch someone who is doubled over. Then we finished with a backfist+straight punch drill that went on until you missed a punch. Which was soon.

    Obviously lots to work on, but mainly my stance; which has to be narrower, longer, lower and more forward.
     
  6. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Went to GJ class on Thursday. Worked through my first kata. It's not a traditional kata, I think, which is actually a little disappointing. But it's certainly more than enough for me to handle at the moment. After this did some evasions. Starting with full-body movements, then ducking and weaving, then just leaning the upper body. I found ducking and weaving killed my knees :(.

    Friday, 7 March

    26 mins kata. Trying to get some "flow". Not getting any :(. I shall persist.
     
  7. melbgoju

    melbgoju Valued Member

    What is the kata's name? Good luck with the flow; I spent half an hour today trying to get flow in saifa kata, which I first learned 8 years ago. Either I'm crap, flow is hard to come by, or flow is an ever-shifting goal-post.
     
  8. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Kata ippon me. Or first kata, for those who prefer English. The name itself is a clue that it's not traditional; the content of the kata also indicates as such, since it's performed from a fighting stance.

    Somehow I suspect that your flow makes my flow look robotic :). For me, flow is not freezing after every technique.
     
  9. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Saturday, 8 March

    15 mins kata. Same as last night.

    Anyhow, end of week 8. Total time: 1:51 + 20:39 = 22:30.

    Dissapointing week. Hopefully I will get my "mojo" back soon. This week has been altogether rather draining.
     
  10. LemonSloth

    LemonSloth Laugh and grow fat!

    I wouldn't worry about it too much mate, if you could train at 110% all of the time you'd probably not be human ;)

    I know the feeling though, this week for me has been pretty atrocious. But I know that within a couple of weeks, I'll probably have the week to end all weeks. I imagine you'll probably do the same too, if it's any help to you :)
     
  11. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Went kayaking yesterday for 3-4 hours. My shoulders are still a bit stiff, but not bad overall.

    Sunday, 9 March

    20 mins kata. I seem to be getting there. It's not a very long kata; maybe 10 ish steps then the same again mirrored. Anyway, it feels a lot less stiff than when I started. I took a video so I can review it later.
     
  12. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Sunday, 9 March (cont)

    Went for a 3 hour cycle. My knee hates me now :(. My right knee is sore even just with walking, so I will have to take it easy for a while. No more quad excercises this week.

    6 mins shadowboxing. Very hard to motivate myself. Anyway, I was focusing on keeping my head up. I tend to let my head drop when I'm using my shoulders (kayaking, dips and pull ups, as well as MA, do this). Not in a "chin-tucked" way, but in a "hunched over staring at my feet" way. It mucks up my posture something fierce.
     
  13. Wooden Hare

    Wooden Hare Banned Banned

    Good job listening to your knee. Your knee will love you for it.
     
  14. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    My knees have been giving me trouble for 10 years or so, I've gotten used to it.
     
  15. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Monday, 10 March

    30 mins shadowboxing. worked on a bit of basic stuff, then a bit of stuff lifted from kata.
     
  16. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Goshin Jutsu class tonight. Umm... can't remember much. Some punching drills, then parrying drills, then the sensei got carried away and started talking about pressure points and knife work. I was really tired from about halfway through, so I was a bit switched off.
     
  17. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Wednesday, 12 March

    20 mins shadow boxing. The usual, except I switched to orthodox stance for the last 5 mins or so. It's almost surprising how difficult it is to adapt. I've got to build up everything from scratch, right down to hip rotation.
     
  18. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Goshin jutsu class was had tonight. Started with punching and evasions, then moved on to some grappling. This was really weird for me, I got really worked up doing it. Bearing in mind that I have a little bit of experience in JJJ, I'm not sure if it was because I had to adapt to a different way of applying the techniques or because the attitude towards training was different. I got a bit carried away and "accidentally" went for a major outer takedown when we were doing sweeps; although I was the one who ended up on the ground, so I guess it was ok :p. But I'm not really happy about it. Maybe it's because I want to go at it 100%; but at the same time, since I have a lot to relearn, I really can't do that :dunno:.

    Also, my jiujustu is a lot worse than I might have hoped. I've gotten really rusty in a year.
     
  19. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Friday, 14 March

    17 mins shadowboxing. The usual stuff.

    8 mins footwork. It's been a while since I've done this, huh. working on some normal footwork (i.e. just movement) and some evasion.
     
  20. Heraclius

    Heraclius BASILEVS Supporter

    Saturday, 15 March

    Did a full session today. Recently as one may have noticed, I have been skipping little things like "warmups" and "cool-downs". Which is fine, as it's been pretty low impact stuff. Today, however, I decided to go the whole hog.

    10 mins skipping. My knees are still sore, so I decided to wear shoes (I usually skip barefoot on thinish foam mats over brick). It made a heck of a difference. I wasn't any better, unfortunately, but it was a lot easier. I think I might keep doing that.

    47 mins bagwork. As usual, working my kicks. These get neglected when I shadowbox; partly because doing air kicks is a bit wierd and partly because I usually shadowbox inside, which makes kicking a potentially very expensive practice. I started off trying a bit of kicking with shoes on. Straight kicks (front, side, back) were fine, but roundhouse kicks were sluggish and weak; so pretty much what you would expect, I guess.

    Next was the mid roundhouse. I'm not really satisfied with this one, since I'm not sure I'm doing it quite right. Unfortunately I haven't touched on kicks in classes for a couple of weeks so there's not much I can do about it for now. Tried some right leg roundhouses; this was a mess. My sensei's theory is that it's better to learn something with your dominant side, as it's easier and faster to learn thusly. The problem of course is that my weak side (i.e. right side) is absolutely atrocious.

    Moving along, I went on to high roundhouse kicks next. This one is usually problematic because I have trouble figuring out the range, or so I think. Today, however, it went really well. I was getting to head height, getting pretty decent feedback off the bag, and I was keeping my back straight. The hip pain that accompanies poorly executed high kicks was lacking, so I was quite happy.

    Did a bit of side kicking. I can't remember if I've mentioned that the side kick isn't part of the curriculum of the goshin jutsu I currently study, but it isn't. Nonetheless I have a side kick from my TKD days, and I really like it. In terms of reach and power it's the best weapon I have, even if it seems a little cumbersome. Followed this up with some back kicks, which I view as the sickly, malformed cousin of the side kick. I have literally never felt happy with any back kick I have ever performed. The less said on this topic, the better.

    I finished up with some bear crawling and kicks from a crouched position. I did actually film a bit of this, as suggested in this post:
    however this will have to pass review before I will consider uploading it so that strangers can laugh at me over the internet.

    9 mins (3x3) bag boxing. Not happy with this at all. I honestly think that doing this will hurt my sparring ability, since I am working with negligible sparring experience at the moment. Also, I keep hurting my wrists and hands.

    Finished up with 700m swimming. I continue to re-teach myself front crawl. But it's still a long way off. 500m breast stroke for cardio. I did the first 200m trying to go a full length (10m or so) on a single breath, then switched to breathing every stroke, so as to avoid accidental drowning. Overreaching one's self in water is very much to be discouraged :p.

    Finished up with 700
     

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