10/7 Good times at the gym and the dojo. Lots of block/counter practice (joint locks/grappling) with partners and review of san no kata. gym stuff: playing with tobata drills, 6 rounds. Then usual bag work. Oodles of cardio-elliptical machine play and ball skips. Then the usual schtick. Leg press, double leg-up to 270 lbs now. and single leg, about half of double leg weight Calf raises, on leg press and a step with body weight pushups and several variations pullups, horizontal and vertical grips dumbell shrugs, standing and in alternating zen kutsu stances deadlifts bicep curls, maxed at 35 and worked my way down to 15s lat pull down side raises, did okay with 20s today forward raises, had to move down to 15s. :/ tricep pulldowns and press. Also shrugs while I was at the press kettlebell swings
Good times in the dojo. Fundamentals a while, then some takedowns, block n' counter, a bit of throwing. Surprisingly, no kata! :O At least shihan makes getting my **** handed to me in the demo section amusing. Sword was more fun than usual. Did a bunch of roku-do and such basic sparring with bokken.
How is the bokken sparring done? Are you wearing protection? Are you using bokken, or just shinai? Does it look like that training in Last Samurai?
At my dojo I've never seen anyone wearing protection (not even the advanced students). At my rank (Ichimonji), the sparring is choreographed ahead of time-various combinations of block and counter, with one side advancing and the other retreating. The exercises are called Rokudo (#1-4) and Ippon dachi (#1-3). It's always done with bokken. I'm really looking forward to getting good enough to do free sparring. :hat::evil: I've never seen Last Samurai, so I couldn't tell you. :/
It's generally done a little more like the bit at the end of this clip (though not always exactly the same): [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMT1r9IpIf0"]Last Samurai-Self Discipline - YouTube[/ame] Than like this bit (which is awesome): [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muQMURAVWn8"]The Last Samurai kendo training - YouTube[/ame] @ Matvei - dude, you have to watch it. It's actually pretty good, even with Tom Cruise!
Weird that their bokkens don't have proper tsubas. No tsuba generally=cheap **** bokken that breaks in sparring. It's certainly not realistic. The tsuba gives you more options when making quick decisions in blocking. That is some darned good sparring, though. In reality though, the Japanese fellow would likely have used more practical techniques than a bunch of flashy stuff. Makes for good Hollywood, though.
Today- Usual stuff at the gym. Bag drills are getting faster and better. Planning for more tonight if I get around to it.
Yesterday-kumite in karate. Sunakake no kon, bo basics, and kumi-bo is kobudo. Today-sore in the left hip region for some unknown reason. :/ Did some review of all my bo stuff. More later if time allows.
Today was a familiar routine. gym stuff: playing with tobata drills, 6 rounds. Then usual bag work. Oodles of cardio-elliptical machine play and ball skips. Then the usual schtick. Leg press, double leg-up to 270 lbs now. and single leg, about half of double leg weight Calf raises, on leg press and a step with body weight pushups and several variations pullups, horizontal and vertical grips dumbell shrugs, standing and in alternating zen kutsu stances deadlifts bicep curls, maxed at 35 and worked my way down to 15s lat pull down side raises, did okay with 20s today forward raises, did okay with 20s. Needs work, though. tricep pulldowns and press. Also shrugs while I was at the press kettlebell swings Krotty tonight, so updates later.
Ruther slow night at the dojo. Mostly drills of fundamentals and kata. I talked to my sempai about the upcoming tourney, and he says there are no throws/sweeps/grappling allowed this year. I'm ruther ****ed. WTF is the point of kumite if you aren't allowed to use real karate technique? :/ I'm going to play anyway, though. Mostly for giggles and maybe win something.
All kumite for 70-80 minutes or so. Then 30-40 minutes of bo staff. The kumite technique taught in my dojo strikes me as odd...it seems to be effective, though.
10/21 elliptical sprints, Tobata drills, 30/30/30 drills, bag drills for all the major strikes Leg press, single and double leg calf raises, on the leg press and on a step holding a 25 lb dumbell hip induction/abduction. Hips are feeling much better this week. leg curl, single and double leg pushups, standard and several variations pullups, horizontal and vertical bars dumbell shrugs with a bunch of weight, standing and in alternating zen kutsu stances deadlifts Bicep curls, maxed out at 35 lbs and did sets at the various lower weights lat pull-down machine thing side raises forward raises tricep press, single and double handed at various weights kettlebell swings, a bunch Krotty tonite. Will write more then if possible.
repeat of 10/21. Up to (max weight) 280 on double leg press now. Was running late today. :/ Have to start waking up earlier. Morning, I hate thee! Finished the day with staff mini kata and kihon, then some open-hand kihon.
Karate-drilling the basics, self defense against grabs. Sword-Roku do exercises, Ippon dachi, and Toyama-ryu. Gotta get some sleep so's I can hit the gym in the AM.
10/26 All morning training session for the tourney 10/28 Leg press, single and double leg calf raises, on the leg press and on a step holding a 25 lb dumbell hip induction/abduction. Hips are feeling much better this week. leg curl, single and double leg pushups, standard and several variations pullups, horizontal and vertical bars dumbell shrugs with a bunch of weight, standing and in alternating zen kutsu stances dumbell squats Bicep curls, maxed out at 35 lbs and did sets at the various lower weights lat pull-down machine thing side raises-up to ~20 lbs for these and forward raises forward raises tricep press, double handed at various weights kettlebell swings, a bunch with heavy weights.
Standard day at the gym in the morning. Gave monday night krotty a try. It's called "open" in the schedule. I was expected a rather unstructured affair, people just practicing their things. It turned out to be a full class with kata, self defense stuff, and all that jazz! :O The biggest new "thing" was control against wrist grab. It's basically the same maneuver taught in self defense classes but a little fancier. Instead of just reversing the grip, turning, and pressing down on the tricep, there's some added elbow stress and fancy things like that.
30 minutes of cardio-elliptical bursts, bag work of all sorts. Started doing somersaults on the mats laying around and combining that with 1-5 reps of bicep curls after each full circut/"lap"-roll up one mat, down the other, do a few reps, rinse, repeat. Lots of fun. Only did a few bosu ball skips. Leg press, single and double leg calf raises, on the leg press and on a step holding a 25 lb dumbell hip induction/abduction. Hips are feeling much better this week. leg curl, single and double leg pushups, standard and several variations pullups, horizontal and vertical bars dumbell shrugs with a bunch of weight, standing and in alternating zen kutsu stances dumbell squats Bicep curls, maxed out at 35 lbs and did sets at the various lower weights lat pull-down machine thing side raises-up to ~20 lbs for these and forward raises forward raises tricep press, double handed at various weights tricep kickbacks tricep dips Hip induction/abduction, with a bunch of weight That cool manual stand thingy that lets me suspend resting on my forearms and curl up to exercise the old abs. Ab crunch chair kettlebell swings, a bunch with heavy weights-single and double arms.
