I'm starting this log for my fourth attempt at completing a full year's worth of training - that is, do some karate training every day this year. My rules: any martial art counts as karate. tai chi, bojutsu, silat all count once a week fitness only training counts need to spend at least half an hour training I can have one day off a month + 3 spare days to give a total of 350 days needing to do something in. I can use the 'off' days whenever I want if i miss a day, I can make it up with two separate sessions the next day time spent on MAP doesn't count as training I'm using this log to keep track of what I'm doing and by putting it in a public forum I'm hoping it will keep me on-task, as I haven't managed to pull off the full year yet. (my best attempt ended mid-September with gastro)
Jan 1 Time: 43 minutes Started the year at 6:20am. Managed a paltry 34 knuckle pushups and had to get to 50 on the insides of the fingers. Did 50 situps then tried pistols. 3 LHS, 2 RHS. Sanchin kata 7 times Tensho kata 7 times (to get to 14, for the year) TT: 0:43 D: 1
What? Maybe that is my problem. Good luck with this! Sounds like a pretty ambitious goal. Myself, I am going to shoot for 5 days of training a week (at least 1 hr each). I'll be pretty happy if I can do that for a whole year.
2nd Jan Went through every kata I know without pause, going from the end of one straight into the start of the next. Sanchin-tensho-gekisai-saifa-seienchin-sanseru-hakkucho-sepai-naifanchin-shisochin-seisan-kururunfa-suparimpei-happoren-24 yang taichi-pinan shodan-pinan nidan. It took 33 minutes all up. TT: 1:16 D: 2
Jan 3 Got up early this morning and spent half an hour doing sunrise training before breakfast (and before the kids got up). Started with the ba duan jin, then after pushups and crunches spent the rest of the time on saifa. For a short Kara it has a lot of complexity and variation. TT: 1:47 D: 3
Jan 5 Practised tenshin/tai-sabaki today. Tenshin-ho, tenshin-no-keri 1&2, kako-tenshin 1,2,3, tenshin-no-jyu, and several others whose names escape me. TT: 2:51 D: 5
Jan 6 concentrated on seienchin and shisochin kata with a dash of tensho, because with my infected finger I can't form a fist with my right hand! TT: 3:21 D: 6
hours:min. It will be going up a fair bit by the end of the month as I have a three day seminar with Toshio Morita of the gojukensha saishinkan coming up over the Australia Day long weekend. I should be doing at least 20 hours of training time minimum a month if I keep to schedule.
I thought I was reading that right. If I may ask, how does fitting in 20 hours a week conflict with work/family obligations? I know I tried to go for about 17 hours a week for a couple of months but with my duties as a carer and a dad, it just wasn't working out properly. Kinda interested if you have any tips on time management you could share?
Not 20 hours a week, 20 hours a month. I'm a father of 3 and work full-time, so 20 hours a week is just not going to happen. The dojo I attend only runs during school terms, so during term time (when I work as I'm a school teacher), I go to training twice a week - out family routine on those nights is set out so that dinner and baths are out of the way before I leave. For my daily training on other days, I either get up half an hour earlier, or wait until the kids are in bed then go outside to train. I try and do the same time/routine each week, so if I get up early on a Monday, that's what I do each Monday. Half an hour is always possible to find somewhere in the day, but anything more is pushing it.
Ah gotcha. Should've posted when I wasn't so tired and spent more time reading what you actually said
Jan 7 Worked through the Yang 24 form that is one of the requirements for third dan. It didn't raise that much of a sweat, but my poor quivering legs and back know what I've been doing. I had been having a mental blank on how to go into crane spreads its wings and the transition from brush knee into repulse monkey, but I got some good improvement on both of those areas today. TT: 3:56 D: 7
Jan 9 Worked through Gekisai Dai and Gekisai Sho today. Then finished up with three run-throughs of Happoren. TT: 5:09 D: 9
Jan 10 Rather a hot day today, topping 34 deg. C. and the only place I have to train at the moment is in front of the exhaust fan for the air-con! I'm currently sitting here rehydrating. Once a week I'm running through every kata I know in one session, just to make sure that no one kata gets too rusty or forgotten. 43 minutes later, it was done. TT: 5:52 D: 10
Jan 11 Worked on miscellaneous bits and pieces of different kata that needed fixing up. Then, more happoren and tai chi. TT: 6:30 D: 11
Jan 12 Had a great day today, perfect weather, went to the Werribee Open Range Zoo with my family and met up with one of my best mates and his family. The kids had a great time, we had a great time and the little ones fell asleep in the back seat on the way home (with me trying not to do the same behind the wheel!) After they went to bed, did various bodyweight exercises: 50 knuckle pushups, 50 slow crunches, 20 vipers, some planks, some back bridges (which I had to stop when I got a cramp in one side of my back), a few nifty yoga poses whose names I don't remember. Then, sanchin a few times, worked on some transitions and the end jumpy kick in suparimpei, and happoren. Then, air kicking, with emphasis on reach and fluidity; mae-geri and mawashi-geri. Then, finished with a fluid/half speed kururunfa and a very fluid (no kime, all full movements and sloooow) rendition of seienchin, which is probably my most "blocky"/rigid kata. TT: 7:13 D: 12
