Solo training, forms and "shadow boxing" with sticks.

geezer

Grandmaster
MT Mentor
Joined
Oct 20, 2007
Messages
7,364
Reaction score
3,571
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Helloooo! Anyone there??? --With everything shut down over most of the country, nobody's posting anything. Are any of you training on your own, working out solo routines? I've been doing that a bit, and also working one-on-one with one or two students outside at a park, doing staff work, forms, and drills that allow us to maintain safe "social distancing", spaced well apart in the open air.

I've stopped charging fees too. So it's just a couple of friends training at a park. If anybody get's sick (in spite of distancing, masks, hand sanitizer, and everything else) ....nobody's paying for instruction, and nobody else is responsible. The understanding between us is that it's on us. We're making our own choices, and trying to be responsible for ourselves, we are modifying our behavior, but we aren't giving up completely.

So am I nuts? Personally, I feel like if I don't get out of the house a little, I will go "eff-ing" nuts!!!

--Any thoughts?
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

MT Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
12,209
Reaction score
6,307
Location
New York
So first: keep in mind, if any of you are living with someone else, you can get them sick. So it's on you if you get sick, but also on you if your wife/kid/niece/parent gets sick as well.

Now to the idea of the post. I've been mostly doing solo drills in my backyard. A mixture of actual drills like the seguidas, five attacks with various triangle footwork, abecidario, a watik drill, 4 walls drill + form, a couple other miscellanious espada/daga/espada + daga drills. And then when I get bored of those I put on some traditional filipino music and flow through them. I've found that it really helps clear my head and work on my own mini-combinations. I'm also slowly starting to put them all, along with the my old shaolin kempo forms/combinations, on video to make a personal library for when I get old and forget.

The only partner work I'm doing is teaching my fiancee five attacks and dakup y puno. I may teach her more, but she's not really interested-it's more for me to interact with a stick than anything else.
 

Headhunter

Senior Master
Joined
Aug 26, 2016
Messages
4,765
Reaction score
1,598
This is exactly why this damm thing has gotten so bad in the first place. Peoples stupid attitude saying oh well if it happens it happens I don't care. Well fine but what if one of you gets infected then goes to the shop and infects a shop worker who goes home to their family and infects them and say one of their family is a doctor or nurse and they go to work and infect more people.

Train by yourself fine but doing that...frankly it's a silly idea and a selfish one that could put a whole bunch of people at risk and could end up meaning everything's closed a lot longer. Best idea is suck it up and do what your meant to be doing so we can get this over with
 

_Simon_

Senior Master
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Messages
4,397
Reaction score
2,904
Location
Australia
Yep, I'm still postin! And been sharing what stuff I've been doing, but I completely understand people needing time away from screens... I'm the same, it's been HURTING my face to be on screens so I've needed space from them haha.
 

Flying Crane

Sr. Grandmaster
Joined
Sep 21, 2005
Messages
15,230
Reaction score
4,920
Location
San Francisco
And keep in mind, you can be contagious for days without having any symptoms yourself. Some people never get symptoms. So it can be easy to spread without knowing it, when you go to the grocery store, etc. it isn’t just limited to other people in your household.

Keep up with the self-quarantine. This isn’t over. I am very concerned that states are opening too soon and we are gonna see some very bad results coming our way because of it.

To the rest of the thread, training on my own (outside of class, when I’m not with my instructor) is something I’ve been doing for as long as I’ve been in martial arts. So that is easy, I’ve got space in my yard and garage. And I’ve been teaching my household White Crane three times a week, and leading them in strength training three times a week. That is my wife, her sister, and our son (age six).
 

Danny T

Senior Master
Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Messages
4,258
Reaction score
2,293
Location
New Iberia, Louisiana USA
So first: keep in mind, if any of you are living with someone else, you can get them sick. So it's on you if you get sick, but also on you if your wife/kid/niece/parent gets sick as well.

Now to the idea of the post. I've been mostly doing solo drills in my backyard. A mixture of actual drills like the seguidas, five attacks with various triangle footwork, abecidario, a watik drill, 4 walls drill + form, a couple other miscellanious espada/daga/espada + daga drills. And then when I get bored of those I put on some traditional filipino music and flow through them. I've found that it really helps clear my head and work on my own mini-combinations. I'm also slowly starting to put them all, along with the my old shaolin kempo forms/combinations, on video to make a personal library for when I get old and forget.

The only partner work I'm doing is teaching my fiancee five attacks and dakup y puno. I may teach her more, but she's not really interested-it's more for me to interact with a stick than anything else.
Work the basic weapon movement drills with footwork, the 5-Attack striking matrix, the different technique sequences within the Seguidas sets, the EyD combinations, and incorporate them into your caranza training.
 
OP
G

geezer

Grandmaster
MT Mentor
Joined
Oct 20, 2007
Messages
7,364
Reaction score
3,571
Location
Phoenix, AZ
This is exactly why this damm thing has gotten so bad in the first place. Peoples stupid attitude saying oh well if it happens it happens I don't care. Well fine but what if one of you gets infected then goes to the shop and infects a shop worker who goes home to their family and infects them and say one of their family is a doctor or nurse and they go to work and infect more people.Train by yourself fine but doing that...frankly it's a silly idea and a selfish one that could put a whole bunch of people at risk and could end up meaning everything's closed a lot longer. Best idea is suck it up and do what your meant to be doing so we can get this over with

I totally get what you're saying. Personally, I don't feel that training, spread out in a large, open area with one or two other people doing staff forms, striking drills, footwork, and so forth, is overly risky behavior. I admit I should and will be more careful about requiring continuous mask use and keep my hand sanitizer handy. I did ask my training partners to go so far as to mark the handle of their sticks so that they are always held by the same end rather than the normal practice of often switching ends and possibly contaminating each others weapons.

Honestly, right now I'm more worried about my wife. She's been called back into work as a dental hygienist. And even with all the safety protocols, she is in close physical contact with a lot of people and exposed to a lot of aerosolized saliva from the equipment used.

And, talking about being at risk, I'm a 64 year-old public school teacher working from home (right now), but it looks like we will be going back to the classroom next fall. At least that's how things seem to be trending here. People are beginning to get more afraid of the economic meltdown than the serious risks posed by covid19. The fact is the two risks are intertwined. If enough people are out of work, lose their health insurance, and run out of savings, there will be huge public health consequences. And we could very well end up in a second Great Depression.
 

Kung Fu Wang

Sr. Grandmaster
MT Mentor
Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Messages
14,041
Reaction score
4,488
Location
Austin, Tx/Shell Beach, Ca
My students ask me to teach them solo form (keep social distance). I have not taught any solo form in the past 15 years. I don't feel like to go back to form teaching/training any more. I feel I have much more important things to do with my time.

I ask my students to translate principle/strategy into techniques.

For example, here are some principles/strategies:

1. Attack north, when opponent resists, borrow his force and attack south.
2. Attack north, when opponent escapes, continue attack north.
3. Use linear attack, when opponent resists, change into circular attack.
4. Use circular attack, when opponent resists, change into linear attack.
5. Attack opponent's leading leg, when he steps back, attack his back leg.
6. Attack opponent's right side, when he resists, attack his left side.
7. Use kick to set up another kick.
8. Use kick to set up punch.
9. Use punch to set up another punch.
10. Use punch to establish clinch.
11. ...

If people can just come up 5 techniques from each principle/strategy, they can come up 50 techniques (or combo sequence) from the above list.

This will force students to think and create. When they send me their video, I can then discuss with them on the phone.
 
Last edited:

Monkey Turned Wolf

MT Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
12,209
Reaction score
6,307
Location
New York
Today I taught my fiancee basic knife defenses, and we went back and forth in my backyard trying to stab each other. Fun times.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

MT Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
12,209
Reaction score
6,307
Location
New York
Work the basic weapon movement drills with footwork, the 5-Attack striking matrix, the different technique sequences within the Seguidas sets, the EyD combinations, and incorporate them into your caranza training.
Anything else you would recommend I do while doing caranza flow? We don't do that in my dojo often since we share the floor with another group that has control of the music.
 

JowGaWolf

Sr. Grandmaster
MT Mentor
Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
13,954
Reaction score
5,843
So first: keep in mind, if any of you are living with someone else, you can get them sick. So it's on you if you get sick, but also on you if your wife/kid/niece/parent gets sick as well.
Real life situation in with some of my family members. There's a possibility that 10 or more family members may have COVID-19 via a child that they babysit. My mom's side of the family are really close, hugging type family. If they have been visiting each other then there's a good chance that 10 or more will test positive. The baby's mother (ex girlfriend of cousin) got the virus from her brother, which would expose everyone who has "kissed the child" or visited each other.

#1 rule at my house. Family that doesn't live in the house can't visit and vise versa. It only takes one person to be exposed to make life miserable for others. The last time I mention COVID in Martial Talk was to say a renter from one of my parent's property caught it. Now I'm sitting here talking about how it more than one of my family members may now have it. They won't know until they get sick (14 days or less) or if they get tested. Just something for everyone to think about. In Georgia there's a feeling in the air that the Virus "isn't a danger anymore". People are starting to get slack. Don't get slack.
 

JowGaWolf

Sr. Grandmaster
MT Mentor
Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
13,954
Reaction score
5,843
I'm still training. I train with my son from time to time, but mainly conditioning. I don't meet with people outside of my house unless it's someone who works at a store and I'm buying something that I need, (medicine, food, personal products). I've been exploring how to use everyday things as training tools. I haven't figured out what I'm going to design for my bone training. I was thinking of using something like a wooden dummy but I want to have more movement than what that allows.
 

_Simon_

Senior Master
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Messages
4,397
Reaction score
2,904
Location
Australia
And keep in mind, you can be contagious for days without having any symptoms yourself. Some people never get symptoms. So it can be easy to spread without knowing it, when you go to the grocery store, etc. it isn’t just limited to other people in your household.

Keep up with the self-quarantine. This isn’t over. I am very concerned that states are opening too soon and we are gonna see some very bad results coming our way because of it.

Yep, I feel the same... I'm trying not to be overly paranoid or over the top, but I find myself getting more anxious about the easing of restrictions. Tomorrow will be announced a slight easing of restrictions in our state, and a great deal of people still at the moment are not taking it seriously, so I don't know how this will pan out.

Our state has been the most rigid with lockdowns, and I actually applaud that. It will not be pretty if there's a massive second wave... but just trying to focus on what I'm doing.
 

Danny T

Senior Master
Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Messages
4,258
Reaction score
2,293
Location
New Iberia, Louisiana USA
Anything else you would recommend I do while doing caranza flow? We don't do that in my dojo often since we share the floor with another group that has control of the music.
Don't need music for caranza. It's like shadow boxing but with a weapon. Just do the striking patterns you know. Do you have the 36 Seguidas technique combinations? Work them as your caranza. What about the Solo Baston Contradas or Recontras? You said you do some of the EyD drills. Work the Attacks sequences, the EyD Contrada and Recontra sequences. It's tough to do the break-in/break-out, segang labo, and chekete and etchekete drills without a partner but you can work through the movements as a caranza. Caranza is up to you, do whatever you know just keep moving. Double stick, EyD, Single stick, knife, double knife, empty hands. Do it all.
 

Buka

Sr. Grandmaster
Staff member
MT Mentor
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
12,952
Reaction score
10,443
Location
Maui
I train alone, I have plenty to work on. I've been doing a lot of knife drills, a lot of combos and a ton of footwork.

And I don't mind training alone, it's kind of fun. The view ain't bad, either.
 

_Simon_

Senior Master
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Messages
4,397
Reaction score
2,904
Location
Australia
Don't need music for caranza. It's like shadow boxing but with a weapon. Just do the striking patterns you know. Do you have the 36 Seguidas technique combinations? Work them as your caranza. What about the Solo Baston Contradas or Recontras? You said you do some of the EyD drills. Work the Attacks sequences, the EyD Contrada and Recontra sequences. It's tough to do the break-in/break-out, segang labo, and chekete and etchekete drills without a partner but you can work through the movements as a caranza. Caranza is up to you, do whatever you know just keep moving. Double stick, EyD, Single stick, knife, double knife, empty hands. Do it all.
I have literally NO idea what any of this means.... but I found it fascinating :)
 
OP
G

geezer

Grandmaster
MT Mentor
Joined
Oct 20, 2007
Messages
7,364
Reaction score
3,571
Location
Phoenix, AZ
I have literally NO idea what any of this means.... but I found it fascinating :)

Yep. Fascinating! I've been doing FMA for a long time and I only got about half of what Danny was saying. I mean, for example, "EyD" ??? I dunno. Maybe "Espada y Daga"?

Different FMA systems use different terminologies. My first instructor was Filipino-American and preferred very simple English terms for most things. A lot of the central and northern Filipino systems use a lot of Spanish terms since Spanish was the "language of prestige" in colonial times. Ironic since FMA was used against the Spanish by resistance and independence movements, eh? Anyway the Philippines are a culturally and linguistically diverse place.
 

Latest Discussions

Top