upnorthkyosa's reflective training journal

6-18-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked normal weight lifting program this morning. When I was done, I went for a two mile run with my brother and my dog. My brother and I tend to compete, so we ran our hearts nearly to bursting and ended up with an overall pace of about 8 minutes and 5 seconds. This isn't really fast, but when you consider the hills and ravines that our course climbs and the fact that we often had to chase the dog out of the woods, then you'll appreciate it more.
 
6-19-2007 - Practice Entry

Right now, my wife's teenaged cousins and brother are staying at our house. They have camped themselves out in our backroom where I do most of my practice, forcing me to find other places in order to get it done. Today, I did my normal workout by going to the dojang early and doing Martial Arts Workout A. It was an interesting experience that taught me something rather important. I have been on autopilot for too long with my workouts. I need to shake things up and reintellectualize everything or I am going to have major problems whenever I change venues for my practice.

I'm not sure why this occurs, all I can say is that the body remembers and if the body remembers too long, the mind forgets. Time to get to work.
 
6-19-2007 - Teaching Entry

Class this evening was very physically challenging and lots of fun. During the first class, we took it lighter and I stressed the importance of practice to my students. I compared TSD to playing an instrument. I can show you a chord on a guitar, but if you don't practice that chord, you'll never be able to play it fluently. Then I went on to outline a few ways that my students could practice certain techniques outside of class.

During the second class, it was just me and one of my green belt students. We pushed it hard through a lot of material in order to get good coverage and prepare for his next test. That workout was mostly about stamina and remembering things fast and I'm going to be pushing these folks who are about to test just like this until they are ready.

If they are reading this, consider yourself forewarned.
 
6-20-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my normal weight lifting routine today and that went find. When I went for my run, however, I got a pretty bad cramp in my leg at around a mile and had to stop. I don't like doing that, but I literally could not run. Heck, I had a hard time walking.

Anyway, I got home and went to the beach to relax. Later that day, my family and all of our house guests had a BBQ. My wife invited a friend and we had a really nice time. From conversations, it turns out that my wife's friend was interested in MA. So, I brought out one of my TSD dvds to show her what are classes were all about.

That went fine until my brother, who kind of likes this girl and is full of testosteroni decided to try and show off a little. He got me into an impromptu grappling match on the rug in front of the TV and we kind of rolled around a bit until and nailed an armbar and tapped him out. In the process, I lost quite a bit of skin and we ended up hitting the TV stand tipping it precariously.

I shouldn't let my brother shoot himself in the foot. This woman is a no nonsense type of person who doesn't take fools gladly. My competitive juices were flowing though and I just couldn't back down. I'll do better next time.
 
6-21-2007 - Practice Entry

I went down to the park today and did Martial Arts Workout C. I'm really trying to shock the system right now and get off of autopilot. Down at the park, the conditions were a little slippery, so I was forced to go slower then normal. This was a good thing because it helped break some of the forms down into more intellectualized peices.
 
6-21-2007 - Teaching Entry

Today's class was an outside class. With my senior student, I worked on some of the advanced hyung and some of the things that I expected for the creative hyung requirement. I'm really curious to see what he comes up with. This requirement is open ended, so it could really be interesting.

During the second class, we started working through the required Ill Soo Shik and then started breaking down the hyung in different ways. I think that it was very productive. Hopefully the guys can start to see the hyung not as inkblots, but as an instructive tool. There is alot of good stuff out there and we don't always have to resort to making stuff up.
 
6-22-2007 - Practice Entry

I did my normal weight lifting routine this morning. This will be the last time in about two weeks that I get to do this, because I will be taking my family to the BWCA for two weeks. Sometimes its nice to have a break in your routine. It's easy to get really stuck in a rut and start to no like practicing so much.

I do plan on practicing while I'm away though. The workouts won't be the large comprehensive ones that I'm used to, but at least it will keep the material fresh. Hopefully, I can use the time to pop a few new insights about some things.
 
7-9-2007 - Practice Entry

Well, I'm back from my vacation and I have to admit, taking a little break from training was nice. I did find time to practice, but it wasn't at the level that I normally go at it. Anyway, I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning. That was fun, but I had some sciatic pain and ended up making a chiropractic appointment because of it. I'm pumped to go back to class tomorrow. Hopefully the body holds up...
 
7/10/2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my normal weight lifting routine. I did not run though, I ran out of time this morning.
 
7/10/2007 - Teaching Entry

I had only one person show up for class today. Attendence in the summer usually wanes, so this is nothing I didn't expect. We worked alot of stuff together though. He is one of my beginning students, so we didn't do anything to complicated. I did end up pushing him a little bit though. I wanted to see how he would react under a little physical pressure.
 
7/11/2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout B this morning and I really enjoyed the peace and quiet while I did it. My wife took both children out of the house early this morning and I woke up late to an empty house and few responsibilities.
 
7-12-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my normal weight lifting routine and then scheduled a private lesson for a student because I had to cancel this evenings class. The lifting and the lesson ended up being a good practice session for me because I got to elevate things to a level that this student doesn't normally see.
 
7-14-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout C and man it took forever. Both kids were underfoot the entire time that I nearly quit the whole damn thing. I did happen to get a chance to work on some applications for Chinto though. One of them is actually pretty cool. It's the section of the form that I've been working on for a long time. The part that immediately follows the elbow strikes and turns into cross legged stance with both arms turning out into double ahneso pakuro makuro mahkee is a sleeve tip through. This is kind of like the judo version, but more reminiscent of the aikido version because the hip doesn't fully insert. I tried it on my wife a couple of times and really had her come in hard once. The throw put her on her back every time.
 
7-16-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout A this morning. Overall it was a pretty good workout. I added one major change though. I was able to round up a holder to do some good pad kicking at the end rather then just working my fighting combinations in the air. I much prefer to kick the pads or a bag. My body feels better afterward.
 
7-17-2007 - Practice Entry

I did my normal weight lifting routine today and I'm happy to report that I am up to pre-vacation intensity. Also, I did do my run today. For two miles, my time was 16 minutes and 28 seconds.
 
7-17-2007 - Teaching Entry

Great class today. We pretty much did the normal routine with forms and kicking sequences and fighting combinations and I have a general comment. I need to get across that my students need to stretch every day. If they are going to get more flexible, that is the only way. You just need to go for it and make it a priority.
 
7-18-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout B this morning. I thought I started early enough, but I ended up getting interrupted a bunch of times. This extended my workout almost to two and a half hours. That is way to long when I've got a lot to do today.
 
7-19-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked my normal weight lifting routine this morning, but did not run. I had to go into work early this morning and I didn't have time.
 
7-19-2007 - Teaching Entry

Great class today. I had my senior student and he really just needed to pound some stuff out in order to get his mind off his troubles. So I turned class more into a meditative session with lots and lots and lots of sweat. For the second class, we worked through some of the required Ill Soo Shik and then we did a grappling exercise in order to see just how many of the submissions they are picking up. I was the uki the whole time and I gave them a marginal amount of resistance and when they tapped me, I told them they couldn't use that one the next time around. This way, we pretty much cleared their entire repotoire. Good stuff.
 
7-20-2007 - Practice Entry

I worked Martial Arts Workout C this morning. Great stuff. I happened to start working on some of the harder portions of Chinto and MAN, that is going to take me a while.
 
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