Training Journal

A journal of my martial arts training

Category: Uncategorized

  • Special combined Portland and Seattle class at my place with guest Kaiden Brennan, Bryce, and Patrick. Stretch and requirements, pairing Bryce and Patrick to go through a couple times plus spend additional time on cutting pattern and specific practiced moves while Brennan and I went through our requirements using steel. Refined strikes. Break to armor up, then 60 one-on-one matches and 5 multi-opponent matches.

  • Class with Bryce, held at my own backyard today as a precursor to this weekend, trying out the space. Stretch and requirements. Refined strikes, balance 1 & 2.

  • Class with Bryce. Stretch, requirements, sparring

  • Class with Bryce

  • Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his green braid requirements. Reviewed kata ich. Got in armor and had 15 matches (me all two handed).

  • Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through our requirements (his green, my silver). Spent a little extra time looking at Dragons Tail and the various forms of followup after the initial cut if it is unsuccessful. Instructed Bryce on Kata Ich. Finished with Balance 1 & 2.

  • Class withy Bryce. Stretch and his green braid requirements once through (me doing Green braid reqs, too). Study on Jumping Tiger 1 with focus on movement, reducing telegraphing, ensuring clean cut. Went through several Add-On drills (two attacks each), then moved into unarmored parry, first doing three-attack and then switch parry. Finished with some discussion on how to train good technique flow.

  • 3m elliptical warmup
    3×3 30/30 HiiT
    4m elliptical cooldown

  • 4m elliptical (45cal)
    3×4 30/30 set
    – lunge walk with curls (15lbs/arm)
    – unstable tricep dip
    – slider tuck/oblique/pike
    4m elliptical (50cal)

  • No students, so I worked solo on WCoS kata's 1 – 3, did 100 full circle cuts (boken), experimeted with some one handed sword offensive defense techniques, and reviewed Myu SIm standing iai 1 – 5.

  • 5m elliptical (65cal)
    4×3 30/30 set
    * Bulgarian squats w/25lbs
    * Pull ups with L sit
    * wide pushups
    * yogaball crunches
    6m elliptical (75cal)

  • Class with Bryce, and Cat observed. Stretch and green braid requirements which I joined him on. Focus session on The Mantis. Short break followed by a few rounds of Add-On. We then got full armor on and did a few sets of advanced response training, followed by one attack parry, three attack parry, and ended with 27 one on one sparring matches (first 10 and last 7 i was one handed).

  • 5m elliptical warm-up (60cal)
    4×3 HiiT set, 30/30
    – four-way lunge w/25lbs
    – Pull ups w/ L sit
    – standing long jump / high jump
    – pushup lat extenders w/ 20 lbs
    5m elliptical cool-down (60cal)

  • Class with Bryce. Stretch and we both went through the Green Braid requirements, him leading. Spent some focus time on Thorn, working on improving the footwork, synchronization, and speed, as well as a digression into facing a righty vs a lefty and how best to defend from counter attack. We then spent some time on Advanced Response training, taking turns as the aggressor, and finished with some 1-attack light armored parry.

  • Joined Sabrina on a couple cardio burner workout videos. First one focused on glutes, second one was a more full body. About 12 – 15 minutes all totaled.

  • Basic elliptical cardio, level 4, 20 minutes. Machine read 384 calories, 0.94 miles, I think.

  • 3 minute elliptical warmup
    3 x 4 30/30 set:
    – Squat pop w/35 lbs
    – Unstable press w/25 lbs
    – Roller crunch (but with my sliders)
    4 minute elliptical cooldown

  • Just a basic cardio day, approx 20+ minutes on the elliptical at resistance setting 4.

  • Class with Bryce. Stretch and his requirements. Did a couple lengths of the training space doing standing long jump / high jump to get our blood going (cold, sub-freezing night!). Spent some time doing a four rounds of Add-On, with me changing from two to one handed for the second half of the rounds. Put on helmets and gloves and did one-attack light armor parry, then moved onto the curb moulds for three-attack parry while doing Balance 1. Moved us to a barked area that still had light snow cover (inch at most) and did switch-parry. Returned to the regular training space for several rounds of advanced response training with boken (me always the agressor, him responding).

  • HiiT workout, back to being on my own. Just a quickie today, 3m warmup, 3×3 30/30 set, 3m cooldown.
     – Long jump / High jump
     – Pullups
     – Lat extender plank (20lbs) with pushups

  • Class with Bryce. Quick stretch and once through on his requirements, then we geared up and had a total of 30 one-on-one matches (for me, 15 one-handed, 15 two-handed).

  • Class with Bryce. First class of 2018, we did a stretch and went through all of our respective requirements (green braid for him, silver chain for myself). He was gifted a blunted steel sword which I examined. The quality and feel appears good, though I cautioned it is a bit early in his training to be thinking much about steel. For continous full circle cuts it may however prove useful though I also cautioned to be aware of wrist strain and not overdue it due to possible injury (that being much more common with one handers). We then did unarmored parry, starting with 1-attack, then 3-attack, then Switch. We finished up with a couple rounds of add-on, making it several techniques each in before reaching an impasse.

  • Workout with Chris.

    Warm-up, 4×3 set, cool-down

  • Workout with Chris

    Warmup, 4×3 set, cooldown

  • Workout with Chris. 5 minute elliptical and brief stretch.

    4×3 cycle:
    – lunge with twist (10lbs)
    – jump rope
    – yoga ball crunch
    – divider hops

    5 minute elliptical