Month: November 2010

D Day-1 to San Francisco!

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Tomorrow Mikael and I will meet at 06.00 am to get a cab to the airport. I can say this day is very stressful, I had to leave my cat to the cattery, then my phone fell in the toilet!!! and my suitcase is TOO SMALL !!!!!

Well I guess there won´t be much sleep for me tonight as I really don´t like flying, I bought a MP3 and loaded it with music anyway and I really hope for movies in the plane…

In two days we will be in the States,  I start to realize this is happening … I can´t wait to see this great town ,

 San Francisco,   here we come!

San Francisco

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Yes it is now Friday night… two days and then at 6.00 am on Monday, I will jump in a cab towards Arlanda Airport.

At 9.25 we first fly to Switzerland and then to San francisco. Arrival 16.20 pm local time the day after but it will still be Monday in the States .

I checked the weather it should be Ok for the whole week. Now I only have to pack and hopefully I won´t forget anything.

I can´t really realize that in 3 days I will be in San Francisco , this feels unreal but as all good things,  this will go very fast so I will do everything  I can to enjoy every minute of it.

We planned all the usual tourist places to be,  then on friday night we will meet Jari , Mike and Dan.

Saturday is the big day, at 13.00 is the China Town walking tour and at 16.00 we will be allowed in the restaurant, Empress Of China where the party is.

I look forward to meet  people there, this will be for sure a night to remember.

We will fly back on Sunday at 19:25 again through Switzerland. Arrival time in Stockholm 18.55 pm the day after.

Around 15 hours flying time , this will be long, I have never travelled that long before…

I don´t think I will have time to write anything else before the departure, next post will be to tell how it went!

Condition

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As I said before  since last week I have added lunch trainings where situps, pushups and some weight lifting are the focus.

Yesterday evening was time to go to the gym and work the crosstrainer for 40 minutes,  I was about to leave when I thought I could just add some chins and leg training with the weights.

It feels good,  I have gained some energy this past week , I will not go on training twice a day though.

Either than walking,  there won´t be so much training in San Francisco next week that is why I wanted to add some before I leave and I will have to add some after I am back too, no time to loose !

Ok now it is only 4 days to go, I still don´t realize that I will be in the States next week …

Side Kick!

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I focused on footwork and side kicks last thuesday.

I don´t know why I have problems with this one but I definitely notice I am improving.

There is no mistery here, just practise until it looks and feel right.

As my hands are in no condition I am focusing on other things for the rest of the week.

Warehouse training

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This sunday was the first time in the warehouse, together with Nicklas , the newest  member of the team.

Technical and physical training.

The bag :

50 straight leads right and 50 left, probably my best punch, hand before foot still needs an adjustment but I work on it everyday it should come soon ….

Thai Pads:

Jab Cross Hook with increasing power , hook togheter with a step back , My hook is in need of more work ! but the footwork is good in this exercise

Groin kick- jab- hook kick, the jab has to come before the foot touches the floor, good feeling in this one too..

Focus mitts:

Work on that cross!  right and left …mmmm no , looks no good for either of us …

Bag:

Groin kick- side kick -hook kick, this bag is hard I put on some leg protection !

some work needs to be done on the technique but Nicklas managed some good ones.

I still have some trouble with the side kick…

the Moving bag !

Micke is holding the bag at the highest level and let it go,  as soon as it comes right at us we have to kick , Side kick.

Well I went flying on the first one then I managed but the kicks didn´t look that good… it needs some work, good for the stability but in my case and my light weight,  I struggle with this.

Bag:

50 hook kicks right and 50 left.

At my own surprise my left one was not so bad !It must be because I work on it at home during the week.

Kicking pad:

45 seconds punches at full power and speed

30 seconds pushups

45 seconds punches on the pad

30 seconds situps

30 seconds pad

30 seconds frog jumps .

With no gloves ….my knuckles exploded as usual in this kind of exercise, but it is always something you notice and feel  after you´re done:-)

We both managed the whole session ( good work Nicklas ! ) this was intense and really fun at the same time!

More personal work

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I have decided to add a bit more training in one day. There is a small gym in the basement of the building where I work.

This is a good opportunity to get some work done during lunch  and the purpose of it is to only focus on JKD  in the evenings. The Lunch routine is basically only push ups and sit ups with some work on the upper body with weights.

Tonight I decided to change my routine a bit as this is actually the thuesday training:

I started with stretch kicks

then footwork ( as usual)

and then I worked on the heavy bag:

50 punches of each  : straight lead, cross and hook

20 kicks of each and on both sides  : hook, side and front.

Then I brought all the punches together trying to get some flow and some decent footwork!

and last,  I added the kicks to it all.

I feel good about my kicks,  I don´t know why but I feel they are better and better especially the side kicks!

But I will really know at the end of the week when I meet my trainer, I just hope this time the word ” Crap” won´t be pronounced 🙂 and if it does well, that means more work on it.

I ended the session with stretching. This is going slowly !!!! I really don´t know when I´m gonna see some results here !

BUT I will get that split , let me tell you that , I won´t rest until I do 🙂

New Group Member

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Yesterday we admitted a new member in the group : Niclas Thuresson. Niclas had taken a few lessons with Micke a few years ago and  last Sunday we decided to have him try again and as we feel Niclas is motivated, we decided to have him join the team.

As the session was dedicated to Niclas´first lesson,  Micke asked me to coach and comment. This was a good exercise actually , I felt good about it because I felt I knew what I was talking about and I could see the points which need to be worked on. I also could say that Niclas is not looking like a real beginner, which is good for the group.

Niclas  trained technique on pads/ mitts first and  tried some sparring at the end of the session, we always incorporate sparring very soon to avoid the fear of it.

Most students including myself are afraid of it at the beginning and try to avoid it, first of all if you want to avoid sparring train something else!  and second,  talking from experience,  sparring all the time makes you tougher and the fear disappears. The best of all is to spar against bigger and scary guys like Micke ( ! ), I mean it with most seriousness, this is the best because you are used to the tough treatment and believe me,  this WILL  help you.

Fear is your enemy , it makes you loose control and in JKD you need to be in control.

So we welcome a new member  to our Group, we certainly can use more serious members.

Projects

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We will have to add some structure and discipline within our Group.

Mikael and I decided we need some more seriousness and we will have a Group discussion soon.

We plan on developping our Group and the details will have to be discussed but we need to focus on this point now.

Everybody knows who Stefan is and that he is running a fitness center in Nynäshamn, there is also a group of  Stefan students that are  training JKD by themselves over there.

We are the only authorized Ted Wong JKD Group in Sweden, Mikael Egidéus is the Instructor and we are running the Group together.

I would like to see some more JKD interest and I guess it won´t be too difficult to find, we will work on that.

The coming weeks

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3 weeks to San Francisco , not everything is going as planned but this is how it goes, I just hope some of those things are not of a real serious kind…

Anyway I plan to get myself some rest and relaxation to get the tension down a bit .

Last year during the seminar with Ted and Allen , we started the session with some really good breathing exercises from Allen. I wrote them down and used them a couple of times, but this is the perfect time to use them now again. Allen said it was the perfect way to start the day and that it helped with stressful situations , and I agree, it certainly does.  I look forward to meet Allen and Ted again.

I am very excited about the event, celebrating Bruce´s birthday is something I would not even dream about earlier in my life, I think this is a great opportunity.

It will be the first time for me in the US, I have always wanted to go there but never had the chance to. San Francisco is one of the towns I always wanted to see but as the country is huge and so rich in fantastic landscapes, I really hope I can visit some other towns soon. Colorado is a plan for next year, our friends Mike and Dan invited us so I really hope I will be able to make it. It is never too late to fullfill some dreams and I really hope I will be able to see China someday …

Post 100

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I changed this post because there is enough people wanting to promote themselves and I don´t want to be seen as one of them. The nice quotes and feedback I got from my facebook friends are there anyway.

I decided to go a bit deeper in my feelings towards JKD and reveal a bit more about my own story.

I train JKD for all kinds of personal reasons. I  had a real difficult childhood, some events scarred me for life and because of that,  for years I had a lot of behaviour problems, feeling I was not good enough and only meant to be a failure,  at the same time I was able to go to college and I have a high level of education but this is because I wanted to give myself the chance to get out of there.
 
I have been a fan of Bruce  for many years and dreamt about training JKD but there is no Ted Wong JKD in France, Then I moved to Sweden.
When I started JKD it was first because I was looking for a self defense class but I found TWJKD Stockholm on the internet and at that point,  everything changed.
I trained there for one year but Stefan was sick and just before my first Seminar with Ted in 2005, he talked about Micke and I contacted him immediately.

 
I started again from scratch and Micke ” broke ” me mentally. I had a hard time at the beginning because I had not the correct mentality. Year after year I learned and evolved and noticed the changes that affected me and my approach in life.
JKD transformed me as a person, I gained confidence, control and peace.  The more I evolved in the style the more I gained control of my life. It is hard to explain but the bottom line is, thanks to JKD (and to Micke who gave me the opportunity to train), I am now more balanced than I ever was in my life and no matter what may happen now,  I will never give it up because JKD is a part of me.
 
My plan is to become a really good JKD fighter, I don´t need a certificate, I don´t need recognition, I need to feel it for myself and when that happens, I will know I did something good with my life, something that is good for me.