Month: November 2011

November 27th

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Here we are, one year after one of the best days ever. I will always remember the feeling I had when Mikael and I entered the room of the Empress Of China in SF. Being part of the dinner party,  celebrating Bruce Lee´s birthday with his family and friends, that was so unbelievable. One year has gone, Bruce would be 71 today.

Today we trained as usual, I started sparring with Adam and injured my foot but I went on after a while to keep it warm and then noticed it was not so bad. Then we sparred with gear on,  I threw  a couple of really nice straight leads and let Niclas hit me a couple of times because I think it is good to know how that feels.

We added some take downs and I was happy to see my technique worked as Niclas could take me down only once.  After a while I lost a contact lens and could not see so good anymore. Mikael told me to sit down and watch instead , well  If there is something I cannot take is to feel I am a girl and whining about a small injury or problem . I was not injured so one eye is better than no eye, let´s go!

I still felt something wrong with my position and even if I work on it at home,  I noticed that during sparring I put too much weight on the rear leg, I could feel it and I tried to correct it a couple of times though, which is good.

After that, we started on mitts and pads, doing series back and forth,  mostly hooks on both sides then hook kicks .

We added the famous one :  Hit for 45 seconds with full power and get down and do some push ups  and do that again until you drop !

Then It was time for situps and several drills for the stomach, then different kinds of pushups.

Mikael said we would do some stretching  because it is obvious we all need it . Well I only have one comment for everyone in the group : God we suck ! 🙂

I feel I am getting more flexible though comparing to before , but still I really have some work to do !

We finished with static training and  again,  not many could  hold the position but I am happy to say I am not one of them , training that at home is paying off.

This was a great session,  even with only one good eye 🙂

November 24th

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Exactly one year ago,  Mikael and I were flying to San Francisco, to attend Bruce Lee´s 70th Birthday celebration. We almost did not make this trip but I finally got allowed to fly. It was a good day, we were so happy to be on our way and had no idea what was going on at the same time.

It is only when we got back to Sweden that we were informed about Ted´s passing. I remember it was an early morning,  I was driving on the way to work when Mikael called.

I had not met Ted as much as Mikael or Stefan did but I can say that the impact he had on people was extraordinary. Ted Wong was a man who did not need to say anything at all, people just had a huge respect for him. In June 2005 when I first met him,  I remember having trouble believing I was talking to him , I was staring all the time, thinking “God this is unbelievable! Noone is going to believe me!”. My family in France even asked me several times if I was sure …

I don´t think any of us has ever stopped thinking about Ted on the contrary, we always feel he is looking at us, expecting us to go on and do well and this is exactly what we do.

Tough and tougher!

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Ah this session was awesome and Mikael said: “it is just the beginning!”

We were 6 people today, everyone had a training partner.

Welcome to our latest member André Farao who is from Brazil, he was so pleased with the session that he will definetely join  the team.

(We also hope our friend Pierre is going to find us one way or another someday, we found out he came to the training, but in the wrong town! 😯 )

It was a 2 hours session, here is how it went:

We started with warming up, I jumped rope for 5 minutes and then did some stretch kicks.

We worked on mitts and pads, single punches and combinations:

–         Cross

–         Hook

–         Jab cross hook

–         Hook kick and jab (hit before landing the foot)

–         Hook kicks low and high

–         Side kick

We intensified the tempo a little bit with more power and speed and more combinations

–          Jab cross hook- 2 hook kicks, 3 cross

–         2 jabs  – Bob and weave- 2 cross – bob and weave  and jabs again … – 10 times

–         Jab cross hook- hook kick,  hook kick- jab, cross, hook – knee kicks- jab -cross -hook- pushups on the knuckles, up and start again – 5 times

We did some drills with one person jabbing the other towards the face, the other is avoiding with minimum movement of the head and intercepting.

And we started the physical training session:

Hit in the stomach

Hit on the legs (on the inside and on the  outside)

Hit on the forearms

Sit-ups hitting on the pads when coming up

Hit the pads keeping the sit-up position (without dropping)

I finished with stretching and static side kicks.

Will and Adam started sparring but it did not last long as Adam got almost knocked out.

I was very pleased about the energy I had, I could do it all, the arm is still a bit fragile when it comes to hold the pads but I can train and hit without any problem, I am very happy about that.

As I said earlier this was a killer session but it will get tougher as Mikael has a lot of drills he is going to introduce.

I am very happy about that and about the fact that we have a nice team here, I hope everyone keeps it up.

Strength

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Yesterday at the gym,  I tried to increase the weights, I have to get stronger.

I was just looking at the last sparring videos,  it is good for me to do that every now and then, I see more clearly what needs to be worked on.

Without any doubt,  I am too light and it seems I don´t have any strength at all ( especially when I sparr against Mikael,  it is like a bee fighting an elephant 🙂 ) . I also need more stability,  I am  bouncing too much, I  need to be more clean in my technique and get more power, the list is long so I will only concentrate on that for now.

These videos are old,  I have worked on this since then but I need more work and we will see if there is any improvement next time we get the sparring on film.

Mikael told me yesterday I have to work on determination, he will show me how next time,  I look forward to it.

JEET KUNE DO SWEDEN

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Our website is now up and running, as you can see we have asked some of our friends to participate with texts.

Make sure  you check the links, the website of most of our friends are listed there.

It feels good to finally have a website in english, previous one was in swedish so it was not really international friendly 🙂

We changed the layout completly and Mikael designed the entire thing.

We will add more information and updates as they come.

This is a new step for us, it feels very good.

http://www.jkdsweden.com/

Website and so on …

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Jeet Kune Do Sweden website is almost ready, a few details remain to be fixed but we will soon be able to launch.

It is entirely designed by Mikael, I just helped with some details and texts.

I am happy we finally got this done…

The next step is the new place, we are already planning on some gear that we need, and as soon as we get access,  it will be easier for us to arrange the place just as we want it.

I really look forward to this, having a club will be a real advantage for us, and an opportunity to increase the training frequency!

Private session

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We did not have a group session yesterday; I had a private training with Mikael instead.

First he asked me to show him my footwork, then we worked on mitts.

Special attention was made to the hook, I could feel the difference as Mikael corrected my position, and we worked on it quite a while.

Then we used the focus paddle for more hooks and we added side and hook kicks.

We did some rounds with the large kicking pad

Punches with full power / knee kicks / hook kicks

Then rounds with only punches

And rounds with only hook kicks

All this on both sides

Then I fell down on the floor to catch my breath 🙂

The session was very intense, I am happy to have improved my hook and also happy for the session, it was hard work as I was the only one working all the time, there were no breaks whatsoever.

These sessions are so good for the stamina, body and mind. During a private session I get all the attention and it allows me to progress even faster as I get to work very hard until Mikael is happy with the result.

There is no question about the fact that my personal training during the week is so important, I could not get better with only training on Sundays this is impossible, the work that I do alone is the base for me to absorb that private training with Mikael even better, and then the group training is application.

We talked yesterday about improvement, how crutial the personal work is and that it is the reason why so many people drop off.

It honestly takes years of dedication and hard work and this is first after a couple of years that some techniques can be understood better.

It is part of the reason why I love JKD so much, first because I have a great instructor who makes me want to succeed, then because JKD is my life style,  I would not have it any other way.

So even if my back and my arm hurt like hell today,  I will train by myself tonight according to my schedule and I look forward to next private session with Mikael and next group session !

Pads and Mitts

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Last sunday was a really hard training on pads and mitts just as I like them.

It was only Will and so the intensity was increased,  there was no time to rest !

I warmed up first and jumped rope for 3 minutes

Then we worked on mitts and also on thai pads.

. Straight lead

. Cross

Then with combinations:

. Straight lead, cross, hook

. Straight lead , cross, hook , hook last one with movement of the body to the right with blast to the ribs (light touch)

Then we worked on static hook ( to get the feeling of the punch and the hip rotation , no footwork) on both sides, facing the pads with a wider stance.

Then we added  kicks :

. Front kick  , straight lead,  cross,  hook

Only kicks:

. 3 quick hook kicks, then 4 –  working on both sides

Then we did some series of hook kicks first right,  then left.

Kicking while the pad holder is backing up, right and left , back and forth:

. Hook kick

. Spinning wheel kick

. Axe kick

We finished with stretching .

As we all noticed,  these sessions are really good and we asked Micke for more. We will incorporate those more often in our routines.

ON GUARD !!!

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I worked almost one hour on footwork and on guard position, trying to find my center, basically that is all I did yesterday. Let me tell you that sounds boring, but is is a lot of work, I felt it on both legs and this is really good news for me !

My weight has always been more on the rear leg and my body position is never really straight but a bit back,  I just don´t stand right , the rear foot is not well oriented. I have been trying for years and could never feel that center.
I remembered all that Mikael told me last session  and  I thought about it during the day.  When I started my session  I just found it, and again and again I tried to compare with how I used to stand.
I really feel the difference, well howcome I did not find that before ????  It is not the first time Mikael tells me about it but somehow I don´t know,  I just could not find it. 
Anyway, I worked on this for a while and  adding footwork to it,  Mikael said I also  bounce too much when I move so  I finally worked on all together: 
good on guard, footwork keeping the good body position and trying to stay straight and clean in the movement, before during and after !. 
This is not easy,I am not there yet,  I have to work on it until it comes naturally but I made a good progress today feeling it , FINALLY ! 
I have always dreamt about having that clean style like Mikael has, I just start to get more and more close to understanding some details that can help me along the way. 
JKD is a never ending learning process, that´s the beauty of it. 

WAKE UP !!!!!

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OH My … yesterday I asked Mikael for an additional sparring session because I think I really need it.

When he arrived I had dressed in the Bruce Lee yellow suit and it was difficult for Mikael to start the session as he was laughing at me all the time. I is actually impossible to train with the suit on because it is far too warm, I had to change after 10 minutes.

That was the funny part. Now, yesterday was NOT my day, I took many straight leads right in the face and punches in the arm and I just had not any feeling for it at all. I felt worthless and heavy as two elefants,  at least !

Mikael told me I had to accept days like this and that it will be better,  I can´t just have lost all I learnt, this is a set back. Of course difficult to accept when the body just refuses to do as I say ! But I think it is also a mental problem and considering all that happened lately,  it is not that strange.  

But  I am not too worried because I have felt like this before and it came back. So I ´ll just keep on working ! and have a POSITIVE attitude.