last night session at the gym was quite interesting. I started with 30 minutes on the crosstrainer and I have to say I don´t feel this is tough enough anymore , I have it on highest level and try to push to high tempo but still…

Anyway I lifted some weight,  worked on biceps, shoulders and did some situps and pushups exercises on the TRX.

I worked on the legs for a while as well as I need to tighten up this aera a little (!) …

After one and a half  hour I thought I was done but when I went pass the treadmill I thought I would give it a try. I ran only 2 kms , it took me around 10 min, Ok not a record but I never run on that thing, it makes me dizzy when I get down, I prefer running outside,  it feels much more natural to me. 

Anyway the point here is that I felt I did more workout in 10 minutes on the treadmill than I did in 30 minutes on the crosstrainer , so I may do that again 🙂

when I came back home, after I got myself something to eat, I did a bit of footwork and shadow boxing.

Jkd training is at tonight´s program.

I see my upper body is getting some nice trained shape but the lower aera needs some work tough ! 

I need to get stronger legs this is important for my kicks and the stomach aera is under construction as well because it is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Bruce Lee Lee believed that the abdominal muscles were one of the most important muscle groups for a martial artist, since virtually every movement requires some degree of abdominal work. Bruce always felt that if your stomach was not developed, then you had no business doing any hard sparring.

After 6 years I apparently earned to know one JKD secret. Micke showed me today and I worked on it by myself tonight.

I tried with and without and repeated it again and again until I felt the difference, quite tricky at the beginning because I am simply not used to it but I think this will help me get better because this makes a huge difference.

and no I won´t write what it is,  in case you are waiting for it 🙂

…

I also worked by myself tonight, I am just finished with it.

I started with The TRX , God that thing is killing me ! I Like the army version, no girls in shorts in this one , and real exercises for tough guys … and girls  🙂  Anyway,  I did program number two and the problem with it,  is that after I was done I wanted to do more, so I started program number one but I actually stopped after the leg exercises.

I did some footwork for quite some time and trained on kicks on the papper drill.

The main focus tonight was to keep a straight line, a little earlier today Micke told me it was not good, so I worked on it tonight.

A bit of stretching and I am really done for today …

tonight I started warming up on the heavy bag .

then some footwork alone and integrating punches.

I trained on the straight lead for a short moment tonight as some more work needs to be done on the other punches .

I trained in front of the mirror for a while , only on cross and hook, trying to keep a good alignement , a proper footwork and seeing how that looks is actually very good, then I did the same without looking and tried to feel the movement.

Then I went to the heavy bag with gloves

I did rounds of cross and rounds of hooks

then back in front of the mirror

I also tried this with the papper drill, it is kind of tricky  on the papper but  a very good exercise!

I ended with a couple of rounds on the heavy bag, without gloves. ( this is when you feel even more when you hit wrong ! )

The more I trained the more I felt I was getting there, it felt better and  it looked better than before.

Finding the right  footwork/punch combination until it becomes ONE, takes time and requires hard work and a lot of training, no secret here…

I train more on footwork than ever before, here we have an answer to some questions anyway…

I got myself a TRX, I took the army version and tried the program from the DVD as soon as I received it. I am amazed by that product, I really like it. The exercises are really fun to do and very hard for some of them. What I like most is the way you feel the body is working really hard, and then you got the message even clearer the day after … the muscles in my legs just killed me for three days!

I could not do some exercises, this is good it gives me goals to achieve with it.

I will go to the gym tonight for some weight lifting and then  the usual crosstrainer or I may try to run instead, we´ll see.

I don´t think Micke will follow tonight because the Dragon is healing right now… 🙂

I wrote in a previous post that I was proud of myself, that´s good because it is not the case everyday. I use to joke about things that I am bad at , not today.

Of course the correct state of mind is to accept your defeats and accept that you are not the best at everything. I am certainly not the best at everything and I liked to say I passed that level where you feel like crap, like I do today.

But the difference with before is that today,  I am turning this one into a positive matter,  in a way.

Micke came to my place today for our sparring session, I was told to use the left lead and that is when everything just fell apart in my head and in my JKD. At first I thought well OK,  I trained on the left lead this week we´ll see how I manage, but then I got hit in the tibia because I had a too slow and too bad  footwork , it hurt like hell but I went on, and then I got punched right in the nose because my helmet grid is too wide and Micke´s fist  just went through in the middle. It hurt allright,  but I had worse before  so no big deal but  I felt  upset and  I left the room and went to isolate myself for a couple of minutes. I was  upset with myself for feeling like I did 6 years ago. Then Micke told me we could stop and I said no, then we went on sparring  but using the right lead.  I got  hit more but it did not feel the same way,  I have  more confidence and no fear when I am in my comfort zone.

So what shoud I do from there ?  Train more things I am not comfortable with. Of course there is no way I ´m gonna use the left lead  if I have to use my JKD in the streets, but in some situations I may have to and this is why I should train it, and because I cannot allow myself to be afraid of sparring using the  the left lead or in  any other situation ever again.

Micke really pushes me, when it comes to training I am not considered like a girl and this is good, this is why I am where I am today and this is what helped me get passed the  stages from the beginning . He pushes me because he believes in me and in my potential otherwise why bother. The truth is  I owe him my level,  being hard on me makes me tough and let´s face it, if I have to use my skills one day in the real life and make it out alive,  I will have one person to thank for that.

JKD is tough, it is a fighting art, I am being pushed to my limits and I would not want to train in any other way.

 So this is one serious post today I don´t feel like joking at all, I have some work to do.

We went to the gym tonight , I warmed up on the crosstrainer ,

then we headed to the weight lifting area when I noticed something new , something I had seen in one of Amy´s videos, the TRX Suspension Trainer! Ah I went straight to it and tried,  I just love it and I am gonna get one!

We worked most on shoulders and biceps tonight, then we  went over to the situps area,  there is a situp “machine” that just kills the stomach after just 7 repetitions! I can´t do a lot of those but it is just a question to push it a little bit more every time.

Then  I asked Micke to help me with stretching, it is getting better but there is a tremendous amount of work on this one and that is not new…

Then I had to try the TRX Suspension Trainer again before we left  🙂

Tonight´s training was painful but this is the way it should be , so you feel it working !

Tonight I thought I would add some drills that I should do more often

I started warming up with jumping rope

Footwork :  going forward on a straight line covering the whole room then backwards a couple of times, right and left lead . I also worked on side steps ,  using right and left lead as well.

Shadow boxing:  focus on the correct footwork and speed  coming back in on guard  , doing series and combinations.

Series of jabs

jab and cross

cross

jab cross and hook

hook

the Kicks:

I actually only worked on hook kicks tonight, I tried some series of fast ones

Paper drill: I put the paper into place and worked on the famous paper drill:

I worked on jabs for a while and added all punches following the rotation and movement of the paper, trying to keep appropriate footwork , correct technique, power and speed

Statical training:

Keeping the position up,  trying to stay in balance ,  Hook and sidekicks. I noticed my leg  was too low so was my upperbody, especially in the sidekick position.

I decided to do some stretching,  first on the floor and then I attached a rope on the top of the bag , I attached  my foot on one side of the rope and pulled the other side.

I was not really happy with this one,  it did not hurt enough. I have to find an adjustment to that exercise so I can feel it working.

I did some more statical leg training and went on the floor to stretch again until it hurt too much to go on.

Then I was done with the sesssion…

Micke Told me I´d better be in Top Shape before the summer… I guess I will have to work even harder… 🙂

I am just finished with my session tonight.

I started warming up with some jumps and steps ( some that I stole from Amy´s videos 🙂 )

then some footwork, right and left lead,  forward backwards and sides .

I started with a serie of jabs on the bag,  30 with right lead,  30with left.

Same thing with cross , and same with hook and finished with back fist.

Kicks : hooks , series with front right leg and then front left

same with sidekicks

– 30 pushups

– biceps work with weight

– Then I attached the” rubber band thing” to the door handle and worked on jab cross until it burned like hell

back to the bag with same exercises, jab and cross and hook right and left.

hook and side kicks, right and left.

I finished with taking off the gloves and worked on jab cross hook and kicks on the bag with less power to pay more attention to the technique and feel the movement.

I just have to say it is when you work on things that you realise how much you need it. It means as well that the learning process never ends,  anytime I get better at something I notice something else to work on and this is good,  I reached a level where I can feel and notice the details and know what is needed to get better. This is the beauty of JKD, dedication and self discipline will pay off. I really am proud of myself even if I think I am not training enough.

AH , well this training session today did not start the way I expected.

Micke asked me to hit the bag to see how my technique looks like.

After a couple of minutes he says to change side, using the left lead, ah the famous left side , my famous worthless left side, no seriously !

First of all I was totally lost, no flow no power no form nothing ! talk about feeling like crap!  And Micke´s comment confirmed it: ” what the hell is this ???”

I use to train the left side but not in rounds on the bag, standing on the left lead and using all combinations feels unnatural and seems the body just wants to go back to the right lead. I found myself thinking, not knowing which hand to use and my God It felt like I was  back to 6 years ago,  OH NO I won´t let that happen !

Then I did the techniques in the air, kicks:  hook side and front, punches:  jab cross hook uppercut ,  and same thing on pads.

Then I tried to hit and kick Micke  going forward and backwards  still only using the left lead …

As a result I was told to train the left side only , for the whole coming week. 

I went back to the right side and hit the bag again,  I feel lighter and have a better flow.

Then I worked on hook kicks in the air .. that is where I got a comment which I did not realise or believe at first , Micke said:

 ” your kicks start to look like mine ”  WHAT ??? wow this is huge  and that makes my day !

I have another point to work on, during the past weeks I tried to work on my position and tried to have a better alignement and stand better, I tend to bend my upperbody forward, I need to stand more straight. When Micke told me it was a big mistake to look down I realised that is why I am not standing correctly, and if I look down I can´t see the kicks coming right at my head !

This is going to be the focus of this week, work the bag and all techniques on the left side and hit the bag looking up not down. I will draw a line on the bag to have a point to focus on when working on it.