You guys will understand ( and feel ) what that means next time you come to the Sunday Training!

No training partners for two weeks in a row , It will only be me for another private session,  this is good, I need it.

Micke warned us earlier this week about the level that will be higher, he told us to be ready for harder training this sunday.

Not only would  this be harder physically but also on a mental level, 45 minutes with no break and a harder way of instructing, at some point I felt like “G. I. Gina”  in an Army kinda training camp 🙂 But here is an intresting thing to point out, the way the Student is responding to this kind of pressure.  I could feel I did not like it all that much but this was a test and I handled it, after all this is martial Art training, no kinder garden playground.

Have no limitation as limitation… 

Yesterday´s Focus was on Power, especially for the legs but also the arms. Will revert with details later..

At least I can say daily training for pushups pays off quite rapidly.

50 pushups in one go ! and no “girl” pushups! I am very pleased.

Yesterday I chose to train Speed  with paper drill and punching ball. Bruce Lee says the more hours you speed train the faster your arms will travel.

I worked with the footwork coordination as well, hand before foot !

Then I finished with  stretching as usual. I have to say this one goes nowhere ! I don´t know how it goes for  Remy but I cannot tell the difference, this is a bit frustrating but I guess I have to work it even harder.

Weight lifting at the gym tonight …

That was only me yesterday. Training at home with “Flying  Micke”  ( see explanation at the end of the post :-))

After two weeks break because of illness, the start was not without pain..

Paper Drill:

Excellent training device , very simple  and valuable exercise, one of  Bruce ´s favourites. I like it too, a lot of time speed training  is required to get faster. This is one of my goals this year, get faster, much faster..

Focus Mitts:

Speed drills, trying to punch the mitt while Micke takes it away just before impact, I have big trouble with this one!

Same drill with hook kick …

Kicking pad:

Side kicks and work on the control of the kick when the partner backs up.

 

Weights added on the legs and arms:

Hook kicks on mitt , 20 on each side . Heavy drill ! If I thought I felt like an elefant before this was nothing compared to that.

To keep the on guard position with weight on the arms  feels good , because I feel the position of the arms even better .

 

Heavy bag ( weights still on ):

3 minutes round

1 minute all techniques adding  knees kicks and elbow punches

1 minute full power with all techniques adding  high kicks

Yes this one with weights is  very heavy, takes lots of energy and the good thing about is is when the weights are off, I felt so light and fast !! Good to feel the difference…

Isometric training:

Press the arms up trying to lift the partner

Press against the wall with the arms using the whole body

Press the stomach up in sit-up position while the partner press down

Press the legs up lying on the back , trying to lift the whole 103 kgs body weight of Micke … !

That was it for the day ….

I added some stretching in the evening.

 Add on : “This is How we do it !”

While showing  me how to keep full control of the side kick , position and balance when the partner backs up , Micke went flying right down on the floor, I thought the floor had cracked ! Bad idea to wear socks for training! Too bad the camera was not on 🙂

This has been the “thing” for me this week end, as I got the flu. 😦

 I read a book about stretching for martial artists and thought about my training during the past weeks.

I hope I will get better tomorrow and be able to train at least a little bit after work.

While yesterday was almost only about stretching , push ups and sit ups,

Today started with weight lifting  then stretching and side kick.

I really have to work on my side kick,  so I repeated it as many times as possible trying to feel it right , or better .

After the  training I came to think about when I started with JKD,  I was always thinking too much and looking at myself in the mirror, by that I lost focus, I can´t get of my mind Bruce Lee saying ” Don´t Think! FEEL .. ”

This is also what Micke repeated  several times ” you think too much , just do it !” and now after a couple of years I really understand what they mean… Just do it , again and again until you feel something happening ! …

Now I do my thinking outside the training. 🙂

After each session with Micke I gather all comments I have received and  I practise until I feel a difference.

I don´t mean  that  it looks absolutely perfect then, and that it is all it takes, of course not, but I get it better.

Feeling it is a whole different thing and I am happy to have come to that level.

I watched my favourite Bruce Lee movie today, “Enter  the  dragon”, after that I decided I needed to check out how my JKD looks like.

I filmed myself training on the heavy bag  and some footwork and on-guard.

Quite important to be able see, that way I can pay attention to details  that I need work on :

Hand before foot,  the way the foot lands, rotation of the leg when kicking..

First thing I think about: this is again and again the same criticism I get from my trainer and also from Ted last year.

Mikael told me recently that it was better  which is good,  but as I can see on film this is still not perfect.

Another thing, I am always very concerned about my flow, I am so impressed by Micke´s flow , he is so heavy but he has such a facility and fluidity, I always ask him how this is possible ? 25 years or so of training would be one thing,  but a  natural  ability is more the reason he says.

I started training when I was 30 , before that I did not train anything at all, ever. No wonder why my body is taking time to adapt to the new way of life, which is a daily training.

I have soon been training JKD privately with Mikael for 5 years now, even if I have a long way to go , there is a big difference in my ability now.

Nowadays I push myself much more, Mikael says he noticed a huge difference lately, I am very happy about that and  I want to feel it even more …. Love Bruce´s line in Enter the Dragon : “DON`T THINK!!!! FEEL….”   🙂

Oh my god this one is giving me a hard time ! I stretch everyday but this will take time for sure ..

For yesterday´s training I checked Bruce´s schedule, I picked some of his exercises such as:

– Punching with weights.

3sets of 12 straight punch  and cross, this one was tough. I had 3kgs weight on each arm , may be too heavy, but great to test this one.

– Stomach exercises

Waist twists

Sit ups with medicine ball dropings in the stomach and regular

– Forearm exercicses

Leverage bar curl and reverse

– Stamina, Agility

Alternate split ( for as far as I can go of course:-)

Jumping squat , yeah this one I had to try, as I am getting better at stretching I thought this will look kind of OK… but I have some work to do !

To that I added some ” frog jumps”, regular push ups ( 40 in a row ),  push ups with legs on the big Yoga ball ( 40 ) , I just went up from 30 to 40 my goal is 50 before the summer.

Regarding all this,  I also read that Bruce said it is not how many you do it is how you do it, I try to pay attention to the form and make sure I do things right.

 I tested sit ups in different ways, I can do 200 regular with no problem seems a bit too easy so I change position and make deeper moves while lying on the yoga ball,  there I can only do 30!

Pretty intresting .. tonight I will have to test more of Bruce´s exercises such as Leg raises and leaning twist and I am quite curious about frog kicks.. 🙂

Good energy tonight with the weight lifting,  I have not been working enough with the weights lately, but this will definetly come back as one session a week as usual on wednesdays.

After that I did some pushups and  sit ups, I have done this for a while now and  this is good to feel the improvement , I can do more of them and I feel stronger. Sit ups have never been a problem but still I have to build some more abdonminal muscles.

Then I went over to stretching,  you won´t believe it , I could lift to the bridge ! allright it is not getting high enough but as we know I could not lift at all yesterday. I could hold 5 seconds ! I did it over and over again until I could hold 10, I am very pleased, I give myself a month to accomplish this without any problem. The split is getting better as well, even if there is a long road to get to it .  I was sceptical yesterday but now I feel that maybe I will reach the goal before the summer…I was just thinking, I have been training JKD for 5 years soon, well that´s about time!

Remy said he is stretching 35 minutes everynight I do that too , we´ll see who can do the split first 🙂

Just done with today´s training.

Stretching is the  main focus today, I feel that it goes well,

The Bridge position does not look any better today  but like everything else, I have to give it some time. ( I am a bit sceptical for this one really, I don´t know how I will be able to get more flexibility in my back, I look forward to receive the book I ordered and see if anything can help me in there).

Either than that,  I did some pushups and Situps. Increase the level of those would also be nice.

I feel quite tired today, hopefully I will be in better shape tomorrow as weight lifting is waiting for me when I get home:-)

ok,  now I will add some fotwork and I will be done for today…

Tonight I tried to find good exercices on the web , not much to find so first I ordered a book about flexibility for martial artists then I stretched .

I believe that I will get there, the split I mean, how long this will take I don´t know,  but I assume that  if I go on with good exercises everyday I will be much more flexible anyway.

But what´s up with my back ? no really, I tried to do the bridge today in front of the mirror to see how it looks like and really I am a bit concerned , my back is just not flexible at all.  I tried with the medicine ball under the lower back and get started from there, then with the big yoga ball, works as long as I have something maintaining my back but what can I  do to get there with no help?

This one will be a real challenge, because right now it just looks ridiculous.