I think I am loosing myself in the wrong path right now. I have worked on technique and been better but howcome I loose it all when I sparr ? FOCUS ! yes that´s right , I focus on the wrong thing, I want to be tough, I don´t want to look like a girl, yeah but the problem is that I look like a pitbull instead is that better? hardly !!  and this is certainly not the point.

I have been so disappointed at myself lately. How can the sparring look so bad?  I looked at old videos from 2006, I can hardly see a difference in the technique, no better kicks no better form, just more agression.

I have more experience now to see exactly what I do wrong and what I should do instead, I think this is why I am so low right now. I could write a whole list , I can see clearly what I do wrong. Howcome I can´t get it right in sparring then ?

I stop thinking at all, I only go forward, never back down, I only want to hit and find openings but when I find them I never put myself back into position,  it just does not look good.

I am pretty hard on myself and this is good, it makes me think and react, I am happy I can just tell what needs to be worked on, afterall this is a part of the process. I cannot just  go and think I am so good because I have trained for 7 years, if I did that I would live in a dream world.

Now I need to sparr more,  focus on what I am doing… and  kick that pittbull out of there 🙂

This was an interesting training today. We decided to go to the ski slope and down to the water. I requested a  techninque training on pads today.

It went well, after a couple of hook kicks on both sides I heard some comments that are for me the ultimate reward coming from my instructor. Micke said “it shows who your trainier is, it looks good,  you´ve been practising “. I use to hear ” that looks like crap “or something like that but I take it the right way because I know it does ! and it does  not only take one or two or even 5 years to be good at JKD, it takes a long time and those who will persevere after 5 years will eventually succeed, this is my opinion. So I keep telling myself I am getting better and even if I would like to be even better than I am , I enjoy the learning process everyday, and days like this are the reward I cherish the most.

After that, I got baptised !!!!

WELL !!!! we decided I would do some balance exercises while standing at the very edge of the bridge (or whatever this thing is called)…

Anyway I succeded on the right side and as I always work both sides I changed to the opposite corner but it did not take long untill I lost my balance, I tried to compensate by trying to jump back on the bridge but that is when my foot slided from the edge and the only thing I thought about was survival, I had to catch the edge in order not to be stuck in those thousand of plants growing in the water and drown right there. The whole thing was pretty quiet Micke did not see he just heard the sound of me falling into the water and this is when he started taking pictures. Fortunately I had thought it might happen and had a change of clothes with me.

This is only confirming one thing, I have to work on my balance because the left side, yeah … it looks like crap 🙂

Training is the best feeling ever. Oh sure sometimes I feel too tired,  too weak or  too whatever… but anytime I start training I always feel better, there is no good reason to skip training either than illness or injury.

I worked on the bag , footwork , balance and  speed with the paper drill. I feel I get better control and stability, those adjustments at the kiropraktor must do some good on my strangely twisted back ! Anyway, I had some good punch power and did some static  exercises for the side kicks.

Then trying to hold the hook kick position in front of the bag , I noticed a nasty problem that I need to correct kind of RIGHT NOW ! The position of the arms, what on earth am I doing with my arms when kicking ????  No need to say I am  reminded by Micke all the time.

this is a new point on my list, I moved it to the top 5 because it is very important for all kind of reasons, alignement of the body , balance , stability, protection, control, awareness …

In case someone wonders why I´haven´t written for a while .

I injured my back, it is not a serious injury just a muscle thing, but it hurts when I stand, when I sit, when I sleep,  well all the time. I am taking painkillers and stuff and even met with a chiropractor who found some other problems with my back !

One leg is longer than the other , the right hip is forward which make my back and neck compensating on the other direction and this makes my left side and hip weaker and even painful…  and I went there for a pain from my neck down under the right shoulder and in the arm to the fingers….

The good news is that it can be easily fixed with a couple of sessions, and it will even help me with balance so I am taking the pain for now and waiting for the problems to be fixed in the very near future I hope!

I have trained according to the new program this week, I added some stretching for the back and the hips. I can feel it, I have some work to do. This is quite boring to stretch, especially when it takes a long time but anytime I think I want to move on to something else I remember : you will never be good at something else if you´re not flexible! and this is true,  my movements are limited because of that and ENOUGH with the excuses ! I know what I need to do if I ever what to reach the level I want!

I worked on the papper drill , it is such a good exercise, I train all punches following the movement of the papper after impact. I train hook kicks as well , I tried side kicks but they are a bit tricky on the papper 🙂

I also add some hardenning on the heavy bag, this thing is so hard it works just fine! I punch with both hands and controlled impact 100 times and I also kick 100 times with both legs,   I need to harden the shin area because it is just too sensible. As I said,  I do it with controlled impact, I will not go hit a banana tree 1000 times a day as I have seen in some Jean Claude Van Damme movies ! ( go find a banana tree in Sweden anyway! )  

Ted used to hit daily on a piece of steel, he said this is not a question of damaging nerves,  it is gradually building strong knuckles .

But I have to say I am not very happy with myself, this is ground work, basics, I should have put some time in this a long time ago. Now after 6 years I wonder why I am limited while I should be better than this, no wonder I am not …

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.