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.

We decided to go to the gym one extra time per week.

It feels good to alternate, I train JKD at home 3 times a week, two at the gym and sparring on sundays .

We talked about this never ending winter ( sick of it ! ) yesterday ,  it will be so good to be able to run outside,  ride the bike, run in the stairs and so on. We always are much more active when it is not like in Siberia outside !

As for the light, thinking that there is almost no night at all in the summer ,  it gives a great opportunity to do more things, I really look forward to it !

This is the point , get to that stage where you feel what you´re doing is right or wrong.

I always decompose my  training and then put it all together.

I started with some jumps and steps to warm up .

Heavy bag :  serie of straight leads , then I added cross and then hooks.

– combination of all three adding uppercut and backfist.

I go on with kicks, first hook at three levels of hight,  low regular and high, first one after the other, then all three together ( without droping the foot)  as usual this feels better on the right side, there must be some kind of misconstruction on my left side or I am not correctly assembled  🙂 ah no seriously this is lack of training , no secret, I need to spend more time on the left side that´s all, no excuses!

I did some footwork, back and forth ,sideways, bob and weave and added the straight lead and cross, yeah again, cross needs more work. This is where I had a revelation ( or did I ? ) the straight lead start to look and feel pretty good , hm is it because I focus like a crazy person on it ? the answer is yes of course,  the more you train the better you become, again this is no advance brainsurgery,  this is training. Ah I amuse myself sometimes, as if I just learned how it works !!! I just heard it at least a thousand times from Micke, but the role of a student is to start thinking by himself , you can hear something one million times if you don´t get it you are done.

so I spent more time on cross, took it again on the heavy bag , alone and in combinations…

I did some weight exercises and used the rubber thing ( still did not check what this thing is called ) , then I went back to footwork

then 50 pushups in a row ( ok the last 10 were not that deep  but same here , when I started I could barely do  10 and  the five last looked ridiculous, now I can say I do 40 real ones and 10 funny ones at the end, but I will get them to look good I can tell you that ! )

Go on with footwork again , adding the punches.

Situps on the balance ball,  I did 50 but it did not hurt enough…

Footwork again

Situps , I tried to find the most painful position and I did 30

and another round with footwork and 30 situps.

I finished with the wristroller, I am not bragging about this one, it is killing me every single time. I did three time and I was done.

some stretching and that´s it for tonight .