Nothing to do with the band from the 80´s, that is just Mikael breaking things again !

Last time he hit Will´s bag, this one went fllying as the chain broke. Today as he threw a punch at  Will, the grid of the helmet  broke. The sound was scary,  luckily Will wasn´t hurt but this could have gone bad… ( We got this on tape ). I can´t believe the helmet just broke, talk about power ! 🙂

We worked only with Red Man today. Both Will and I noticed a certain confusion when hitting Red Mikael, we felt we were hitting in an awkward way, by that I mean we used strange and unconventional techniques that are not quite right. I felt most confused,  it was a strange feeling , I could hit exactly where I wanted but still it did not feel right. I did not like being confused, I actually felt kind of stupid. Well it means we need more work on this.

That was interesting that both Will and I had the same feeling. We are going to use the red man in addition to the normal sparring.   We taped most of the session and took pictures, I look forward to see them.

Pads- light to hard sparring-  finish with the famous combination pad-pushup-pad-situps-pad pushup,  killer!

Stomach and leg hardenning after that …

I feel stronger in the way that I can make it through ( and still …no girly pushups! )

I don´t have so much muscle pain the day after either, I am better with stretching and I think that helps.

I feel really tired today but I haven´t missed a session since we started in January and it feels good. I gradually increase the tempo …

Remy and I made a bet yesterday .. Again !  be able do the split on July 1st, will see who wins but for the record I have never been able to do it so it can be difficult. Anyway a bet is a bet ! and considering the fact that regular stretching has made my kicks look better,  it is only a good thing to increase the frequency even more.

The sparring session started with light contact and ended with full contact with protective gear on.  Adam got hit in the head and he was very pale when he left, we hope he is feeling  better now. I want to add that both Adam and Remy are doing a great job in sparring, I personnaly like their ability to adapt to different kinds of fighters.  We have all different body shapes and strength, the fact that we never work with the same person is good , it forces us to adapt and work on different fighting aspects and techniques that will work with one and not with the other because the weakness and openings are  not the same from people to people.

Mikael was not joking when he said this year will be tougher but the fact that he said “you ain´t seen anything yet”  is a little scary !!! 5 people present last wednesday,  we worked a lot on pads series and combinations at full power, almost all kicks and punches were involved, to finish with a really painfull serie of punches on the big pad alernated with pushups and situps… untill you drop !!!!!

Sparring right after that…………

I felt sick but no puking ( Coshe wasn´there 🙂 ) .

I thought I would have the worst muscle pain ever but I did not, I think the increased intensity is just good.

I feel better and better , this swedish winter is always getting on my nerves real bad but we gained almost one hour of light and this feels so good, I so look forward to more light so the days feel longer and we can start living again. I never minded the cold or the snow but I just can´t stand the night, even after almost 11 years in Sweden, this bloody night is my enemy number one, if only I could kick it away !

I went down to the dojo today to join  Mikael who was training . We have a lot of new gear in there, now it really feels like a Martial Art place!  We have some kind of heavy bag formed like a man that is used for different things, Mikael gave this thing a name, that was funny ! So we kicked that guy´s butt for a while and worked on the new bags,  then I did some pushups, burpees and situps.  It was a light session for me , but after a long week it  feels so good to be able to go there and blow off some steam …. 🙂

Now we are almost done with the place, we need new lights and a few mirrors and we are done !  The inauguration is just around the corner!

I met Mikael yesterday to look over the training routine and plan more private sessions during the week. It feels so good to be able to meet in our dojo and just work on whatever we need whenever we want. I still have to train by myself  but these extra sessions will be really good for me.

So far the group sessions were very good, we are getting more training gear and that offers more possibilities. Mikael is also planning the upcoming sessions and it will be really interesting to see what he comes up with.

Last sunday  it was only Adam and I. Mikael made us work rounds on the bag and on pads, it was more or less the same session as the week before with Will and last wednesday with André. When only two people are present, the training is more intense in my opinion and we get more attention, which is good. I start to feel the benefit of the extra group training and it feels good 🙂

That was our last training in the warehouse for us. André , Adam, David and Gina were present this Sunday.

We actually had a quite calm session , Mikael thought he would go easy on us which is good in a way ….or not ! I know for sure he is preparing a tougher training for next year, not only will we get more group sessions but the intensity will be increased.

Anyway , yesterday we worked on mitts most of the time, we did basic punch  and kicks drills.

After a short sparring session  we did some pushups situps and jumps. Without revealing any names, I saw some ugly girly pushups out there !!!  🙂

Next Sunday won´t be any training as we get the keys,  we will spend the day moving in and fixing the place the way Mikael and I want it, I really look forward to that.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year !!!

This was the almost last session in the warehouse, one more and the one after will be in our new place!

Participants: Pierre, André and Gina

Pierre and I started warming up and jumped rope for a couple of minutes

Then we worked on mitts :

Straight lead

Cross

Hook

Shovel hook

Combinations: jab cross hook with different rhythms and speeds

Hook and side kicks

When André arrived he worked on the same thing with Pierre, I did some footwork during this time.

Then we started on sparring drills.

First trying to take  the partner down who had to avoid it by keeping a good stance

Then adding punches and kicks to it

Then we put the helmets on to spice it a little more.

We did several rounds, I worked with Mikael and the guys worked together.

There was some intensity in the sparring and as for the last minutes Mikael and I stopped to look at what the guys did, we agreed there is some good potential there!

I requested some pushups and sit-ups to finish the session which wasn´t so popular…

Then while Mikael drove the guys back to the train station, I went on with more sit-ups drills and finished with stretching.

It felt Ok to spar but I have a big problem with my helmet which blocks the sight too much. André replaced his grid with one from a Hockey helmet, it looks like it works just fine, I will try that as well.

The fact that I don´t see well makes me do big mistakes and misjudge the distances, I punched Mikael right in the jaw and this was not meant to be as he had no helmet on (He lent his to Pierre for the session).

This is why we all need to have our own gear so everyone can train at the same time, I would add that for hygiene reasons I would not lend mine! 😆

So we hope that as for January 1st,  everyone has the requested gear for each session.

Mikael and I discussed the session afterwards and were pleased to say we have two good guys here that look serious  dedicated and have really good potential.

So see you next time for the last training in the warehouse,  we will have to celebrate somehow!

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 🙂

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.

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.

This Sunday was one of those trainings outside just as we like them. Apart from two people  who missed the session….. We were all there , and also very pleased to see Markus Stawbom from Nynäshamn join the group.

We started with drills on pads:

Straight lead, cross and hook.

Then the kicks, front and hook .

Then feeding.

Light sparring sessions,  with no gear first.

Then some of us added some protection as the light sparring became a bit harder.

We did rounds and changed partners.

Then our friend Michel came up with a brilliant idea to finish us all: let´s run up hill.

All of us went down first and already felt the pain in our legs…then we started running and …well it went  not so well:-) This hill is a killer!

Let´s face it we all need to improve our condition,  but all of us came up anyway so, no it wasn´t so bad !

After two hours , as we were finished,  our new student arrived , he had some trouble with the clock as we changed to winter time this weekend. We welcome Pierre ( Lee Cow Yin Yin)  anyway and look forward to next session (starting 12 on sundays 🙂 )

We also thank Markus for participating and we hope to have more people from Nynäshamn joining . We also decided we would travel down to them on a regular basis.

We also look forward to our new place, which will allow us more group sessions during the week.