What´s the point ?

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Being a woman and training JKD in Sweden is a challenge. First of all, no one understands why I do that. Not my problem, I do it because it makes me happy and it brings all kind of positive things to my life and to my health, mental and physical, I do not need to explain this to anyone.

The other aspect is being the only woman, is that a problem for me? No Sir! It is an advantage and I will tell you why.

When I started in 2004, I was put in the girls group and I did not like it because it had nothing to do with JKD.  But soon they moved me to the JKD guys group. This was better although not good enough as most of the guys did not want or dare train with me. That was one of the reasons why I left and started with Mikael instead.

What is good about our group now is that no one treats me like a girl, I train with anyone and they are professional enough to adapt but still they don´t hold back too much.

I like training with guys and especially Mikael because he is twice my size and weight and it is so hard for me,  it makes me train harder and be used to the level of difficulty, this is how I progress.

My goal training JKD is simple and personal,  I do that for me and no one else. I don´t need to prove anything, I don´t need a belt or a piece of paper telling me how “good” I am. The proof is in fighting , the proof is in me.

I don´t want to participate in any war, a lot has happened lately, groups within groups, alliances, strange attitudes, discords… I have no time for these childish guy attitudes fighting about who has got the biggest ego…  Again, this is their problem not mine. I ´d rather spend my time training and even if nobody would ever notice me, I will always feel good about myself because I know where I come from and what I have achieved.

I will always say what I think and some people won´t like it  but I don´t need anyone liking everything I do, I don´t need sucking up to anyone to be noticed either, to me training is a personal thing not a race towards fame and recognition.

So what´s the point?

The point is what JKD brings me, the person I have become and the people I have met along the way.

Break Machine!

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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.

Cruelty

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I can´t stand seing or hearing about cruelty against animals. I just looked at a video on FB not knowing what is was about,  it starts with a “man” beating his dog, I feel sick to my stomach. There is so much cruelty out there, so many cowards that feel strong and in power! These guys beating animals, women and children are all of the same kind.

I always wonder what I would do if I witnessed something like that in life, considering how I feel now I really don´t know if I would be able to control myself.

This is something to think about, considering what this could imply but there is no way in hell I would walk or look he other way.

Killer Session

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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.

The man in the Mirror

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What to do when you are unhappy with how things are going ? 

I will quote my favorite artist Michael Jackson : “start with the man in the mirror and make that change”.

I always say if you are not happy with something, just get out ! it can be personal affairs, work, friendships, weight problem or whatever, I like to say nobody is forced to a situation, your life is what you make of it. Often we blame others for being stuck somewhere because doing something about it can be very hard and involve many other things.

Some people talk about time, that things will get better with time, what do we know about that? Anything can happen, time won´t fix any problem, time will only make you lose an opportunity, make things be too late or unfixable.

It is exactly the same with JKD, if you think that you suck, just do something about it and not tomorrow, now ! Nobody will do the work for you. Now being aware that something is not right is already a good thing !  That means you have a certain knowledge, the next step is to know how to fix it, then just do it. Simple and direct !

In any situation in life the key is YOU.

Year Of the Dragon …

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I read on the internet about the people born in the year of the Dragon  here is what I found:

In a group of people, “the Chinese Year of the Dragon person” stands out. There is a certain aura about them.
They certainly are not shy – they demand attention and respect. The dragon is a symbol of power. Therefore in Chinese astrology the dragon person born under this Chinese Zodiac sign tends to be a “doer” – they do things and achieve power by getting things done. A dragon can breathe out fire so the person born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon can be a hothead. Watch out if you make them angry!

Seems to me this is the description of Bruce Himself! 🙂

Now let´s see, what am I ? well I am a RAT, a water Rat ! Does not sound too good when it is said like that but the person born in the year of the rat according to the Chinese is not a bad person at all, let´s see what I found:

The person born in the Year of the Rat is naturally shy according to Chinese astrology. However they work hard to conceal it although it is there below the surface. 2012 will be another year of hard work.
The rat is very industrious and hardworking. Therefore, the person born under this Chinese Zodiac Sign is hardworking and always very busy trying to get ahead in business.  They are very loyal to their friends.
They are single minded in achieving their goals and not easily distracted from this by other things.  

Mikael is a Pig ( talking about chinese astrology here ! 🙂 )  , a metal Pig :

Outspoken and confident, Metal Pigs give 110% for everything they do. They throw themselves into relationships with others completely, sometimes to a fault. These Pigs are headstrong and diligent in the workplace, honest and caring in a relationship and trustworthy with everyone he meets unless given reason not to be. Metal Pigs usually give people more credit than they deserve but when challenged can be a hard nut to crack.

So let´s see what the year of the Dragon will bring us, apparently it will be a good year for us Rats and Pigs….

Gina Session!

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Nobody came to the training today so I had Mikael all for myself!

We worked  on my ” problems” and I have some homework to do.

That feels very good and I want more of that.

I hit the bag and worked on kicks and  footwork movement to the sides. I have a serious problem with my movement to the right, it feels more natural to me to the left but I really suck when it comes to the other side, so I worked on it with Mikael and repeated until it became better but  it did not ! I worked on it by myself on the bag and will do that at home as well until this looks and feels better.

Repeating the movement again and again is helping me, on the bag I stepped to the right side with a showel hook and right after that with a corkscrew, the footwork seems easier on the heavy bag but when Mikael throws a punch at me,  I can´t get it right , I am just too slow…!  I felt a bit frustrated but I know that the more I work on it the better it will get, it cannot come out right all of a sudden like magic! Mikael says my form is changing and it feels like it, I got a deeper understanding of what I am doing now, this is good but the thing is,  I have so much work ahead. I really get it, JKD requires so much work before anyone can be any good !  There is always something you suck at ! but well, accepting it and training on it until you get better is the spirit so … let´s do it .

Intensity

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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!

New times

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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 🙂

THE ROOM

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Happy new year 2012 !

Our place is getting ready, still painting and getting some stuff but it is getting there.

This is all new for us, we always talk about our “new” place but really, this is our first place. We have been training together for almost 7 years, having a place or not was never an issue. In my opinion a  place is not making anyone good a martial arts, anyone who wants to train will always find a way and this is what we did over the years. Now I must admit that  having somewhere to train which is our own is really nice, it is not that big but again, the size is not relevant.

We will still train outside during the summer, the variation is good and allows us to be used to fight in any condition, this is more or less what we have always done.

Last wednesday was our first group training. Michel, Remy, Will, Pierre and David joined us for this very special session. It got very hot in there but we had room for 6 people plus instructor and this was very nice to see that it is working just fine.

We mostly worked on mitts and pads  and added funny pushups and situps drills, I was not really fond  the last one which consisted in lying on the floor having one person walking on everyone stomach, I am the lightest , not fair ! We finished with the famous invisible chair, ( when you “sit” against the wall the longest possible), and … no no , I won´t brag about who won this one… by far !  🙂

We did some drills with the TRX before Remy tried on a surprise attack on Mikael… oh oh , this is always a bad idea !

Anyway this is good  that we are moving on and this is a great start for this new year.

This morning Mikael and I trained, he showed me some other ways to kick the bag standing on the medicine ball,  Oh yeah really ?????  I will try that one when my kicks look better than they did today ! But seriously, either than being flashy and for those who can do it,  it is a good exercise for the balance, I will definetly try it. Mikael has a lot of good drills that  help with the technique and a better technique will produce better fights. I am always amazed by the amount of drills he comes up with, he has one or ten for anything we would ask, this is incredible and it shows the level of his skills. When Mikael sparrs it seems so easy and effortless, always simple direct and explosive. I understand more and more the amount of work he has done over the years. It can be discouraging for a student but I don´t expect getting as good as him because it is not the point, I will train until I am as good as I can be and considering the range of competence I have access to,  it is up to me to absorb everything I can. I am never questionning Mikael´s methods because I just look at the result:  the quality of his technique and his performance in fights, that is why there is no question.

So my 2012 resolutions are quite simple, I have to get in the best shape ever and reach the next level in JKD, I am not getting any younger,  so it is now or never!