San Francisco 2011

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I cannot tell you how happy I am to go back to San Francisco. I honestly have thought about this town everyday since I was there last year.

Micke and I  have been invited by Jeff Chinn to visit the Bruce Lee room and he also said he will take us around town to visit some of Bruce´s places. We met Jeff at Bruce ´s birthday last year, we first took the tour in China Town, we noticed there how much he knows and this was very interesting to see all those places.

We met amazing people last year, I already told this, but I was a bit sad we did not have more time to speak to Allen. I will always remember when he asked us about the fortune teller, I was so happy to be there I will never forget that evening. I so hope we can meet Allen this year.

We brought back home lots of incredible memories from that trip and we are now living in the wait of building some new ones, I really can´t wait ! there is definetely something special with this town.

ALL IN ONE !!!

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easy to say… when working on the bag I try to get a good technique thinking about the whole package,  speed, power, precision, position, timing, balance, retreat…. somehow something is always missing. The thing is to train until you don´t have to think anymore, until it becomes natural.

This will come with time, I always remember the comments I get from Micke and that helps me correcting some details. Somehow comments never stop to come ! new ones all the time, God will I get this right one day ?

Well, it is a never ending learning process, I see people who have trained for a year or so and think they know it all. Sure some people will get this faster than others but still , if it was that easy wouldn´t we all be certified… Let´s leave the subject where it is, I feel I would have a lot to say about certain behaviours , but as once Ted told us, don´t waiste time on negative energy, it is not worth it. I follow that advice most of the time, it actually has helped me in quite some situations.

Anyway, I get disappointed in myself sometimes because it does not go fast enough, I feel I should be better than this after 6 years. Really  I train everyday, somehow this is not enough or not the right way.

I have a big poster and a painting of Bruce in my training room, I wonder what he would think of me, sometimes I even feel the poster is looking at me and when I am done with training,  I get a bad feeling. One of my favourite scenes in Enter the Dragon is at the begining with his student, I always think , God I would get so much slap on the head !

Somehow Micke is reminding me of this, he has got that same style when teaching,  he has that seriousness and that ability to see it all, in the smallest detail and just say what he thinks. I don´t get slapped on the head ( I hope he doesn´t  get any idea now ! )  but what he says hurt me a lot at the beginning, when I hear it now I feel I can take it and use it to get better instead, it helped me mentally, I got tougher because of this. Micke´s teaching technique makes me want to get it right even more, this is what an instructor is all about, giving you the motivation and the will to go on , no matter what and  even if I do this first for myself.

JKD changed my life, and no matter what may happen, it will never be the same again.

Controlled Sparring

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Last sunday , it was only Adam who showed up for training.

After I warmed up by running up the slope we practised a few techniques on mitts.

Then we went on to sparring where the point this time,  was to focus on the technique. The fact is Adam is so tall I had to adapt to his height and his range. This was actualy very interesting because I sparred in a whole other way, this was obvious that I would have difficulties to reach him with punches so I had to work my kicks more than usual and try to keep the distance.

I also found myself moving my head more to provide  him from reaching me. It felt good, better than the sunday before when I felt totally worthless.

But I should be able to use a good technique in all situations so I heard we will go back to the chicken coop this sunday and  I will have to opportunity to correct my mistakes there as well…

Redirect focus!

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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 🙂

Great Team=Great training

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AH what a nice team we have there! participants of the day : Michel, Remy, Will, Micke and Gina.

We started with technique on mitts, first all punches in whatever combination just to feel it right.

then we worked on cross with retreat

and a combination of Straight lead, the partner tries to hit with the other mitt and  cross straight after the blocking.

all this was done using both sides.

I was working with Will, he hits pretty hard! my arms where shaking after the exercises just by holding the pads 🙂 but I could hold unlike when I train with Micke , it feels my arms are gonna fall down when he hits!

Then it was sparring time,  we took the level up a little trying to keep a good form but giving it all.

The thing with today´s training is that because of the heavy rain, we trained inside the shelter or  “chicken coop” as Micke likes to call it,  which is a very small aera and the awareness of what´s around is extremely important , I mean by that : try not to throw the partner or fall on the bench or something like that…

That was some pretty tough sparring out there,  great time!!!

After everyone has done that,  we decided to try a sitting attack : one person  is sitting on the bench and the other one coming right at him. We laughed a lot when Remy and Michel fought, they were shouting at each other,  the film is going to be great! This is such an interesting training that when it was my turn I requested to do it without protection. The reason for this is simple, while sitting on a bus or train , I don´t wear a helmet and I wanted to see how that would feel.

Of course against Micke there is so much anyone can do and in that position well , it looks pretty finished as soon as it starts, but I am a pretty stuburn girl and I did not give up easily. I loved this exercise, real life situations are important to work on because you never know if you gonna need it someday.

After all this Micke thought we would run the stairs but as Michel and I started we noticed it would not work because of the high grass that had completely covered it in the middle. So instead we ran up the “ski jumping” landing slope made of some kind of slippery plastic grass, this was fun ! then at the top I looked down and as Michel and Remy decided to run it down I told myself: NO WAY ! I took it on the side,  on the real grass instead but the guys went down not running because that was impossible but sliding on their behind!  I was called “chicken”  when I came down 🙂

Make it real

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we trained with Nicklas yesterday. first techniques on pads / mitts and then some sparring.

Nicklas had disappeared for a while and he was not feeling at the top but I have to say he´s got some good chances to be good at it, as for a beginner he has a really good form. this is the thing with JKD you don´t get away with only training once every 3 months or so…

I felt very low on energy and had problems with the flow. It happens sometimes. Micke says I need to accept it, no one can be at the top everyday all year round. I am better but I still have difficulties to accept this when it happens, I get depressed because I feel I kind of spoiled a training session for myself.

Anyway, we filmed the sparring with the headcam. Micke was carrying it on his helmet, he was keeping the distance more than usual and hiting also harder than usual. I did not feel good about this sparring at all.

I thought about it afterwards and actually the fact that Micke makes our sparring as real as possible, is for sure hard on us but on the other side, he is doing us a big favour: preparing us for what could happen in the streets. Of course we don´t only train that hard and for what ” could ” happen” but let´s get real about why we all train martial arts.

be ( in ) the water my friend !

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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 🙂

the best feeling

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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 …

“black eye Girl”

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yeah ! ok first the back and now the eye, I wonder what´s next….

Oh Well, that´s the way it can go sometimes, this is martial arts. I take it because I have to, the day I get myself into a real life situation there will be no time for pain or fear.

Anyway this black eye hurts like hell today but I did not feel a thing yesterday at all, I discovered the “surprise” this morning when I got up.

It was nice to meet new people at the training yesterday, David I had met before, Adam is the giant man that I met for the first time yesterday. We hope we´ll see them on a regular basis as some of us disappeared without a trace.. again…

We only sparred yesterday, I started with some “teaching” David about the basis, I explained how footwork is the key and that you cannot do without. I gave him some advice on what to do at home and what to focus on , it was nice of Micke to let me do that , I really appreciated the opportunity.

Then we let them sparr against each other and we sparred ( Micke  and I) , on the concrete plattform with no gear and we toughed it up a little. I fell good and in control even when he tried to strangle me, I got lose and fought back.

The we sparred one on one against a wall, Micke had decided he would go for the arm that I injured a week before…

Well, once more I have to learn to protect my weaknesses!

We were talking with David about the awareness and how to not make our disadvantages worse , David and I have almost the same height, I told him to keep a straight body because he has a tendency to bend and look down, this makes a too  easy target for the other who has a double advantage. The disadvantage of smaller people has to be compensated by an outstanding footwork, this is what will make us at the same level or better.

At last,  Adam asked Micke to sparr and we got some pretty good filming on this one 🙂 you can check this on our group page .

Injury

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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!