Monday 24th August A mate contacted me and offered me a driving job on a protection detail at short notice, so I spent most of the day acting as a glorified chauffeur around London. I had a great time, worked with some great blokes and have pretty much been guaranteed another couple of jobs very soon. My close protection refresher course is booked for October and I can't wait. It was early evening by the time I got home, so I did a basic circuit in my home gym: Barbell overhead press with Fat Gripz: 4 x 10 (35kg) Dumbbell side deltoid raise with Fat Gripz: 4 x 10 (15kg) Weighted push-up: 10, 12, 8, 8, 10 (with 8kg vest) I've started using Fat Gripz at every opportunity to help beef up my forearms and build some gnarly strength in them there hands o' mine. I figure stronger fingers means better eye pokes in Krav.
Tuesday 25th August 1030-1200: Krav Maga Private Lesson Did kickboxing combinations on the Thai pads (3-minute rounds) for the first half hour, then we covered weapon retention and recovery drills for the pistol. 1830-2000: ITF Taekwon-do Class Ten minutes of basic blocking and punching combinations in lines followed by a total body dynamic warm-up (arm circles, walking lunges, leg swings etc). Worked power kicks on the kick shields: rear leg front kick, rear leg side kick, stepping-in side kick, rear leg turning (roundhouse) kick, reverse side kick and reverse turning kick. Emphasis was placed on correct form and foot placement/positioning. Any sloppy kicks or kicks that lacked enough power to move the shield holder were "rewarded" with ten knuckle push-ups. We probably did that for about an hour before finishing with patterns relative to our grade.
On a serious note though, you really seem to be thoroughly enjoying yourself again with your training, which is nice to see.
Thanks buddy. Oddly, splitting from the ex was actually one of the best things that ever happened to me! Means I can do all the stuff I really wanted to do.
Thursday 27th August 1030-1200: Krav Maga Private Lesson This session focused on using a front-leg side push kick to the attacker's body to create enough time and distance to draw a weapon. I was dressed in full operational gear and training weapons again and my instructor was wearing a head guard with face shield, Thai belly pad and focus mitt on each hand. We started with a few rounds of just doing the push side kick and shouldering the M4. We then removed the M4 and repeated the drill but drawing the pistol from its leg holster. These sessions have taught me that I need to have my leg holster strapped tighter than I would usually like, but doing so stops the pistol and holster flailing around when kicking (I primarily kick with my right leg, which is where I put my leg holster). My instructor upped the ante by coming straight in with punches (hitting with the focus mitts) while I was recovering from the push side kick. I ended up smothered and on my ass a few times because he rushed in when I was re-chambering my leg. I found the best strategy was to keep my knee up in a high chamber to jam him from coming in too close (a tip I was taught by Bill "Superfoot" Wallace years ago) and covering my head with a high boxing guard. I then drove forward with both hands outstretched and tried to control my instructor's head (digging thumbs in his "eyes" if possible - remember, he was wearing a head guard with a face shield). I tried to wrench his head with a solid Thai clinch while delivering hard knee strikes to the belly pad, before pushing him away with a two-handed shove to the chest, followed by a front push kick to the belly pad and finally drawing my pistol. At one point while I was controlling his head in the Thai clinch, I felt him punching me in the thigh/groin. Turned out he'd pulled a training knife out of his waistband and was simulating a prison-style shanking. This taught me not to develop a false sense of security while wearing body armour. "You can be stabbed to death in more places than just the heart," my instructor said. For an idea of what the push side kick looks like, you can watch Samart Payakaroon do it very well in the video below (starts from about 1:40). Although my chamber is much more pronounced than his due to my TKD/Bill Wallace background. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W588NSLplxw[/ame] 1800-1930: Gym Workout Barbell Bulgarian split-squat: 5 x 5 (40kg). Barbell deadlift with Fat Gripz: 5 x 5 (65kg). Barbell overhead press with Fat Gripz: 4 x 10 (35kg). Barbell rear delt row with Fat Gripz: 4 x 10 (15kg). Weighted ab wheel rollout: 4 x 10 (with 8kg vest). PNF left, right and middle splits: 10 minutes.
Friday 28th August 1030-1200: Krav Maga Private Lesson Full operational gear and training weapons doing run-throughs of the "run & gun" course described in this post. Must have done it at least thirty times. Best score was one minute eleven seconds. 1830-2000: ITF Taekwon-do Class 10-minute warm-up of push-ups, sprints and burpees followed by dynamic stretches for the legs. 30-minute traditional line work session consisting of combinations of movements from patterns relative to grade. 20 minutes doing sparring combinations on the paddles and shields. 20 minutes light contact sparring (point stop). 10-minute cool-down including left, right and middle splits.
Samart is doing a nice TKD style front leg side kick, nice weighting and all! Not surprising given MT's origin in TKD mind Good to hear from you fella Mitch
Saturday August 29th - Sunday August 30th No training over the weekend. Plenty of bouncing on the trampoline and playing in the woods with the kids though. Monday August 31st 1030-1200: Krav Maga Private Lesson Kickboxing combinations on the Thai pads followed by a review of the takedowns we did at the previous weekend's "training day." 1600-1730: ITF Taekwon-do Class Fitness and sparring focused session to kick-start prep for Nationals at the end of the month. Beastly warm-up and stretch followed by a dozen rounds of kick-only pad work, before sparring for an hour solid (changing partners every 2 minutes). Contact was light (touch contact). Head kicked every training partner without any grief from my hips. Finished with a bunch of deep stretches.
The Krav place/guy you found sounds awesome! Quite a rarity in any MA. Coupled with your tkd you'll be pretty much unstoppable... I hope the security work is going well
Thanks Harry. Done another couple of small jobs since the last one. My CP recertification course starts a week today so really looking forward to that. As for training, I knocked the Krav on the head (my instructor left his association after a pretty farcical seminar with a supposed expert invited over from Israel... long story) to focus on my TKD competition. I was doing two-a-days up until last Friday, competition (Nationals) was on Saturday. I won gold in individual sparring (-74kg - they combined several divisions at the last minute), gold in patterns, silver in kick breaking and bronze in open weight sparring (nearly got my head kicked off my shoulders). Four shiny new medals as you see in my avatar to add to the collection. Probably won't compete again until long after my next hip replacement (scheduled for November 24th). Going to knock the TKD on the head and focus on lots of mobility work, compound lifts and sprints to maintain my flexibility and fitness for the duration of my CP course and up to my surgery.