Wednesday, 5 February 5 mins shadowboxing 5 mins footwork. Tuesday I had my first kung fu class of the year, and i didn't go down so well. I think that doing any MA alongside it will be difficult. I will need to choose between kung fu and goshin jutsu, and I don't think I will choose kung fu. But I've paid for a month with both, so we'll see how it goes for February.
Thursday, 6 February 25 mins bagwork. Mainly my jab/cross. I figure, if I can't do a good straight punch why work on anything fancier? Then I tried to do some kicks, but my bag is nasty to my shins .
Thursday, 6 Feb (cont.) 5 mins shadowboxing 7 mins footwork. Had my 4th goshin justu class. Started off covering basic punches and parries, which I will have to work on in my own time . Most of the lesson was working punches on pads, with some kicks at the end.
Friday, 7 February 17 mins form, single hand techniques, goshin jutsu parries. I worked on a few of the corrections I was given in my kung fu lesson on tuesday. Just minor things; hand alignment in ngarp sou and not telegraphing my charp sou. Charp sou is the first technique at 9s, ngarp sou is where he has a vertical hand when he turns around. The intention is to cut downwards with the blade of the hand. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBMj9NuhiKI&feature=player_detailpage"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBMj9NuhiKI&feature=player_detailpage[/ame]
Saturday, 8 February Yesterday I did a bunch of mucking around with bear crawls and other low movements (including some experimental kicking which would horrify any self-respecting capoeirista, no doubt ). Unfortunately I seem to have pulled a muscle in my hip, so that kind of thing is out of the question today . And as per my apparently horribly misunderstood comment on the thought of the day thread, both of my thumbs are in pain which rules out any bagwork today . So: 22 mins shadowboxing. It's kind of nice to take a bit longer than my usual 5 mins, as it allows me to focus on a lot more things for a lot longer. On the other hand, after 2 weeks of shadowboxing the balls of my feet are getting sore. After about a minute my feet start sticking to the floor, which is not fun. I'm experimenting with ways to get around this. As a cool down, 500m breast stroke.
Sunday, 9 February 22 mins bag work. So, remember that time when I said my bag was too hard for shin kicks? Well, it seems like it was less of an issue of "it's too hard" as "my form sucks". Now, with corrected form, I have managed to perform an assortment of roundhouse kicks; low, mid and high with both feet. 10 mins kihon. This, I think, is the term I shall use to describe practicing my various goshin jutsu techniques in the air. Went through my various punches and parries. Then finished up by doing my old TKD forms; 4 direction punch, 4 direction block, Chon Ji and Dan Gun (albeit very poorly).
Sunday, 9 Feb (cont.) 5 mins footwork 5 mins shadowboxing. I found a way around the sore feet problem - wear socks while shadowboxing.
Lol Are you not worried you're going to slip and fall if you wear socks? More importantly, what type of flooring are you shadow boxing on?
Wooden floor, sort of. Fake wooden floor, anyway. I'm not moving around enough to slip and fall. Strictly working on punching form at the moment, movement can come later. Hopefully by then my feet will be better .
Monday, 10 February Did my workout again. Since this is the health and fitness forum, I may as well give details. It's all bodyweight stuff, done at one of those excercise stations in a park near my house. I do 6 sets of 6 reps for each activity (six guesses where I got this from ). The ones I do are: Knee raises Dips (both done on horizontal bars) Decline pushups Decline military press pushups (both done with feet raised 20-25cm) Eccentric push ups Cycled(?) 7ish kilometers to get there and back. 9 mins kung fu pair drills. Did this while cooking supper. Used my reflection in the window as a guide. 5 mins shadowboxing. Tried to do a bit while moving, but it felt awkward so I gave up. I will wait until I have started doing this kind of thing in class. 5 mins footwork. Kind of dissapointing that I only did 19 mins, so I can't count this towards my goal of 20 mins 5 days.
Tuesday, 11 February Attended both kung fu and goshin jutsu classes tonight. Training for 3 hours is tough . In kung fu I worked on foung sou (big circular movement, although the application I use is different): [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBMj9NuhiKI&feature=player_detailpage#t=51"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBMj9NuhiKI&feature=player_detailpage#t=51[/ame] ngarp sou, which is what his left hand is doing, and dai sou which is what his right hand is doing: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBMj9NuhiKI&feature=player_detailpage#t=56"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBMj9NuhiKI&feature=player_detailpage#t=56[/ame] The main bit of the lesson was getting my techniques to flow during the two man drills. Goshin jutsu covered basic techniques; punches, parries and kicks. The parries will take a lot of work, as the principle is very different to SPM. Unfortunately, it's not something I can work on much on my own.
Tuesday, 11 Feb (cont.) 5 mins footwork 5 mins shadowboxing. My poor, poor feet :cry:. I may take a break from shadowboxing over the weekend if they haven't improved by then.
Wednesday, 12 February Warmup: 10 mins skipping. Absolutely abysmal . This needs much more practice. 30 mins kung fu stuff. Did sarm bo gin once, then worked on the stuff I got introduced to last night. Did a bit of bagwork to help get my techniques flowing. Cool down with 500m breaststroke, about 2 hours after I finished practicing . This is getting easier in terms of cardio, but not in terms of trying not to drown. My pool is quite small (10mx4m or so), and gets pretty choppy after 5 or 6 laps.
Wednesday, 12 Feb (cont.) 5 mins footwork 5 mins shadowboxing. Also did my core workout last night. A bit of a pre-sleep ritual I do: 4 mins glute bridge; 1.5 mins front plank; 1.5 mins side plank, both sides.
Thursday, 13 February Warmup: 10 mins skipping. Better than last time, bit still pretty bad. 15 mins single hand technique. Working through all of the "official" kung fu techniques that I know. Didn't feel great today. Just not "with it". Decided not to do my cooldown because I don't want to be wiped out for goshin jutsu tonight.
I dunno, man, I've seen some doozies in my time, not least among them my own attempts caught on camera. Video evidence is in order.
Hmm... A chance to show embarassing videos of myself to complete strangers over the internet? Interesting. I may do it. I may even put it online; subject to review obviously .
Had a goshin jutsu class tonight. Worked a bit on punching, then moved onto high roundhouse kicks. These hurt a lot less than they used to, mainly because I'm now doing them right. Did a little bit of "swimming through the guard", which is what I'm going to call it. Then checking a leg kick. Question for those who read this log and do muay thai (if there are any): is a thai shin check a check with the shin or a check of the shin? Just hoping to fix some misconceptions of mine.
