Hi there, VoidKarateka here. Regular lurker, martial arts enthusiast and I bake some of the most awesome gooey cookies you could ever eat! My name's Craige Thompson, I'm a 3rd Dan Tode Jutsu Karateka and have been training for around 14 years now. Anyways, up until around five months or so ago i had been on an almost complete break from not just martial arts training but training in general. Epilepsy, depression, adjusting to treatments etc. took their toll. After almost a year of inactivity I found myself incredibly overweight, out of shape, out of practice and damn near unrecognizable. I started to slowly get my flame for training back and have been steadily building up to feeling and being a martial artist again. I'm now at a point where I have competence and confidence in my basic techniques again. I'm also spending a couple hours a week coaching a juniors karate class at a local studio. So I'm steadily improving my diet, fitness and to a lesser extent teaching ability. I'm now at the point where I'm ready to really commit to some harder training again. Not to reach some old standard but to take all my knowledge and experience and define a new standard for myself and maybe even find some new direction with which to point my training towards. I don't have a clearly structured program I'm hitting for yet but I do have a rough plan of action. 1.) For the next month I am going to increase my rate of physical exercise, in particular exercise relating to cardiovascular fitness (primarily by running and cycling on an almost daily basis). I will also be hitting the gym with the aim to increase muscular strength and endurance. 2.) Practicing and refining kata performance. I should get the obvious physical benefits from doing this whilst also (hopefully) reigniting my interest in finding and applying oyo, henka and kakushi waza. Also practicing and refining all combination techniques (both in terms of form and applied with a partner). 3.) Try to find a bit more direction on where I want to go in martial arts. This one's a bit more tricky since I have no obvious or defined goal other than just improve myself at the mo. I'm at a point now where I'm getting no obvious instruction from my instructor. Long story short he's not really teaching much anymore and trying to catch him for even a chat can be hard. I'm not spending anytime at that dojo since I'm not getting any enrichment from being there. I have been training in a couple things at my gym (it's an MMA gym) including boxing, BJJ and MT. Ultimately though I know there is still a million miles more depth in karate for me to learn. Ultimately I want to remain a karateka. I just don't know now what kind of karateka I can be. Local Karate schools to me don't come close to offering me what I had for near 14 years in terms of instruction, depth of knowledge or training intensity. I had an MMA bout a long while back (on reflection I was only a stand in punch bag) and that was OK but I'm not sure that's a direction I want to head towards. The purpose of this topic will be for me to keep a log of my training on a daily basis. Over time I can use this as a way to use 20/20 hindsight and decide where to go. Please, anyone who reads this and fancies chiming in please do. I'm open to any criticism and advice (which I know the regular posters here have in spades). Here's to the start of me becoming a more regular poster
*Just noticed there's actually a whole section for training logs, if a moderator sees this and I'm in breach of rules for having this here, apologies and please can it be moved? If it's ok then I'll carry on posting * Had a couple hours today of studio time to myself so I decided to practice and refine my combination techniques. I grabbed my syllabus and decided to run through the up and down line work on the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st kyu syllabi as well as the 1st dan syllabus. My warm up consisted of 5 minutes steady shadow sparring steadily increasing pace and ranges of motion. Then I spent 10 minutes going head to toes with a variety of static and dynamic stretches to loosen up muscle groups. I put extra attention after on loosening my hips joints and especially making sure my hip flexors were well stretched and ready for use. I then proceeded to just go up and down doing my line work. I did between 5 and 10 (each side) of the techniques (some techniques took up more space than others, I ensured I did a minimum of 5 'reps' each side but in cases where I had the space I just carried on and did more). In total I spent around 1 hour and 20 minutes actually moving. Here's what I did *caution, massive wall of text incoming* Sanbon-Tzuki Sanbon-Tzuki / Mae-Geri (b. leg) / Sanbon-Tzuki Age-Uke / Mae-ashi Mae-Geri / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Ude-Uke / Yoko Empi Uchi / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan Barai Soto-Uke / Kizami-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai / Gyaku-Tzuki / Shuto-Uke Shuto-Uke / Mae-ashi Mawashi-Geri / Gyaku-Nukite / Gedan-Barai Kake-Uke / Mae-ashi Mae-Geri / Gyaku-Tate-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Mae-Geri / Mawashi-Geri / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Mae-Geri / Kekomi / Shuto-Uke / Gyaku-Tate-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Mae-Geri / Oi-Tzuki / Gyaku-Tate-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Mae-Geri Chudan / Jodan (same leg) Mae-Geri / Mawashi-Geri (same leg) Mae-Geri / Kekomi (same leg) Ushiro-Geri Age-Uke / Tetsui / Mae-ashi Mae-Geri / Gyaku-Tate-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Ude-Uke / Yoko Empi Uchi / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan Barai Soto-Uke / Kizami-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Shuto-Uke / Mae-ashi Mawashi-Geri / Gyaku-Tate-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Kake-Uke / Mae-ashi Mae-Geri / Gyaku-Nukite / Shuto-Uke (on the spot) Mae-Geri / Mawashi-Geri / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Mae-Geri / Kekomi / Shuto-Uke / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Kekomi (Kiba Dachi) / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan Barai (Kiba Dachi) Ushiro-Geri / Gyaku-Tzuki / Mae-Geri / Kekomi (not same leg) Ushiro-Geri / Gyaku-Tzuki / Mae-Geri / Mawashi-Geri (not same leg) Mae-Geri / Oi-Tzuki / Tate-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Age-Uke / Tetsui / Mae-ashi Mae-Geri / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Ude-Uke / Kizami-Tzuki (zenkutsu dachi) / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Soto-Uke / Yoko Empi Uchi / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan Barai Shuto-Uke / Mae-ashi Mawashi-Geri/ Gyaku-Nukite / Shuto-Uke (on the spot) Mae-Geri / Mawashi-Geri / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Mae-Geri / Kekomi / Shuto-Uke / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Kekomi (Kiba Dachi) / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan Barai (Kiba Dachi) Ushiro-Geri / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Ushiro-Geri / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Mae-Geri / Mawashi-Geri / Gyaku-Tzuki Mae-ashi Yoko Geri Kekomi / Mae-Geri (b. leg) / Step Forward Mae-Geri / Kekomi (same leg) Mae-Geri / Mawashi-Geri (same leg) Mae-Geri / Kekomi / Ura-Mawashi-Geri (same leg) Age-Uke / Tetsui / Mae-ashi Mae-Geri / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Ude-Uke / Yoko Empi Uchi / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan Barai Soto-Uke / Kizami-Tzuki / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Shuto-Uke / Mae-ashi Mawashi-Geri / Gyaku-Nukite / Shuto-Uke (on the spot) Mae-Geri / Age Empi Uchi / Uraken / Gedan-Barai / Gyaku-Tate-Tzuki Mae-Geri / Yoko-Geri Kekomi / Shuto-Uke / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan-Barai Mae-Geri / Yoko-Geri Kekomi / Yoko-Empi-Uchi / Uraken / Gyazu-Tzuki / Gedan Barai Yoko-Geri Kekomi / Kage-Tzuki / Gedan Barai (All Kiba Dachi) Ushiro-Geri / Uraken / Gyaku-Tzuki / Gedan Barai Mae-ashi Yoko-Geri Kekomi / Mae-Geri / Step Forward Mae-Geri / Mawashi-Geri / Yoko-Geri Kekomi / Ushiro-Geri Kake-Uke / Mae-ashi Mae-Geri / Gyaku-Tate-Tzuki / Gedan Barai After wards I stretched out again head to toe and again with focus on my hips and headed home.
Today's been a day of rest after the monthly blowout from the chinese. Yesterday I ate a portion of noodles and a garlic and chilli prawn dish. I had prawn toast, fried prawns, scampi and squid rings too. To completely finish myself off I had a spring roll. But this was no ordinary spring roll, this thing was a monster. It was about 3 inches wide, 6 inches long and at least 2 inches thick. It was filled with pork, chicken, beef, prawns, beansprouts and heavily seasoned. I think next month I may just have the spring roll. Anyways today was a relaxed one. I jumped on my bike and pumped out about 5 miles on my bicycle. Did fairly well considering wind and elevation. Before bed I will be stretching out and getting some heavy self massage using my foam roller. To anyone reading, hope you had a great weekend and hope you have a great week of training!
