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Es werden Posts vom 2010 angezeigt.

Shinergy[battle 2010]

Yesterday, the Shinergy[battle 2010], took place. The Shinergy[battle] is our version of a championship. It's hard, fast-paced and full of action. As for the rules: The fights are full-contact bouts that are fought in a "best-of-three" manner, i.e., the first fighter to win two rounds wins the fight. We employ what we call an "action/stop" system, so every exchange of blows is stopped after a couple of strikes. That is to prevent long clinching and keep the pace high. To cite Ryan McCarthy from the movie "Never back Down": "It's a spectator sport after all!". All kicks and strikes above waist level, including elbow- and knee-strikes are allowed, as are sweeps. Every technique has to be executed properly and in a clean manner, no pushing or wild swinging. The area of combat is an octagonal mat-area with a radius of 7 meters. Kicks to the head give 3 points, as do sweeps that result in a visible loss of balance. Kicks to the body and knee

Karate Kid

When Jackie Chan's "Karate Kid" was first shown at the movie theaters in Austria on July, 21st, we entertained the audience with a little show. Now, half a year later, it's obviously a bit out of context, but I only just got the video yesterday, so here it goes: Hope you enjoyed it! So long, take care

Master class, Grappling 101

Today's master class was awesome. The trainer, Alex, really did a great job in adapting competition-proved Judo techniques to work in a no-Gi setting. As most of us are absolute beginners in terms of grappling, we started the class with some falling exerices. Alex then transitioned into a double-leg takedown. I have to say that there's a lot to this seemingly easy technique. Also, although the very same technique exists in every grappling system, I noticed that everyone seems to be doing it slightly different. For me, the Judo-approach with a vertical spine and strong shoulder pressure makes sense. Not connecting the hands was new to me, but with some practice, I'll get that down too. Having took down the partner, we practiced passing the guard, going from guard to side-mount. Again, there were some hints and tricks that were new to me, at least in this form. Personally, I consider the battle for a dominant position the alpha and omega of grappling, no matter which style. F

Show's over.

Just returned home. I passed all exams. 'A's only. My general practice topic was reaction-training. 'Nuff said. The preparations took me approximately 35 seconds, including the time to get all the stuff (balls, rings, markers, ...) together. I have to say that although some lessons were a waste of time in my opinion, the course in general was a great experience and definately offers quite a lot. Now, it's time to put all that stuff into practice. Also, I already have plans on what to do next, education-wise, but I won't explain them just yet. Tomorrow, I'll hit the kettlebells again and sunday there'll be another masterclass at my dojo, this time on the topic "no-gi grappling 101". I sure hope there'll be lots of interested students. Of course, I'll post more on that coming sunday. So long, take care

Examination Week, Day #4

Just finished three more exams: Special practice : basically that's everything related to strength training. I had to describe some cardio-tests, 1rm-tests, tests on max. strength deficiencies and mobility tests. Exercise testing and prescription : Here I was questioned on max. strength training, training periodization, super-compensation and the principles of proper training in general. Functional kinetics : Here, I had to deal with questions concerning special issues with young athletes. Also, there was a part on innervation and the physical explanation for muscle activity. Up until now, my marks ought to be excellent. Tomorrow, however, we'll be dealing with special practice. Now this could get tricky, as I have no clue what lies ahead of me. There's just so many possibilities, including but not limited to senso-motoric training strength training with a partner spine stabilization with the thera-band small games running coordination rope-skipping endurance training ... L

Examination Week, Day #2

Today I passed my first anatomy exam. I'm in Linz again, going through the examination circle for my BSPA-License. This can be compared to a strength and conditioning certification. Anyhow, yesterday we did some coordination training and went down to the lab to conduct performance tests. Four people were tested, the tests covered were: the WHO tri-level aerobic test the PWC 170 test the Conconi test a lactic acid analysis All pretty interesting. Today, we focussed on nutrition. The lecturer is a cool guy who goes by the name Christian Putscher. You can find his webpage here . Now this Putscher really has a way of making bio-chemistry fascinating. There was a lot of stuff I didn't know/didn't think about before - basic stuff, as it turns out, really. Amongst other stuff, he conclusively pointed out why the whole metabolic-balance concept is screwed up, why vegans are nuts and how certain dogmas need to be challenged from time to time. Also, his points made me strongly questi

Holistic training

Yesterday we did holistic training. Holistic training is a form of training where one strives to improve max strength, mass and strength endurance all in one session. Although there's various forms of holistic training around, we've just picked up the idea and adapted it to our needs. Hence, in our case, our holistic training consist of the three exercises Deadlift (stand-up) Pull-Up (pull) Bench Press (Push) where each exercise is done for a single 3rm set, a single 8rm set and a single 15rm set. As strength plays an important role in striking, we've decided to keep reps at the lower end of the range. 20,30 or even 40 reps in a set don't seem overly beneficial to our sport, especially as we're doing high-rep swings and snatches anyway. To integrate the whole thing into the Rites of Passage program, we finished by snatching a 16kg bell at low intensity for 5 minutes. Since yesterday we were only probing our limits, I will post our weights beginning wednesday. So lon

Rites of Passage, Heavy Day #2

Skipped training on wednesday and saturday. I wasn't feeling all too well and as I had to teach on both thursday and saturday, training just wasn't an option. So today, we did the RKC rites of passage for the second time with some slight modifications. As always, we started out with light sparring to properly warm up. Today, we donned the MMA gloves and implement throws and takedowns along with the standup fighting. Afterwards, it was all clean&press again. We decided to alter the system in favor of a more drop-set like approach. Basically, once one of us can't complete a rung on the ladder, he switches to the next lighter kettlebell. I switched after set 4, exchanging the 24kg 'bells for 20kg ones. Should have switched after I missed the first rep, but the idea was too late. Today I experimented with a smarter set scheduling. I set my Gymboss to 1-minute rounds and shot for a certain amount of swings per minute. When that amount was reached, I paused for the remain

Rites of Passage

After we've built up some decent strength levels, it's time to get back in shape endurance-wise. So today, Chris and I started going through the RKC rites of passage, which basically consist of heavy cleans & presses, swings and snatches. As a warmup, we did three rounds of light thaiboxing sparring. My Gymboss is out of batteries so I'm using my Everlast timer. That damn thing beeps 20 seconds before the round is over, so we stopped 20 seconds early in the first round. After 20 seconds it beeps again, to indicate the round is actually over - we took that as the beginning of the new round and did 3min 40 sec on the second one. All pretty confusing. After warmup up properly, we grasped the kettlebells and went down to business. For us, monday is the heavy day, so it's 5 ladders of 5 rungs for the clean & press. I did the whole thing with 2x20kg, Chris did it with 2x16kg. 5 ladders of 5 rungs means a total of 75 repetitions - this does smoke the shoulders. Afterwa

A world falling apart

Today started as bad as a day can start. Apparentaly, Christopher, one of my most promising students, will stop training in november. You see, that's the problem with talented kids: they don't seem to value all the work they've put into developing their skills. After all, they can become good at any sport in little time, so why care? Here in Austria (I dare say Europe), gifted martial arts students are a scarce bunch. Talented kids tend to join a soccer club where they get paid practically from the start. The dojos are usually filled by kids that couldn't quite make it to a soccer team. Needless to say, they get good at what they do after a time as well by working hard and consistently. Hard work beats talent if talent refuses to work hard... Still, kids like Christopher can do the most advanced stuff practically from the start. If they were to stick to the martial arts and work as hard as the less talented kids, nothing can stand in their way. Actually, we have an exam

5x5 Debriefing

So here's the results from the 5x5 program Chris and I have been following over the last 6 weeks prior to my trip to Linz. Here's the improvements on each exercise. 'begin' is obviously the weights we started out with. 'end' shows the heaviest weight we used to do a full set. Any set with a heavier weight that wasn't done for 5 reps is not listed here. 'c' and 'l' are used to mark 'c'hris and 'l'ukas respectively begin(c): end(c): begin(l): end(l): dl: 80.0-100.0kg 97.5-117.5kg 100.0-120.0kg 120.0-140.0kg pu: 0.0-10.0kg 5.0- 15.0kg 0.0- 10.0kg 7.5- 17.5kg r: 50.0-60.0kg 80.0- 90.0kg 50.0- 60.0kg 80.0- 90.0kg cp: 40.0-50.0kg 50.0-60.0kg 40.0-50.0kg 50.0- 60.0kg fs: 40.0-50.0kg 47.5-67.5kg 50.0-60.0kg 80.0-100.0kg bp: 60.0-75.0kg 70.0-90.0kg 60.0-75.0kg 67.5- 85.0kg dl... deadlift / pu... pull-up / r... rows / cp... clean & pres

BSPA Instructor Course, Week 2, Day 5 + 6

So yesterday and friday I had my last days in Linz for this part of the course. Friday I took another exam, guess I did pretty well. After the exam, we hit the gym again with Darius, finishing the spinal erector stuff and progressing toward arm-training. Since most girls in the course aren't that skilled when it comes to lifting heavy stuff, Darius took his time to teach them the basics. In the meanwhile, we (the guys) were free to train as we please. For me, that was one-armed dumbbell snatches and turkish get-ups with a 40kg bell. Also, I did standing shoulder-presses, following the 4-20-4-20 system. Darius had us try the system with whatever exercise we chose. Now obviously most guys did biceps-curls as that's the most manly exercise ever invented, as you know. Well, as I'm aparently not that manly, I chose to skip isolation training for one of the most unfunctional muscles in terms of sport-specific training and instead focussed on overhead pressing. Now 4-20-4-20 is

BSPA Instructor Course, Week 2, Day 3 + 4

Darius Tomaszewski, executive director of "get up fitness" studio arrived yesterday, his lecture on "special theory" was a true enrichment. The topic was the development of strength in its various forms (max strength, explosive strength, strength endurance, ...). He presented a new, finer method of specifying the tempo for each rep. Great stuff. As for today, I have to say that I absolutely despise aerobics. Yeah, that's a part of the course as well. It's just disgraceful. On a positive note, we spent a lot of gym-time with Darius. Basically, we did the basics when it comes to training the spinal erectors. As usual, Darius added some great variations of those basics and really made his lecture a worthwile experience. Now personally I find it unsettling that there's people in the course who can't properly squat or deadlift. I'd rather have them spend some weeks on their technique rather than occupying places in an instructor-course. Anyhow, I won&

BSPA Instructor Course, Week 2, Day 2

The exam went well, I'm pretty sure I passed. Results are due in two weeks. Today, the best thing was our practice session with Eva Ratzenböck. Basically, we did spine stabilisation. Looked a lot like yoga/pilates, minus all the hype. We really did some good core work, joint mobilization and flexibility stuff. The whole thing somehow resembled a Michael Boyle warmup - only this one took us two hours and made just about every single one of us curse and groan in pain. Lactic acid buildup in the spinal erectors ain't exactly a pleasant experience. However, despite being more than unpleasant, the session was great. Definately the highlight so far. On a side note, I was pretty shocked seeing the same girls that already failed even free (no added weight) squats due to messed up knee axes about four months ago do the very same garbage again. They're supposed to take their exams in mid-december, thereafter being certified fitness instructors. Still, there's no sign of improveme

BSPA Instructor Course, Week 2, Day 1

First day of the second week in Linz. Tomorrow, I'll have to pass the "pedagogy, didactics and methodology" exam, so I have to spend the evenining (hopefully not the whole night) learning all that stuff. Today, we started the day with "practical exercise" - basically, differential learning methods and coordination training for running. Although the instructor insisted on those methods being applicable for any exercise in any sport, I doubt he really meant to include the martial arts in "any sport". Anyhow, afterwards we had a lecture on "general kinematics" which was ok. The rest of the day was all about anatomy and physiology, a topic I'm rather fond of. In my opinion, a solid theoretical base in all aspects of sports-related biology can really make a difference between an average trainer and a great one. Theory alone ain't enough for sure, but it definately helps. Well, off to learning again, I'll post more tomorrow. So long, ta

No Comment, 2010 - 10 - 14

This is thurdays pull-session. Both Chris and I pretty much failed at the deadlift and had to skip some reps. Also, we didn't quite manage to finish the pullups. On a positive note, we rowed with 90kg, so that's not too bad. Since fatigue was making itself felt in a very evident way, we postponed our last push-session up until today. I'll comment on our progress tonight (or in the next days), so I didn't include captions in the video this time. Enjoy.

It's the final countdown...

Chris and I have been following our four day program almost religiously over the last 5 weeks. Today, for the first time, we had to skip our gym session due to general exhaustion. You see, yesterday, beginning at 8am, we were teaching at a local secondary school. For me, it was five hours there, Chris did 7. But the day wasn't done for me, either, as I held another 3 lessons at my dojo. Now, working for 8 hours a day doesn't sound that hard, after all, that's what everyone's doing. Anyhow, teaching martial arts is not your ordinary 9 to 5 job. First off, it's physical work. Doesn't have to be hard physical work, but it definately is physical work. Besides that teaching means understanding one's students. Every problem of theirs is a problem of yours for the duration of the class. A teacher needs to be pretty empathic in regards to every student's personal goals, possibilities and limitations. People tend to carry a lot of ballast onto the mat - everythin

Sommer's almost over

Back again. Lots of work at the moment, as I'll re-open my dojo in a couple of days. Last weekend, I did the first part of the IAEKF (international arnis eskrima kali federation) instructor course in Bad Schallerbach, Upper Austria. That was a great experience, I'm definately looking forward to doing the next part. My instructor there, Günter Deschka, is a martial arts veteran who's done quite a lot. Apart from being a great judo player, he's been doing Chuan Quan Khi Dao for 27 years, along with some boxing, muay thai and well, a lot of FMA (fillipino martial arts) over the last five years. I really like his down-to-earth approach to things and his realistic judgement on what makes sense, self-defense wise. It'd be my pleasure to have him come to Vienna and give a stick-fighting seminar for my students. As a matter of fact, we're already negotiating the details. On a general note, over the next season, I'll try to get as many seminars as possible to my dojo

Bump

Nothing new here ATM. I've been in Poland for about the last two weeks - for the first time, I spent time there without hitting the gym even once. I didn't attend a single martial arts class. I don't want to go into detail why I didn't train as there was a couple of reasons. Anyways, on monday, Chris and I are going to hit our 5x5 again. Also, over the last days I was kicking, striking and grappling again, with little to no pain during the sessions. I have to admit my knees were swollen afterwards, but I'm dealing with that pretty well. After living with an injury for some time, one learns how to support the body in fighting off the pain. In my particular case, the best therapy is heat. A hot tub before bed or some sauna after training will spare me a lot of pain during the night. On a last note, I'll attend a Kali seminar next weekend - the first of a whole series. I'll keep you updated - so long, take care

Training update #2

So over the last days I trained a lot. Couldn't make it to the gym 4 times weekly, but I made up for that with specific training. Anyhow, after doing the "pull"-workout twice and the "push"-workout once (today is going to be the second time), some details on exercise execution have changed. Tactical pullups became standard, wide-grip pullups. I need to re-adat to pullups before increasing difficulty. Snatch-grip atg squats became standard atg fron squats. My wrists are hurting like hell with the snatch grip. I can't allow a strength exercise to hinder my striking. No fundamental changes here, just details, as stated above. After performing the "push"-workout for a second time today, I'll be posting the loading patterns. So long, take care

Training update

Back to business. I'll be taking this semesters last exam at university on Tuesday 6th. After that, I'll get back to work, training-wise. As always, I'll spend some time in Poland in july and august - do some kettlebell work, train some MMA/BJJ/... Now, going abroad doesn't make it easier to follow a strict training program. At least for me it ain't. That's why I've decided to shoot for a simple yet effective, easy to implement training protocol that can be done at every gym. Being absolutely convinced of my last protocolls effectiveness, I'll basically do the same thing again - just completely different. That's a fundamental principle with training, by the way - do the same things, but differently. I'll be shooting for 4 strength training sessions a week, alternating between two workouts: Workout A: Clean & Press Bench press Front squat (ass to the grass) Workout B: Deadlift Pullup Bent over rowing with supinated grip As you can see, I'

Instructor course

Returned from Linz (upper Austria's capitol city) on saturday. I spent six days there to go through the first part of my fitness instructor course. I have to say, I was pretty surprised - on the positive side, that is. You see, the course is organized, held and paid for (most of it, at least) by the Austrian ministry of education. Although that's great when it comes to the certificates appreciation, I wasn't sure if it wasn't all old-school and slowed down by bureaucracy. Now I can say it isn't. Basically we had about 4-5 hours of training a day as well as 5-6 hours of theory lessons. On the training side, we did lots of functional training, sensomotoric drills, posture correction and the like - there was almost no bodybuilding-style isolation training or the like. I say almost, as those things naturally are a part of a fitness instructors course. They were limited to a minimum, though. The teaching staff was great, there were sports scientists, a doctor, active tra

Kettlebell handout, status update

I'm currently at the instructor course at Linz, so there's not exactly much time to post. (Atcually, I'll be leaving tomorrow - it's June 25th by the time I actually publish this. Ain't much time to play around here.) I'll be posting about that course in detail once I come back. Anyhow, I've decided to post some pictures and info about my kettlebell workshop on Sunday, June 20th before the impressions fade away. On the workshop there was but two trainees of very different training levels. This made the whole event a great experience for me as I could really dig into techniques with one guy and do crazy stuff while at the same time placing great focus on details with the other guy. Actually, I did a whole lot more techniques than at the workshop I did for the instructors. Among these techniques was stuff such as the 2-hand-anyhow, catch-cleans, etc., so pretty advanced stuff. You can download the basic handout (the stuff I planned on doing, without the extras

Todays master class

Todays master class was great. We trained outdoors for about 3 and a half hours. It definately was great fun. Basically we did something like this Posture correction (active standing) Joint mobilization Movement Prep (see Mark Verstegens "Core Performance") Deadlifts Unilateral Deadlifts Front Squats Swings with two hands Swings with one hand Swings with a switch Forward shocking (a technique I've leared from Dariusz Tomaszewski, basically it's all about throwing the kettlebell as far as possible from a swing) High-Pulls Swing to rack Power-Cleans Clean-To-Catch Olympic Cleans Power-Snatches Olympic Snatches Turkish-Get Ups Get-Ups via overhead squat Windmills Bent Presses Uhm, yeah, we did a lot. Obviously, this ain't what I'm going to do with the trainees on June 20th, but today was a master class for gym trainers and instructors, so I guess it was ok. As there's an error in the handout, I'll post it tomorrow. So long, take care

Kettlebell master class

Tommorrow I'll be doing a master class at my teacher's dojo. The topic will be "The Art of Kettlebell Training". Sounds nice, huh? Background: At our headquarters in vienna's 8th district, Ronny (Shinergy-founder and my teacher) and Tom (captain of the Shinergy[supreme team], Shinergy[master instructor] and athletic director at our hq-dojo) have decided to remove all those puny machines from the gym and establish a pure athletic-gym. So basically, what remains is a squat rack, a bench, two power-racks, a cable pulley and a pullup-machine, accompanied of course by TRX suspension trainers, barbells, dumbbels - and, as you might already have guessed, kettlebells. Think the gym of my dreams. Now, as there's not too much people in Austria offering high-quality kettlebell tuition (I consider myself to be one of a few), it's my job to instruct our gym trainers on how to use the Kettlebell and turn a piece of iron into a lean, mean, one-stop-shop for fitness. Ok,
Just returned home. Today I had a hell of a day so I'll keep it short - gotta eat something and go to bed. 07:30 Just hopped onto the train to Linz, capital city of upper Austria. Today, I'll attend to a Kettlebell-Workshop led by Dariusz Tomaszewski, a strength and fitness coach of polish origin who is also member of the teaching staff at the instructor-course I'll be starting on june, 21st. Abiding to murphies law, I took with me neither a book nor a power-adapter for my laptop, so the journey will get boring soon. Also, I didn't take any water with me - gotta buy some when I arrive in Linz. 10:00 Aren't I the lucky one? At the workshop, there's a whoppin' 3 people. The rest didn't make it to Linz. According to them, they had an accident. Could be related to the great weather, though. What I'm facing now is six hours of kettlebells in a group of 3 people - sounds fun. Besides, the other guys are both martial artists, too. He, a former judo player,

Strength training / Further plans

I should have posted the following about a month ago. There's just so much going on atm that blogging just wasn't one of my top priorities. Summary In the first days of april, Chris and I finished our 9-week strength program. Well, as a matter of fact we had to quit. First, I went to poland with friends and missed a workout. Then, Chris got sick. We thought about continuing where we left off when he'd be ok again - didn't work out that way, though, so more than a month has passed since I last hit the weights properly. Looking back I can defiantely say that the program we went through was one of the most effective strength plans I ever followed. Again, my theory that the basics are everything seems to hold true. In the following table, I've listed my improvements in both 1RM and 8RM strength. For me, those improvements are significant. Bear in mind all of this happened over a course of just 6 weeks with two strenght training days a week. I won't bother going thro

Instructor conference

So today and yesterday the Shinergy[instructor conference] took place. The instructor conference is a freshly established event where Shinergy instructors from all schools get updated on methodology, concepts, breakthroughs in sport science etc. etc. etc. Yesterday, the program was: Shinergy[skills] Here, we discussed some novelties and eliminated discrepancies between theory and practice. The hand position in the on-guard stance was tweaked to better protect the centerline. Also, the straight fist position was abandoned in favor of a 45-degree one. Besides, there was quite some discussion about proper striking mechanics. That's one of the things I love about Shinergy - stuff gets cancelled out if it doesn't work. Things are put into question. Now of course, not everyone's happy if certain holy cows (traditional stances, concepts, etc.), but then in most styles there's no discussion whatsoever. Shinergy[young stars] To further motivate young trainees, the grading syst

qualifying examination

Today I took the qualifying examination for the officially recognized "fitness instructor" course. The test had us complete a cooper test (running 2600 meters in less than 12 minutes) and some body-weight exercises (20 Pushups, 20 Crunches, 10 Pullups and a flexibility test). Also, each applicant had to present 5 strength exercises for each of three randomly chosen muscle groups. For me, that was "shoulders", "shin" and "hip flexors". Now maybe that's just me, but training the tibialis anterior for strength seems strange. I can't think of a sport (not even Muay Thai where you'd block a low-kick with the shin). I even question training the hip-flexors in an isolated way. Isolation training as a whole is a dubious concept for most trainees. Anyhow, as I was going to present handstand-pushups, divebombers etc. as a means of strengthening the shoulders, the examiner told me to show him isolation exercises with the dumbbells. So, I ended u

Shinergy[master class]

As it gets boring to be writing on matters of strength training (this is a martial arts blog, after all), I'll dedicate this post to a more specific topic: today's Shinergy[master class]. You see, I invited Tom Knöbl, Shinergy[master instructor] to my dojo to share his thoughts on fistfighting. I'm using the term "fistfighting" rather than "boxing" because there's so much more to the hand skills employed in the Shinergy system than just the big four strikes (there being the jab, cross, hook and uppercut). As expected, the class was great. In great detail, Tom explained the important points in blocking and throwing straight punches. Although you can't exhaust that topic in 90 minutes, I think he did a great job in transferring the basic concepts that hold true for everything that takes place inside the boxing distance (and, for that matter, in any other distance, come to think of it). Here's the gist of it: Relaxation. Stiffness and tension ai

Week 4, Day 1

There's been so much going on last week I didn't really have a chance to post. So today I'm beginning week four of my nine-week program. Sadly, I have to admit I missed quite a few sessions so far. To every bad thing there's a good thing, though. In my case, that's massive strength gains. Chris and I have just completed the second out of six cycles, each cycle consisting of three workouts. Altough I have been talking a lot about the program lately, I'll describe it here once again, this time with visual footage, as I'm convinced this is one of the best programs when it comes to building raw strength at a basic level. Introduction As I've been out of the strength game for about 6 months, I consider myself something of a beginner again, both in terms of technique (which needs to be rebuilt) as well as power (which I need to regain). The programs main purpose is injury prevention through muscular improvement. I once heard the sentence "a strong back do