A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

'tis last Saturdays sparring session. Enjoy! Until next time, don't get hurt

Today's post is all about Anna, one of my students who are going to fight in [Poland] . During alactic capactiy training, Anna hit the pads with 13 left roundhouse kicks over the course of 6 seconds (although the video shows the previous set, which comes at 12 repetitions) - definitely not bad. "Hitting like a girl" takes on a different meaning here. The following video just gives you an impression of Anna's impression during yesterday's class. Countdown until departure is at T-8 days. Stay tuned. So long, don't get hurt

So here's some of the [promised] footage of our last sessions. The kids are pushing the pace hard when it comes to light contact and semi contact sparring. Guess we're going to have a blast in [Poland] . Without further ado, enjoy. As always, I'll keep you posted. So long, don't get hurt

Today we had a boxing masterclass with [Tom Knöbl] . Since I'm currently handicapped, I wasn't able to do most of the stuff he taught, but that's ok. At least, I know what what we'll be working on over the course of the next couple weeks. In essence, what Tom covered was weight distribution during stepping and striking. Especially, he explained something of a pendulum jab, where you bob into your strike to increase effective mass and thus, punching power. Tom also covered the importance of conditioning, as fatigue leads to a decrease in concentration and situational awareness, which in turn puts you at a greater risk of being knocked out. That's exactly what I preach all the time. Strength and conditioning first and foremost fulfill the role to keep the athlete injury-free and enable him to actually exhibit his technical and tactical skills over a longer time. 'nuff said. Below, you'll find a couple of pictures of the class. Note tha...

Disclaimer : Pictures and links are to follow soon. Also, most of that text was written when I was still in Clearwater, so half the trip is not yet covered.  On December 24th I hopped onto the plane and took off for the US. Just as with [China last year] , we're not staying in one location but rather go from place to place. So far, the journey took us from Miami to Key West, Key Largo, the Everglades, Okeechobee, Orlando, Saint Augustine, Crystal River and now, Clearwater. Just before the trip, I strained my right calf, so during the first week of the trip, Training was pretty much out of question. By I was more or less pain free at the beginning of the second week, however, I went back to business. First, I had the opportunity to train with [Phil] at the Renzo Gracie Jiu Jitsu Academy in Crystal River. The class was No-Gi, which obviously is a topic of special interest to me. Phil had is go over a couple of his bread and butter moves, such as the cross coke to...

So over the course of the last weeks, I've been dealing with all kinds of counters to standard attacks in the classes I taught. Countering goes well beyond the defensive side of things, though. Even and especially pressure fighters need to be able to counter any potential counters (here, fighting becomes a game of chess, huh?) and quickly regain initiative - otherwise, they might get beaten at their own game. So, without furter ado, let me present to you a short series of drills I use with my fighters to boost both their offensive and defensive skills. Enjoy! Going through each of these for a three minute round, followed by 30 seconds rest gives you a 22 minute workout. Alternate with a partner (each does the whole thing) and you're at 44 minutes, in the best case. Toss in some proper warmup, for example, the [Warrior Warmup Routine] , and you've got a structured, highly specific class all laid out. Feel free to use as-is or adjust to your needs. If you'...

Ok, so as usually, here comes last Saturdays sparring session. By the way, I'll be on my way to Linz in a couple of minutes, where I'll spend another week at the olympic center in pursuit of my state certified trainer's diploma. Hence, there could be another post today - stay tuned! So long, take care

Without further ado, this was yesterday's sparring class. Enjoy! So long,  take care

Yesterday's sparring session. Enjoy! So long, take care

Yesterday's sparring session - enjoy! I'm proud of all my students- everyone has progressed so much... Looking forward to the next sparring session. So long, take care

So we've just boarded the train from Beijing to Xi'An. It's been busy 6 days... Edit: No, we're not. By the time I wrote this, we were in the train. Now, the first day here in Xi'An has already passed. More on that next time, though... Beijing is an impressive city. Not only is it huge, fast and busy (not to forget: hot at this time of the year), it's also a city of contrast. East meets west here, old meets new, socialist meets capitalist... China truly is an emerging country and a unique one to that, I believe. It'll be quite interesting to look back in a couple more years and compare the situation then to what we've experienced during that week. When we landed, we were both pretty jet-lagged. In Vienna, we've boarded the plane at around 12. At 3pm, we stopped in Helsinki. Then, at 6pm (local time) we boarded our flight to Beijing, which landed at around 7:00am (again, local time). Neither of us had any sleep during the flight. Sitting ...