A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

Yesterdays strength session. Both Chris and I passed one exercise each and failed on two. Enjoy.

I'll comment at the end of the week. Until then, it'll be video footage only. Enjoy.

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...