A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

The Bad I'm hugely disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the tournament was awesome and except for a few details the organization was highly professional. What I'm unhappy about was my own performance. I feel like I under-performed really bad. To say things straight out, I lost in the first round. It's not the fact that I lost in the first round that bugs me. Every other competitor does, in a [single-elimination tournament] . There's an important difference, however, between doing your best and losing with dignity on the one hand, and just not fighting well on the other hand. Consider [my last full-contact bout] - even though I lost those finals, I'm much more content with that fight than [the corresponding half-finals] . Did my best, put up a great fight and got knocked out in the last round. Stuff happens, that's just part of the game we play. Still, this time, I lost before even setting foot on the mat. There's a couple of reasons for that, most o...

This is my last post before I leave the country tomorrow and head for the [Open Europen Taekwondo Championships 2012] in Wieliczka, Poland. Just weighed in at 73.3kg. Still 3.3kg to lose. Still got around 18 hours... In [yesterday's post] I mentioned I was feeling sick - just as I thought, I'm back on my feet. No problem. Couldn't do the planned workout, though - just didn't find any spare time, not even for a light run. Doesn't matter, I'm fit enough. Initially, our team consisted of 5 competitors. Now, it's down to 3. Roman cancelled the whole thing because he's injured, Thomas because his daughter is sick. What remains is Chris (semi-contact -70kg), Frank (semi-contact -76kg) and I (continuous sparring, -70kg). No point in crying over spilled milk, though. Just packed my things and put my [mixed nut bars] (scroll down, you'll find the recipe) into the oven - although they're supposed to be pretty low-carb, I like to use them as peri-c...

Weighed in at 74.5kg in the morning. Already starting to lose weight, still a long way to go, though. Started my day with a crisp technique session at 8:30 in the morning. After I warmed up with three rounds of shadow sparring (nothing out of the ordinary,... movement only, straight punches only, punch/kick/punch combos), [Ronny] took me through another 14 two-minute rounds of padwork. Basically, what we did was technique drilling and working standard situations. Not a lot more to say here. Weight-wise, things are going pretty well. Just before dinner, I was at 73.3kg. Dehydration hasn't even started yet - guess I won't have to do hardcore sauna-sessions this time. On a negative note - I'm feeling sick. Had to leave university early and take a long, hot bath. Let's hope I'll be back on my feet tomorrow. Obviously, I'll update you on that... So long, take care

Today's training wasn't that much different from [yesterday's] , at least from a purely technical point of view. Again, I started with 5 rounds of shadow sparring, again I followed my standard progression to build up intensity over the course of the session: Steping only Straight punches only Punch/Kick/Punch combos Kick/Punch/Kick combos Put all the pieces together Unlike yesterday, I didn't work the heavy bag. Instead, [Chris] and I did 5 two-minute rounds of padwork each. Now when we're doing padwork, even as the pad-holder we're throwing all kinds of kicks and punches at the other guy, so five rounds of actively holding the pads probably account for two or three rounds of actual striking. Now usually I like to focus on a different aspect/concept/technique each rounds but today, I just sticked to one simple task: throw as many techniques as possible. I made that decision due to the two following reasons: 5 days before the fight, I probably w...

Saturday Saturday, I sparred for a last time before the [EC 2012] . Can't say I'm particularly pleased by how things went (from a fighter's point of view - never been more proud of my students). Felt slow, turned away when being punched in the face (something of a beginner's mistake), had my hands down... all in all, I lacked the drive and motivation to actually give everything and push the pace. Ain't going to be so on sunday, though, you can be sure of that. Anyhow, here's the video footage of saturday's sparring session - Enjoy! Yesterday Yesterday, I was really stuck at home - tons of work for my academic program. According to schedule, I should have run my 400m dashes right in the morning, after waking up. However, my left knee was still swollen from a kick I took on saturday, so I skipped the session. Hence, I have one more running session left on wednesday. This is going to be hell, as I'm beginning to cut weight as of today... Today ...

Yesterday So yesterday I attended Chris class at [our dojo] for some sparring. I strongly believe that Sparring is about the most specific conditioning tool in any combat athlete's arsenal. Obviously, it has two very distinct disadvantages: high risk of injury, especially at a faster pace and/or when the contact gets harder neglecting to balance high sparring volumes with even higher volumes of technique practice (i.e. padwork, shadow sparring, ...) might lead to the degradation of movement patterns (= technique!) as those are constantly performed in a fatigued state Therefore, while sparring certainly is an important aspect of any martial artist's training regime, it's just one tool amongst many. [Ronny] always compared sparring and technique practice with wielding a sword. In this analogy, technique practice stands for polishing and sharpening your sword, while sparring means actually fighting. Without regular combat practice, a fighter won't know what ...

Introduction & General Thoughts Another hard day comes to an end. On days like this one, being on the [Warrior Diet] proves invaluable. You see, my schedule was extremely tight today. I was either training, at the university, or on the way from one place to the other. The below table sums up what I did today... 09:00 - 10:30 running session at the vienna university of sports 11:30 - 12:45 class at the technical university of vienna 13:45 - 15:30 technique session at the Shinergy[zone vienna] 16:00 - 18:00 class at the technical university of vienna Normally, I would have had another, last session scheduled in the evening - a regeneration run of 30-40 minutes at an easy pace. However, as I had to go and pick up my (now fixed) laptop from the service point, I had to skip that last run. Not that I'm overly sad about it... Anyhow, a 5-meals-per-day-approach just wouldn't cut it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm ...

The [Open European Championships] are closing in with at a tremendous pace - just 10 more days to go until weigh-in (oct. 26th), 12 until the fights (oct. 28th). Oddly enough, this was also what today's training was all about - pace. You see, I'm certainly not going to be the fastest guy in my weight division. Most of the upper-class fighters there will be far beyond me in terms of skill and experience. Also, I'll probably suffer from a severe height disadvantage. Hence, I need to really take my strengths to a new level and excel in those areas where I can compete - namely, that's conditioning (strength and endurance) and fighting spirit. Watching [the first ever UFC flyweight championship fight] did a lot for my motivation, too. So, after warming up with five 2-minute rounds of rope skipping, each of us (did I mention I was working out with Chris?) did four 3-minute rounds of padwork. Of course, Chris focused on semi-contact techniques (long straight punches and ba...

12 more days to go, not counting today. When it comes to my rib, I've decided to heed Barney Stinson's avice: " Whenever I feel sick, I stop being sick and be awesome instead ". So, I just stopped being injured and now I'm awesome instead. This almost works... In any case, I started my day with a sport specific conditioning session - to be precise, I hit the heavy bag and skipped rope. Heavy bag was 5 three-minute rounds, rope skipping another 5 two-minute rounds. Had my new camera with me, so there's also video footage of the session. If you're wondering why there's no warmup then that's only because I didn't do any. I was under quite some time pressure as I had to make it to university in time for math class... Now obviously, I could have warmed up with rope skipping, as I did that anyway, but then I wanted to do my technique work as fresh as humanly possible. That's pretty much my general take on technique - don't screw up by pr...

So let's start this one with the videos I promised you [the other day] . It's just the final rounds of sparring, it's shaky and it's certainly not in high definition, but it'll have to do - I'm pretty sure video quality will improve once I figured out how to operate all that stuff... Today Since I didn't have a chancen to do my interval sprints yesterday, I had to make good on them today. Now the trouble is, I don't have a tartan track nearby. I can use the facilities of the Vienna Sports University each wednesday, as that is the day when Ronny is holding a lecture there. However, I have no intention whatsoever to call Ronny up on a sunday to come to the track so I can run. Hence, I need to find a solution (as you may already suspect, I already did). First off, there's the [police sport association of vienna] , who operate a large sports facility in the 22nd district. This is fairly close to where I live, so I'll definately check that out...

The [European Championships] are closing in with huge steps. Still, there's some work to be done until then... Yesterday Wednesday was rather harcore in terms of training volume, so yesterday I took it rather easy. Before teaching in the afternoon, I did 10 three-minute rounds of shadow-sparring. As always, I set technical goals for most of the rounds. Since I'm going to compete in a TKD tournament I heavily focussed on kicking. Hence, my schedule looked like the following: Stepping only Straight punches Front kicks, all variations Roundhouse kicks, all variations Side kicks, all variations Hook kicks, all variations  Axe kicks, all variations Turning back kicks, all variations Reverse turning kicks, all variations Tornado kicks  That gets the heart pumping, you can trust me on that. Today Today's technique session looked pretty much like yesterday's, with just a couple of changes. First, I did two-minute rounds instead of three-minute ones. The no...

I already said it in [this post] , but this bears repeating: I hate running. But before I rant on, allow me to quickly recap what's been going on over the last few days. Since I [hurt my rib] and then [hurt it again] , I've been on a reduced training regime. Can't do anything that puts too much stress on my ribcage. Obviously, that imposes rather severe limits on sparring and partner exercise. Hence, I've been working out with shadow-sparring and padwork. Although I love shadow sparring and padwork, I despise being injured. That just plain sucks rocks... The Past On monday, I had x 3-minute rounds of shadow sparring. The session looked something like this: Roundhouse kicks (all varieties) Front kicks (all varieties) Side kicks (all varieties) Hook kicks (no spinning ones, though) Axe kicks  (all varieties) Spinning kicks (turning back kick, spinning hook kick, tornado kick)4 rounds of freestyle, kicks only Then, yesterday, I met with [Chris] and [Dietmar...

Slept for approximately 12 hours - still, when I got up, I felt devastated.Therefore, I skipped today's scheduled interval training and hopped right into 6 rounds of sparring at the end of my advanced class. Planned on doing another two, but then my ribs were just killing me, so six had to suffice. Weighed in at 75kg today, yesterday and the day before that, so things are looking good. Guess I'll make it to the -70kg division. Right now, I'm fuelling up on carbs with some Curry (mostly vegetarian, lots of lentils, pumpkin and potatoes, just a trace of grilled chicken breast) on mung bean vermicelli.Guess I'll be shocked when I step on the scales tomorrow. Anyhow, my ability to regenerate is badly impaired at the moment, so tossing in a very high carb meal probably ain't a bad idea. Sunday is off - as in no training whatsoever -, the new training week starts monday. 22 more days to go - stay tuned for updates! So long, take care

Failed at the weights. Failed hard. I didn't want to admit it, but things are realy going south in terms of recovery. Probably need to take a step back. You see, today I hit the gym for my last workout in the current 5/3/1 cycle. Clean & Jerk for explosive power, bench pressing for upper body limit strength. Now the bench press traditionally is my weakest exercise. To be even more specific about it, I just plainly suck at bench pressing. Never felt too bad about it, as it's not a very functional thing for a martial artist to do anyways. Still, failing as hard as I did today hurts - at least the ego. The thing that bugs me most is that strength never was a limiting factor in today's workout. Last saturday I got slammed into the ground with a hip toss and hurt my ribs. Yesterday, I got kneed to that very place. Today, I'm having a hard time breathing - let alone lock out a fully loaded bar after the jerk or press big weights from a supine position. Also, my extremel...

Took Chris' class for some technique practice and sparring today. At the end of the session, it was three rounds of sparring á 3 minutes. In the third round, I got kneed to the ribs, which wasn't particularly convenient, considering the fact that I got slammed [the other day] and still haven't fully recovered. Guess I'll have to cut back on sparring for the next couple days. Then again, I just might partake in sparring tomorrow and cut back on sparring over the next week... Well, anyhow, I got my hands on the promised pictures of yesterday's sprinting session (though my email account ist still down), so here they come: Tomorrow, I'll hit the weight room for the last time before the fight and thus finish [another tasty 5/3/1 cycle] . Status updates to come. So long, take care

I hate running. 100 meter sprints are ok, but when it comes to medium distances (i.e. 400 and 800 meters), that's where it ain't fun anymore in my book. Of course, this statement didn't come to my mind without a reason - to train lactace tolerance, we did interval sprints today. We did the sprints on the running track of the [Vienna University of Sport] . You see, Ronny holds a self-defense lecture there, so we're free to make use of the facilities as long as he's around. They have everything there you need for a perfect training, and then some of it. Weight rooms, running tracks, swimming pools, a boxing gym, hurdles, ... you name it, they probably have it more than once. I'm jealous.... Anyhow, we started off by running 100 meters x 2, with some rest in between. I was rather astonished by the fact I was fastest on both intervals - running has never been my strong side, especially since me knees started troubling me. Obviously, that was the fun part. After...

Today I had the opportunity to train with [Ronny]. After warmup up with the [Warrior Workout] routine, we did a lot of technique work and situation drills. Last but not least, we finished the session with three rounds of sparring, plus an additional two rounds of close distance boxing. After doing the specific training, I hit the gym for my second last 5/3/1 session before the fight. Did snatches and pull-ups at up to 95% of my measured 1RM. Since that measure I lost quite a bit of weight (~5kg), though, so in terms of relative strength, those loads were considerably higher than that. Tomorrow, I'll do 400 meter sprints for improved lactate tolerance. I planned on doing Kenneth Jay's [15/15 kettlebell snatch protocoll], but injured my palms. Normally I wouldn't so much as even notice that, but I can't risk an infection just three weeks before a tournament. Honestly, though, I have to say that I still haven't fully recovered from last week's trainnig, so I gues...