A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

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

Todays session was really relaxed. Just a couple of rounds of shadow-sparring, followed by some situation training. Afterwards, I just followed up with some static stretching before finally calling it a day. Below you'll find a video of the session. Tomorrow, I'll tell you of my last session before the fight. So long, take care

When I stepped onto the scales in the morning, I was at 73kg. Obviously, this could be a result of yesterday's sauna session. Anyhow, I've decided to try to cut down to -71kg. Guess that'll suit my height better than -75. Since I'm on a rather strict warrior diet, I've decided against depeleting the glycogen storages (which is commonly done to re-load them before competition). I'll pretty much fight on an empty stomach, so depleting the muscular reserves probably isn't a good idea. As for today's session, I'm taking things easy right now. While some sweat is ok, I strongly believe that there's no place for serious exhaustion anymore. I can jump right back into circuit conditioning sessions from monday on, but until then, I can't risk soreness or fatigue. So today, I basically did what I did monday, minus the sparring. Joint mobilization, warmup, some soft tissue work, some padwork, some situation training. Wasn't a particularily hard sess...

Come Saturday I'll fight in a WKF full contact kickboxing tournament here in Austria.So, starting today, I'll post a short summary of my final preparations. Chris, who's now also running his own school in Gaaden ( www.shinergy.com/gaaden ) is coaching me. Also, he's helping me out as a sparring partner. There's nothing like having a good friend when it comes to preparing for a fight. Not long ago, Chris qualified for the european championships but then tore a ligament and wasn't able to compete. Obviously, neither was he was in any condition to do sparring. That's when it became most apparent to me that having a good and reliable sparring partner is invaluable in our sport. Now, however, he's back on his feet and although he still can't kick all-out, he's probably the best training partner I can imagine. Anyhow, without further ado, let's take a look at today's session. First, I warmed up with my warmup routine, which I'll cover in a ...

In my post " Thoughts on Coaching Tools: Shadow Sparring ", I mentioned my growing enthusiasm when it comes to shadow sparring. Over the last couple of months, I've really come to love this simple yet immensely effective form of training. Not only has shadow sparring become a staple exercise in my own training (I'm currently preparing for two full-contact tournaments in november), I also have my advanced students shadow-spar a lot. The practice of shadow sparring just comes with so many benefits, it's hard to cover them all. Most important for weekend-warriors and recreational-sports types, however, is the fact that you don't really need to hit the gym in order to shadow-spar On a nice day, you can take your training to the park, on a bad day you might even just work out at home, depending on the size of your living room. Now while shadow sparring in itself is a blast already, I feel that even more benefits can be reaped from this form of training by applying ...

What's the biggest single factor when it comes to becoming a great athlete - or martial artist, for that matter? Is there a secret ingredient in the mix of all the that factors that contribute to your success that is really making the difference? What aspect of training has the biggest influence on your results or the lack of such? Is it the size of your gym/dojo? Top-notch equipment? The Spa area? Your training outfit? Secret training methods from the former sovjet union? The number of heavy bags? All those things contribute to your success in one way or the other, but truth be told, there's one single most important key factor that outweighs all of the above by far. Yes, there is a secret that can make the difference between victory and defeat. It's astonishingly simple, yet most people fail to implement that very concept: Always show up, always give your best It's as simple as that, really. All that great equipment in your gym won't take you nowhere if you don...

Today was the last day of the fight-fun-fun camp - at least for Elias and me. The only thing scheduled for tomorrow are a sparring session, which most likely no one will attend and some rafting. Now obviously the rafting is meant as some kind of social event, an opportunity to come together and get to know each other. After spending 4 days of hard training together, I'm pretty sure I got to know the guys and girls I grappled with far better than I could ever possibly in those two hours on a boat. Hence, I don't really see a point in staying and spending more money. My goal was to train and learn as much as I could, and that's exactly what I did. My joints ache from all those submissions. My neck is killing me. I'm feeling like I haven't slept in days. In a nutshell: I'm happy. I started the day rather easy today, taking a class on agility training with Daniel Gärtner. That guy is a sport scientist at the technical university of Munich so he's pretty much ...

The third day of the fight-for-fun camp has just ended. Today, I took a kickboxing class with Mr. Zaar and two MMA classes with Andre Reinders . Just like yesterday, the total training time today was 6 hours. My plan was to take Mr. Mack's class for the morning session, but I ended up on the wrong mat and so took another class with Mr. Zaar instead. Looking back, I really don't regret that twist of fate. Now I have no idea what Mr. Mack did with his students - I'm sure the class was great - but Mr. Zaar's topic today suited me just fine: we practiced kicking on the inside and outside lane as well as the corresponding counters. Coming from a TKD background, most of that stuff appeared rather basic to me, at least in technical complexity. Anyhow, obviously the kickboxers do things in a different way than we do, so I learned quite a bit from a tactical point of view. Most important, Mr. Zaar told us to secure every single kick with a technique from the lead hand, someth...

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...

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...

I'll have to skip swimming today. Yesterdays strength training left me sore and tired. Getting up at 6 to begin the day by teaching two classes didn't exactly help that fact. Now if there was nothing more to do for me today, I'd force myself to swim. Still having three classes and a nightly meeting with my good friend and mentor Ronny ahead of me, however, I'll have to conserve my energy. Obviously I still need time to get fit for the volume of training my program has me go through every week. Still, I'll try to catch up on that workout before the week is over. In between the classes I've yet to teach today I'll be doing some tennis ball work to help me be fit again tomorrow. By the way, there was an article in a local newspaper about my dojo today. I'll post the scanned image in the evening. So long, take care

Today was strength day. To be precise, we had our "max-squat day". Now that's a good one. Interrestingly, there was no problem with the grip-strength today. On a negative note I missed some reps on the barbell rows as we upped the weight quite drastically. Today's stats: Squat, 1RM: 130Kg Bench Press, 4x8, 60Kg Deadlift, 4x8, 90Kg Bent-over barbell rows, 4x8, 45kg (failed on 3 reps here) Military press, 4x8, 35kg I'm positive I can go to 140kg on the 1RM on the next "max squat day", as I wasn't exactly at my limits today. For safety reasons, however, I decided not to go heavier than 130 on my first heavy squats in more than 6 months. For the warmup we did every "Movement Prep" exercise that can be found in Mark Verstegens "Core Performance" program. That stuff really does prepare you for strength training. The second workout - the interval swimming - I missed out of pure confusion. When we went to venice, I removed everything from...

So today I started the 2nd week of my 9-week program. Unfortunately, things have deteriorated for me again. You see, me girl and I, we was at Venice on Saturday, to enjoy Carnival there. The implication, of course, was an 8-hour march through the city. As you can imagine, my ankle didn't like that very much. For me, that means another change in my program. Since the rope-skipping is just too hard on my ankle, I'll be replacing that with Movement Prep / Prehab exercise from Mark Verstegens "Core Performance" program. I've yet to figure out the exact routine I'll be doing, but it'll most certainly revolve around programming proper biomechanics and stretching the lower back (as that's the one body part I tend to neglect with my mobility/flexibility work). Of course, adapting the program every week might look bad in regard to the results, but then that's something that comes with creating an individual program. Out-of the box programs, on the other han...

Just returned from the pool. I feel great. In fact, I feel much better than I did tuesday afternoon. When I'd have to decide for or against swimming after working out in the gym, I'd rather choose to do it. Of course there's downsides to it, but for me the positive aspects far outweight the negative ones. You see, when I walked out of the gym I wasn't motivated to do just about anything else today. I was completely devastated. Obviously, this affected my performance at the pool. But then, on the other hand, it took me exactly 25 minutes net training time to complete the swimming workout (8 minutes warmup, 10 minutes intervals, 7 minutes cooldown), so I guess my speed hasn't suffered all that much. Also, most people will agree that endurance is as much a mental thing as a physical. Doing my cardio in an exhausted state might actually help my fortitude. It's not the total result that counts with endurance (as opposed to strength and/or speed training, where only m...

Just returned from my strength training session. There's a good thing and a bad thing: Good thing: I'm currently free of pain. Bad thing: As soon as feeling returns to my body, it'll be agonizing. The routine was the same as last time, only today we upped the weights a bit. Also, today was "bench" day, so we re-estimated the 1RM for the bench press and did 4x8 on the dealift and the squat. Those two exercises are propably the most useful one can do, but combined in the same workout, they're murderous. We wramed up by doing some movement-prep exercises from Mark Verstegens "Core Performance" book. I have to admit I was positively surprised by the effect. I felt loose yet stable and properly prepared. We did: Hip crossover, 10l/10r Scorpion, 10l/10r Calf strentch, 10l/10r Hand walk, 5 Inverted hamstring, 5l/5r Backward lunge with a twist, 5l/5r Drop lunge, 5l/5r Today's stats: Bench press, 1RM: 95kg (I was disappointed) Deadlift, 4x8, 90kg Militar...

Today, I had two training sessions. First, there was rope-skipping. Seven rounds á two minutes with one minute of active rest in between every two of them. Those rest periods were filled by "movement prep" and "prehab" exercises from Mark Verstegens "Core Performance" program. As warmup, I did 10 minutes of joint mobilisation and posture-correcting drills. Second, I joined a Shinergy class that was held by Chris, a good friend of mine and trainer at my dojo. It was great fun and really helped me loosen up again - I still was pretty stiff from tuesdays strength training session. Although I spared my left foot wherever possible I was able to keep up with everyone in the class, so I'm optimistic for the near future. In between those two sessions I did about an hour of soft tissue work, so basically massaging myself with a tennis ball. Before you laugh, try it out for some time, this stuff does wonders for regeneration. You can find pretty good information...

I just started my day with swimming. It's been both a pain and a pleasure. The routine: I tend to keep my cardio workouts short and intense. Although what I do can't exactly be called an "HIIT" workout, I do employ a form of interval training. As a matter of fact, it's all pretty simple (I said simple, not easy). I got up at 6 and started my workput at 9AM, so that's three hours for my joints to lubricate properly. Some tennis-ball work for my feet and calves loosened up the legs, which are pretty sore from yesterdays workout. To go to the bath it takes me about 12 minutes, which I've used for joint mobilization in the shoulders, elbows and neck. Once at the pool, I warmed up with 10 lanes (25meters/lane) of breaststroke at a low to moderate intensity. After that, I did seven intervals of two lanes each. The first lane I'd go all-out, crawling, while the second lane was done by backstroke, at an easy pace. With seven intervals, that's another 14 la...