A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

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

So it’s been a while, but finally, I’ll officially release the video footage we have of the [open polish taekwondo championships in Czestochowa] . Maybe I’ll analyze some of the fights in-depth at a later time, but at this moment, I’d rather focus on some philosophical issues. Hence, without further ado, here’s Chris’, Frank’s and my own fights: Frank, Fight #1 Frank, Fight #2 Frank, Fight #3 Chris, Fight #1 Lukas, Fight #1 Lukas, Fight #2 Lukas, Fight #3 Lukas, Fight #4 Hope you enjoyed the fights!   So long,   take care

Again, this post is going to be a rather short one. As I'm currently spending quite some time on perfecting my technique on the olympic lifts, I'll try and share some ideas and insights. First off, who should do the olympic clean? Well, probably you should. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you're a martial artist. If not, I'm not exactly sure what you're doing on this blog (although I'm happy if you like it!). Generally, explosiveness ist more important in the martial arts than raw strength. Consider a kick: All that muscle doesn't make a difference if you're slow to build up strength. After all, you don't want to push the opponent (yeah, I know, sometimes you do), but rather hit him at full speed. So, acceleration is crucial. The same holds true with a takedown: You tackle someone, you don't have the time to slowly lift him up. It's about explosively ripping him from his feet. In both of the above examples, what you need are ...

I just returned from a two-week trip to Poland with my girl. It was awesome. Our trip took us from Vienna to Warsaw, then way up north to Dabki, which is a surfer's paradise at the baltic sea. After spending a week there, we went to Poznan for another two days. From Poznan it was back to Warsaw and eventually home. Although there's so much to say about Warsaw when it comes to the martial arts, I'll skip that for now and focus on Dabki and Poznan instead. You see, Dabki is situated in quite a unique spot: on the one side, there's the baltic sea while on the other one, there's the Bukowo-lake. Obviously, this location makes it pretty much perfect for water-sports enthusiasts. For me, too, the plan was to spend my days doing little but windsurfing and laying on the beach. Didn't turn out that way, though, as the weather had its own plans: most of the time it was rainy and cold, definately not beach-like. Wind-wise, it was either completely still or extremely windy,...

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

Well, if you're observing the scene, you'll know by now that Mariusz Pudzianowski, "world's strongest man" will be competing in December at the "Martial arts confrontation" ("Konforntacia Sztuk Walki, KSW"). In a Black Belt Magainze interview, Rickson Gracie said that "Just being strong and well conditioned gives you an advantage" and "makes the other guy the underdog, no matter what". I have to absolutely agree on that one, although power and conditioning alone don't win fights - Rickson's brother Royce proved that at the first 3 UFC events. Of course, in Mariusz case, there's no need to think about that in the first place. Apart from doing Kyokushin Karate, Boxing and Wrestling, this guy is practicing BJJ, so this fight is going to be an interessting one from a technical point of view as well as from a physical one. Now what put a smile on my face is the fact that he's working out with Miroslaw Okninski - m...

Warsaw is a warrior city. Life here constantly revolves around the idea of heroism and dying for freedom. After poisoning myself (I suspect I had ice cubes made from tap water. If you stop in Poland, beware of the tap water.), I've decided to accompany my father and go to an air show in the Mazuria, approximately 5 hours away from Warsaw. Tough luck the car didn't start up. Apparentaly, the alternator is broken, so we had to stay in the city. Which, as it turned out, wasn't no bad, since August 1st is W-day (with "W" standing for Warsaw", obviously). The whole city was on its feet, celebrating the 65th anniversary of the warsawian uprising ("Powstanie Warszawskie"). If you're into history, you probably know that Warsaw was completely destroyed in WWII. Their so-called old town is about 50 years old, everything was rebuilt after the war. After being reduced to rubble, Warsaw was invaded by the Germans. Now what you might not know (especially if ...

Ok, so yesterday I had BJJ training at 12:00 at Miroslaw Okninskis school ( www.valetudo.pl) . Again, because of the clubs training camp, which is taking place right now, there was no instructor. However, just as wednesday, there were good MMA guys at the gym so one of them led the training. After warmup we practiced the various mounts and how to escape from them. This became something of a game where we started "fighting for the position", so taking a given position rather than actually submitting the partner was the goal. Of course, at the end of the training, we had lots of sparring. Great training. At night, I met a friend of mine, Jakub, who directs a TKD club here in Warsaw (www.ronin.waw.pl) . We talked a lot and covered just about anything, but here I'll present a short outline of the martial-arts relevant topics that came up: Instructor qualification One of the hottest topics at hand was the question what a martial artist needs to qualify as an instructor. We bot...

Had a hell of a day. At 12:00 I went to the MMA training at Miroslaw Okninskis Vale Tudo school ( www.valetudo.pl ). Unfortunately, due to the fact that Okninski himself is currently at his clubs summer training camp, there was no actual trainer to supervise the lesson. However, there was a BJJ guy (Christopher), a former wrestling now MMA guy (Maciek, if I remember correctly), a professional MMA fighter with 21 fights under his hat (Martin) and - me. The pro arrived late, like 40 - 50 minutes after the lesson started. Up to that point, we warmed up and started with some combinations of strikes and takedowns as shown by Maciek. After that, the BJJ guy took us through some exercises to pass the half-guard and get into a full mount position. Lastly, we did that free-form, so one partner would establish a half-guard and try to keep it or submit the guy on top, who, in turn tries to establish a full mount position. About that time, Martin came in and joined us. The whole training took abou...