A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

The old season has gone, the time has come to start over again. After stepping into the ring four times over the course of just two months at the end of spring (2 fights at the [WKF Austrian Open '12] , 2 more at the [WKF national championships '12] ) , I took things rather easy during the summer months. The original plan was to compete in the WKF world championships in Varazdin, Croatia that took place in July - however, despite sucessfully qualifying for the national team I decided to stay in Vienna. There's been plenty of reasons which I won't bother elaborating here. Not that they matter, really - I made a decision and don't regret it for a moment. The summer was great. First, I spent [over a week in Poland] with my family. After that, I went to Styria with some of my advanced students for a [training camp] . In fact, it was the first such camp I've ever organized. About time after five years of managing a Dojo, if you ask me. Apart from those great weeks...

Saturday evening, I returned from the first ever Shinergy[stadlau] training camp. Thanks to the awesome people that took part, this was a great experience. I really couldn't have wished for more. You see, I've had my share of camps, both as an athlete as well as an instructor. This time, however, I took up the roles as both instructor and manager. Put quite some time into planning the whole thing. Still, I was more or less convinced we'd need to improvise a lot - after all, I've never managed a camp before, so I really had no experience in that matter whatsoever. Anyhow, I was struck by surprise as to how little improvisation was necessary in the end. There were virtually no significant deviations from the initial plan. In fact, everything went so smooth that besides acting as the manager and instructor, I had the opportunity to partake in every session myself. The next couple of paragraphs will give you an overview over that fantastic week. The Group First thin...

Have you ever been to a restaurant where you wait for ages for your food to be served? I have. As a matter of fact, during my stay here in Dabki, Poland, I always had my biggest meal of the day in the same place. It's a small fish-bar (restaurant would be too much, really) a couple of minutes from my hotel. Although prices are really high for polish standards, there's always lots of customers patiently waiting for their fish. I guess none of them regrets the time he spant waiting. I certainly never did. Servings are huge here, the fish is freshly caught from the baltic sea just hours before it is served. The carrots and cabbage that's served alongside the fish is just about awesome. As I've already pointed out, it sometimes takes the staff here a really long time to prepare and serve the food. We've once waited for a full hour until we finally got to eat. Now you might ask in what meaning this might have for the martial arts practicioner. None, really. Then a...

Took it relatively easy today. Started with a walk on the beach - decided against a run to spare the knees, as it's squat day anyway. After that, some chilling on the beach as well as some swimming. When I finally hit the gym in the afternoon, I did the following circuit for three rounds: Exercise Weight Reps Squats (ATG) 75kg 5 Tactical Pull-Ups Bodyweight 5 DB Presses 30kg 5 Tactical Pull-Ups Bodyweight 5 After each exercise, I took a 30 second break. No additional break in between rounds, of course. That's about it. Tomorrow evening, there'll be a rather philosophy-related post about cooking fish. If you're curious how this relates to the martial arts, make sure to check this page out tomorrow! So long, take care

When I woke up today, my knees didn't cause any pain at all. Just as I thought. Hence, I took to the opportunity to begin the day with a run on the beach. This is just plain awesome. Quite intense, too, due to the soft sand. Heart rate is climbing up pretty fast. Suits me just fine - I'm not much of a steady-state guy anyway. In the early afternoon, I went to the height park with my girl and my younger cousin. That's something in between a bouldering hall and an obstacle course. Below you'll find a couple of pictures, so you get the idea. Although I wouldn't tag this a proper training session, it did require some balance, coordination and even strength. Hence, it's probably best described as GPP-Training. I just wish I had a parcours such as this one in my Dojo - the kids would just love it... For a strong finish, I hit the beach again after sunset for 10 rounds of shadow-sparring. It's been a while since I did this, so in the beginning, I...

Another awesome day at the baltic sea. Unfortunately, I had to skip running due to knee issues. Guess it's nothing, I'll be fine again tomorrow. Instead, I went for a bicycle ride with my girl. Nothing out of the ordinary, you see, just taking care of some baseline cardio by riding through the woods for an hour. After that, more swimming in the baltic sea. So much for cardio. When it comes to strength, today's session called for deadlifting and bench pressing. Instead of just doing straight sets of 5, I mixed everything up into a mini-circuit that looked like this: Deadlift 5x 50% 1RM Pull-Up 5x Bodyweight Bench Press 5x 50% 1RM Pull-Up 5x Bodyweight Deadlift 5x 50% 1RM Pull-Up 5x Bodyweight Bench Press 5x 50% 1RM Pull-Up 5x Bodyweight Not a lot of intensity, but then I'm right in the middle of my deload week. I went through the circuit three times. In between sets, I took around 30 seconds of rest, sometimes a little less. Completed the whole thin...

It's been my second day at the baltic sea. What a great day. So here's what I did today: Get out of bed, go for a run on the beach Have breakfast Hit the gym for a lifting session Go to the beach to bathe in the sun and swim in the baltic sea Have lunch Teach my younger cousin how to deadlift, do some pull-ups Have dinner Sounds great, huh? Since I'm usually on the warrior diet, eating three meals a day seems like a huge waste of time to me. I'm under the impression of eating all the time. My diet here pretty much revolves around dairy(including lots of milk, cottage cheese, cream cheese and whipped cream), fresh fish, carrots, pancakes and sweet cakes. Guess I'll put on a pound or two during my stay here. Then on the other hand, I'm definately not passive. Starting the day with a run is nice. I don't usually run due to knee issues, but running in the soft sand is a compeltely different game. Breathing the sea breeze and feeling sand and littl...