A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

The situation My shoulder has been giving me severe issues for quite some time now. Depending on who I ask, I get a different diagnosis. Already took anti-inflammatory drugs to rule out a bursitis. Didn’t help. Now I’m still waiting for my MRT to clear things up… however, Monday, I decided to work through the pain and just do some kettlebell cleans and presses. I have to say, everything worked like a charm. Yesterday, I could even do a handstand without pain. Not bad, considering I haven’t slept well a single night since the [XX Open Polish Taekwon Do Championships] due to shoulder pain… This somehow fortifies the theory that my shoulder suffers from a lack of stability. Guess it’s time to address that issue… The solution So today, I started following a (slightly modified) [5/3/1] routine again. The program worked well for me, I only stopped doing it because it takes quite a high toll when it comes to recovery. Can’t have that prior to a fight. Since I don’t have any fights ...

Recently, my friend and fellow Shinergy instructor [Elias K] fought at the WKF Austrian Open in Vienna. I didn’t have a chance to be there and witness the event first person, but fortunately, there’s full video footage of the fight. Without further ado, lean back and enjoy a great fight! Round I Round II So long, take care

[A couple of days ago] I posted that in the near future, I’ll deviate from the pragmatic reality of combat sports competition and the related training for a while and instead ponder some philosophical ideas. That’s still the plan. However, this particular issue is on my mind right now, so I don’t see a point in postponing it… You see, sometimes, we (instructors, trainers, coaches, …) don’t practice what we preach. Sometimes, we just lack the motivation and/or dedication to fully commit to our own principles and instructions. That’s why top-level athletes can still learn from their trainers. While the latter possess a superior level of knowledge, it is the former who actually put that knowledge to good use, train hard and compete. There’s a gazillion reasons why someone might choose not to devote his life to hard training and proper nutrition at 100%. Amongst others, that’s family (a luxury many top-level athletes just can’t afford), past injuries, athletic burn-out (in the sense tha...

This one should probably be filed as “thoughts on attitude”, but then again, it’s a rather philosophical point, isn’t it? Guess we could call it “applied philosophy”,… but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me explain. A couple of days ago, I was discussing some of my thoughts with [Ronny] . Our little talks tend to frustrate me, mostly because I often leave with more questions than I initially had when I thought of an answer… Ronny just has the ability of asking the right questions. Right, of course, usually means “devastating”. Whenever I think I‘ve figured something out, there tends to be that one nasty little detail I haven’t considered. Discovering such flaws is essential – for one, it might turn out that the whole solution is just plain wrong. They say that “the devil lies in the details”. Hence, a single detail might contradict an otherwise sound theory. Even if it doesn’t – this brings me to point number two –, the knowledge that all details are covered offers a certain degree ...

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

Yesterday night we returned from this year’s [open polish taekwondo championships in Czestochowa] . As expected of a [PUT] event, it was superbly organized. Everything went down smoothly with the exception of some misunderstandings regarding weight divisions, but this was also quickly taken care of and handled professionally. The schedule had weigh-in on Friday night, semi-contact sparring on Saturday and continuous sparring on Sunday. Now at most tournaments, you can never be sure when you’re going to fight – I had days where I spent 10+ hours at the venue before stepping into the ring. That’s not so much of a problem by itself, at least if you know it in advance. What’s troublesome is having absolutely no clue as to when you’re up, because that means warming up again and again so as to be ready to compete at every moment. Good luck going through a fight after having warmed up like ten times or so. This time, despite the fact that more than 550 competitors from four countries (Pol...

Come Sunday, I’ll fight in the [XX Open Polish Taekwon-Do Championships] in Czestochowa, Poland. Didn’t post a lot in terms of fight preparation this time, although I did line out what our [S&C sessions] and [T&T sessions] look like at the moment. I really just didn’t feel like thinking too much about things. Im trying to get to a point, where, to put it into [Martin Rooney’s words] , a fight is “ just another day at the office ”. Anyhow, today I did my last session before the fights. Up from now, it’ll all boil down to the [Warrior Warmup Routine] , some light stretching and easy shadow sparring. No point in burning out just right before the real thing. Speaking of fatigue, today was hard. Although we cut round times to 90 seconds to keep things fresh, I really had trouble going through all the exercises. Must be the carb deprivation kicking in – I haven’t eaten carbs in what feels like an eternity (but in reality is more like 3 weeks or so). Explosiveness and [the At...