State of My Arts

This past week, the head of our Hapkido program, a 7th dan in Hapkido (who also holds rank in a bunch of other disciplines) approached me about the possibility of testing for 2nd dan in Hapkido in the middle of October.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I”m currently prepping for my TKD exam. 

The TKD exam will most likely be around 3 hours in duration.  The components of the test will be: kicking and punching in multitudinous ways; forms (8 Tae Guk forms, plus 4 black belt forms); bong (staff) techniques including 2 forms; Ho Shin Sul (aka self-defense, usually from various grabs); board breaking; sparring; ukemi (rolling and falling); and Question-and-Answer.  I think I got everything listed there.  I think there are 8-10 of us testing, including a few young ‘uns going for junior black belt rank.  Should be fun.

Back to the Hapkido exam.  Nothing is really set yet, so it may not even happen.  In the middle of October, a group of us will be flying out to Portland for a Hapkido seminar.  We tend to go out there once or twice a year.  We’ll fly out on Friday, train that night and all of Saturday, then fly back on Sunday.  Our instructor’s instructor is a 9th dan in Hapkido, and gives us enough to think about in those two days of training to last several months.

Anyhow, I’ll be waking up around 4:00 in the morning that day, flying from Philadelphia to Portland, and then it might be that I hop off the plane and take a promotion exam an hour later.  We’ll see.  As I said, it may not even happen, so I’ll just take whatever comes.  But even if I do test after a 3,000 mile cross-country flight, it probably won’t be as uncomfortable as my first dan Hapkido test, when I tested with a dislocated rib.  Falling was not comfortable that day.

Hapkido

It is now 4 weeks until my 3rd dan test.  Last week I was mulling over what I should change up in my routine to get the most ready for my test.

Well, last Sunday I went through the P90X Plyometric routine — and boy, is that a killer.  I forgot exactly how tough that routine is, since I had only done it once before.  I resolved at the time to do that once a week — though I’m now out of whack with that, as I will relate henceforth.

Last week was as follows: Sunday: P90X Plyo; Monday: Black Belt TKD; Tuesday: P90X Chest, Shoulders, Triceps (lifting), plus Beginner TKD teaching; Wednesday: Hapkido, Intermediate TKD teaching, Advanced TKD; Thursday: rest; Friday: Hapkido; Saturday: Intermediate/Advanced TKD. 

The item missing from that list is lifting on Friday.  I just wasn’t up to it that day.  That was just as well, since the Hapkido class involved a number of hip throws.  The class that night was 4 students, and I was the 2nd lightest of that group.  So I got the easier duty of throwing the female black belt in attendance.  The only tricky thing about throwing her is that I need to squat lower to get my center below hers.  Still easier than throwing the 220- and 250- pound gentlemen.

Today, I opted not to do the Plyo routine.  I felt like lifting, since I hadn’t done that for 5 days.  Today was the Back and Biceps routine.  My biceps are pretty darn fatigued now (mission accomplished).  Usually at the end of the lifting routines, I’ll do the 15 minute abs/core routine.  Didn’t feel like doing that, either, so my guilt-ridden conscience prompted me to go for a short run, somewhere between a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half.

My weight is currently in the 195-ish range (194.6 this morning).  Dropping another couple of pounds would be nice, though I’m running a little low on time to do that barring a concerted dieting attempt.  This week is the weekend of Labor Day, and I’ll be taking a 4-day weekend (from work and training) and eating a lot of unhealthy food.  Then there will be two weeks of regular training, followed by the week of the test.  During that week, I won’t be doing any extra exercise, just TKD classes on Monday and Wednesday.

And I’m sure I’ll be ready to go.

TKD, Training

The start of the school year inaugurates some changes in the dojang.  We’ve got a number of black belts who have been around during the summer months, but most of them are now off to college.  Most of the area high schools start classes on Monday as well.

Attendance always drops off a bit during the summer.  The last two weeks, the intermediate adult class has been decimated.  Last week, there were three students.  One of those students is now working in China for the next 15 months.  This week — exactly one student showed up.  This is a class that has had as many as 15 students, though most often is 8-10.  The beginner class this week had six students.

Overall, we’re a very top-heavy dojang.  We have a lot of black belts, including a lot of instructors holding advanced rank.  But over the last 4 months or so, we haven’t really had any new students join the adult classes.  One of the cardio kickboxers has had a couple of TKD classes, but that’s about it.  The next most junior students are a couple of white belt with yellow stripe boys, and they’ve been here for a number of months already.

Obviously, this has been a very difficult last couple of years for the dojang, with our head instructor contracting leukemia around two years ago, and ultimately passing away earlier this year.  The instructors have remained devoted to the dojang, but we’re just lacking new bodies coming in the door.

Hopefully the start of the school year will bring in some new students.  But it certainly isn’t all bleak — the class after the class-of-one had 18 students, all red or black belts.

TKD, Teaching

So, I’ll be testing for 3rd dan in TKD on September 25, which is five weeks from today.

Our black belt promotion exams are usually three hours or so.  I feel like I’m in good enough shape right now to have a good performance, but I figure I’ll try to peak at that time.  My current exericise regimen is TKD on Mon, Weds, and Sat; Hapkido on Weds and Fri; teaching on Tues and Thurs; and lifting weights on Sun, Tues, and Fri.  I’ve dropped Kali for the time being, as it is too rough on my shoulder.

I can’t really add anything to that load without overtaxing myself.  So I suppose the only real change I can make is replacing my weight lifting routines with something else.  Cardio/core on test night will be more useful than added strength.  The options that come to mind are running, yoga, plyometrics, or cardio. 

So, faithful readers, any comments on what has worked well for you when you are trying to peak for a particular event?

Fitness, TKD

After the conclusion of last Saturday’s TKD training, there were 3 college-age TKD black belts who were interested in doing a bit of grappling.  I gave them a little taste of grappling during the TKD class showing them a sweep from guard, but of course they wanted more.  There’s the MMA influence for you (hey, it got me into BJJ myself).

Anyway, I showed them kind of a quick overview of a few techniques, some of which they were a bit familiar with: arm bar from guard, failed armbar from guard transitioning into an omoplata, Ezekiel choke, and another funky sweep from guard (crossing the guy’s arms in front, hipping out, putting a foot between the arms, hipping the other way and rolling them over).

After playing around with those for 25 minutes or so, the four of us played around with some free grappling starting from a kneeling position.  We were in TKD doboks, which can’t take the pulling that BJJ/Judo gis can, so I kept things somewhere between no-gi and gi.  The three guys are all very fit, but are all built on the lean side, so my 195 pounds probably gave me at least a 30 pound advantage over them.  One of them used to train at the same place I trained BJJ, so he knew a bit about he was doing, and the other two relied on a bit of high school gym class wrestling and the bits and snatches they’ve picked up over the years.

I kept it light, but did have fun submitting them, with a triangle from mount, an Ezekiel choke, a rear naked choke, an arm bar, and a Kimura from guard.  May have missed one or two in there.  It was nice to roll around on the mats a  bit, especially since I knew they weren’t able to hurt me.  I think they’re all leaving for college in a couple of weeks, so we won’t be able to make it a regular thing.  Too bad, I could use some practice before I go back to BJJ in October.

BJJ

Today is 1 day short of 7 months since surgery.  I saw the doctor 2 weeks back (and failed to blog about it, I know) and he has cleared me for all physical activity.  Yeah!

Of course, that doesn’t really mean that I’m completely healed.  The skin around the incision still doesn’t feel normal; there’s a bit of decreased sensitivity there.  Strength is good, due to the weightlifting I’ve been doing.  Flexibility is pretty good — actually, it might even be too good.  The doctor thought that my ligaments are probably a bit more lax than most people’s, which could explain when I get so many soft tissue injuries.

There still is pain, and the doctor said that it will take until a year after the surgery before that fades nearly as much as it is going to.  I’ve been backing of of Kali practice, since that aggravates my shoulder more than anything.  I’m cleared to return to BJJ, but I’m going to hold off on that for another month and a half, at least, until I have my 3rd dan TKD test.

This past Saturday I was doing flip falls and dive rolls without incident, so I’m good to go with falling (I’ll give front falls a pass for a while longer, though).  Some of the muscles around the shoulder are kind of spasming with all the overwork I’ve been giving it, but all in all it isn’t too bad.  Kind of a tepid endorsement, I know, but major injuries are slow to heal.

Health

Somehow, the kitties like my smelly gear.

TKD

So, this is a funny thing.  One of the red belts in the school (in fact the one whose story I’ve mentioned before), had been having problems with a swollen knee — he wasn’t sure exactly what triggered it, but it was swollen up a lot.  He rested it for awhile, but it wasn’t getting much better.

Then, a couple weeks ago, he and I were sparring.  He did a nice turning back kick with the swollen knee leg that I was late in recognizing.  I just checked the kick by raising a leg, which meant that he kicked my shin gear.  It was a bit of a “thud” which didn’t hurt me at all.  He ended up turning his ankle slightly, but was able to keep going after a short time.

Well, when I saw him the following week, he pointed at his knee, and the swelling was completely gone!  It turned out that somehow the shock of that contact caused something or other to dislodge, and allowed the fluid to drain.  Or at least that’s the operating assumption.  The swelling had decreased later that same day, and was basically gone by the next day.

The only other time I’ve known about an injury that ended up healing something came early on when I started BJJ.  I was rolling with a similarly inexperienced white belt in a no-gi class.  I got caught in an inverted arm bar, and (stupidly) figured I would be able to slip out of it.  So I fought it and he ramped up the pressure.  Then we both heard something that sounded like paper ripping.

I had a little bit of pain, but really not like I was expecting.  After a couple of days, that pain went away.  It turned out that the ripping sound was some scar tissue.  I had had shoulder surgery for a subluxing shoulder (kept popping halfway out and then going back in) as a teenager, and for the following 17 years or so I had limited range of motion in that shoulder.  Put your elbow by your side with your fist in front of you (elbow bent at 90 degrees) and try to move your fist around your body without moving your elbow.  Normal shoulders can go roughly 90 degrees, but my shoulder could only go around 30 degrees.  After that arm bar, my range of motion improved significantly — now I can rotate that shoulder maybe 80 degrees or so.

Anyone else get an injury that ended up being beneficial?

Health

Well, I’ve kind of taken some time off from posting.  Never fear, my training, teaching, and weightlifting have been proceeding splendidly.

Here’s my teaching recap:

• I had two wisdom teeth removed 3 weeks ago, the only two that have come in.  I was just given novocaine, so I concentrated on my breathing while the extractions were going on.  So that week I missed a couple of days of training, then had my backup run the Wednesday class.
• The following week was the final week before a promotion exam that occurred on July 31, so the classes I ran were focused on testing requirements.
• The promotion exam itself was good.  It was on the smaller side (I believe 8 tested, half of whom were youngsters who train in the children’s class).  I was invited to be on the testing panel, which is a nice honor, since there were several higher-ranking instructors there observing the test as well.  The two that I focused on did well on many things, though they each have some things to work on as well.
• The following morning, a large group went off to Avalon, N.J. for sunrise beach training.  I’m not much of a beachgoer (and don’t fancy meeting at the dojang at 4:30 A.M. for carpooling), so I volunteered to run class for whoever might show up for class.  I had half a dozen show up — an college-age 1st dan, a teenage 1st dan, a poom (junior black belt), a young red belt, a late-teen 3rd gup (aka blue belt/red stripe), and a teenage green belt.  Cardio warmup followed by forms, followed by various body weight upper body exercises.  The last half an hour or so, we spent alternating sparring and getting down on our knees and grappling.  Since we’re not a grappling school, that part is usually a bit more about having fun than it is in serious grappling.  One of the younger girls arrived in tears, and left giggling.  So that part felt pretty good.
• Last week, I focused on poomse during my classes to give those who were recently promoted a chance to learn a new form right away.  I also did some slow-motion no-gear sparring with the beginner class, which is pretty fun.
• I ran yesterday’s Saturday morning class as well.  I’m third on the list of instructors for that class, and as the top two were away, I had my chance.  There were 20 or so this week.  I did some kicking to get the heart rate up, then focused on ab work for awhile.  Then more kicking drills, working on crescent kicks.  Usually, we’ll focus on either axe kicks (the power of the kick is downward with the heel), or hook kicks (the power of the kick is horizontal to the ground, hitting with the heel), but we don’t often isolate crescent kicks (the power of the kick is horizontal, but hitting with the inside or outside of the foot) in our style.  I do love the bent leg variation of the outside crescent kick — what we sometimes call the Billy Jack kick (last 10 seconds of that clip).  The last half an hour was spent on one step sparring.  It was a good, productive class.

TKD, Teaching