A Dark Side Adventure

Ashihara – warmup with stair-running. I have lost fitness  , not unexpected. Kicks and stretching. Then useful sabaki partner work, stepping in hard after the block, using the head to take down.

In Ashihara you always move and block to get the outside. Occasionally I forget and come inside where there in non-Ashihara stuff to do.  The drills tend to be too fast but done with commitment and the sequences  are always completed to takedown and finish which I  think is a valuable training habit.

Finished with the third fighting kata which ends with a takedown, headgrab and stomp.

Monday Ashihara. Shoulder just isn’t right but I felt that after two months away I needed to either get back into it or just forget about this stuff, so I went back but strictly being careful.

Whole night was partner work, starting with  half hour warmup, including tag games, situps, clapping pushups, stretches and partner cart-pulling.

Then an exercise like kotikitae with sabaki which progressed from simple block and position to locks to take downs. Then hitting/kicking drills on pads. My strikes are getting stronger I think, despite the lack of practise, and I did better with the spinning kick numbers as well. I felt great at the end -  really enjoyed some higher instensity work for a change.

Tuesday Systema – wall experimental warmup. Then just simply working with a partners body on locks. Then a push and a lock. Then one person sitting in a chair receiving, locking or jamming, taking down if possible. Progressed to sitting on the floor (very hard – lino over concrete) with a standing attacker, taking down, pinning, using the floor as a tool, escaping.

Finished with pushups in a row, hip to hip, slow,and a game where each person has to crawl over the top along the row. I did situps. Then situps in a row, slow. Fun.

Pu

Its been a particularly busy week workwise. Very successful but very busy. Worked all day Saturday (again). And the usual family and other stuff I do. I enjoy it all, I’m always busy, but I get pulled in different directions constantly.

So this morning I just needed to get off the treadmill for a bit. Get away from the chattering. It was a truly beautiful day. Got up late, went for a long walk around the lagoon. Just me, time to think. Bliss.

Just two of us in the park tonight.  Alex worked on kicks to start. First just avoiding  all kinds of kicks – simply not being there when the kick connects. Then avoiding but keeping close. Then controling and adding the gift – guiding the inside of the incoming leg with your hand (so not a traditional block), jamming to hip or thigh, catching with the foot to disrupt, knee rotations to disrupt.

I wanted to do some work on heavy hands so we practised the feel of the  heavy pushing strike. This segued into body flow exploration.