Maximum power!

I got to thinking about power in the martial arts over the weekend, or more specifically the application of 'force'.

I am short and - well, 'chunky' would probably be about the kindest way of putting it. My lack of height and extra weight mean that speed has never been my thing. I do find it easy to put on muscle so I've concentrated on that. Pound for pound I'm probably stronger than the average woman, at least in the sense that I can lift heavier weights more often. I've certainly found this useful to a degree in the martial arts, since I know that my weight and musculature means that I can generally hit fairly hard. Given that I can also take a punch, it's one of those times where I can effectively use my weight to my advantage.

However, the ability to generate 'force' or 'power' is more than just about physical strength. There is a young American lady who trains with our krav class. She is significantly taller than me, but judging by her slender build, very much lighter. Despite this, she is the real 'big hitter' in the group.

Why should this be?

First of all, heavy musculature (ie hypertrophy) does not necessarily indicate functional strength or power. Many lightly built athletes are known for their exceptional strength.

It should also be noted that strength and bodyweight are of limited use in delivering powerful strikes if those techniques lack skill. Skill is more than successfully executing the technique in isolation, it also includes recruiting the entire kinetic chain - effectively getting your body 'behind' the technique in order to generate force. Skillful technique also includes speed, timing and appropriate target selection.

Clearly this is something this lady is well on her way to mastering, and I'm still in the process of learning about.

architecture and morality

I got to thinking this week about the ethics and morality of blog-writing.

When I started this blog towards the tail-end of last year it was more about having an appropriate ID to comment on other people's martial arts blogs. It was also a place for me to reflect on my own training.

It is a personal journal, but because it's in the public domain and other people read and comment on it, I'm quite careful about naming names. For those that I do name (primarily my instructors), I do my best to do so in a positive and respectful way. One of the reasons I do name them is in the hope that if there's anyone local to me reading then they might be interested in coming along to classes.

I generally won't name the other people that I train with. These guys have signed up to train not to be talked about in my blog! This isn't Facebook, so I feel quite justified in protecting the identities of my training partners.

This was something that I decided for myself, but it's come to the fore recently. Someone that also trains at krav has their own blog where they not only name names but are inclined to seriously 'rip into' the people that they train with. Unfortunately for this person, their blog is visible to those they are friends with on Facebook .... which includes many of the individuals they criticise! Perhaps not the best idea .... I do know that a few of those mentioned in that blog have been irritated by the things that have been said about them.

Now, a blog is a very personal thing, and as individuals I guess we're entitled to express our opinions as we choose, negative or positive. I've chosen to keep my blog for what is effectively positive reflection. Actually, I'm generally quite a positive person anyway, so that's not too hard. On those occasions where I might have something critical to say I'll either front up and say it to the person's face, or I'll go and have a wee rant about it at home and get it out of my system.

Basically - I value and respect the people who teach me and those that I train with. I will not risk the positive relationships I have with them just to try and make myself look better than I actually am. Anything you might read on here which seems to highlight what I've done is just my way of celebrating those little achievements that make me happy. I'm happy to acknowledge the things I'm bad at, and I'll always be first to laugh at myself. There's always room to improve, and I look forward to sharing that journey.

more classes

It's been a busy old week this week. So far I have had a class every night.

Monday - krav maga
Tuesday - krav maga
Wednesday - kickboxing
Thursday - chi kung and kung fu
Friday - ?? decisions decisions


Wednesday - kickboxing
This is a new offering from the Combat Ready gym where I do my krav maga. I've been keen to do either kickboxing or Thai boxing for a while now, partly for the fitness aspect and partly to build on my existing combat skills.

I'm really glad I went! It ended up being a really good class. There was an excellent turnout, with a healthy mix of new starts and existing students. My usual Monday night krav partner turned up, so we paired up and thumped some pads. We did also seem to have a combined mental age of about 10 during the class, and did an awful lot of laughing. We still worked hard though, we just had fun doing it.

Sadly I can't go next Wednesday as I'm off to a talk.


Thursday - chi kung & kung fu
I really like these classes. They're very small classes which really enhances the learning experience for me. There's also a very positive vibe about them, which means that I really look forward to training. The teacher seems quite young, but he has terrific patience with his students. In this particular style the emphasis is on becoming more skillful through training the basics in real depth and progressing slowly. Each week we start with the fundamentals of footwork and stances, strikes and defences. Each time we work on becoming more skillful at these and each time we add just a little bit more.

I do love the poetic Chinese names for each movement where a turning / roundhouse kick becomes Naughty Monkey Strikes Tree.

So far I have found that these classes offer a nice balance to the pragmatism and dynamism of the other classes I do. I love the pragmatism and utility of krav maga and I suspect that it will remain my default combat 'mindset' should I ever be attacked. There is however an art and philosophy to the kung fu that is quite appealing to me.

I definitely prefer the kung fu to the kuk sool I tried a while back. I just couldn't get engaged with that at all, and I think it was possibly because everything was done with such a degree of speed and complexity that I found it became quite stressful for me. I certainly don't intend that as a criticism of either the art or of the instructor (who is excellent) - it just didn't work out for me in terms of the way I prefer to learn. I certainly enjoyed the very physical challenges of the training - it appealed in the same way that the krav does - but I can be quite slow to pick up new and complex motor skills, especially if I feel pressured to do so. I do like to be challenged and pushed both physically and mentally but I found that I just wasn't a good fit for kuk sool. It was a shame, as there were a lot of really good people in the class.

My martial arts journey has certainly been an interesting one so far!

challenge progress

Challenge no 1 - kettlebell swings
Finished!

No 2 - 'Lent'
Still going well, actually. Is a surprise to me lol ....

No 3 - chi kung and mobility exercises
Still keeping up with the chi kung. Have let the mobility slide a wee bit which isn't so good.

No 4 - 100 reps
See mobility above.

Since I finished challenge no 1, I haven't quite managed to incorporate the 100 reps and mobility work back into my daily life. When I was doing all those swings, it was easy to mix the 100 reps into the KB sets. Next week I will need to work on doing this.

injured!

my right shoulder hurts.

That is all.

Carry on, chaps.

classes, classes

Saturday - circuits
Marcus and Lee were both away on a course so lucky Michael got us for circuits. It was an interesting mash-up of the standard type of stations that Lee has us do (loads of kettlebells plus bodyweight exercises), plus lots of padwork. I think everybody enjoyed the padwork because a lot of it was kicking tae kwon do style, inc the infamous jumping 360 degree turning kick. This particular kick has no real application outside of sport sparring but it's fun to do and good exercise.

Monday - krav maga
OMG - shuttle runs done sprint style! I am a s-l-o-w runner, and my asthmatic old lungs didn't especially enjoy this wee warm up. I suspect that I'm probably too heavy ever to get v good at this, but that certainly doesn't invalidate the exercise. Was glad when we stopped though lol.

I was really well chuffed for my usual Monday training partner - she totally won this one, destroying all the guys in the process. Way to go!

In krav we worked some combinations to warm up:
Jab, cross, hook, knee knee
Jab, cross, hook, round kick etc

Lee quite rightly picked up that I have become quite "tappy tappy" when punching. I think this is a partly me not wanting to upset the pad holder by leathering the pads too hard, and also I think my distance is wrong. I always seem to think I'm taller than I actually am(!), so I tend to be further away from the pads than I should be, therefore my strikes are losing some oomf by the time they land. I will need to work on this ....

We then started looking at what I'm guessing may be a variant of the krav 360 defence. It's basically a check, parry move against a straight punch. We trained to use this from inside the punch. I know this particular move, or very similar, from my previous training, but there we were encouraged to utilise this defence from the outside. It's good to train it inside as well, as you may not always have the luxury or opportunity to move to the outside.

Tuesday - krav maga
Wot? 2 days in a row? For some mad reason, it seemed like A Really Good Idea to go to last night's krav class. It was a big class. It was a good class. I was the only girl. I have many bruises, esp on my foot where if I got trodden on once, I got trodden on about 20 times!

We did much skipping to warm up - slightly tricky on a crowded mat lol. I ended up with the world's shortest skipping rope and kept clouting myself on the back of the head. Was better than catching my toes though, as that really stings!

We also did loads of pushups. I can manage 'wheelbarrow' style (where your partner lifts your feet off the ground) but the handstand variant was well nippy! Is good thing our partners were supporting our legs cos my balance isn't that great these days. Mind you, first time we tried I landed on my face lol.

There is a real gulf in intensity between the 'mixed' (read: guys plus the odd female) and women-only classes. We leathered some pads to warm up, then started adding in a takedown or two. I'm fine with takedowns but it was interesting last night because:
a) the Thai pads didn't half get in the way (cracking noise on breakfall though lololol)
b) the guy I was working with is lovely but he's a big hefty lad and I was toiling to make the takedown really work for me.

We then worked as groups of 4, effectively doing a Circle of Death. One person attacks and takes the defender to the ground. The other two then join in and all 3 give the defender a right kicking(!) The defender then has to pick their moment to regain their feet and get away. This was an important skill to practice, as it was training several things:

1) the importance of using the 'foetal position' to cover up and defend your face / head and stomach / groin.
2) using momentum to regain your feet.
3) picking your moment to regain your feet.
4) still covering up while regaining your feet.

It was also good in terms of learning to take some good hits! Mind you, thank god for all that MMA training - my mate Tracy hits harder and is meaner than any guy I know. She has lamped me some beauties over the years and I was grateful for that last night!

Marcus chose this moment to point out to the guys that they should hit me just as hard, something along the lines of since I'd chosen to come to krav then I needed to take the hits lol. I did, of course, point out that not only did I get to hit back, but I know where it hurts .....

Then we went back into our pairs and did a drill where the defender takes a shot to the face, covers up then moves into their attacker until they can manoeuvre their opponent into a chest to back position. After we'd worked that for a bit, we started adding in a takedown. This takedown seemed like a bit of a combo between a hip throw and a shoulder throw. Slightly tricky for me to achieve with my partner, due to his size and his reluctance to be thrown. Was carnage on the mats though, with bodies everywhere!

Overall, good class although my shoulder is nipping like beggary this morning. Have no idea what I've done it. Probably combination of all those bleedin' push ups and falling on it ....

challenge progress

No 1 - 10,000 kettlebell swings
Day 13 26 Feb 750 swings
Day 14 27 Feb 1,000 swings
Day 15 28 Feb 2,000 swings

Total: 10,000 swings or 100% complete!! My hands are in *bits*!

NB I may do a wee mop-up session. I did count swings complete in things like the circuits classes, and I don't know that I'm that happy about that now. They're as legitimate as any other swings, but I'm anal about that sort of thing ....

No 2 - 'Lent'
Still going fine. Ate out on Saturday and avoided both fizzy juice and chocolate.

No 3 - Mobility and chi kung exercises
Still doing both of these

No 4 - 100 reps
26 Feb - 100 crunches
27 Feb - 100 bodyweight squats
28 Feb - 100 bodyweight squats

Now that I'm finished with the swings I will be able to expand on my range of exercises again.