Laughingmonk's Training log - The making of a Kyokushinkai Fighter

[laughingmonk]

Well, let me know if i misunderstood this section of the forum. From what I read we can start our training log. I am looking forward to post mine and welcome users to add input or suggestion.

My training started 2 month ago, so I am almost at the bottom of the ladder and will climb my way up to become an excellent Kyokushinkai student, I have written "student" because i believe we will always learn something new no matter what level we are. Same thing apply to life.

My personal goals and motivation towards Kyokushinkai Karaté:

Train and keep my body in shape.
Build up the resistance and flexibility of my body
Developing new abilities with the legs.
Burn lot of energy :-)
Discipline my self, physically and mentally
Put some nice zen action in my life.
I love contact sport.

I will start the training log with where I am in my kyokushinkai evolution today. I train mostly 4 to 5 time a week at the dojo, each courses last 1 hour. On mondays and Wednesday I train twice a day, at noon and at night.

I just turned orange (7th kyu) 3 weeks ago. I aiming for Blue in January if I keep up the same pace.

[laughingmonk]

Wednesday, 2 courses.

1st courses.

We started with the normal warm up routine. After we proceed with legs streching, normally when our Sensei makes us warm up the legs we know there will be some kicking exercices. But before, we did a cardio session.

We all line up on one single line. Our Sensei gives us a series of 5 exercises to do. We have to start the count at 10x repetition each exercise (the number can be more), then we run to the other side of the dojo and do 9x repetion, run on the other side and do 8x reps. and so on until
we reach 1x.

Today it was an easy one, (10x)

Starting count:
10x jumping jack
10x up and down
10x leg crossing (standing)
10x leg crossing (crouching)
10x sit up

This exercise will round up in total:
55x jumping jack
55x up and down
55x leg crossing (standing)
55x leg crossing (crouching)
50x Sit up

After that little warm up we get the pads (Yah baby!)
Today it was punching and kicking.

The punch
- Seiken chudan tsuki 20x last 10 with kiaa

that was it for the punches, by then I knew the rest of the courses would be legs only.

the kicks
- Mawashi-geri gedan 40x the last 10 with kiaa
- Mawashi-geri chudan 40x the last 10 with kiaa
- Mawashi-geri jodan 40x the last 10 with kiaa

After we had to team up with a sparring partner, one will have the hand pads. We get to choose the kick we want (It has to be kick aimed at waist and up). You go with that kick for 2 length of the dojo, (both legs) as you move forward and hitting the pads. After that you switch with your partner the pads, and same thing, 2 dojo length, and switch again. for another set of 2 length.

The kick i chosed:

-Mawashi-geri jodan
- I don't know the name of the other kick i chosed, a round kick, I have fighting stance (left leg in front) and then i turn around on my self to kick with the right leg to the chest.

Im not familiar with that kick, but I like it, was quite easy the first 2 length except my partner was always too close to me, the second time i went at it my legs was more tired and I had hard time keeping my balance and hitting effectively.

Well we finished things up with some Kata, I practiced my 3rd 4th and 5th kata, and the first Pian. I was a little lost for the 1st pian because its was the first time I tried it.

I had a break when i got to sit down and watch the other practice higher kata, I used that time to do push up on my fist and crunch putting my leg streched on the hand bar post. I wanted to stay warm up.

Lets see what my other sensei will have for us tonight.
Meanwhile enjoy all!!

PS: sorry again for my grammar.

one happy monk.

[laughingmonk]

Wednesday (Course 2)

One of our Sempai started the course.

Warm up

50 Jumping jack
50 up and down
50 leg crossing (standing position)
25 push up

Breathing exercise

Kiba dachi position.
- 20 gin geri (always returning to Kiba Dachi position)
- 20 Mawashi-geri jodan (always returning to Kiba Dachi position)
- 20 Mae-geri chudan (always returning to Kiba Dachi position)
- 20 Mika tsuki geri ( always returning to kiba Dachi position)

Breathing Exercise

Kiba dachi position

- 20 Seiken chudan tsuki
- 20 Seiken jodan tsuki
- 20 Seiken gedan tsuki

Breathing

kiba dachi position

Dojo count (here each student count until five one by one, from the first student to the last one. There is about 40 of us) we hold the kiba dachi until the last student count to 5.

Breathing

-30 Hiza geri (10 last with kia)

leg stretching 2 minutes.

From there we move from the Sempai to our Sensei (oh oh, i look at the clock, there is still 30 minutes to go, its gonna be intense)

Fighting stance,
-Blocking move with the hand (will get the name) 55x times
- 25 push up on fist
- 50 sit up with a partner

Fighting stance, position low
- 40x Mae-geri chudan

From there our Sensei shout out 3 or 4 combination to do for 20 x each and many more after. I lost track at that point.There was still 10 min left on the clock. We used them for katas, and at the end to surprise us, the sensei decided to strech the course an extra 10 minute with more exercise

Hiza geri.

As usual, It was a good course. I was hoping for some Kumite tonight, but im not complaining, the work out made me sweat. When my whole kimono is wet i know i had a good course.

Osu!

Take care all, No Dojo training until Saturday and Sunday. I might start running tomorrow...maybe :-) the body's hurt.

[Bloke]

Laughingmonk

You get the idea of the thread all right. The second kick you described in the second post where you did not know its name sounds to me like Ushiro Geri (back kick) if I read you right. I really like this kick and given olenty of practice you can learn to effectively deliver this kick even if your opponent is in close.

[laughingmonk]

I checked a site previously posted on a K4L Topic, Kyokushinbasics.com for some Kihon terms. I did not go through all of them (don't know most of them)

The Ushiro Geri look similar to the kick i am practicing. The exercise is to advance forward (Migi Ashi Mae & Hidari Ashi Mae) on each step I do the round/back Ushiro Geri, so If i start with Migi Ashi Mae (left foot forward) I spin/turn and the right leg will do the Ushiro Geri and end up into the Hidari Ashi Mae (right foot forward), same thing here, turn + Ushiro Geri with Left leg and end up into Migi Ashi Mae.

It not easy because your kind spinning both ways (left and right) , at one point I loose balance and the aiming is quite less precise. I've Got to work on the technique for sure.

[laughingmonk]

Well Saturday it was one of the Sempai who gave the training.

The training was based overall on warm ups and streching.


Jogging sessions

-Around the dojo

- Run side ways
- Run side ways leg crossing (focus on hips)
- Run turning left and right with leg crossing

Lot of direction switch

- Breathing

- Push up
- Push up stance (dojo count)
here we all hold the push up position, and from the first student to the last we have count loudly (1 to 5) we always count in japanese, i like it ,but im looking forward to learn more then just counting 1 to 10..

- Abs. we all go down flat on our back. (oh! oh!) We raise our legs and head 2 inches above the floor, Its Dojo Count!!. Here again, we hold the position counting to 5 from the first student to the last.
- Abs. We raise our legs higher (90 degree) and at the count of the sempai, we let the legs go down but we stop at 2 inches from the floor and raise them up again 90 degree. 20 times at Sempai's call.
- Abs. Still holding those legs up 90, we do crunches raising the head and shoulder from the floor.

-Kiba dachi exercise - All students line up in 3 lines (hold kiba dachi stance for whole exercise)
-All students move to the left by crossing the leg and back to Kiba dachi and then move to the right
-All students move to the left + Right by crossing the leg and perform a Yoko-geri chudan
-All Students move to the left + right and perform a Gin-geri + Yoko-geri chudan
-All Students move to the left + right and perform a Mae-ganmen-geri jodan
-All Students move to the left + right and perform a Gin geri + Yoko-geri chudan + Ushiro-geri (3 consecutive kick each leg without resting the foot on the floor)
I don't know here if i had the correct term for those 3 kicks. Picture that you stand on one leg and perform those 3 kick front/side/back with the free leg before bringing it back to the ground)


- Breathing

Still holding the kiba dachi

-Kihon. we will hold it for all the kihon exercise.
-Punches
-Body hook
-Uppercut, jab, (left right)
- Shuto
- the first blocking move of the Taikyoku kata sono san kata, the Uchi Uke? i think
- The first blocking move of the Taikyoku sono Ichi , the Gedan Barai?

-Breathing

We get the weights (3pound) each hand

Kicking and punches exercise.

We cross the dojo with kihon combination

- I would love to go in detail here but i remember only half of all the kihon we did here.
that exercise lasted 10 minutes/ 15 minutes.

Kata practice

We kept the weights and practice our Kata. Last remaining 15 minutes of the course.

Here it is always the same order. From the first kata we move on. We proceed by color belt, so all we start the 1st kata, and of course, the white belt will
drop out of line after the 2nd kata, the rest continues, then after the 1st pian, orange drop out, and so on. At the end we watch all the black belt practice
some katas.


Well that was our saturday training, a nice one, not too hard but still got me sweating Im happy.

Next training, Monday (2 courses)
Sunday will be relax day.

Osu!

[Bloke]

Originally Posted by laughingmonk

- the first blocking move of the Taikyoku kata sono san kata, the Uchi Uke? i think
- The first blocking move of the Taikyoku sono Ichi , the Gedan Barai?

Laughingmonk

In Taikyoku sono san the first block is called Seiken Chudan Uchi Uke and in Taikyoku Sono Ichi it is Seiken Mae Gedan Barai.

[laughingmonk]

Thank you Bloke, you are right, I checked the kyokushinbasic site for the glossary, but since I don't know most of the japanese terms, i was not able to know where to start looking.

It is indeed the Seiken Mae Gedan Barai and the Seiken Chudan Uchi Uke.

I still have to improve my Seiken Chudan uchi Uke technique and stance.

[laughingmonk]

AAHHH Monday's training. I enjoy it a lot. It is sometime a mental struggle for me, the lazyness over the will of training. The will of training always win Up to the Dojo I went for training session 1.

Monday its Sensei Christine,
- A little bit on Sensei Christine;
A classy lady and quite a Kyokushinkai. She is so sweet, maybe 40 something. But in Kumite that classy lady becomes a fierce Kyokushinkai Fighter with amazing kicks and shin of steel. Very calm and patient Sensei, always smile, sees everything and always help students to improve. My fantasy goal is to be able to deliver kick like she does.

--I notice most Kyokushinkai women are quite flexible and have very nice techique for the kicks.


Well this is what Sensei had for our 1 hour session today

- Warm up (usual kyokushin warm up routine)

- Kicking exercise (both legs)
• Mawashi-geri chudan + a kick I cant find the term, you keep you leg straight and lift it up as high as possible in front of you, similar to Kagato-geri gedan but no knee bending 20 + 10 with kia (each leg)

• Gin Geri + that kick similar to Kagato-Geri Gedan 20 + 10 with kia (each leg)

- Shadow boxing (I smell Kumite up ahead :-) )
• 4 session of 1 minute of shadow boxing, we use all the techniques we want.
I worked on: Ushiro Geri (round kick), Yoko-geri chudan, all the Hiza geri, and a kick i like a lot, the kick comes from the outside to the inside, aiming a the head leg almost straight, and once the foot goes down it do it reverse with the same leg from the outside to the inside. I like this because i can keep my oponent in range , still trouble with that right leg.


-Rope Skipping (ouf! already!)
- 4 session of 1 minute non stop, last 15 seconds sprint (as fast as we can)
• Here I had problems and i was quite surprised. I had no problem doing the rope skipping today, meaning by that, I don't miss and get tangle in the rope anymore, but at one point my head started to hurt and it increased the more i jumped, I had to stop. My friend at the dojo had the same thing. Any one had that same experience? Is it because I wasn't warm enough, to heavy (6"1, 210lb) and the repetive landing make my brain bounce? The stamina was there i was quite surprise actually that I was not missing, but the head messed up my fun.

- Kihon exercise (kumite) lets get the gear the sensei said. Yah baby, but the head thing is going away too slowly.

6 quick fights of 1 to 2 minutes, different opponent. Of course I started with my friend , we are about the same size.

here again I tried to work on my technic (technique? French or English Technic?)

I worked on-

• Punches (here I am trying to aim away from the center of my opponent, today i practice aiming at their shoulder, from the front and side, almost like a push that put my opponent in a off balance mode for a sec.
• Sune Uke
• Yoko-geri chudan
• Yoko-geri Jodan
• lot of Mawashi hitting with the shin and sometime the foot
• Hiza geri, Hiza ganmen geri, Mawashi Hiza geri

-Opponents was mostly black and brown. I like fighting with the black belts because they mostly give advise on my technique while we fight.

- I also pratice my stance and cornering my opponent, not letting them turn around me, i would cut the center either left or right depending on wich way they try to go (a bit like boxer do). I like advancing towards them some Hiza geri until im in close range, then I work the punches, figured if i stay close to them I can block most of the kicks, and it force me to work on my upper guard. I take more body hits attempt. Today a sempai told me to turn my hips side ways when im getting hit to the body so i can block with the elbows and putting away my chest from the hits (protection to my solar plexus is one of my main concern and the ribs)

Are the setup and pushup kicking in? Today some opponent blow to my body surprised me, tought it would hurt , but didn't, I felt the power but the abs stayed strong.


- Push up exercise

We finished the course with some push up and kicking exercise .

Lets see what she have in her bag for tonight. But that training did serve it purpose, I was tired.

PS:I need to work on my breathing when i fight, I tend to stop breathing a lot, I do pratctice the exhaling, but one problem, if you exhale a lot but don't breathe a lot, the result would be quite obvious, I get no breath. Any tips on teaching my self to breathe properly in combat?

[laughingmonk]

Damn those naps!! I went for a little resting nap and missed my second training at the dojo (sigh) hmm, i will settle for some shadow boxing at home and practice my breathing at the same time. Of course i will force myself to some push up and setups.

OSU!

[jake_kingeri_kiai]

yea i train 4 times a week, 3 for 1 hour each and 1 for 2 hours. All here is basically covered

[Bloke]

Hi jake - why not pop into the Introductions Section and start a thread telling us a little about yourself