I da winnah! (Or I will be rather)

[rsobrien]

I want to get ready for the upcoming Jim Grafe Memorial Tournament up in Rochester. I figure by keeping a training log I will stay motivated. I have about 5 weeks to train so I think thats ample enough time to get ready for my first ever knockdown tournament. I am not just doing this for fun, I have every intention of winning and if I lose, its Seppuku time.

Here is my traing split.

Mon: Morning-run 30 min; Evening-Kickboxing 7:30-8:30+Enshin 8:45-10

Tues: Morning-strength traing (doing push ups and the like, will be more descriptive in future posts); Evening-Judo 6-8:30

Wednesday: Morning- Bag Work (again will be more descriptive in future); Evening-College MMA club 6-8 sparring stand up+Enshin 8:45-10

Thursday: Morning-Bag work; Evening-Judo 6-8:30

Friday: Morning-strength training; Evening-run or rope skip 7:30-8+ Enshin 8:45-10

Sat:Morning-run 7-7:30; Afternoon-tree cutting and log humping (it isn't as fun as it sounds)

Sun:Rest

[ojgsxr6]

I have one tip for you, every time you train ie , bagwork, randori or anything where you're doing rounds. Put your mouth piece in.

[rsobrien]

I was actually planning on wearing the Space Helmet.

[smoothsake]

What are the rules for this Memorial Tournament?

[ojgsxr6]

Originally Posted by smoothsake

What are the rules for this Memorial Tournament?

It's either Old Navy Rules - First one to die loses, or normal KK Knockdown rules.

[powerof0ne]

the mouthpiece tip is a very valuable tip, especially before competition. I'd suggest increasing your time spent on training, too. An hour and a half to 2 hours, max...especially if one of those days is sparring doesn't seem like much to me. Sparring is like desert to me, there are ways to "rest" and not get fatigued. Focus more on your sparring drills, pad work, bag work; basically, focus on training specific drills/tactics that have to do with the competition you will be entering. For example, if you're in a knockdown tournament, practicing Judo might not be a good idea because you won't be allowed to grip and perform a throw/takedown. If it's an Enshin tournament, the way you can grab has to be same side...can't be both sides. You see what I mean? If you plan on winning the tournament, definitely increase your training time. I've entered competitions in the past and only trained an hour and a half to 2 hours and didn't perform nearly as well as I did when I was training 4+ hours a day. Also, speaking from a muay thai/kickboxing/karate background I can say for myself that it's hard to go from being able to punch to the face to not being able to punch to the face..if I have a knockdown tournament coming up I focus more on Karate and put muay thai in the back of my head temporarily, meaning I don't train in muay thai. The reason why is because out of training you might accidentally react and throw a right cross, etc. to your opponent's face in the tournament..and you know what that means.

[rsobrien]

powerofone-I cannot at this point train more than 3 hours a day. I am now training between 2 and 3 hours a day for the last three days and I feel broken. Like so sore, it is hard for me to get around campus. I am going to judo because 1. I am already paying for it and 2. It is good cardio. Sparring is dessert? Do you think I should not be sparring? I think I need more of it. As in way more of it.

smoothsake-standard semi-knockdown rules http://www.uskyokushin.com/2007_hilton_rules.pdf

ojgsxr6-I will start wearing the mouthpiece during judo randori. But during bagwork, jogging, weights, driving, showering, and sleeping, I will be wearing the space helmet.

Will make a detailed post of my workout tonight.

[powerof0ne]

I get much more out of 5 rounds of pad work than I do out of 5 rounds of sparring. Sparring a lot can create bad habbits and possible injury before competition(it's happened to me a few times). I know many gyms/dojo that don't have people spar much...when I was a teen I sparred almost every day, because it was fun for me. I saw a lot of people get injured often, and I had a few close calls myself. I also get much more of a work out when I do pad work than I do sparring.
Off the top of my head I know that Master Toddy's muay thai(www.mastertoddy.com)doesn't spar a lot, neither does Meijiro nor Vos gym. It's up to you, I do, wish you the best of luck. I thought you would be competing in full knockdown rules, too is why I was suggesting 4 or more hours a day. The last time I competed I jumped into a tournament kind of at the last second in knockdown rules and regret it because I didn't properly train for it even though i was teaching at the time I only had a couple of people with the skill level to even hold pads or spar with me. One of the guys that entered the competition with me has a pretty serious kickboxing/muay thai background(he trains with the IFL tigershark team right now)and threw a right cross out of reaction and getting DQ'd.

[rsobrien]

Morning-It was raining alot and I didn't want to venture outside. I jumped on the stationary bike instead. Set it for a intervals. The resistance is adjusted up, up, up, down every 3 minutes. Wasn't particurly good cardio, I wasn't breathing heavy but apparently I burned 350 calories.

Evening-Went to Judo at 6. During the uchikomi drill, I kept doing ippon seio nage lifting every time. I tried to make it a sort of plio work out. We ended up doing matwork so I wasn't getting the workout I wanted and to be honest it was really confusing. I hated it. Stayed till 8. During randori, I noticed it was more difficult with the mouthguard. I will definetly be wearing it during all of my workouts.

powerofone-I was thinking about what you said. I am really only a beginner, I have been training less than a year and I am not a monster athlete. But I want to be. I am conscripting my brother into the Make rsobrien Win Project. He is going to be helping me do some padwork. I really do get better work outs when working with pads but I still need to spar. That and I will try to work my way into training more but I am nearing my physical limit right now.

More tommorow

[ojgsxr6]

What I would do is start sparring with a little more protection. At least 12oz - 16oz gloves + shin and knee pads.

[Billy no mates]

Outside of the dojo ive always favoured short but intense training sessions of no more than an hours duration,rather than meandering for 3 or 4 hours and becoming more and more depleted for less and less benefit because in truth an hour seems to be the maximum i can motivate myself for anything like the ferocity of knock down .
It depends on the individual but i found a couple of shorter sharper sessions more beneficial for fighting than a four hour marathon where i found i was to often sacrificing quality for quantity .

[powerof0ne]

hey, I didn't mean to come off as a jerk. I really hope you do good and any training is better than no training. As long as your training 5 to 6 days a week, you are at least trying. I'd just like to point out that when I say 4 or more hours, I don't mean all at once...break up the time, obviously. Maybe an hour and a half to 2 hours in the morning, another hour and a half in the afternoon, and another hour and a half to 2 in the evening. It can be done, trust me, if you have the time and motivation.
Keep us posted on how your training and your one of many tournaments to come goes! Osu!

[rsobrien]

Morning-I stayed up late to watch TUF and the Tito vs Dana thing (i hate myself). I woke up late and didn't have time to work out and do my homework. I did my homework cuz ima good boy. I will make it up tommorow I swear.

Afternoon-I tried to figure out a pad, bag, and sparring routine with my brother. It was a little difficult as we have no equipment. It is really bughetto (as in uber ghetto). We have boxing gloves, MMA gloves, shin guards, and a heavy bag. But no real training pads. I have a Century Arm guard from when I was like 10 that had the handle ripped off. My brother sewed it back together. For his other arm he used a hockey goalie forearm guard. We also had a TKD chest guard I think we bought during a bicycle jousting experiment. And a space helmet. I have $150 head gear but not even a cheap ass set of vinyl thai pads. So I padded up my brother and started working.

For the pad work, I just started working combinations off the top of my head. 1,2, low kick. 1,2 high kick. gedan barai, low kick. gedan barai, high kick. My brother would just take punches on the chest guard, eventually i threw on 16 oz boxing gloves cause it was killing him and I had to throw on shin guards too cause the arm guard and hockey pad weren't doing the trick.

I knew one thing I had to work on was checking low kicks. I am really terrible. And my brother does BJJ/MMA and judo so he cannot kick to keep Christ from being crucified. So, we got the idea of using my youngest brother (12 and short) to use a broom handle to wack me in the thighs as I attempt to block. That lasted about 30 seconds until it broke against my thigh and I collapsed. We then grabbed another sturdier broom handle covered by a Fun Noodle. That worked fairly decently.

The heavy bag went much smoother. I would do a round on the heavy bag take a rest then spar my 18 year old brother with him all padded up (he can't strike for anything), rest then back to the heavy bag.

My pad working split looked like this:

Pad work-5 2 minute rounds with 30 second rests working different combinations each round

Leg checking-2 2 minute rounds with 30 second rests using da boom stick (Fun Noodle Covered broom handle)

Bag work-5 3 minute rounds with 1 minute rests alternating between sparring my brother and the bag. 3 rounds on the bag and 2 rounds on my brother.

This was just an experimenting day and there were lots of delays in between excercises so the workout wasn't exhausting and took too long but in the future it will workout better.

Evening-Went to Enshin, we trained Sabaki technique but during sparring I tried to just fight without any grabbing. Ho hum.

[rsobrien]

I need to work on checking kicks and fighting out of and avoiding bull rushes. My brother has rudimentary boxing skills and 0 kicking ability. I can leg kick him and sweep him all day. I feel kinda bad whacking him in the leg over and over, but he just bull rushes me with punches and with that TKD chest guard I can't stand slug it out with him. I am hitting him but he can't really feel it. I want to make him stop because it hurts and I want to just clinch or Sabaki his ass but I know I can't. I have to learn to fight my way put of that and to use my front kicks to keeep him away.

More tommorow...

[rsobrien]

Billy no mates-I am working out only in 1-2 hour sessions. I no I'm not training to be a maraton runner. I only have to be a man for 2 minutes at a time (but what kind of man is the part I am working on).

powerofone-You didn't come off as a jerk but you just made me think. I know you didn't mean 4 hours at a time. But I am walking around constantly sore. After strength training everything, my whole body just feels like I am about to collapse. That feeling lessens but is still there for a few days. At this point, I cannot physically train more than 3 hours. If I can work my way to working out a consisttent 3 hours 5 days a week and maybe 1-2 hours on Saturday. I will be pretty happy. I will keep trying though.

[rsobrien]

Morning-jog 30 min I am not conscientious of distance covered, just my breath, I jog on flat parts, sprint up hills, and walk down hills.

Stretched-just stretched

Strength training-I am in the middle of setting my weights back up, complete with squat rack, bench and lat tower, till then I am doing mostly bodyweight excercises

regular pushups: 3 sets 10, 15, 20
Diamond pushups:1 set to failure; I liked this

Dumbell rows-4 sets of 12 (2 sets on each side) I need to set up a chin up bar because my delts got tired before my lats

Overhead Dumbell Press-2 sets of 15 I hurt my shoulder attempting to do hand stand push ups, its harder than it looks

Hindu Squats-3 sets 10, 15, 20 My legs just collapsed, I was still tired from the run, just couldn't do anymore legs

Reverse Calf lifts-2 sets of 12 I am starting to get shin splints from running and the back of my calves are tired from skipping rope, Reverse calf lifts help me with shin splints

Afternoon-
Warmed up with jump rope-2 2 minute rounds with a 30 second rest

Stretched

Pad work-5 2 minute rounds with 30 second rests

Boom stick defense drill- 2 2 minute rounds with a 30 second rest

Bag/Sparring-3 minute rounds with 1 minute rests, switching between brother and bag I only got to the 2nd round. My brother punched me square in the balls. It was really bad. I was on the floor for 20 minutes. I have to remember to wear a cup.

Evening-Ab work which I neglected to do in the morning

crunches-2 sets of 20

reverse crunchees- 2 sets of 15

side crunches- 2 sets of 12

[rsobrien]

The run was good and the strength training was okay. I cannot wait to set my weights up again.
The pad work was going good till I broke the pad. I don't know what to do now. It lasted the session but it is falling apart now. I need a cheap set of thai pads.
The boom stick defense drill is working out good. It is alot easier for my brothers to swing a stick then it is for them to kick. Also, they do not get tired but I do. Good stuff.
The bag and sparring thing seems like a good idea to me. I just keep alternating between the 2. And my brother remains fresh. I was stupid and didn't wear a cup. He uppercutted me square in the balls 2 minutes into sparring. I really couldn't get up. It was bad. That cut the session early.
I really need to step up this training thing. I still have 5 weeks but I definetly need to try harder.

[kyofighter]

crunches-2 sets of 20

reverse crunchees- 2 sets of 15

side crunches- 2 sets of 12

...I hope you are joking about those numbers !!!
I doubt that you will have a good stomach with only that. I suggest you to work your way up to at least 250 for the start.

[rsobrien]

Morning-It was raining alot but supposed to clear up in the afternoon

Afternoon-Another 1/2 hr run

Evening- kickboxing class: a lot of combination working, shadow boxing, bag work, rope skipping, good conditioning; Enshin:Standard Enshin class, worked on Sabaki technique alot, need to talk to Sensei about that

[rsobrien]

Morning-Finished homework for class, I made it up in the evening

Evening-Judo:I am just doing this for cardio really and to train explosiveness (plyomtetricishness). Went from 6-8; Strength training: Here is the split

Push ups-10, 15, failure (21)


Dumbell rows-4 sets of 12 (I really, really need a chin up bar)

Overhead press-2 set of 12 (I don't go to hard on my shoulders or to failure because they get tired easily during punching, judo, not to mention during the rows or push ups)

No weight Squats-10, 15, 20 adding a mawashi geri after every rep

Reverse calf lifts-2 sets of 15 (for shin splints) I am unsure how hard to go with my legs. I don't want to overdo it because I am afraid it will keep me from running.

Grippy forearm building thing-4 sets of 20

crucnches-2 sets of 30

reverse crunches-2 sets of 25

side crucnches-2 sets of 25 (I have a terrible stomach I'm working on it)