klank

I am testing for my Green belt this week. The way my school's colors go is White, Orange, Gold, and than Brown. Brown is what they consider the "Intermediate level". So we have Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced.

I have come a long way since I first stepped on the mat and started learning. And to give you a quick idea of who I am. I am 6 foot 4 and 300 lbs. Not in the best of health but I do. I used to do MA in High school and am now 35. I've been doing this now since October.

I learned something pretty interesting the other day. A white belt who started in March was placed with me the other day to practice moves such as boxing combinations, pad work, and some self defense techniques. I have met this guy obviously but don't know anything about him. He is probably in his early 20's and definitely from my view point with the hair looks like a Military guy. When we do 20 push ups and 20 sit ups, he's done when I'm just getting my 10 push ups done. So yeah, I would say he's in good shape. When we started working on stuff he did his first set of combos and I could not believe how fast and hard he was doing stuff. I couldn't even block fast enough to keep up. After that happened I talked to him about it and he seemed to understand about slowing down a bit but continued to be insanely fast and hard about stuff. Finally I stepped out of one of his grips and said "listen, we don't have gear on, you need to slow down and not hit so hard, and if you don't were gonna have some issues here." So Finally, he slows down and we get some where.

So here's what I'm thinking. "Man, am I slow mentally and physically." I've been doing this same stuff since October and I can't keep up. Sure he may be a smaller guy than me and maybe more physical but man, I felt pretty small. I can't say that I would have won if it was a real fight we were in.

How does one really train you mind to become relaxed enough to truly concentrate in a Fight mode? Is my mind just reacting to my slug body I have?

I am having fun and getting in shape but I think I have a ways to go. Thanks for any input. Just trying to learn more about my self and this certainly brought up some questions.

GranFire

Hmmm, I have certainly been there (and will be again)

It's a different situation practicing drills and fighting/sparring. You usually don't do drills with lot's of adrenalin which seems to help in the reaction department.

Of course you can't measure yourself on the abilities of a younger person. Though MA is an endavour to ultimately test your ability against an opponent, you still are not in competition with him. (think Wild West Duels, speed is secondary to accuracy ) What I am more concerned about (you might have to kick his rear before long) the lack of respect for you rank...

Another thing that I am guilty of, I sometimes let my mind wander....really bad in the Dojang...that also slows you down. When I'm on, I'm on, but when I have those days....I am happy to not fall on my face...

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Tom Yum

Keep up the good work, Klank!

Keep pushing your fitness level and training. Sounds like you've already made alot of progress, so don't give up.

Watch your younger counterpart and learn how he moves. Other than instructors, students can be your best teacher.

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wavyd

Klank-

Don't get hung up on this guy too much. He's likely to have been an athlete in school and may be naturally gifted physically. There's always someone that faster, stronger, etc. but that's no reason to doubt your self. The best thing in my experience is to try to get them to slow down enough to correct their technique. When I've taught extremely athletic people the hardest part is to get them to slow down and truly learn. Your doing well to make him slow down and think. Keep it up!

Relaxing for sparring and/or fighting comes with time and experience as well as "putting on your game face". Some find it very effective to visualize doing well or winning, I prefer to simply think about flowing with my opponent so I'm not stuck in a game plan (at least when I compete in TKD because I don't generally know my opponent).

Hope it helps!

klank

Thanks Guys. I see your point GranFire. It was frustrating me to practice a drill and feel like I'm having to defend myself in a Cage match. By the 5th time I was loosing respect as well.

O Monday, and one thing I didn't say in my post was after we were close to done with class our instructor came over to us and got the pads out to show him how well weve come along. I was pleased that my fellow student was asked to slow his moves down and needed a lot of work because as you said GranFire (think Wild West Duels, speed is secondary to accuracy). Sure he was fast and strong but he was missing the detail. I've thought a lot about this and feel better about where I'm at compared to him. I think I am that type that needs the detail first before I can get it right, and with speed and endurance.

And Tom, I have made a lot of progress. I'm the only one in my class that stays behind regardless of what I've done in class and I do 3 sets of push ups for 1 minutes each, 3 sets of sit ups for 1 minute each set, and triceps chair dips. I've been doing this for 3 weeks now and wow, what a change in my strength on how many push ups I can do which is only about 12 at a time.

And I just want you to know that I got major kudos last night at my test. One of the Judges stopped everyone and said they needed to give the same effort as I was giving with the detail, strength, and loud Ki-upping I had just done on a pad work combination. I felt good. I gave it 110% and I know I did because today I am soarer than I've ever been and that's pretty cool. Even on my last Muay Thai Kick I did the pad holder was like "Whoa!" because I kicked him so hard.

It feels good. After last night, it gave me a new meaning of training harder when the School owner came up to me afterwards and said "Keep up the hard work, your going to be one bad ass machine!"

So, If I have another goal to set for this belt it's going to be concentration while at class. I'm totally guilty of thinking about everything but what I'm doing at the moment. I'll work at it.

Thanks again.

GranFire

There you go!

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Tom Yum

Keep it coming!

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GranFire

That's not losing respect. He's lucky to learn etiquette now. There is always someone bigger and badder around the corner. Tread with caution and respect or you get your a$$ handed to you in your hat! We had a student like that, too. Man, did I ever want to pound him at sparring... :EEK:

Some people are gifted with athleticism. For the rest of us, especially th older crowd, we have to carefully train our body to form new muscle memory before we can speed things up. That's normal. But I also know a few people who look like they are slow and weak, but pack an enormous wallop in their technique. Heaven help you to get on their bad side (you sound like one of them! )

This just makes me smile! Being hot, sweaty and hurt and feeling better than ever! Great feeling!

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klank

Maybe you haven't' read any of my past posts which is not much when I've said that Truly my true motivation for all of this is my son who will be 3 on Sept. 4th. I want to be healthy and strong when were in the back yard playing football for 2 hours. I realize that we need that break at times when we just want our kid to go outside and play but I'm going to be that Dad that says "Son, lets you and I go outside and play!". I know how it was with my dad and sorry, aint gonna happen with me. I can't even begin to tell you how much of a difference it is between 25 and 34. Yikes!

Thanks for all the Kudos everyone. I may not post much but I'll certainly keep you up to date with my progress.

I had a guy come into my work yesterday who was ripped but not bodybuilding huge and found out he is a personal trainer. Lets just say that I got some great advice about push ups.

He said the best way to train for push ups and the core body strength it takes to do them is these two things

1. Holds. Simply holding your self in the the top position for 30 seconds to a minute at a time and building your hold longer.

2. Negatives. Use your knees to get to the top hold position and than do a negative rep. but don't push back up.

So, with that I'll be trying that come Monday. My shoulder is killing me from test night for some reason.

A few days rest and it's back to the front.

GranFire

Being healthy for your kid is just about the best motivation I can thing of. I started after I had my son enrolled and it looked like fun...

The push-ups sound interesting...but I can't picture the negatives...

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Troll Virus

Got a good pushup method for you.
Do one.
Take a break.
Do two.
Take a break.
Keep adding one each time.
Try going up to five, and then back down again.
Next time you do the pyramid, try going up to and back down from six.
Next time you do the pyramid try seven. etc.

If you work up to a pyramid of ten, then that's exactly one hundred pushups in the set.

Tom Yum

Good stuff.

Just make sure you don't go to the pub between breaks and drink 10 pints before you work on your next set...

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klank

Thanks, I'll try any advice I can get. I can tell you that since I advanced to the Intermediate level of my training I am super pooped at the end of class and don't always get my push ups and sit ups done like I have been doing. I will try this though.

klank

Ahhh, you know me so well my friend.

I can say one thing about that. I am so glad I have no addictions to alcohol. I see it with my friends around me and they just don't understand how I can hang out with them and be happy not having a beer in hand for four hours. It's all good. It's about my family, not me.

klank

Let me help you...

In the push up position lower your body slowly to the ground focusing on the negative portion of the push up and let your body go to the floor.

Now..

With your knees on the floor and your arms in the push up position lift your knees up and lower your body slowly to the floor again letting it go to the floor.

Your basically doing a push up with out actually doing the "pushing Up part of it" That's what negatives are.

Also like a bicep curl where you have so much weight it's hard to pull it up so you do whatever you can to get it up and than you concentrate on the lowering which is negatives.