D a m n i t !

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
1

Aw man… [ouch] … [groan]

OK guys, recap here. I’ve recently stopped going to my Kung Fu class. I’m a little disillusioned with the training, and not wanting to shell out £60 for a sparring kit when I can get it for £40 elsewhere. Anyhow…

I think to myself “Wonder if my old Judo class is still going”. Turns out its not - it closed down. Luckily I find that in its place my old Judo Sensei and a well-respected local Karate Sensei have rented some gym space, and are running a Self-Defense/Hardcore/MMA class of sorts.

Now, being a traditionalist I was wary, but I turned up anyway. I step through the door and its me and 3 others, all black-belts, and I think “I’m dead”. Guess what - I died. Badly.

Every single muscle in my body aches. Everything I’ve ever done, striking and grappling just got thrown out of the window. My fitess was proved to be p!ss-poor [at my last school I was one of the fittest], and the sparring was proper, not this pansy-assed headguard sh!t :smiley:

Good thing is, they want me to come back.

Whoever posted the story of the old Chinese master in the restaurant, that you stumbled across, well - this ain’t the same thing, but training here is as close to the real deal as I can get I guess.

Just thought I’d share this. Re-reading this it seems to have no point, but WTF.

2

GOODness

Your lucky you didnt get that bruce lee type revelation that you suck in a real fight as i did, had me solely doing heavybagwork for 2months.
What i realized, I focus to much on forms, not enough on doing a form as endurance, and isolating my most combat basic applications, beating the crap out of my bag in reps and such.

3

Delicate,

Welcome to the realization that you have to train rather hard in unpleasant ways, to get anywhere… fun ain’t it!!!:smiley:

4

It hurts MPS… It hurts real bad. Not physically but the psychological aspect. I couldn’t really put up a fight. The others praised me for fighting hard but SH!TTING HELL! [grumble]

Ah well, at least I’ll improve. Makes me realise how commercialised my old class was. Yeah, you walked out of there feeling fresh, but what good is that?

5

None.

But if it makes you feel any better, keep training the way they want you to train and you’ll be able to hang in a month, CV wise. That’s if you go 5 days a week, mind you.

When I first showed up at Lloyd’s, I could go for about 10 minutes probably, and expect to perform reasonably well.

30+ is no longer a real problem.

By comparison, Lloyd and Rhadi once both stood over us, set the timer and had the following rules:

50 minutes. Straight.
Can’t leave the mat unless you’re puking. No water, no rest, no nothing.

2 warnings for stalling. On the third one, you pack your bag and go home.

You learn some heart that way. Actually what you learn is that it only FEELS like death. It’s not, really. And it’s all temporary.

6

Our rules are that from 7.30 till 9.00 there is no rest. You can take a swig of water between sets. If you puke - you clean it. If you drop, you stay after to make it up.

They went easy 2nite though. I dropped about 5 times. No 3-strike rule though. That is harsh!!!

I’m not sure about the future, but now - it feels like death. Or near death. I will sleep tonight, I can tell you…

I can only make 2 days a week [its all they do], but I’m going to do weights and a jog every day, as I need bulk and fitness FAST.

Ah well - at least have something to aim for now :smiley: Next week I’m going to try to stay standing.

7

Enjoy :slight_smile:

Interval work, my friend. Plyometrics, wind sprints… that sort of thing.

Trust me.

Get a three to five pound chunk of chain and jump rope with it as an interval workout.

8

Get a three to five pound chunk of chain and jump rope with it as an interval workout

dont forget to **** s&w pelletts

9

Real training.

'Grats. :smiley:

Being serious about your quest and training is great.

10

Gee, ain’t martial arts fun?:smiley:

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Good Job. Welcome to our world :wink:

12

yeeeeah i kinda like it too

13

DelicateSound: Which type of kung-fu were you learning b4?

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Originally posted by Merryprankster
[B]Interval work, my friend. Plyometrics, wind sprints… that sort of thing.

Trust me.[/B]

On behalf of all the *******es here MPS, I’m saying a big “huh?”
Elaborate please…

Akuma, it was Lau-Gar. I’m not dissin the style or anthing, it just wasn’t progressing like I wanted. Or at all infact. Mmm. I’ll probably take it up again at a different class when I go to Uni, as the BKFA HQ is in Birmingham and they have top instructors. By then I’ll be an “Ultimate Fighting Machine ™” :smiley:

15

Interval work is trainining where you exercise at a certain level of intensity, take a small break then go at it again. Repeat until suitably praying for death.

A basic interval routine might be something like:

push-ups, as many as you can do for 30 sec, just going all out
sit-ups as many as you can do for 30 sec,
side to side shuffles, 3 or four each way, as fast as you can do for 30 seconds,
jump squats (go all the way down, jump up in the air, return to start, do again) for 30 sec as fast as you can

Rest for one minute.

Get a large, well constructed sand bag of 50lbs or so. Find a suitably large field. Throw the sand bag as far as you can, however you can. Sprint and pick it up and do it again until you’ve finished the field.

Rinse, lather, repeat :slight_smile:

Grab a tennis ball. Throw it however you see fit. Sprint and try to chase it down before it comes completely to rest… jog 30 seconds, repeat.

Wind sprints are good. Measure out 50m or so or just pick a tree to tree or street-light to street-light and sprint all out from point a to b… jog slowly back… that’s your rest. Do it again… and again… and again.

Or with a heavy bag—15 seconds throwing punches as fast as you can, 15 seconds rest. 15 seconds throwing punches as fast as you can, 15 seconds rest..

That kind of thing.

As you do more you can make it more “sport specific,” depending on what you are looking for.

This builds your recovery rate—how quickly your heart rate drops once you stop maximum effort. It also increases your maximum heart rate to some extent. It more accurately duplicates the stress on your body for MA than LSD—“Long Slow Distance.”

Put a marathoner on the wrestling mat and watch him DIE. And vice versa.

Plyos are specifically explosive drills—jump squats, jumping up and down off boxes for time one and two legged standing broad jumps (repeated, mind you) one right after another. That sort of stuff. I wouldn’t do those until you are in shape though.

16

Welcome to the club!!!

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merryprankster and delicate -

  • that’s some hard a$$ training. no breaks, 3 warnings and you go home. can’t leave unless you are puking. i imagine some real skills being developed under these circumstance. remind me never to fukk with either of you. mad props.
18

MPS- You mean Circuit Training!!! Now I see. Terminology barrier! You Yanks :smiley:

Jump roping a 5 pound chunk of chain. Are you serious? If you’re after a way to add weight to a jump-rope routine buy steel handles for the rope. That’s what I’ve done, saves my toes!!

If you mean something else - I say again - Huh?! :slight_smile:

JustaMan: Remember - MPS seems to love this sh!t. He is starting to scare me…

BTW: After last night I have HUGE bruises on my forearms from Arm Cond. Someone tell Goktimus there’s a DUTY OF CARE alert in Sector 12! :smiley:

19

I use a five pound heavy rope, but it’s a $50 item (pure profit for them, but I like it) and I didn’t think you’d want to spend that.

And it’s not the same at all. There’s a big difference between weighting the handle and wieghting the rope… you have to control the rope. You have to snap it down harder and bring it back harder. You also have to jump higher. If I just weight the handle, I don’t have to do any of those things.

Justa—that is not normal training. Although I did like the fact that I got through it. Normally, a 30 minute roll and one or two shorter ones are more normal for me.

20

Originally posted by Merryprankster
You have to snap it down harder and bring it back harder. You also have to jump higher. If I just weight the handle, I don’t have to do any of those things.

Good point. Never thought about that. A 5 pound chain it is, but I’m wearing steel-boots!!

And MPS, don’t lie about the training - you know you’re upset if you can walk out of there. :smiley: