Casual Friday .... the martial arts apparel blog entry!

Hmmmnnn, adventures in washing your gi. So, I have sprawled across three chairs, three stinky gis. I have to get washed, and haven't. I know it's bad. I only have one Gi left that is clean and hanging in my closet, and it's my competition blue gi. I just used my competition white gi Thursday night.

And yet again, everytime, I break out my white gi, I get blood on them. It was funny, one of my friends, Ferdinand, told me, I never see you in your white gi. Well, for good reason. It usually gets blood on it. I don't know why, it just is. Anyways, it's usually minor and not that much, mostly from random cuts on fingers, nose, or lip. Usually we stop and say yeah someone's bleeding. And tape it up, use distilled bleach or peroxide for clean up and call it good. I usually don't get blood on my blue gis.

So, looking into my martial arts closet, I have 2 white gis (1 double weave for competition, 1 single weave for dojo use only), 2 blue gis (1 double weave for competiton -shrunk to fit/within regulation, and 1 double weave that needs to shrink some more) and 1 ASA Kurtka for sambo. I use my Kurtka now and again. It's great for training in the summer as it is a lighter weight and the best thing is wearing shorts with them. Of course with all this stuff comes compression shorts and rash guards to round out the equation and my very valuable mouthguard. Which I tend to misplace during times when I most likely and definitely need them, such as practice involving dozens and dozens of throws in a night, or my last competition, where my mouthguard went MIA just before the fight.

And of course gis cost roughly a hundred bucks or so (and I'm rather cheap, some gis cost 200 and really high end tailored one cost 300 bucks.) I get mine at Hatashita Sports https://www.hatashitasports.com/index.php You can talk to the lady on the phone, size you up. You can order half sizes and have a split order of pants and gi tops. The split sizes are cool, my last order was a 5 top with a 4.5 bottom. I think I can move down to 4.5 top and a 4.0 bottom. I have the Fuji Double Weave. It's cheaper than Mizuno, fits me okay, and for my purposes suits me well. For the Sambo Kurtka I got mine from the American Sambo Association (ASA). They are pretty cool and I heard they are getting some new kurtkas from Bulgaria. http://www.ussambo.com/store.html

Now the funny thing about the gi pants is that they usually end up too long. I don't know what universe the gi pant model is from, but the majority of people practicing this sport are fairly stout and usually on most occassions don't have a runner's build. I need to shrink it down in the dryer on high heat several times to get it down to size. Then again, I could just go to a seamstress and get it rehemmed. Also, those annoying gi pants waiststring, how the center migrates or how you can sometimes lose one end of the string. Those gi pants waiststring never seems to stay put, and heaven forbid you lose one end into the pants, trying to fish that out is a royal pain.

For the other stuff, I just get my rash guards and compression shorts from Under Armour although pricey, gets the job done.

But grappling is an affordable sport. You just invest in some good gis and you can use it for a couple of years. Besides, you just end up building your gi collection little by little and it's more of a necessity really. I plan on training at least 2 days a week, at most 5 days, and usually hit it 3-4 times a week. Getting your gi washed/dried and ready for the next day takes time, as it takes around 2 hours to get a gi dry, usually have to run it twice in the dryer on high heat twice. And of course washing machines/dryers don't usually like gis as they are fairly heavy, and amazingly heavy when wet. So if you are quite busy, you'll end up running through 2-3 gis a week.

I started with a generic single weave white gi, and I still have that that I break out on occassion for dojo use. This one is good, and is lightweight enough that you can use it for most martial arts. It's sometimes fun to try out some other martial arts, and just having a white gi with your white belt allows you to do that. Oh and that is why, it's good to have one with no patches. We don't need no stinkin' patches! That way you can fit in and use it for other things....

And for training camps.. well thats when you need to bring some more gis as the last thing you want to do is to roll with someone with a stinky gi. And of course, that is one cardinal rule about grappling. BE CLEAN. If I had a hard sweaty day at work, I shower before I practice. My old roommate always puzzled about this. She said, "You're going to work out and you are taking a shower before?" I replied, "Why yes, I'd like to be clean for working out and I'm sure my training partners are doing the same thing. " She said, "so is it like a date?" I said, "no, it's just in practice you end up with close body to body contact.... ." She said, "Well it is like dating then... good dates end with body to body contact..." I said, "Only if it's a good date..."

Oh and I went to practice twice this week. Once at Seattle Jujutsu Monday and Thursday at the Budokan. It was good. I forget what I did. It was sooo busy this week. I'm tired. I actually fell asleep at 7PM on a friday night, hence the reason I'm awake at 1 in the morning. Practice was more of the same. I was noticing that my endurance is slowly getting better. My left ankle still bothers me. And that there was a funny post workout incident involving dancing...

Pizza, Happy Hour, et al...

Um, as I'm typing this, I just ate a whole pizza. Yep one of those frozen pizzas that you put in an oven. What else? It was delicious. I assume that the whole serving size is one pizza. Ya. I was hungry.

So, what's been going on. I was bouncing between 203.5 and 209 lbs. this week, depending on the condition of my body, and how much water (or not it has). Considering I'm hovering at 209 lbs. right now and weigh-ins are tomorrow morning, it's a good thing. I'd get to 198 lbs. eventually, but this weekend is not it. Besides 198-220 lbs is a huge weight class, and I believe tomorrow's tournament is Light/Medium/Heavy tournament so weight classes in general is a guide. A lot of people I know bounce between 90kg-100kg weight class.

This week has been a blur... To recap.

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Tuesday afternoon

Muay Thai with Jen. Apparently Jen took Muay Thai for eight years, and has lots of private lessons, at one point she was actually instructing classes for a couple of years. She has been my regular running partner. Right now, I do need to run, although we did talk about other interests, and the subject came up about boxing/muay/thai/martial arts. So she came by, we did combos. I don't have the fancy timers at the gym, so we just turned it to the music channel and "ended" rounds at the end of the song. Fair enough. We worked out for about 45 min-1 hour. It was a good workout with lots of sweat. Oh. Since it was a rainy afternoon (big surprise in Seattle) we ended doing practice in the living room, which, upon discovery is not pleasant for my room-mate who happens to sleep at odd hours of the day. (Her bedroom is underneath the living room).
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Wednesday afternoon.

I got a lunch hour session with Katherine for racquetball. We played 3 good games. Her game is picking up. Nice way to relax for an hour.

Boxing with Amy and the SPD crew. We worked on combos and mitt work. Did 3-3 minute rounds per combination swapping mitts/gloves/partners. Did 3 rotations of 3-3 minute rounds so, total of 9 3 minute rounds? Hmmn. That's a long time. Anyways, I was tired.

Immediately after, I jumped into my truck and headed to Seatown Sombo. I got there just in time for stretches. It was the usual.. warm ups, rolls, and then uchikomis. The technique of the night was a knee bar from the turtle position. It was good, I need to practice it more. Then we just did light positional newaza and some more standing randori. There were about a dozen or so people that night, and just simply a bit crowded, so just have to watch where you throw people. Ground work was fun, although we didn't have the clock running, we must have done about 20-30 minutes uchikomis, 20-30 minutes of ground fighting and 10-15 minutes of standing. I don't remember much, the night went on like a blur.

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Thursday

A quick 2-3 mile hike on Cold Creek Trail. Nothing special.

Thursday Night Practice was this:

Standard Warm-ups (I was tasked to lead this). Uchikomis. Technique of the Night. 30 minutes of newaza randori, 30 minutes standing randori.

Technique of the night was: Sankaku on a turtled opponent. Apparently I have problems getting my foot into the crook of my knee. It was good. My left ear has been jammed again. It was hurting from Tuesday night's sankaku practice. (Sankaku is triangle choke with your legs). I don't think I've got cauliflower ear just yet, it's just tender. Oh well. It's part of training. I think most everyone in the dojo has some form of cauliflower ear. No biggy.

Gary and Leo gave me pointers on the tournament. Basically it came down to this: Commit to your technique. Throw like you mean it. Better to attack and be on the offensive. Whatever happens, win or lose, learn something from it and improve upon it. Oh and work on 1-2 techniques (your main staple) for a year and perfect it for competition. And all it takes to be a winner is hard work and practice. There is no magic bullet...

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Friday:

I bagged a workout with Jen. I was tired, the thought of punching mitts and doing combos was tiring, and the fact that I needed to be rested for Saturday's tournament.

I then did Happy Hour at Grey's with Mike/Robbin & Co. It was a fun happy hour, but had to excuse myself early as I had a racquetball appointment with Katherine. It was a good game of racquetball. Being a bit tired and sore, I ended up playing more strategically and not really moving as much... Being tired ummmm.. improved my game.

Anyways, it's late. I had to write down what I did this weekend before I forget. It's going to be a fun weekend. Tournament tomorrow and the Travis Stevens Clinic on Sunday.

I'm just going to take it easy and have fun.

Start of the Wet Season...

Well it's the onset of the Seattle Wet Season.

So started it off with some indoor sports on Friday and capped it off with a morning paddle on Saturday.

Played racquetball for 1 1/2 hours yesterday. It was a lot of fun.

Paddled for an hour this morning. It was wet. Cold. Thank goodness I was wearing my spray suit.

Packing for a trip to Glacier Basin.

Uggh.

It's cold, wet and rainy.

Breaking through the plateau

So, my fat-ass has been hanging around 205 lbs. lately, but just the last few days the scale has been at around 202-203 lbs.

I know 2-3 lbs. doesn't seem much, but I was just hitting a plateau in my workouts, weight and progress. It's so great to break through the plateau!

I think I've learned to relax a bit more, to just enjoy the moment. When I'm engaging in randori/free practice, I'm more relaxed and not as tense. I have a good yet strong grip, and then I can shift my weight here and there to get a good throw. I'm not "forcing" throws as much and grab a throw that I can do when the opportunity presents itself. Also I'm not tiring myself out as much by wasted energy. I remain calmer and can execute a quick burst of energy when I need to.

Yesterday, I swam 2 x 200 yards. I think the AllStar Fitness Pool is 25 yards long. So I did 2 x 200 yards. It was a lot of fun, and also, the same principle applied to swimming, relax, work with the water and not against it. Tuck your chin in, breathe. There was a lady there, Melinda who is a great swimmer who gave me more pointers on the proper crawl technique. Mainly tuck my chin in and swim with the water.

It was very relaxing and it was nice to actually swim. Swimming gives you a sense of spatial awareness and body movement. It was a lot of fun.

Last night's technique was Sode, with the different variations of the Sode throw. One of the variations was like a modified morote seio nage, but it was still a sode. Reuben had a variation of the sode that was a good drop sode.

Leo from Brazil is back and is helping to teach the class, he is a really good teacher and very chill. He has a black belt in judo and BJJ. And he learned it in Brazil, where it is part of the culture.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun. I'm making progress albeit slowly. I'm still on track to get to my goal of 198 lbs or <90kg for perhaps the Rainier Cup in October or the Obukan tournament in December.

16 Hot Wings for the Price of 8!

Well that's what I pretty much ate all day. Our judo club went to the Wingers restaurant. The volunteers were gorging as we were taunting our only competitor at the Wingers restaurant who was trying to make weight. The other competitors weren't with us and were probably taking it easy just getting ready for this morning's fight. It's 5 in the morning and I can't sleep. So that's why I'm typing. Which reminds me, I hate cutting weight. So my fatty self should really get going into losing that final 7 lbs. to get under 198lbs. I'm floating at 205. I can lose 5lbs. water weight, but I'd hate to cut it that close, and running in sweats and sauna time is really not that fun.

I haven't done squat working out yesterday. Today, I'll be helping with the Fall Classic Tournament. After going to the Neil Adams Camp, I see quite a few familiar faces running around the tournament site.

Perhaps after the tournament today, probably go for a run or something. I did bring my sneakers for that occassion.

McCormick & Shmicks Happy Hour $1.95 a plate!

I don't know what's with me, but I've been on the See-Food diet. What I see, is what I eat. I've got a ravenous appetite, and I just have to get it under control.

Life has been fairly busy. Wednesday night, my knee still hurt, so I did not go to Boxing. Maybe next week at 5:30 boxing with Amy. With my knee hurt, I took it very easy so did all of nothing on Wednesday. I didn't even stop by Seattle Jujutsu to say hello. My right knee was really hurting and I didn't want to strain it too much. I did stop by MKG Seattle since it was right across the street to Mr. Gyros, who happen to have a great Lamb Sevlaki for 4.99 and is rated one of the top 50 places to eat cheaply in Seattle by "Seattle Weekly." So MKG Seattle is a MMA gym featuring Kickboxing, Boxing, Filipino Martial Arts, Submission Wrestling, etc... It's a cool chill school with no belts and a get right to working out attitude. It reminded me of Ring Sports United. Although RSU had more of an instructional feel and seemed more geared to competition fighting. This scool I think is more geared towards Self Defense Instruction and not competition. The one thing I noticed is that people didn't wrap their hands for punching, and they used Wavemaster Punching Stands. I'd prefer thai bags myself, which they did have in the corner. Admittedly the class I was watching was more of an experimental class, so it's not typical. They have what's called a "CORE Group" that are more advanced students training more often and get personalized training. The FMA part of the class was new to me, even though I have a Filipino heritage, I have zero clue on Filipino Martial Arts. FMA is hard to find with the right lineage and they are usually tucked away somewhere and you have to know someone to get into it. MKG would be cool to learn FMA, although, honestly I don't really have time at the moment. FMA looks rather complex and really cool, and there are many variations of FMA. Dumog, Bakbakan, Palitawan, Kali, Escrima, etc... that encompasses weapon, striking, kicking, wrestling, grappling and submissions. It was fun, to go and see, however the price tag wasn't. For profit schools have to pay the teacher's/owner's gym, mortgage and put food on the table. Honestly, the pro teachers do it for the love of the game, rather than to make money. So MKG is a cool school and the price is typical for good schools that have to put food on the teacher's table. Now non-profit schools are cheaper, however, you have to put in volunteer time in the dojo as you get higher in rank. (i.e. tournaments, refereeing, cleaning, etc...) So no matter which way you look at it, the costs are really the same. Either pay up front in cash, or pay less cash and put in sweat/time.

The true money makers such as the "Rex Kwon Do featured in Napolean Dynamite" are there to make cash and only cash. I actually have not run into a school like that at all in Seattle, for that I'm truly glad.

Fatty Update. I weighed myself this morning and I am 205 lbs. at 26.5% Body fat according to my trusty Tanita Meter. So I'm still walking around at 205 lbs, although the fatty meter did say I lost 1.5% of fat the last month or so. Still fat and obese according to the NIH BMI index. I do want to fight in October (Rainier Cup) and in December (Obukan). And no I'm not fighting in the Continental Crown nor the Fall Classic this weekend. I'm just not ready, and seriously, those are elite level tournaments. A lot of my friends at the dojo ARE competing, and they are true contenders and have placed/won some of the E-Level or D-Level tournaments. I usually can't beat them in the dojo, so I don't think I'm E-Level or D-Level yet. I just need to fight in local tournaments for now.

The cool thing is that in Early June I was fighting at 100Kg+ (220 lbs). When you're 220, why bother dieting at all? I mean Heavyweight you're fighting fighters much bigger and even though they're bigger, they are usually, in most cases slower. -100Kg Light Heavyweight class is just brutal as they actually try to cut weight to get under 100kg. Now I'm aiming for -90Kg, or Middleweight. -90kg Sounds cool anyways as it's "Middleweight". So 7 lbs to go to get to -90kg (198 lbs). I should be able to do it by October. It's only a month or so away. If not October, then definitely December.

Like I said, I really need to actually focus on diet and exercise. Right now, my workout routine is a haphhazard mish mash of judo/jujutsu and dragon boating.

Oh.. Last night's practice. Last night's practice started with a warm up of loading the extra Swain Mats in the truck. After loading up the mats, we did ukemi, then uchikomi. Warmups were rather quick since we spent the last 20 minutes loading up the truck. Newaza Randori were 2 minute rounds. Did quite a few of these. My newaza randori is getting better, and I can get a good bridge or sweep when somebody got me on an oseakomi. However, I still have to be mindful of my arms. My arms still gets caught in armlocks.

Tachi-waza was a different story. I'm moving ponderously. I really need to get more flexibility in my legs and do squats, rotations and just an overall sense of balance for the ashi-waza. I just need to do more uchi-komi. My grip fighting however is getting much much better. But I just have no idea what to do once I get the grip and then throw.

I really need to connect the dots. I know how to grip fight. I know how to position my body. I know how to throw. I just need to get it all together and make it one fluid motion with the right timing.

I got thrown for a great ippon seio last night and he just caught me in the attack. I do hope my knee gets better as it'll help me do foot techniques and make me generally move faster on the mat.

Oh and I gorged at Happy Hour at McCormick & Schmicks. It's a 1.95 a plate and the plates are HUUUUGEEE!

Racqueteball!

I haven't played racquetball in about a year. Booked a reservation at Bally's in Renton. Played with Katherine who is a 3.5 in tennis. She hasn't really played racquetball all that much.

We had some awesome rallies. Final Score was 2 games to 1. She picked up the pace rather quickly. We played for about an hour and a half and it was great! I just started remembering my different serves. The Z-Shots. The kill shots. The Corner Shots. The Lobs. And the dreaded left back corner serve. She had some cool ace serves to the left back corner. And her forte' was the drop shot to the front wall. She has a lot of finesse.

My right knee was still bothering me, but it was fine. I wasn't running as much and it really forced me to think tactically, my court position, and pure efficiency. I'd just hate to run for the sake of running you know?

Overall it was a lot of fun.

Then my friend Amy invited me to come to her boxing class at the SPD Training Facility. It was a super nice facility with a nice rubber surface for the striking portion. Not too grippy, but has enough give for different striking techniques. Various training bags. Heavy Bags and Muay Thai Bags. They have a few training dummies and a Wing Chung wooden trainer. They have a cool competition mat area for grappling with brand new zebra mats.

The class was rather informal and it was very chill. We did some basic warm-ups. And then we started with footwork drills. We moved onto basic jabs and crosses. Then added a few more strikes/blocks/fades and step asides. We then did a muay thai clinch with knee strikes and a push with a punch/side kick combo. It was a lot of fun. It was pads, and we did about a total of 12 3-minute rounds with each round alternating pads/gloves. I really think my judo/jujutsu randori has helped me in my stamina as I wasn't really gassed during the punching part of the drill, or perhaps Amy was taking it easy on me. I did end up pushing Amy just a bit as a stream of expletives came out of her mouth as I kept on flashing a jab, then a jab/cross combo over and over again. It was an overall fun workout, that was a lot of fun. At the end of class we did some conditioning, mainly sit-ups. 50 crunches, and 25 left/right elbow knee crunches. My left ribcage still hurt from Monday, so I couldn't really get my left elbow to my right knee. We then did hold your partner's ankles and lift you legs up to touch the hands drill. And the hands were positioned that not only you lifted your legs, but you had to lift your hips off the deck. We did 20 of these.

It was a lot of fun. I had a great time, and I do miss my boxing/muay thai workouts. I'd have to get back into it. It's just that I don't have a lot of time, and hopefully this Wednesday workout with Amy becomes a regular thing.

So then my right knee was starting to really bother me, after I removed the tape after class. Taped up it was fine. Without it, it just didn't have the support. I just have to lay low on it. And going to the doctor will just mean, getting it looked at and then recommending ice and motrin. If it bothers me next week, then that's another story.

So, with that. I stopped by a store to pick up some water and head over to Seattle Jujutsu to watch the class. My knee was still bothering me. I went over there to watch. There were 2 new faces in class. And the familiar ones. Ah the technique of the night was working on hizagatame. Some more technical pointers, such as the feet on the scapula works better than knee on hip. One of the things I noticed was the rolling of the hips to apply pressure, rather than just closing your knees. Also cupping the elbow with your hand helps to locate the elbow and apply pressure on it.

The rest of the night was spent in randori. I just watched some sweeps, reversals, shrimps, and the normal randori stuff. It was good to watch a bit as I noticed how people moved to try to keep a steady base. A common theme seems to be control of the hips. If you control the hips either from the guard or in the guard, you can either pass the guard or have control the person in your guard. Hmmn, just an observation.

Anyways, it was an overall fun day. Although I do need to take some more motrin for my knee. My knee is just throbbing. Cool thing is that I no longer feel pain in my left ribs, either that or my knee pain eclipses my rib pain. I do sometimes feel some pain in my right shoulder due to the upper bicep tendon tenderness. I think I just need to soak in a hot tub for awhile.

Recovery...

I've been hitting it fairly hard. My body this morning felt like it got ran over by a truck. 800mg Ibuprofen is my friend. I've got bruises here and there.
I just get bruises. Don't know. Perhaps eat a banana or two? I'm just going to take a break. These are just little finger marks that pock my body. Oh and there are more, but I'd spare you the visuals.

I still got some flab. Need to workout more, actually adhere to a program than haphazardly going to judo/jujutsu practice 4 times a week and dragon boating once a week. Weights? Running? Cycling? Swimming? Don't know. I just need to cram more stuff. Friday is usually my recovery day as Saturday I sometimes do fairly physical activities like hiking or the like. Sunday is jujutsu night again.

I'm enjoying today. I'm doing absolutely nothing and it's all that I ever thought it would be. (Shamelessly stolen from "Office Space")

I weighed 204.5 lbs with 27.5% fatty on my Tanita Scale. I think I'm getting some tone, but need to get better. At least I wasn't Jabba the Huttesque like I was at the end of winter. Wow that was some fattyness. When you can't fit into your tailored suit and insist on wearing a Hawaiian Shirt, well then, that's when I realized, I've gone too far into the fat and need to shed some loving.

Yes, there's less of me to love, more or less as I weighed in close to 235 lbs at the end of winter. I started working out to slim down and got down to 220 lbs for the Western Washington Tournament in June. Then I stepped it up a notch and my walking weight is 205lbs. I just need to walk around at 195 lbs and I'd be happy. I'm losing about 15 lbs every two months, or roughly 2 lbs. a week. Again, my goal is to fight at 90kg in the fall. (Not the Fall Classic, the fall season).

I think I may still try to go for a swim and hang out at the pool/jacuzzi and watch the Olympics on the big screen at AllStar Fitness. They have the most awesome TV and Cable/Sports Packages in the locker room and in the Atrium.

For now, I'm going to just chill, get organized and relax.

Enter the Dragon...

Yeah, catchy isn't it.

Attention Please.

Now that I've got your attention. Just wanted to let you know about today's practice. It was a great workout today. Usually we do power pyramids, timing techniques, 1-2-3-4 drills or flying race pieces.

Well today was one big grueling endurance workout. It felt great. We almost paddled all the way across Lake Washington. Bellevue was getting bigger, and I'm sure we would've almost have gotten there. On the way out, we worked for a full 10 minutes coupled with frequent Power Pyramids. I think there was a full 4 cycle of 70%, 80%, 90%, 100%, then 10 Power Strokes, then back down again. It was good. I know; for some 10 minutes might not seem a long time, but it is. 10 Minutes is VERY LONG. The usual Dragon Boat Heat is at most a 3 minute match. It's a 500m sprint.

We then did some a quick race piece. We then worked on our first 2 strokes, to get the boat moving. We improved quite a bit after working on it. Practiced a couple of six sixteens, then switched sides. Same thing on the left side. (I practiced right side first) We also added some timing drills. This really improved my reach, as I can set up a nice clean entry. My left side is much stronger, and I can rotate more. I feel that I use my whole body more on the left side. That is, there's actually a leg drive, an oblique crunch and a whole upper body workout. I really think that because I'm right handed, and that my right side is much stronger, that I don't depend on my legs/abs as much on the right side. The left side, being a tad weaker actually forces me to use my whole body; hence the strength in my left side stroke.

I felt good and sore afterwards. My shoulders, back, arms, and a bit on my obliques. A good sore feeling for a great workout.

I like it as it will translate into better conditioning.

To really understand dragon boating, check out this video.



Anyways, there's an event in September that I'm psyched to go to. It's going to be a great race. I really feel that my conditioning has improved greatly. There were times at other Dragon Boat practices where I'll be totally gassed and would have to stop and not paddle. It's really tough to do that, as you increase the work for your team-mates. It's good as my team-mates push me to go harder.

Any day on the water is a better day in the gym. :) I'm never much into treadmills and machines. Sure, I can go to the weight room or do a machine workout, but I push myself harder paddling or a good randori workout.

I still need to see the gaps in my workout and fill those in. Looking forward to tomorrows judo workout. Wednesday, I've got sprints scheduled at the track, and then a nice easy hike later on that afternoon. Thursday I've got more judo. Don't know yet what the weekend will bring. It's Seafair this weekend. Part of me wants to see it; the other part of me wants to get away from the maddening crowd.

Sunday Night Jujutsu

Sunday Night. Got to practice a bit late, and they were working on some basic throws. Warmed up, and got onto the mat for some standing techniques. Seattle Jujutsu is basically grappling, it's a cool chill gym, and the people there have many diverse backgrounds. Aaron has Jujutsu, Judo, Sombo and Mongolian Folk Wrestling. Vince the other black belt has Judo and Sombo background. A lot of the stuff, terminology is the same, so it's cool, although there's a different twist or outlook to techniques which is more of a Russian style to the game.

I did an example of a harai goshi and it was very orthodox Japanese. Aaron showed me a variation of harai goshi which was more Russian Like. I can't quite explain it as much without botching the technique.

Then we went onto a new variation of seio and kata guruma. These are from the clinch grip and involves more of a sacrifice throw with seio and kata guruma. It seems similar to seio. Here is a video clip.



You have to commit to these. It's quick and you have good control, and it takes you straight into newaza, with a position ready for a juji or a kesa gatame, depending on how you land. These two throws were my highlight and it's a new grip that I like, especially those who try to stiff arm.

I really like these types of moves and one that I'll try at Budokan on Tuesday. I really like Seattle Jujutsu as it's rather chill and very similar to Budokan. The other techniques we worked on was getting a tighter juji. The thing is knees tight and the butt as close to the shoulders as possible. Control the shoulder as well as the elbow. It was good to see it from a different perspective.

We also covered a heel hook and practiced that a couple of times. There was also a calf crusher. I don't really remember it much, as I only practiced it a couple of times. The thing is with leg stuff, I'm very careful as I'm very inexperienced with leg entanglement techniques.

Then we did 5 rounds of newaza randori. Vince, Aaron, Ned, Steph, and Pete. It was cool just doing randori with new people and it was more of a feeling out, getting positioning and the like. Overall the people were cool and it's about learning and pushing each other. The good thing that I like is control. A lot of people had good control, so I can trust them when they do a juji and the like.

Anyways, a good workout tonight. I'll try to workout here on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Soo, easy workout day... Tennis and Sun.

Sunshine. Check.
Nice Cool day. Check.

So Jen and I hit a few volleys back and forth at the Tennis Court. It was fun. Nothing too exhausting. It was just fun to bat the yellow ball back and forth over the net.

I've got a hiking trip set up to Soda Peaks this weekend. So I'm sure I'll be expending energy there... AND.. I can't wait for Sunday's Jujutsu's practice.

Right now, I B.S. more than I do martial arts, but sometimes you got to smell the roses you know? I'm not a Shaolin monk nor an Olympic hopeful. I just want to get fit, and get better. "Mutual Benefit and Welfare" something like that. I'm just excited, and perhaps a few days break would actually be good for me, as I'll be roaring to go.

Next week, I have a feeling it's going to be a bruiser; or I can feel it coming... Schedule so far is:

Sunday 7-9PM - Jujutsu
Monday 6:30-8PM - Dragon Boat
Tuesday 8PM-9:30PM Judo
Wednesday 7-9PM -Planned hike of 9 Miles + 3500' elevation gain
Thursday 8PM-9:30 - Judo
Friday Off
Saturday - Dragon Boat? Hiking? Mountain Biking? (No Plans as of yet)

And back to Sunday again, although the next Wed would be planned for Jujutsu.

I still have to cram a strength and perhaps a cardio workout somewhere in between; that and some burnouts.

I have been very good to sticking with my workouts. Save for this Birthday Party Thursday which skipped my judo practice. Oh well. I do miss the dojo and I really feel the difference, mainly not having the dull ache on Friday Morning that a Thursday night beatdown gets ya.

I'm thinking of going for a swim later on this afternoon at the pool. Probably do a couple of laps or so and then soak in the hot tub. Yeah it's been lazy, but hey if you're going to be lazy, at least do it in style.

Unused Gi Bag and Fatty Birthday Cake.

Wow. As soon as I wrote that Tuesday/Thursday were sacrosanct judo nights, I was wrong. I had my judo bag in my truck. Left at 6 PM. CRAWLED through Seattle traffic to get to Steve's Birthday party by 6:30. That's not to be. From 6PM to 6:30 PM was stuck in traffic at the I-90/I-5 merge to go underneath the Convention Center. For such a modern city, there is only effectively 2 lanes of I-5 northbound through Seattle Proper. I-90 terminates at I-5, West Seattle Bridge ends at I-5, and city traffic gets routed through I-5. It narrows down to 2 lanes. READ THAT 2 LANES in the heart of the city and then expands again. 2 LANES!

I digress, I CRAWLED through traffic. I got to Bothell at 7:30. Normally it takes about 30 or so minutes to get there. Basically my plan was show up 6:30, do a meet and greet, bail at 7:15 and head to practice. There's no such thing as showing up rather fast, do a meet and greet and bail at 7:30. I was already late. Meet and greet, took 30 minutes and before you knew it, it was already 8:10. The bow-ins would be already done, and the warm up started. If I left now, I'd make it around 8:45. Which would be utterly useless, since effectively I missed half the practice already.

Regardless, Birthday Boy showed up only a couple of minutes before me, so even if I left then, I was already late.

So with that aside, I went and popped open a beer. Got to meet up with some folks. It was Michelle's last night before flying back to Australia, so it was really cool to get together again and talk to her before she flew out.

The party was cool. Missing practice was not.

I really don't know how real judo players do it. I have a hard time fitting in regular life and judo.

Bah, what was even worse, was the fact that people at the party were asking about my judo, and well.. I can't say much since I'm not at practice.

So for now, my gi bag has been sitting in the back of my truck for 2 days now, begging to be used.

Oh well. Tomorrow, I got a tennis workout scheduled and this weekend I've got a hike to Soda Peaks. When I get back on Sunday, I'll be headed to Seattle Jujutsu for some mat time. Then Tuesday/Thursday would be back on regular schedule.

Danish Guest Instructor at the Dojo

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm wicked horrible with names. I associate visual memories to people and can remember them if I've met them before. However, I suck at remembering names. Mainly because growing up, people will get nicknames, and well, they just stick. I've been called many names including, lunchbox, saladong, ice, stihl, flippy, dunlap, waldo, fat-ass, boink, china-man, little fatty and robocop. I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that I can remember. In fact some of them stick and don't stick. I'll digress for a moment. I was at my friend Skippy's party talking to his girlfriend. She asked me, "How long do you know Tim?" And I said, "Who the *#$! is Tim?" She said, "Tim, the guy I've been dating for a year." She looked at me puzzled like and pointed Skippy out in the room. I said, "Oh, Skippy! yeah I've known him for many years and went to college together." She started laughing... She then proceeded to say, "Skippy.... Oh Skippy...!" and proceeded to harass him the rest of the night. Apparently, Skippy failed to mention that was his name in college to his girlfriend.

Anyways, with that Side Story aside. I don't know everyone's names in the Dojo. I know I suck. There's no picture book, with a mug shot and their name you know? Half the time people come on by here and there stop at the dojo, all quiet like and later on you find out they were some champion here and there. Everyone is chill, and it's sports practice.

So, which brings us round circle to last night's judo practice. Danish Sensei made a surprise appearance. With all due respect, I'll just call him Great Dane. It fits, guy is six feet something tall has a great grip, and is cut. He is also 61 years old. I wish I'd be that good in shape at 61... ummm and even now. Great Dane is a friend of Cecilia. Who I've known for a couple of years now, and always see her smiling. I kinda refer to her as Smiley, since I just found out Cecilia's name when he introduced himself to the Dojo as a friend of Cecilia. She's a great brown belt and has been practicing a long time. I can't pinpoint her exact origin, but I'm hazarding a guess Brazil or somewhere.

Great Dane has a dojo in Denmark and Cecilia practiced there for some time. Apparently he practices with some of the Danish National Team. Great Dane had family in Toronto and made a drive all the way to our Dojo just to visit. He showed us an opposite side entry deashi arai for a setup for a harai gosh. It was smooth, clean and fast.

Things I noticed were:

1. He leaned his hips out for the deashi arai akin to a soccer kick.
2. His deashi was really good and will catch the opponent more than half the time. A throw is a throw, so if the footsweep works, then that's cool.
3. In order for the setup to work, your opponent must be afraid of your deashi arai. Your opponent will pull his feet back if he sees the footsweep, allowing you to enter to a harai gosh or uchi-mata (depending on your placement).
4. The thing is, it's quite a dynamic fast move.

We also practiced grip fighting, getting the inside grip, and breaking grips. I'm starting to get better at grip fighting, and moving my WHOLE body to break a grip while maintaining balance. What I need to keep on doing is ATTACK as soon as I attain a grip. I just need to do more to get my muscle memory going. I need to do more uchikomis. Gary said that top judo players can execute 100 throws in a 5 minute match. I just need to attack more, and the fact of the matter is that I don't know my 40 throws well enough, that I don't see an opening when there is one. And sometimes there are variations of technique that can be executed from each position. That's the thing. The throw is already there; meaning that my opponent is already off balance. I should throw then, rather than repositioning myself or my opponent so that I can execute my favorite throw.

The other technique we covered was the opposite side ankle pick. It's a wrestling move (I'm sure there's a judo name for it, I have to look in Mifune's Canon of Judo). The ankle pick is really cool, as if you don't get an ippon, you can get at least a koka and then get into matwork straight away. Even if your opponent does the forward fall, sprawl defense, you can, if quick enough go straight into ne-waza.

Ah newaza. We really didn't do newaza tonight. Just not enough time. I know a couple weeks, that's all we'll be doing at practice. Considering the last 3 weeks was all about juji and more juji. I love armbars. The fact of the matter is I still need more work on armbars, because it is very technical.

Tonight for warmups, we did judo rugby. This is a fun game. Rules are, the ends of the dojo are the endzones. Must be on your knees. Can only pass backwards. It was so much fun! We ended up dogpiling whoever had the ball. Blocks ended up in newaza and pins, and it was just plain fun. There were piles of people on top of the ball, and whomever had the ball is being pulled apart in so many different directions. It's a great diversion, and quite fun.

Since warmups and the instruction took quite a bit chunk of time, we only did stand up randori for 5 rounds. I fought for 4. I fought Aaron, "Badger" (I'll call him that because he went to University of Wisconsin and forgot his name), Kurt "Rock Hands" and Jake.

Aaron was cool and he always love the huge overhand grip, which I do tend to manage and block. He's quite quick and blocked most of my picks and footsweeps. He hates the huge overhand grip and likes getting it on me. So I always try to get the big overhand grip, just to annoy him and get him off balance. With the huge overhand, I can go into a good harai gosh or uchimata. He threw me a couple of times, which was good. He gets me on footsweeps.

Badger is cool and he threw me in with an ippon seio. He has a good base and he drops low on the ground for the seio. This just means that I'm hunched over in defensive stance, which makes me prone for the seio. During the other times, I was getting a good grip. I did dominate the gripping part and he seemed defensive. Problem was I wasn't throwing as fast, as soon as I get the grip. That's the thing about the grip, you have to do SOMETHING with it. He got me with a good tomo nage as he would act quickly. He is just a bit quicker and more decisive. I did feel like I was stronger, and I knew I can wear him down given more time. I like gripping and just feeling the control you have on the person. I like grip fighting. I just have to move beyond that. It was cool to roll with him.

Kurt "Rock Hands" is just a beast. I like fighting him as he has a strong grip, throws, and everything. One thing that I did notice tonight was that he has a good strong base, remains upright and is always in balance. His grips are really good, although now, I'm breaking them more often than not. I'm also attacking more and more. When he gets an inside grip, I go inside and get my inside grip. We ended this for a bit, the thing was, now I was attacking with more and more footsweeps, which is much livelier. He got me on a good kouchi-gari. I blocked his tai-toshi and he quickly reversed and got me in kouchi. The thing about that I learned is that he did it so naturally and instinctive. I guess judo is about giving way and going with the flow. It is the "gentle way" after all.

Jake is a good instructor. Every time I roll with him, he teaches me a little something. He had a lighter grip, but much faster in executing the throws. It's funny, I tend to have a strong heavy-handed grip, which translates into telegraphing my throws. Jake is strong fights Heavyweight and has a deceptively lighter, yet effective grip. That's the thing, his grips aren't as threatening, and he executes his throw as soon as he gets a grip. I'd like to emulate that, as currently I'm just a big clumsy brawler in the dojo.

One of the things, I noticed was that I was repeatedly getting coached "not to fall for my partner" The thing is, I really don't try to fall for my partner. If I'm off balance and I'm on my way to getting thrown, I get thrown. It helps me fight another day. The idea of not getting thrown, is hard to process. I know, I tend to lose matches all the time, which is dumb of me. But for me, getting thrown is okay. I get back up relatively quickly most of the time. I get my knee/ankle(insert joint here) tweaked if I try to not get thrown and then fall weirdly or just have weird blocking. I get thrown and I get back up. I also have a fairly high pain tolerance. Even the one with a resounding thud. Remember 200+ lbs landing from 5 feet is quite a bit of force. In fact, let's calculate just a simple seio, where the pivot point is around 5 feet, if an average height guy, throws you for a nice clean seio.

Let's plug in the numbers. You know what. Let's go metric, that way I don't have to plug in lbs into slugs.

Potential Energy.

PE = mgh = mass x gravity x height

PE = 93kg x 9.81m/s2 x 1.5m = 1471 Newtons.
1368 Newtons = 307 lbf

This is assuming that he simply dropped me, which isn't the case. I can in theory draw a free body diagram, in which case, there would be a rotational inertia, plus kinetic energy applied to the body in motion as well. I can then calculate the impact force where you take the law of conservation of momentum. The 307 lbf is simply the minimum force received when dropped and does not take into account the additional force applied by the attacker.

Anyways, 307 lbs of force is at least spread throughout my body in a nice relatively soft mat.

I digress, I'm very tempted to get my engineering paper, draw a free body diagram, and plug in my assumptions, constants, etc...

I guess what it comes down to, is that I need more training. More practice, and more conditioning. I am noticing that my conditioning is improving. I wasn't gassed at all for the 4 rounds of randori that I participated in. Which makes me think that I'm not working hard enough. Usually it's 10 rounds a night but this time I only did 4, so perhaps that is why I'm not so tired.

Backpacking certainly helps. I guess carrying a 38lbs backpack for over 4 miles on uneven terrain at strengthens your legs and core, improves your balance and boosts my cardio.

I still need to work on my anaerobic explosive energy. I did muay thai and boxing awhile back, and those were fun, explosive workouts that had burnouts improving both my strength, coordination, reflexes, and endurance.

Dragon Boating Monday - Sunshiny Day and jumping fish.

So. Monday. I got out to the docks on Leschi for some Dragon Boating. It was a bit windy. It was quite sunny and warm that day so it was good to get out on the water. That afternoon there were 12 of us at practice.

Standard warm-ups and stretches. We did flying race piece and power pyramids. We took the boat out south past the I-90 bridge. Did some paddling on the lee of the I-90 bridge. The water was smooth, warm. There's fish jumping about.

We did flying race pieces. I really felt strong. I wasn't gassed out at all. I was keeping rhythm. Not bad.

We did some drills for timing and rotation. It was the 1-2-3-4 drill. It felt really good.

30 Minutes left side, 30 minutes right side. I was working on my snap forward and the catch. I was doing decent exits. I need to work on my rotation, look forward to follow my lead. I tend to look inboard as I rotate and not keep my head straight forward. I felt like I was driving my paddle more into the water at this practice.


It was a great practice, can't wait for next week. Too bad I can't practice on Thursdays, as Thursday is my judo day. That and I've got a party to go to, then judo on Thursday.

The upcoming race is the weekend of September 6th. So it'll be some good times to go to a race. I think I'm prepping fairly well in Dragon Boat, although just like any other sport, I still need to work at it and practice, practice, practice. Regardless, it's a great upper body, core, timing workout. It's so awesome as well to get back into water sports. I do miss that. Also, it's low impact

Anyways Dragon Boating is fun, and a great workout on Mondays!

Hiking... and duct taped boots....

Okay. Just got back from Goat Mountain. Got back meaning 3 days ago. So yeah.

I haven't updated this, well there's much to write. The hiking was good for me. Came back home and weighed in at 205 lbs. 27.5% fatty according to my scale.

So let's recap.

13 July - 4.5 Mile Hike to base camp. 200' loss/ 700' gain. I carried a 38 lbs. pack. It was a good hike at a moderate pace. Overall a good day.

14 July - 3.5 Mile Hike up, 3.5 Mile hike down. 1000' gain.

15 July - 4.0 Mile Hike up, 4.0 Mile Hike down. 1300' gain

16 July - 3.5 Mile hike going, 3.5 Mile hike back. 500' gain.

17 July - 2.0 Mile hike going, 2.0 Mile back. Minimal elevation gain/loss. Boots falling apart, in desperate need of duct tape. So duct taped them.

18 July - 1.5 Mile hike going, 1.5 Mile back. Minimal elevation gain/loss

19 July - 4.5 Mile hike from camp to parking lot, 200'loss 700' gain. Carried 38lbs pack. Hiked at a very brisk pace. Great workout.

20 July - Hiked to top of Small Si. Easy day hike Probably 2.0 mile hike up/ 2.0 mile hike down. 1000 feet gain? Don't know I'm sure I could look it up. Not a bad hike.

That's when I needed a new pair of boots. I hate buying new hiking boots. After 3 hours at REI, finally found a pair that fit me just right. Total Cost 180 Bucks!

Decent workout. Overall did a total of: 49.5 miles of hiking during the last week. Not bad. I really think this should help me lots on my cardio workouts. I just need to work on strength training.

Well. Next post should be about Dragon Boating Upper Body workout yesterday. And then afterwards, I'll write about tonight's judo practice.

Friday Morning Workout, BMI and Weight Classes

Well, I'm wicked sore from last night's workout. Just a general bruised feeling. My calves are still tight and sore. The usual finger bruises on my arms. Some mat burn on my head. A slight bruise on my temple where you place the knee on the head to rotate the body. And random bruises here and there. Basically, another normal workout bruises.

And so, this morning, I decided to take it easy (read wimp out). I did 30 minutes elliptical with my heart rate bouncing between 100-105 bpm. I drank some cranberry juice this morning. I need to get some bananas. The cranberry juice I got is too sweet, gotta get the "light" cranberry juice, or just cut it with water.

I need to go swimming or something. I have a 8 mile hike tomorrow with a 35-40 pound pack. So that's the main reason of taking it easy. I may squeeze in a quick upper body workout later in the day, but today I have a full day of packing, laundry, mopping, cleaning, more cleaning, so I'll do my upper body workout after my Field Day of my place.

Next week I'll be missing a lot of workouts because of my weeklong trip to Goat Mountain. I'd enjoy some sunshine and lots of hiking; etc... It'd be a change of pace and should keep me relatively fit.

Oh, and I weighed myself this morning. 208.5 lbs. This is in comparison to my 220 lbs. weigh in at the Western Judo Tournament about a month ago. My goal is to get in the -90kg weight class which is 198 lbs. Right now I'm -100kg, and before that 100kg+. During the winter, where I went through a judo hiatus

According to the BMI index, I'm a fat body.

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

32.7 BMI index. The NIH says I'm OBESE! Want a jelly donut? To get to the recommended 25 BMI. (Normal Weight, well the top of the normal weight for my 5'7" height). I need to weigh in at 159 lbs... or 72kg. Thats a whole 2 lower weight classes. Let's see the weight classes are:
Men: -50 kg -55 kg -60 kg -66 kg -73 kg -81 kg -90 kg -100 kg +100Kg

Uggh. 159 lbs. from 208lbs. I have to lose a whopping 49lbs. WOW!

According to my Tanita fat meter, I have 28% body fat. In March, I was weighing at a fat astounding 232 lbs, at around 33% body fat. Yeah I was a wicked fat body when I stopped working out from December-March. A wicked, fattening, long long time of fat inducing video gaming time. Never, ever, get into an online game, it's bad, very bad. I remember playing 2142, Counterstrike, and Star Wars Galaxies. I had the overall LCD glow of a gamer, with whacked out sleeping schedules and a diet consisting of diet Pepsi and Hot Pockets. Sure, I could do all this nifty stuff in a game and be all e-tough. But it's totally useless in real life and you can't make cocktail conversations out of it. Example: "hey baby, I'm a level 90 Commando..." Yep. Big whoop-dee-do.

Anyways, I digress, luckily my fat ass isn't growing as much and actually is starting to show signs of, dare I say, reduction. You know fat asses are like credit card debt. It's so easy to build up, but so hard to take off.

And yeah, last post I talked about getting to a good core workout. I'll get to it that soon (TM).

Well, it's kinda disheartening to really look at the BMI index. I thought losing 24lbs. in 3 months (April-May-June) wasn't that bad. I was losing 8lbs a month or 2lbs a week, which is a fairly healthy weight loss. It's a start, I guess, and should actually make choices every day, to be healthier. So for 50lbs. I need to look at 25 weeks, to get to that healthy weight. Basically 6 months, roughly. So, by end of January, I should look at being at a decent weight. It's a long road ahead. But what really motivates me is going to practice. After Tuesday or Thursday practice, I just get pumped to know that I need to work on specifics, and there's instant gratification. Like last night, I wasn't as winded in randori and didn't flop over like a rag doll, which is a bonus for me.

Also everyone in the dojo are in relatively good shape. Most sport six-packs and are fairly well defined. That and the constant reminder from the senseis that making it to practice is just one part of a whole judo program. You must workout during the week, to keep your stamina, strength, and flexibility up. It's one thing to lose in a match because your opponent has better skill and technique. It's another thing to lose if you are not in shape. You just haven't trained hard enough.

Morning rant over. I just have to put my words into action.

Easy Wednesday.

Today was a rather easy workout. Did 40 Minutes elliptical, backwards. My calves are sore. Did ab crunches.

Okay, yeah I'm still sore from yesterday. Thought take it easy. And I blew my diet. I had a hot-pocket, an almond soy latte and two scoops of Baskin Robbins ice cream over a sugar cone. WOW. That's insane amount of sugar and calories. UGH.

Tomorrow should be better. I just need some recovery. I just been going at it non-stop and don't want to get burnt out. Okay, so it's excuses...but hey, I made a choice, and now will live with it. Oh my that Ice Cream was DELICIOUS! And that hot-pocket. yummy.

Tuesday Night Judo Practice

So today was a nice day out for Seattle. 80's bluest skies you ever seen. Anyways, I wasn't going to let this sunshiny day slip by without doing some outdoor activity. And so I went for a quick 30 minute run. Did the Fairmont hill run, which basically consists of a 1/2 mile long hill that has about a 300 foot elevation gain. So basically a quick 2 mile run with a 1/2 mile straight aways with a stretch at the end of the 1/2 mile straight away. Did a nice easy pace. Picked up the pace at the end of the Fairmont hill run. Basic 30 minute run. It was good to get the blood flowing and at the last 100 yards, I sprinted. It felt good.

So showered. Got my gi bag ready and headed to practice. I was a bit late, so changed quickly just in time to do the line up.

Anyways, practice consisted of a warm up of judo soccer. Yeah, it's a fun different warm up that you play soccer, tackle, pin, dog pile your opponents. It's the way soccer was meant to be played, with full contact and take downs.

That was a good warm up and got the blood flowing, then did ukemi drills, then uchikomi. I still have some more techniques to work on such as my osoto gari. I wasn't pointing my toe, and really need to make contact. My combos were so-so, but needs work.

The technique shown tonight was 3 different rolls into a juji gatame from a guy who is turtled.

It's hard to describe. I'll describe it loosely and it's better if seen. As I'll butcher the technique in words.

First one was your standard roll.
Second one was the one where you go high, create space underneath and roll, catch the arm and into a juji.
Third one was the "Rock and Roll Armbar" grab the arm for the armbar, lock it in, twist, grab a leg, then roll into position.

Things I learned:

1. When controlling the arm, hold it close and grab your own lapel so it's tight.
2. Knees together.
3. Keep it tight.

As the sensei explains, it's the little things that make it work. I still need a lot of work on armbars, I'm coming along though. We mainly focused on matwork tonight. And then went to 3 rounds of newaza randori and 3 rounds of tachi-waza. A lot of technique shown tonight. So not the usual grind that is the 8 o'clock practice. Overall it was a good workout.

I still need to work on my standing techniques. My grip is getting better, and I need to throw more. I need more grounding on my foot-sweeps. They're more like taps and not any real attempts at throwing. I do am getting better with my kata-guruma. I like that technique, however, set up is something I'm working on.

Anyways, that's it for now. Thursday is around the corner.

Monday's Upper Body Workout and Judo watching...

So... yesterday was a good workout day. It started in the morning meeting Jen and Ericka at 24 hour fitness for some quick cardio (I was a bit late.) and ab work out. The ab work out was good, still gotta focus on it more. Perhaps do more medicine ball workouts with abs. We did oblique rotation with weights on a swiss ball, crunches and the like. I think a bit more to burnouts would be good, for that good and sore feeling, but I think that Jen and Ericka was just taking it easy on me that day.
Afterwards, they split, and I did some upper body workout. It consisted of:

5 sets - 12, 10, 8, 6, 12 reps.

Dumbbell bench press - 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 lbs.
Lat Pull Downs - 65, 80, 95, 110, 125 lbs.
Dumbbell shoulder press - 20, 25, 30, 30, 30 lbs.

Overall, I felt good. I still need to work my shoulders, my shoulders were wicked tired at the end of the set. Also my shoulder felt funny at the end of the shoulder press. Perhaps watch my technique and go with lighter weights to finish at 30 lbs. After stretching it out, it felt fine.

I was going to do biceps and triceps, however that would've been a bit much, because... I had dragon boating that afternoon. Last thing I needed were fatigued bi/tri for one hour of paddling. Besides, the dumbbell workout worked them out indirectly. Perhaps if it was a non-paddling day I'd be good to go.

Onto... Dragon Boating

That afternoon was a great day for dragon boating. It was beautiful, warm and Lake Washington was just nice. The boat had 10 people, so the usual complement of 22 people weren't there. We practiced anyways, and it was a good practice. It felt great to be paddling with just 8 paddlers plus the caller and the tiller.

I was working on my form. I like paddling as it's a near constant resistance workout that involves your abs, obliques and upper body.So as you can see from the picture, it's a lot of good rotation, working the obliques and some good upper body workouts. I think this is good. It's a lot like the shrimping drill right before mat-work, and this will be good resistance training at that.

Did paddle boating for about an hour, with 30 minutes left side and 30 minutes right side. It was a good workout and I could feel my obliques burn. Today my body has a good soreness to it. It was a great workout. I had to work on my snap and my timing. It's really hard to keep pace and keep excellent form. The hard part is the exit out of the water and snapping the paddle forward for maximum reach. I kinda get lackadaisical and of course when you're tired, you're technique just isn't that good. I was getting into a good rhythm and getting to breathe. I think I did decent in paddling last night as I didn't have to stop at all. Then again, the pace was just constant, so there were no burnouts nor race starts, which really tires me out quick. I also think that since my arms were already tired, that I actually used my whole body, rather than just the upper body for paddling. So overall a good day...

And then... onto Judo.

After paddling, I was a bit chilly and decided to get some Pho to warm myself up. Afterwards it was running around 8:30 pm, which coincidentally happen to be the time that Seattle Dojo was holding practice. Since I was already in the International District, it was only a simple matter of driving 3/4 of a mile there. I was still a bit wet from paddling and I didn't have my judogi on, so I simply decided to stop by there and watch.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2004473068_judo150.html

So Seattle Dojo according to the article is the oldest continuous judo club stateside. I've practiced there once before about a year ago and saw a few familiar faces. It's been awhile though and there's a lot of fresh faces. Yeah article, pretty much sums it up, better than I can.

So, after the article publish, Seatlte Dojo has become popular. I witnessed a lot of new students, with 5 new students joining Seattle Dojo that day. It was cool to see the joy and awe of fresh new students. I hardly see that anymore. There were a group of 3 guys that enrolled that day that knew each other. The "recruits" all had the issued unbleached gi, still fresh with from-the-wrapper-crease-marks. There were a total of about a dozen recruits, which is quite amazing! I hardly ever see more than one or two people start in a club a month, if that.

It was a good refresher on dojo etiquette, proper bowing, etc... And some instruction on tying the belt. They did some ukemi drills, and one ukemi drill that we don't usually do. The front breakfall. We hardly ever do front breakfalls. We do spend quite a bit of time on ukemi, rolls, cartwheels, and the like.

Since there were a lot of new people, this class was more of an instructional class on the basics, and a lot of things were going on quite a bit. Two black belts were practicing the nage-no-kata, and it was actually interesting to actually see it in practice in the dojo rather than on a few demos that I have seen. Now that I'm a brown belt, I should eventually learn nage-no-kata. Eventually being a key word, since earning a black belt really isn't a priority of mine, and besides that, it'll be another half decade or so before I'm qualified to do so. I actually need to ummm, win some tournaments perhaps? I really don't think I'd deserve a black belt until I can get onto the national ranking roster. I think most black belts I roll around with are on the roster at one time or another. And Tracy from my club didn't get her black belt until six months before the Olympic trials. And she won the trials in her division, so. Yeah, that's my gage. And seriously in comparison, I am nowhere in that level. Really being a brown belt, sounds cool, however I know far less than what I'm supposed to know. Sure I can tell what the 40 classic throws from the Canon of Judo looks like, however, executing them is a whole other story. I still am not that proficient in mat-work as well, and was really thinking of taking some submission wrestling classes, or bjj classes to supplement that hole in my game. I digress...

Seattle Dojo class format was.

1. Intro
2. Warm-ups.
3. Ukemi from laying, to sitting, to standing.
4. Squats while saying the japanese numbers 1-10.
5. Rolling Ukemi
6. Matwork warmups, shrimping and the like up and down the mat.
7. Matwork technique. (Basic holds: kesa, yoko-shiho, kata, etc...)
8. Holding the pin with resistance.
9. Ne-waza randori
10. Standing uchikomi
11. Standing technique. Ippon Seio, Morote Seio
12. Standing Randori for colored belts/ Ukemi instruction for white belts.
13. Closing
14. Ukemi when leaving the mat.

In the meantime after the warmups, a couple of people were practicing nage-no-kata on the side.

It was cool to watch another club, and to think about judo that day. I got judo practice tonight. Looking forward to it. Anyways, I should go do a short run or something.

Anyways that's about it.

Wow.. it's Friday already

This week has been full of decent workouts. Tuesday was Judo Workout, Wednesday was a rest Day. Thursday was judo. Friday, went for a quick 20 minute run/walk. Took it easy. Saturday I have a tournament.

Anyways... we'll see I'm just tired. My left knee is acting up and my hamstring is wicked tight. Or is that the IT band? Don't know but my outside of my left knee (tendon) whatever is tight and hurts.

Bah. nothing 800mg of Ibuprofen can't cure.

That's about it. Going to bed. Gotta get at the early tomorrow.