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!

Burger King 2 for $2.22.

I know weird title, but hey this fits well with the title to my blog.

I'm still recovering from the Judo Clinic. And this weekend is the Fall Classic/Ladder Tournament. So really I'm on Judo overload. That, and I have watched at least 12-16 hours of judo Olympic feeds. So I just really need a break. Sometimes too much of a good thing is bad. So basically the last few weeks, I've been going, seeing, living and breathing judo. It's great to be immersed, at the same time, I really need a life.

Anyways, tonight's practice was centered on the people competing at the Fall Classic/Ladder Tourney. We did turtle drills, newaza randori, grip fighting, and then standing randori. Afterward we did a throwing line for the competitors.

Practice went by quick. It was over before I knew it. I was really tired, consequently I was a bit more relaxed and my movements were more efficient. In newaza, I was able to get a good bridge on a kesagatame and reveresed it. When I'm trying to pass the guard, I have to be extremely careful of my arm getting caught in an armlock, which it did, a couple of times.

I'm getting better in doing more moves in overturning the turtle. Consequently we still need to practice transitions. At the Neil Adams Camp, Neil emphasized transistions to newaza as an important part of the game. You have to be decisive and deliberate to show progress. Did a lot of drills at the camp in fighting the turtle position quickly to show progress.

Anyways, with grip fighting I'm getting better. I have a relaxed, yet controlling grip. However, just like Wile E. Coyote, once I got the grip, I have no idea what to do with it. I just need to do drills of throwing from the grip. Right now, I do this.

1. Fight for grip.
2. Get Grip.
3. Adjust my grip to my favorite grip.
4. Attempt a throw and not follow through.
5. Attempt the SAME throw again.
6. And Again.
7. Repeat Steps 1-6.

Seriously that is some very predictable actions that telegraph my next move to my opponent.

It should be this:

1. Grip and throw.

I make things way to complex, seriously, now looking at it. It's fairly simple, where it really boils down to one fluid movement.

Hmmm.. time to do laundry and take a shower.

Oh. And yes, I did get the 2 for $2.22, I wolfed it down after practice. I should stop doing that.

Lake Washington Rain

It was raining. Thundering. I called Chana to see if practice was canceled. She said, "nope... only cancel it for lightning or white caps..." So... practice was on like Donkey Kong.

We did some race pieces. It rained. It was good we kept on paddling as that kept us warm. Surprisingly, the lake was fairly warm.

I was using more of a leg drive and hip movement and could feel the power in my stroke. At least for my left side, I'm getting better.

It was rather uneventful or uninspired, it was a dreary day and practice was practice. The race will be on in 2 weeks, so we'll see.

Whidbey - Neil Adams Judo Clinic

Aaron, Neil, Jake and Myself.

Marti Malloy ('07 US National Champion) and Neil Adams ('81, '83 World Champ, '80 & '84 Silver Medalist Olympics)

Just came back from 3 days of Judo.

A lot of techniques shown. Lots of drills to do to take back to the dojo. I can't quite remember it all. It was a lot of fun. But my body is just beat. I got to meet a lot of people. Great people and just great attitudes all around. There were some other prominent judo figures floating around, but everyone was just humble and down to earth. They were just accessible and I had the chance to randori with Neil and Marti. It was really cool to see how judo is performed at that high of a level.

Mediocre Bowl

This afternoon after Neil Adams Clinic was Bowling. Judo players aren't good bowlers. Seriously.

It's 8PM. And already back home. Yep. Wild and crazy I tell you. 2 days of Judo 4 hours a day and I'm beat. I know 4 hours a day doesn't sound much, but I'm tired.

I'm going to watch the Olympics and veg out. I'll post a bit later.

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.

Tuesday Practice

Last Night's practice was standard practice. I think everyone is taking it easy because the Neil Adams Clinic is this weekend. Thursday - Sunday. So that'll be 4 days of judo. I'm debating whether to go there Thursday, because, I'm still sore.

I still couldn't sleep last night due to my left ribs. I still think it's bruised and can't really roll over. My right knee is a bit tweaked because of randori last night. Probably from a kouchi, osoto, ouchi or something. Right upper bicep is still sore when I move my arm to the inside. And just the normal wear and tear from training.

I took it relatively easy, and my standing techniques definitely improved. There's something to be said by being relaxed. I just felt bruised last night and when you're bruised you move rather efficiently. I didn't feel winded as much last night, perhaps mainly I sat out every third round.

After Monday's BJJ experience, I'm starting to appreciate Judo's stand-up game. Don't get me wrong, I love newaza; However when somebody that is much bigger in size rolls with you in newaza and knows what they are doing, it's going to hurt. I do have decent pins and can do newaza. However, newaza is not my forte' at the moment. I study BJJ and jujutsu for that reason, to improve my ground game and to feel comfortable.

The stand up judo has merit, as it equalizes the size differential. Being a smaller guy in stand up randori is actually easier as I can get in with a lower base. I'm more compact and can get under people's center of gravity and throw them. I really don't mind fighting bigger guys in stand up judo because of that reason. Newaza is a bit different as strength/flexibility matters quite a bit on the ground.

Then again, my dojo is a grinder, which I like. I mean there are about typically a dozen black belts at practice with 4-6 non-black belts a night. The cool thing about it is that all the black belts randori and not just walk around the mat. We get one technique in the night and the rest is randori.

The technique of the night was the same juji roll that we were going over. This time the focus was on the rotation of the arm to break the lock for a good armbar. I'm getting my rollovers, better and better. It's still sloppy and needs work, but it's getting there.

I think with the Neil Adams Clinic and the Fall Classic so close everyone is tapering off. Which is cool I gotta go light next week, which will be good as I need to rest my body a bit.

I can't wait to go to Spokane for the Fall Classic and see some great judo. Cool thing is that I'm just part of the "technical staff" mainly I can "technically" move one swain mat from the truck to the gym floor. I'm sure I'll be doing some other things; hopefully something very mundane and doesn't involve too much brain power.

Neil Adams Clinic starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it.



Here's a video.

OH MY GOODNESS. Now I just watched that video. And a big light bulb has lit up inside my dim head. No wonder that's been the technique of the month at the dojo. Practicing it over and over and over. It makes sense now. It's Neil's signature move. Now I can't wait to go to the clinic.