Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1680
Pushups 3-3
Situps 3-3
Kanji Review
I was sooooo tired today, and the kids didn't go to bed until much later than usual, but I somehow talked myself into doing my reps. Yet another case where I would have totally wimped out if I hadn't committed to this blog. I did, however, have to do my max set for pushups after doing my situps. After set number four of pushups, I was wiped out. Once I had the "rest" (if you can call 5 sets totalling 180 situps a rest), I cranked out a set of 37 pushups, which is amazing to me. Just a month ago I maxed out at 23, and I was sore for three days after. Today I did 92 pushups (over 4 sets) then came back after a 10 minute rest and did 37 straight.
I also did some Kanji review today. I've decided to try improving my Kanji knowledge the "Remembering the Kanji" way. It's kind of awesome, and I think that it will shore up one of my great weaknesses with Japanese - yeah, the Kanji. I only know somewhere around 200 of them, which is kind of embarrassing for someone who is married to a Japanese woman and was once stationed in Japan.
Also, since I'm without a secondary skill on Tues/Thurs, and since my current secondary skills (pushups and situps) are physical skills, I decided to give Hephaestus a little push. I told him that if he starts working on acquiring a new language, I would work on it with him. I was angling for Scottish Gaelic, but some other options include Armenian, Hindi, or Ethiopian (which one of his girlfriend's coworkers says is a "cross between Spanish and Alien"). Of this group, I'm leaning towards either Armenian (I used to work with a bunch of Armenians) or Hindi (hey, I live in Silicon Valley, so there's plenty of people to practice it with). The Spanish/Alien hybrid also sounds interesting, but I don't know how easy it will be to track down learning material for it.
2009-02-27
2009-02-26
New Toy
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1620
That's it. Nothing fancy. 1-40 were just stand and draw. 41-50 had me stepping forward with a vertical elbow shield while drawing, and the last 10 had me stepping back with a horizontal elbow shield while drawing. I think I'm going to stop training the horizontal shield. It's got the advantage of covering my neck and both sides of my jaw, but I lose a lot of visibility. Not only that, but there's the danger that my left hand gets trapped on the right side of my body, which makes stopping any incoming rights a little more difficult. There's one specific horizontal elbow technique that I'm not getting rid of, but that's more of a "Kali empty hands parlor trick" type technique anyway. I'm going to stick with a vertical shield or a Dog Catcher/Kali Fence type of movement for the left hand.
In other news, I bought a new pocket knife. This is a replacement for my current utility pocket knife (not my stabby-stabby knife - at this point the only thing I can think of that would make me get rid of my Delica would be a P'Kal), a Baladeo ECO031, which I seem to recall getting through the REI outlet for something like $8. A decent cheap knife is great to have around, but it's a little too bulky in my pocket. Thus, I bought a Boker Subcom, which set me back $18 on Ebay. I've heard nothing but rave reviews for the Subcom, so I can't wait until it gets here.
That's it. Nothing fancy. 1-40 were just stand and draw. 41-50 had me stepping forward with a vertical elbow shield while drawing, and the last 10 had me stepping back with a horizontal elbow shield while drawing. I think I'm going to stop training the horizontal shield. It's got the advantage of covering my neck and both sides of my jaw, but I lose a lot of visibility. Not only that, but there's the danger that my left hand gets trapped on the right side of my body, which makes stopping any incoming rights a little more difficult. There's one specific horizontal elbow technique that I'm not getting rid of, but that's more of a "Kali empty hands parlor trick" type technique anyway. I'm going to stick with a vertical shield or a Dog Catcher/Kali Fence type of movement for the left hand.
In other news, I bought a new pocket knife. This is a replacement for my current utility pocket knife (not my stabby-stabby knife - at this point the only thing I can think of that would make me get rid of my Delica would be a P'Kal), a Baladeo ECO031, which I seem to recall getting through the REI outlet for something like $8. A decent cheap knife is great to have around, but it's a little too bulky in my pocket. Thus, I bought a Boker Subcom, which set me back $18 on Ebay. I've heard nothing but rave reviews for the Subcom, so I can't wait until it gets here.
2009-02-25
Motivation is a funny thing
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1560
Pushups 3-2
Situps 3-2
Feeling very motivated today, for some reason. After failing to hit the bare minimum on the final set of pushups, I did another set of 30 pushups after I finished my situps (where I had no problem hitting my min - I got 45, the min was 38). Then after knife draws, I did another 30 situps as well.
For knife work, I did the plain old draw, with left hand on my chest, for the first 30. The next 10, I did draw and high line jab with my left hand still on my chest. For some of them, I added a side step. 41-50 had me doing a vertical elbow shield with my left, and a horizontal elbow shield for 51-60. When using the horizontal elbow shield, I'm not comfortable with jabbing on the high line. Mid line jabs feel better, with upward arcing thrusts (say, under the sternum to the heart) feeling the most comfortable here. After my reps, I did right hand 3 of 9 a few times, then with some tapping in the air. Also I did some sort of shadow boxing with the knife jabs. Closed it out with the aforementioned bonus set of situps.
P.S. - I did my reps yesterday, but it was late and I was too tired to blog about it.
Pushups 3-2
Situps 3-2
Feeling very motivated today, for some reason. After failing to hit the bare minimum on the final set of pushups, I did another set of 30 pushups after I finished my situps (where I had no problem hitting my min - I got 45, the min was 38). Then after knife draws, I did another 30 situps as well.
For knife work, I did the plain old draw, with left hand on my chest, for the first 30. The next 10, I did draw and high line jab with my left hand still on my chest. For some of them, I added a side step. 41-50 had me doing a vertical elbow shield with my left, and a horizontal elbow shield for 51-60. When using the horizontal elbow shield, I'm not comfortable with jabbing on the high line. Mid line jabs feel better, with upward arcing thrusts (say, under the sternum to the heart) feeling the most comfortable here. After my reps, I did right hand 3 of 9 a few times, then with some tapping in the air. Also I did some sort of shadow boxing with the knife jabs. Closed it out with the aforementioned bonus set of situps.
P.S. - I did my reps yesterday, but it was late and I was too tired to blog about it.
2009-02-23
The Old Man and The Sea
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1440
Pushups 3-2
Situps 3-1
Since I sort of did the pushups last week, I figured I'd keep it at day 2 while re-doing week 3. Turns out, maybe not a great idea. There's a sharp ramp between 3-1 and 3-2, and I had a very hard time. The first set went well, but it my form rapidly went downhill. So when I did situps, I went back to day 1 of week 3. This made the situps seem easy in comparison. I even managed to go over the minimum on the last set.
After pretty much taking last week off, I did the knife draws nice and slow. I just worked on bringing my left hand in to my chest and doing a smooth, controlled draw with my right.
Oh yes, in the meantime, I bought a rifle. I ended up finding a sweet deal on a Kel-Tec SU-16. It wasn't what I was initially looking for, but the reviews seem pretty positive overall, and the deal really was too good to pass up. Now I'm waiting out my 10 day cooling off period ("but I want to shoot somebody noooow...").
Pushups 3-2
Situps 3-1
Since I sort of did the pushups last week, I figured I'd keep it at day 2 while re-doing week 3. Turns out, maybe not a great idea. There's a sharp ramp between 3-1 and 3-2, and I had a very hard time. The first set went well, but it my form rapidly went downhill. So when I did situps, I went back to day 1 of week 3. This made the situps seem easy in comparison. I even managed to go over the minimum on the last set.
After pretty much taking last week off, I did the knife draws nice and slow. I just worked on bringing my left hand in to my chest and doing a smooth, controlled draw with my right.
Oh yes, in the meantime, I bought a rifle. I ended up finding a sweet deal on a Kel-Tec SU-16. It wasn't what I was initially looking for, but the reviews seem pretty positive overall, and the deal really was too good to pass up. Now I'm waiting out my 10 day cooling off period ("but I want to shoot somebody noooow...").
2009-02-22
way behind
So I did my 50 reps tonight. I should have done more. I'm way behind, I haven't done any since my last post a month or so ago. I'm going to try to do 50 every night until I get back on track. No more nights off for me.
2009-02-20
Pestilence
Some pushups
Some situps
Still not feeling 100%. I did most of day 3-3 for pushups, I just had to skip the last set. I did maybe half of the situps, as my stomach is bothering me. I don't feel particularly well, so I'm just going to call it good for the week.
At least the rugrats are now well enough to sleep all night again.
Some situps
Still not feeling 100%. I did most of day 3-3 for pushups, I just had to skip the last set. I did maybe half of the situps, as my stomach is bothering me. I don't feel particularly well, so I'm just going to call it good for the week.
At least the rugrats are now well enough to sleep all night again.
2009-02-19
Shuffling the Deck
I'm not sure if I've ever done this before without interruptions prior, but doing fifty cards a day, I've come to the end of my deck, which is about two hundred twenty cards or so. In going through the deck over the last few days, I've found a few duplicate words that don't need to be in there. Also, the end of the deck is a lot. of phrases. I think my plan for tonight is to spend some time working on the cards themselves. There are some that I botched when I was making them. A few of my common mistakes are:
forgot to appropriately dot or otherwise complete Arabic letters (they dot a lot of their letters, and whether the dot is on the top or the bottom alters the identity of the letter and thus the word)
forgot to completely write the answer on the back (missing either the pronunciation or the translation)
duplicate words - only a few, but they're annoying
The other thing that I've done is use phrases, like أمير المؤمنين (Amir al Muminin, "Commander of the Faithful," a title used by caliphs and wankers like Taliban leader Mullah Omar), or نحن جند لله جند الوطن (Nahnu jund Allah wa jund al lutan, "We are the army of God and the army of our land," the national motto of Sudan), and also verses out of the Bible. I think that one of my goals of switching up some of the cards is going to be to top load words, and slide some of the phrases (mainly the Bible verses, which are long and have a lot of words that I don't yet know at all) to the back of the deck. This whole process might actually take a couple of days, but that's okay because making and correcting the cards themselves is actually a pretty good form of studying.
One of my goals to accomplish this month is to get caught up on five or six pages worth of phrases and words that I've been meaning to get on note cards for nearly a year now, so I'll probably spend a couple of days doing that, too. Part of my problems is that I tend to like doing a project all at once, so if I can't do that, I tend to put it off. Part of this whole project of Chops' is spacing things out over an extended period of time so that it's actually useful progress, instead of just a one shot deal. Realizing that and trying to apply it is helpful, but it's still time-consuming. Also, my kitchen table is a mess, so that's discouraged me, but I ought to be able to fix that with a spare ten minutes or so.
So, I've done fifty flash cards every morning this week, and yesterday (and maybe the day before?) I did them both in the morning and in the evening, so I think I'm actually back on track from my vacation. This morning I did however many I had from #201 on. Tonight will be working on cards. There's your update from The Fly.
The other thing that I've done is use phrases, like أمير المؤمنين (Amir al Muminin, "Commander of the Faithful," a title used by caliphs and wankers like Taliban leader Mullah Omar), or نحن جند لله جند الوطن (Nahnu jund Allah wa jund al lutan, "We are the army of God and the army of our land," the national motto of Sudan), and also verses out of the Bible. I think that one of my goals of switching up some of the cards is going to be to top load words, and slide some of the phrases (mainly the Bible verses, which are long and have a lot of words that I don't yet know at all) to the back of the deck. This whole process might actually take a couple of days, but that's okay because making and correcting the cards themselves is actually a pretty good form of studying.
One of my goals to accomplish this month is to get caught up on five or six pages worth of phrases and words that I've been meaning to get on note cards for nearly a year now, so I'll probably spend a couple of days doing that, too. Part of my problems is that I tend to like doing a project all at once, so if I can't do that, I tend to put it off. Part of this whole project of Chops' is spacing things out over an extended period of time so that it's actually useful progress, instead of just a one shot deal. Realizing that and trying to apply it is helpful, but it's still time-consuming. Also, my kitchen table is a mess, so that's discouraged me, but I ought to be able to fix that with a spare ten minutes or so.
So, I've done fifty flash cards every morning this week, and yesterday (and maybe the day before?) I did them both in the morning and in the evening, so I think I'm actually back on track from my vacation. This morning I did however many I had from #201 on. Tonight will be working on cards. There's your update from The Fly.
2009-02-18
I'm back
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1380
Pushups 3-2
Situps 3-2
I missed last Friday because I was tired. Then, over the long weekend, pestilence descended upon the Chops household. Mrs Chops is the only one who was spared. So she had to take care of the rest of us. I really was kind of planning on taking the rest of the week off, since I'm still kind of recovering, but then Mrs Chops decided to pop in the Core Rhythms DVD and start working out. That made me feel bad enough about slacking off that I did my workout while she was dancing.
I went ahead and picked up the pushups and situps where I would be if I hadn't been sick, and it hurts, a lot. I might have to redo this week next week anyway. I managed to get all my reps in the for the first four sets of pushups, but I came short by a mile for the last set (where you're expected to max out). Same thing with the situps. I barely managed to get all the reps in for the first four set and missed my min on my max set by a whole lot.
Knife stuff was knife stuff. It was all draw to pikal and jab, with the left hand going to various defensive positions, such as horizontal elbow shield, vertical elbow shield, flat on my chest, fist on my jaw and elbow covering my ribs, etc.
Pushups 3-2
Situps 3-2
I missed last Friday because I was tired. Then, over the long weekend, pestilence descended upon the Chops household. Mrs Chops is the only one who was spared. So she had to take care of the rest of us. I really was kind of planning on taking the rest of the week off, since I'm still kind of recovering, but then Mrs Chops decided to pop in the Core Rhythms DVD and start working out. That made me feel bad enough about slacking off that I did my workout while she was dancing.
I went ahead and picked up the pushups and situps where I would be if I hadn't been sick, and it hurts, a lot. I might have to redo this week next week anyway. I managed to get all my reps in the for the first four sets of pushups, but I came short by a mile for the last set (where you're expected to max out). Same thing with the situps. I barely managed to get all the reps in for the first four set and missed my min on my max set by a whole lot.
Knife stuff was knife stuff. It was all draw to pikal and jab, with the left hand going to various defensive positions, such as horizontal elbow shield, vertical elbow shield, flat on my chest, fist on my jaw and elbow covering my ribs, etc.
2009-02-16
Early in the Morning
The first thing I did this morning was fifty flash cards. I sucked. We'll see how I do with the same cards this evening, once I'm back from work. Chops mentioned some method (I'll have to look back through the comments for it), and I think I'll start that method next week, because I know most of the words and could stand to look at those cards less, but the ones that I don't know, I really suck at. Since I got back from my vacation, it's been enough of a challenge just to grab the cards for fifteen minutes in the first place, so the name of the game this week is consistency. I think I may also try, on Wednesday or Thursday, to start doing lessons out of the textbook, which will account for my study on that particular day. If I can put in some good quality time over the next couple of weeks, mainly making flash cards for some of the words I don't have accounted yet (and fixing some of the old ones), I should be in pretty solid shape to continue through March.
2009-02-12
Stoner was a Genius
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1320
That's it. Just the knife. I'm liking this not doing much on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Same as yesterday, working from under the T-shirt. First 30, just draw, second 30, draw and jab. I worked on some double jabs and changing levels a little for some variety. I have my first training related "injury" today: I'm noticing a small blister on my thumb where I grab the knife. I guess it's a sign of a consistent grip on the knife in the pre-draw phase.
Today I was exposed to Magpul's awesome "Art of the Tactical Carbine" DVDs. Now really I want run out and buy an Evil Black Rifle. It turns out that Magpul is teaching a class in my neck of the woods in few months time, but it's the Tactical Carbine II class, and I neither have already attended their Tactical Carbine I, nor do I even own a carbine to be tactical with. Honestly, I really have no rifle skills to speak of, so it would probably do me a lot of good to get a plinking rifle and head out to an Appleseed event.
Hooray for Rikalonius, he logged his second day in a row today!
That's it. Just the knife. I'm liking this not doing much on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Same as yesterday, working from under the T-shirt. First 30, just draw, second 30, draw and jab. I worked on some double jabs and changing levels a little for some variety. I have my first training related "injury" today: I'm noticing a small blister on my thumb where I grab the knife. I guess it's a sign of a consistent grip on the knife in the pre-draw phase.
Today I was exposed to Magpul's awesome "Art of the Tactical Carbine" DVDs. Now really I want run out and buy an Evil Black Rifle. It turns out that Magpul is teaching a class in my neck of the woods in few months time, but it's the Tactical Carbine II class, and I neither have already attended their Tactical Carbine I, nor do I even own a carbine to be tactical with. Honestly, I really have no rifle skills to speak of, so it would probably do me a lot of good to get a plinking rifle and head out to an Appleseed event.
Hooray for Rikalonius, he logged his second day in a row today!
2009-02-11
Ear Doctor
Knife draw x 65, Grand Total: 1260
Pushups, 2-2
Situps, 2-2
I did five extra reps today, because I like round numbers. Pretty much the same as yesterday. I worked on drawing with the T-shirt hanging over my pocket with no assistance from the left hand. For reps 31-60, I did the same, only adding various knife jabs after the draw (including doubling up the jabs at for a few reps). The last 5 were draw and jab as fast as I could. Quite frankly, I found it a bit scary, since I haven't worked a full speed draw and jab with a trainer a few times, just to make sure I'm in the right places at the right times. Still, everything worked out well.
I sure love it when I see that someone else has updated the rep tracking spreadsheet we have. And I also love it when somebody else makes a blog post. Welcome back, Fly and Rikalonius.
Pushups, 2-2
Situps, 2-2
I did five extra reps today, because I like round numbers. Pretty much the same as yesterday. I worked on drawing with the T-shirt hanging over my pocket with no assistance from the left hand. For reps 31-60, I did the same, only adding various knife jabs after the draw (including doubling up the jabs at for a few reps). The last 5 were draw and jab as fast as I could. Quite frankly, I found it a bit scary, since I haven't worked a full speed draw and jab with a trainer a few times, just to make sure I'm in the right places at the right times. Still, everything worked out well.
I sure love it when I see that someone else has updated the rep tracking spreadsheet we have. And I also love it when somebody else makes a blog post. Welcome back, Fly and Rikalonius.
The Wagon
I'm finally back on the wagon. Fifty flash cards this morning before I left for work, and the same fifty right after I got back from work. I did well on the ones I'd missed this morning when I went through them this evening. Assuming that I'm able to keep this up for the next couple of days, I should be back in the habit, and be able to stay on the wagon. Next week, I hope to spend at least one evening working on some new flash cards to supplement the ones I already have, and another evening working through the first lesson in my textbook. More on that as it develops.
I've mentioned it before, and I'll probably have occasion to mention it again: I wouldn't be keeping up on this if it weren't for Chops and the blog to keep me honest. Thanks, Chops!
I've mentioned it before, and I'll probably have occasion to mention it again: I wouldn't be keeping up on this if it weren't for Chops and the blog to keep me honest. Thanks, Chops!
2009-02-10
Easy Day
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1195
Since I did my pushups and situps yesterday, I didn't have anything but knife drawing to work on today. I did my first 30 nice and easy. I mostly concentrated on drawing without first clearing my T-shirt out of the way with my left hand. This requires the draw to travel further away from my body, which I don't like, but I'm not always going to have that left hand free. It's more likely that my left will be busy keeping me from getting knocked out or stabbed, so I should probably worry more about being able to draw from under the shirt than keeping the right hand close to my body throughout the draw. It's something that I've been thinking about lately, and when I saw Southnarc's P'Kal demo video on YouTube, it seemed like he was concentrating more on getting a good engagement with the wave than on keeping that arm in tight. It makes sense - keeping that arm in isn't going to do you much good if you can't get the knife open.
For the second 30 reps, I did a slow draw and finished each one with a knife jab. The mechanics of it felt pretty good.
Today I hassled Rikalonius and remad about getting their reps in. This makes me feel dirty, like a manager. On the plus side, Rikalonius promised me he'd do 40 reps tonight. I may have to resort to nightly nag mail for those guys.
Since I did my pushups and situps yesterday, I didn't have anything but knife drawing to work on today. I did my first 30 nice and easy. I mostly concentrated on drawing without first clearing my T-shirt out of the way with my left hand. This requires the draw to travel further away from my body, which I don't like, but I'm not always going to have that left hand free. It's more likely that my left will be busy keeping me from getting knocked out or stabbed, so I should probably worry more about being able to draw from under the shirt than keeping the right hand close to my body throughout the draw. It's something that I've been thinking about lately, and when I saw Southnarc's P'Kal demo video on YouTube, it seemed like he was concentrating more on getting a good engagement with the wave than on keeping that arm in tight. It makes sense - keeping that arm in isn't going to do you much good if you can't get the knife open.
For the second 30 reps, I did a slow draw and finished each one with a knife jab. The mechanics of it felt pretty good.
Today I hassled Rikalonius and remad about getting their reps in. This makes me feel dirty, like a manager. On the plus side, Rikalonius promised me he'd do 40 reps tonight. I may have to resort to nightly nag mail for those guys.
2009-02-09
Somebody's got a case of the Mondays
Knife draw x 65, Grand Total: 1135
Pushups, day 2-1
Situps, day 2-1
Saturday I failed to get my third day for situps again, for the second week in a row. So I've decided to go ahead and do pushups and situps in the same day. And I still managed to exceed the minimums for my max sets (wow that sounds confusing) - but only barely, and with much effort.
For knife draws, I was watching TV, so I didn't bother getting close to the wall like last week, but I tried to pay close attention to how far my knife hand was from my body. It seemed pretty close. I did the last 5 (bonus draws, yay!) with a slowish draw into a knife jab. I still haven't broke down and bought the Reverse Edge Methods DVDs, but I did watch a YouTube clip by Southnarc where he shows the basic knife jab (he's demoing how to use the Spyderco P'Kal, which I want, badly), so I have a better understanding of the mechanics involved. On Saturday, I did go ahead and order the drone version of my pocketknife, so I'll be able to eventually get a little more aggressive with my training movements.
Pushups, day 2-1
Situps, day 2-1
Saturday I failed to get my third day for situps again, for the second week in a row. So I've decided to go ahead and do pushups and situps in the same day. And I still managed to exceed the minimums for my max sets (wow that sounds confusing) - but only barely, and with much effort.
For knife draws, I was watching TV, so I didn't bother getting close to the wall like last week, but I tried to pay close attention to how far my knife hand was from my body. It seemed pretty close. I did the last 5 (bonus draws, yay!) with a slowish draw into a knife jab. I still haven't broke down and bought the Reverse Edge Methods DVDs, but I did watch a YouTube clip by Southnarc where he shows the basic knife jab (he's demoing how to use the Spyderco P'Kal, which I want, badly), so I have a better understanding of the mechanics involved. On Saturday, I did go ahead and order the drone version of my pocketknife, so I'll be able to eventually get a little more aggressive with my training movements.
2009-02-06
Another week done
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1070
Pushups, day 1-3
Well, I've got situps tomorrow, but other than that, this week is over. I'm not as tired as last week, but I am pretty well beat.
Hephaestus, welcome to the G1 owners club.
Pushups, day 1-3
Well, I've got situps tomorrow, but other than that, this week is over. I'm not as tired as last week, but I am pretty well beat.
Hephaestus, welcome to the G1 owners club.
2009-02-05
10%
Knife draw x 60, Grand Total: 1010
Situps, day 1-2
Repeat performance of yesterday's knife work. I cozied up to a wall and did my draws into pikal. I broke the whole thing down into small pieces, so today actually took a little more time than yesterday.
It's kind of funny to me - I want to do more exciting stuff, like draw and jab at a tennis ball, or sprawl and draw, or draw during a punching combination, but I have to slow myself down. Spending a few days just breaking it down to basics and refining the movements seems too slow. I have to remind myself that I've got the rest of the year to work on the exciting stuff. Doing a couple hundred reps of very basic slow-mo draws is not wasted time.
The astute reader (if there are any readers at all) will note that today I passed the 1000 rep mark. That's 10% done. At this pace, it looks like I'll hit my 10k sometime in late September. I had only planned on doing 55 reps per day in January to make up for the first week and a half of the month, before I had this idea. But now I don't feel like slowing down to 40 per day. In fact, it makes sense to me to bump it up to 60/day. 60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, so I can break the day's reps down into smaller chunks if I want. I can do a mini session several times over the course of the day, or I can do each set while incorporating a different movement with the draw. When I get to lengthier movement chains toward the end of the year, I may drop the reps down a little, and raising them now will give me the headroom to do that.
Situps, day 1-2
Repeat performance of yesterday's knife work. I cozied up to a wall and did my draws into pikal. I broke the whole thing down into small pieces, so today actually took a little more time than yesterday.
It's kind of funny to me - I want to do more exciting stuff, like draw and jab at a tennis ball, or sprawl and draw, or draw during a punching combination, but I have to slow myself down. Spending a few days just breaking it down to basics and refining the movements seems too slow. I have to remind myself that I've got the rest of the year to work on the exciting stuff. Doing a couple hundred reps of very basic slow-mo draws is not wasted time.
The astute reader (if there are any readers at all) will note that today I passed the 1000 rep mark. That's 10% done. At this pace, it looks like I'll hit my 10k sometime in late September. I had only planned on doing 55 reps per day in January to make up for the first week and a half of the month, before I had this idea. But now I don't feel like slowing down to 40 per day. In fact, it makes sense to me to bump it up to 60/day. 60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, so I can break the day's reps down into smaller chunks if I want. I can do a mini session several times over the course of the day, or I can do each set while incorporating a different movement with the draw. When I get to lengthier movement chains toward the end of the year, I may drop the reps down a little, and raising them now will give me the headroom to do that.
2009-02-04
Lazy Ass
Knife draw x 55, Grand Total: 950
Pushups, day 1-2
For the knife work today, I decided to isolate the drawing motion. After watching the video I shot last night, I felt like the knife hand was moving too far away from my body. Not a lot, mind you, but now's the time to nip this in bud, not when I'm 9000 reps in. I tucked my shirt in so I wouldn't have to worry about clearing it with my left hand, and I stood next to the wall. This way, anytime my hand strayed too far, it hit the drywall. Which means that I stopped doing that pretty darn quick. I went really fast, just trying to groove the movement.
Pushups were, well, pushups. In case you haven't looked at the 100 pushups website, the program is mainly 5 sets of varying reps. Today's was 10-12-8-8-max. You're supposed to go to failure on the last set, but they have a minimum that you're supposed to hit. Today's was 12, and I hit 13. Not bad, but then I realized that I had beat Monday's minimum only by one pushup as well (min was 9, I got 10). I think I've hit on some sort of psychological laziness reflex. From now on, I'm going to tell myself that my min is actually 5 over the published min, in hopes I'll actually get it.
Is there anyone out there? Aside from a post from the Fly (and he's been on vacation), nobody else is posting anymore. I guess I'm not the only lazy one.
Pushups, day 1-2
For the knife work today, I decided to isolate the drawing motion. After watching the video I shot last night, I felt like the knife hand was moving too far away from my body. Not a lot, mind you, but now's the time to nip this in bud, not when I'm 9000 reps in. I tucked my shirt in so I wouldn't have to worry about clearing it with my left hand, and I stood next to the wall. This way, anytime my hand strayed too far, it hit the drywall. Which means that I stopped doing that pretty darn quick. I went really fast, just trying to groove the movement.
Pushups were, well, pushups. In case you haven't looked at the 100 pushups website, the program is mainly 5 sets of varying reps. Today's was 10-12-8-8-max. You're supposed to go to failure on the last set, but they have a minimum that you're supposed to hit. Today's was 12, and I hit 13. Not bad, but then I realized that I had beat Monday's minimum only by one pushup as well (min was 9, I got 10). I think I've hit on some sort of psychological laziness reflex. From now on, I'm going to tell myself that my min is actually 5 over the published min, in hopes I'll actually get it.
Is there anyone out there? Aside from a post from the Fly (and he's been on vacation), nobody else is posting anymore. I guess I'm not the only lazy one.
2009-02-03
Insert Witty Title Here
Knife draw x 65, Grand Total: 895
Situps, day 1-1
Today, after I did my 55 reps with the knife, I decided that I would break out the trusty Flip Video camera and shoot myself doing some drawing. I did 5 reps shot from profile, then 5 more shot from the front, so I could see the path my hand travels. I just gave them a quick watch to make sure that I was in-frame, and it didn't look too horrible. The first observation I had is that I am one tubby fat fuck. I don't know how those sausage fingers can manipulate the lock on the knife. The second observation is that my hand is initially pulling away from my body too much (which should be hard to do when your gut takes up as much space as mine). So now I'm going to work on keeping the draw close to my center.
I did all 65 today into pikal. Reps 15 - 55 included some sort of evasive movement, such as sidestepping, moving on the forward triangle, etc. My left arm did various things like vertical shield, horizontal shield, or passing an imaginary incoming knife.
All in all, good day.
Situps, day 1-1
Today, after I did my 55 reps with the knife, I decided that I would break out the trusty Flip Video camera and shoot myself doing some drawing. I did 5 reps shot from profile, then 5 more shot from the front, so I could see the path my hand travels. I just gave them a quick watch to make sure that I was in-frame, and it didn't look too horrible. The first observation I had is that I am one tubby fat fuck. I don't know how those sausage fingers can manipulate the lock on the knife. The second observation is that my hand is initially pulling away from my body too much (which should be hard to do when your gut takes up as much space as mine). So now I'm going to work on keeping the draw close to my center.
I did all 65 today into pikal. Reps 15 - 55 included some sort of evasive movement, such as sidestepping, moving on the forward triangle, etc. My left arm did various things like vertical shield, horizontal shield, or passing an imaginary incoming knife.
All in all, good day.
2009-02-02
Again? Seriously?
Knife draw x 55, Grand Total: 830
Pushups, 1-1
Yep, you read that right. I decided to go back and redo the 100 pushups workout from the beginning. I wasn't happy with how poor my form was last week, and the fact that I was barely finishing the last set didn't sit too well with me either. I'll start the situps over from the beginning tomorrow, too.
It turned out that I was getting sick, which is a partial reason for my tiredness last week. In fact, I've still got a sore throat and a bit of a cough. It was mighty tempting to let that be an excuse to not do my reps today, but I figure if I didn't get back on it today, then I never would.
Today's knife work consisted of 10 regular draws, followed by 10 draw and jab, then 25 draw into pikal, nice and slow. The last 10 were draw into pikal and jab. The mechanics of the pikal jab are a little different than a regular edge-forward reverse grip. I find that I end up hammering it slightly downward more than straight out. If I concentrate on straightening it out, I end up flaring my elbow away from my body. Food for thought. I suppose I need to get a hold of Southnarc's DVD's and see how the pros do it.
Welcome back Fly. I hope you had an enjoyable vacation.
Pushups, 1-1
Yep, you read that right. I decided to go back and redo the 100 pushups workout from the beginning. I wasn't happy with how poor my form was last week, and the fact that I was barely finishing the last set didn't sit too well with me either. I'll start the situps over from the beginning tomorrow, too.
It turned out that I was getting sick, which is a partial reason for my tiredness last week. In fact, I've still got a sore throat and a bit of a cough. It was mighty tempting to let that be an excuse to not do my reps today, but I figure if I didn't get back on it today, then I never would.
Today's knife work consisted of 10 regular draws, followed by 10 draw and jab, then 25 draw into pikal, nice and slow. The last 10 were draw into pikal and jab. The mechanics of the pikal jab are a little different than a regular edge-forward reverse grip. I find that I end up hammering it slightly downward more than straight out. If I concentrate on straightening it out, I end up flaring my elbow away from my body. Food for thought. I suppose I need to get a hold of Southnarc's DVD's and see how the pros do it.
Welcome back Fly. I hope you had an enjoyable vacation.
Back in the Saddle
So, I'm back from vacation, and I've touched my flash cards for a grand total of about ten minutes since I posted that mea culpa over a week ago. I have a bunch of things to do, and I'm tired as hell, but I'm going to hit the flash cards for at least a few minutes tonight, and maybe tomorrow morning if I can get my ass out of bed early. I obviously have some catching up to do, but the accountability will help.
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