4 of us today…

45 minutes work with Longsword, mainly worked from pflug plus a little work on duplerin (sp?)

2 rds shadow boxing
2 rds boxing
1 rd heavy bag
1 rd floor bag
1 rd focus gloves
2 rds freestyle footwork

We then threw on our jackets for sambo and did 2 rds of offbalance/grip work. We then worked on a few takedowns into submissions:
Low podhvat from a whizzer grip
Old mans throw into armbar
sambo single into Achilles lock

We ended our session with some fun work using the e-tool. Much of what we worked on with the shovel worked well with the knife so we switched back and forth using the same concept but a different weapon.

We started off with about 30 minutes of German longsword today. Mostly working the zornhau into the bind and what to do afterwards.

2 rds shadow boxing

After the shadow boxing we worked a two punch combination for long range using the casting method for power generation. First a long range jab without a step but with a cast and shoulder whirl action and a diagonal thumb down fist alignment followed by a long straight rear with a casting movement and a diagonal thumb down alignment. Wicked power on this combination. After getting the mechanics down we hit the heavy bag with it a few times then moved to the focus gloves to practice.

2 rds boxing

We then went into some counter clinch and grab work, mostly against the Thai plum grip but also one handed grips and grips are the arms. Main theme was to get them off balance even if you have to absorb some damage before being able to do so.

We ended the session with some entrenching tool work. Some empty hand defense against the shovel first(main idea, get a hand or hands on their shovel), followed by some work against a knife thrust both single handed defense and double handed grip defense.

Then we talked about liquor for roughly 30 minutes and called it a day.

Funny, if we don’t grapple, or do a huge number of rounds sparring, I don’t feel like I got a real good workout regardless of what we do. Sore shoulder sort of made no grappling be the rule of the day but hopefully that will not last much longer. After Mark Tripp seminar on Dec 5th I plan on going to the DR and getting checked out.

Copied from Bullshido:

December 5th 1PM to 5PM
AMERI-KAN JUDO DOJO
Findlay YMCA East Branch
1400 Manor Hill Road
Findlay, Ohio 45840

I hope we get a great turn out

Clinic Cost:

$30.00 if you send me a E mail before November 30th stating you are coming. I will need a list of people names that will be attending.

$50.00 after November 30th , If I dont have your name on my e Mail List

Send E mail to: markjudo@aol.com

Mark Hunter, Rokudan
Ameri-Kan Judo CEO

Saturday found me in Mechanicsville Maryland at Tim Anderson’s “Maryland Martial Arts”. I gave a 5 hour seminar to their fight team on leg locks, takedowns and takedowns into submissions from sambo. We also worked some casting punches for brutal ground and pound. We also touched a bit on savate since there was some interest in seeing just what it was like. A very good time was had by all, I hope, and I look forward to going back down in a few months to do it again.

Sundays session:
2 rds shadow boxing
2 rds boxing
1 rd floor GnP bag
2 rds footwork

We then broke out the longsword trainers and went over some basics and a few plays of Durchlaufen…not something we are heavily focusing on but a fun diversion from the constant punching and twisting of limbs. It is still great training but the variety is welcome.

We ended the session with some more entrenching tool work. Basically covering what we did last week and getting more comfortable with it. We worked lopatka vs knife a bit more this time around, getting used to intercepting the knife with the flat of the shovel rather than the edge. The edge is definitely more deadly but the flat of the shovel offers a much greater chance of successfully defending oneself against the attack that IMO it is vastly
superior. I will have to try and get a few clips of this filmed to share.

Only Justin and I today…

2 rds shadow boxing
2 rds focused boxing sparring
1 rds heavy bag
1 rd GnP floor bag
1 rds focus gloves

Next up…grappling/sambo
We went without jackets today and had a major focus on getting the toehold correct since I have some sort of mental block about it when rolling. We also did a two foot sweeps as well as two leg hook takedowns into kneebars.

Last up…e-tool or as the Russians call it ‘lopatka’ which is infinitely more fun to say that shovel. We worked the lopatka against some unarmed attacks, punches and kicks. We also worked some lopatka vs knife and lopatka vs lopatka. Even with a mighty dull edge and then taped I still got a cut on my hand. Nothing major but blood sells.

On a totally unrelated note…really enjoyed watching Fedor Emelianenko vs Brett Rogers on Strikeforce this weekend.  Good fights tend to get me fired up for training I think. Good thing we train on Sunday and most events are held on Saturday night.

Only Justin and I today…
2 rds shadow boxing
2 rds boxing sparring
1 rd savate sparring
1 rds heavy bag
1 rd GnP floor bag
1 rd focus mitts

We threw on our jackets next…
2 rds grip/off-balance work
2 rds gentle freestyle sambo (my shoulder is still screwed so Justin once again took it real easy with me.)
3 rds par terre (ground work) At least for this we were able to go pretty much full out, things move so much slower once the fight hits the ground. It looks like until my shoulder is up to snuff that we will be hitting on the ground work pretty hard.

I had some grand designs on doing some e-tool work but daylight savings time threw me for a loop and it got darker and hour earlier…and I forgot to put a light in our training area so we called it about 15 mins early.

Matt had ordered some Cold Steel longsword trainers, they came in, so this was our day to play with them.

It had been a while since any of us has actually worked on any German longsword material. I had been reading up on it for the past couple of months in prep for us starting. We did a quick review of some of the basics….the four wards, the basic cuts etc…

We then worked through a few plays from the bind into the grapple.

After the longsword we threw on our jackets for some sambo…

First off we worked on a throw which was an interesting variation on a thrown we have been doing since we started. I could not hope to put a name to this. We then went over a few variations on this variation:)

We ended the session with some ground work…the sambo switch and the double reversal. Both of these deal with single or double leg attempts that have gone horribly wrong.

I’ve added a library page for manuals, essays, etc…Nothing new there now, just some of the pieces from the old Geocities site for now. You may not have seen some of this for a while though so why not check out what I put up so far? Serbian wrestling, Parkyns, Wylde and Woodmans Pal.

Just Matt and I today and we are both on the injured reserve
list….so a definite need to take it kinda easy.

2 rds shadow boxing
3 rds sparring
2 rds freestyle footwork drills

We broke out the mountain axes and worked through all of the figure
eight motions that we use in both the right and left hand. Earlier
this week I took my CS Norse Hawk and replaced the short haft with a
sledge hammer handle that I had worked over a bit with a belt sander
giving it a more rectangular shape. I think the best CS hawk for this
conversion would probably be the small trail hawk.

We the took out the Lopatka or e-tool. Lopatka is the Russian name for
it and I think it lit means little shovel. We did a progressive drill,
e-tool vs bayonet, followed by the same type of idea against a knife.
We finished up with the e-tool held in more of an ice pick grip with
the blade along the forearm acting like a shield against the knife.

Pretty much a replay of last weeks session:

2 rds shadow boxing

2 rds sparring

1 rds GnP floor bag

1 rd heavy bag

1 rd focus gloves

2 rds freestyle footwork

We left out the grappling again this week, my shoulder is still sore and Matt is getting over a broken collarbone from a motorcycle accident. Instead we brought out the knives again and went over the drills we had worked on last week.

Basic one for one parry thrust drill and a matador style thrust from the Castillian guard. We geared up a bit and upped the intensity from last week. We ended the session with some work using the e-tool, we worked through the triple round strike that I use with the shillelagh.  Honestly this combination works great with any weapon…even very large two handed ones…and of course unarmed.