Most of the time I cant figure out why everyone does not train. I mean there are health benefits, it is a great way to meet amazing people from a broad range of backgrounds, and you get increased confidence in being able protect yourself and your loved ones. Then I see a picture like this and it hits me – most of the time we are training we do kind of look ridiculous.
In this picture we were screwing around working on techniques off of a leg bar. Mr Sellon has longer legs than I do and gets this sweet hook with his inside leg and then proceeds to do his best to prevent me from being able to father children. Ever. That or he is practicing for thanks giving and making a wish.
It seems I can counter if I pop his hooking foot, and then spinning out, but wit the ankle lock on it makes timing tricky. In the real world he would break my ankle before I pulled off the counter. I think I need to ask Sensei how to get out of this one.
So normally when I think of leg locks I either am thinking of an Achilles lock or an ankle lock. Last Wednesday’s class was a little weird at the end. One of the brown belts showed the 3-sided choke, and that lead to a round of “have you seen this one”. Well we started in an arm bars and Sensei showed a leg bar – which is just weird – you basically end up with your weight on your shoulders and your chin buried in your navel.
Sensei did not teach the move – just showed us (on me) twice. However I think this is what was happening. It felt like he stepped over my leg, hooked the ankle and sat back pretty much like you would setting an arm bar. Just like you need to be careful sitting into the technique with an arm bar so you don’t blow the elbow, Sensei was similarly carful to keep things loose enough while sitting into so he did not blow my knee. He could have easily torqued against my knee and blown it any time he wanted to, but the bar seems to be a pin pulling straight down the V formed by your thighs. The result is stacking the pinned person on their shoulders.
Wednesday I nearly didn’t train. It is not my regular night, I just went to the dojo since I needed to clear out the cobwebs. It turned out to be an amazing night. It was just sensei and three of us training – so lots of 1 on 1 training time.
One of the people there showed this cool choke I had not seen before.
You start working up a collar. In the picture you grab with the lower right hand and slide the left hand up the collar. Then bring the right hand up. This leads into a bunch of things. This choke is used if the person on top bobs their head down, which if they are posting to pin the person on ground is not too uncommon. The choke gets set when the person on bottom, without letting go, pops their top hand over the head. This crosses the arms setting up the scissor choke.
Sensei pointed out that it is fairly easy to counter the setup for this choke by just pressing into the shoulder. I drew the picture with the top person pinning with their forearm – but seisei showed the counter with the left hand of the top person pressing into the GH joint of the shoulder.
So on the way out the door I looked up from the water cooler and saw this – pretty much sums it up. The person in the picture is Sensei Robles, the plastic box is the first aid kit – which was out like the ibuprofen and aspirin, because it had been used.
I think one of the weirdest parts of going to the dojo is that from the moment you step in the door you senses start winding up. When you first walk in the door it is just like walking in any room with some muffled noise coming from the next room. Then some time before getting both your shoes off you realize it is positively noisy.
The muted noise from the next room has become a bunch of distinct noises; a regular thump – thump – thump coming from someone working the heavy bag, the shuffle of sliding feet from practicing Kata, and the especially distinctive noises of people sparring. People moving, falling, dodging, and striking – they all make distinctive noises. From the moment you walk into your brain starts pulling the initial swirl of noise into its distinctive and components.
Meaningful training requires being able to put the rest of your life and the outside world aside while you train. It is difficult at first, but the longer you train the easier it is to put the rest of your life on a shelf while you train. Eventually when you walk into the dojo you just automatically start shifting gears and getting ready to train. Before you hit the mat training is all you are thinking about – at least on the good days.
Today it just hit me, this bizarre combination – just as my senses were revving up and the number of inputs my brain was starting to track was exploding – my overall clarity was increasing.I only had a moment where I could observe the whole process from the outside – but it hit me with almost physical force.
It is the kind of thing that makes me sad that so few people train in any kind of martial arts. It is an amazing experience.
So after two years I finally tested for my green belt. It probably didn’t hurt that somehow Sensai’s polite suggestion of “You should be at the test this saturday” had apparently become “Be at the test this saturday – or else”. Ok. I added the “or else” part but I think it was fairly implicit from his tone and the look. So, yeah, I made sure I was at the test. Apparently Mr Moran was walking arround taking pictures, and posted them online. Nice of him – but it was weird – he must have been invisible for most of the test becuase I hardly noticed he was there at all. Then again – I guess that is a requirement for a good photographer.
So first, Mr Koons is officially the worst dance partner ever!
On some of the throws he did work in a sweet joint lock on the elbow. I think it was an accident but I am going to certainly want to go back and look at that technique later when I have more control with my Karate.
So the danger of working out of your garage and interacting with people over the phone and the net? Well if you are not careful you can end up looking like me in these pictures. Grizzly Adams gone wrong.
This picture made be immediatly go home and shave!
Only got the first 10 moves or so of this kata the other night at the dojo. Since I am about the slowest person at the dojo for learning kata I am going to start keeping notes. It should also help capture the subtle comments that sensei only makes every once in a while.
I got to try some ground work with Sensai Robles on tusday night. He hurt his neck and was wearing a t-shirt. This was eye opening as it meant there was no collar on his garment to grab onto. So collar chokes were out. Turns out chokes and strangles are most of my ground work which was an interesting discovery in and of itself and definitely something I need to work on. Since I had nothing to work with on above the wast I kept trying to get Sensai with a figure four ankle lock. Apparently I did a comical job of it because when we were done Sensai though I was trying for the achilles lock. He was giving me the benefit of the doubt – the Achilles Lock is a much better technique to go for from the position I kept working from.
The Achilles Lock is an ankle lock where the Radius of Nage’s arm is driven into the Achilles tendon of Uke. The technique is shown below from a seated position – but it looks like this technique can also be used from a standing position.
The figure below shows the bones and muscles of the lower leg. The Achilles tendon connects the calf muscles to the Calcaneus or heal bone. It sits behind the tibia.
Achilles tendon and bones of the lower leg
Once Nage positions the radius of his forearm on the achilles tendon of Uke, he sets the technique by arching his back away from Uke. The set is similar in this respect to a seated arm bar. I need to talk to Sensai and ask him to show me ways to setup this technique – I tried this out on two different people at the dojo but just could not get into position to throw the technique.
Achilles Lock
The achilles tendon connects to one of the strongest muscle groups in the body. It can apparently take 2-12 times the persons body weight when running or jumping. That stress is translated along the length of the leg. Two common achilles injuries are when the achilles stretches or snaps. Since this technique applies force orthogonally to the tendon I am forced to wonder how likely it is to cause achilles injury when applied. If not a snap – certainly a stressing or strain.
Sensai taught this technique last thursday (May 28th) – unfortunately I did not write it down right away and now that I sat down to capture it the details are fuzzy. The technique is a reversal, starting from a bottom position nage escapes the mount and puts uke in an arm-bar. The figure shows Nage putting an arm bar on Uke’s right hand
Reversal from a bottom mounted position into an arm-bar
Step one
To start the technique Nage captures Uke’s right hand – immobilizing it on his chest with his left hand. If Uke is setting up Nage for a technique that starts with a lapel grab – like a deep collar choke – that lapel grab sets up Uke for the technique. So this technique should make for a counter.
As part of setting the escape up Nage makes sure the leg on the side he is arm baring is on Uke’s hip or higher. So if Nage is arm-barring Uke’s right arm then Nage’s right leg is on Uke’s left hip as shown in the figure.
Step two and three
Nage wants to rotate under Uke. Nage does a hip out under Uke. At the same time Nage hooks Uke’s inner thigh with his right hand. This hook lets Nage spin under Uke as opposed to the escaping movement a normal hip out would cause.
Step four
Nage raises his outer leg and hooks it over Uke’s neck. Since Nage still has Uke’s arm immobilized Uke is basically a tripod and unstable. So with Uke’s head hooked Nage can flip Uke over onto his back with just the leg hook.
Step five
Uke’s shoulder and torso should be touching Nage’s rear, if it is not Nage may have to slide his body forward. Uke’s arm runs through Nage’s groin with Uke’s upper arm resting on Nage’s pelvic bone. Nage’s hip forms the base of a fulcrum formed by Uke’s arm so it is important that the arm is resting on the hip bone and prevented from moving side to side by being sandwiched between Nage’s Legs. Nage sets the technique by arching his hips into the technique – this applies force on the joints using Uke’s arm as a leaver.
The seated arm bar is a joint technique executed on both the shoulder complex and elbow. So the arm needs to be straight so the technique locks out both the elbow joint as well as the shoulder.
