Plyometrics as "The Best Exercise For Healthy Bones"

According to Gretchen Reynolds of The New York Times, a recent publication in the American Journal of Medicine claims that plyometrics is proven to be great bone-strengthening exercise.

Coordination is one basic dimension of fitness that comes in handy as well; especially if three people hope to clear a tandem jump (as pictured above) with any success!  It comes in handy too if you care to execute a flurry of successive blocks and strikes in defending against a spirited attack.

Grappling - Head and Arm Position

Being in the head and arm isn't the best place to be but like all things martial - there is a counter.

If someone catches you in this position, try turning their head away with your free arm (in the photo, the left arm).  Once you manage to create some space, use your outside leg (again, in the photo you can see the left leg lifting up) to hook over their turned head.  With that done, push down with the leg.  If you do it just right, you can slide right into an arm bar - and even if that doesn't work - you've gotten out of a crummy position.

For the person on top, the position is neat because you can often get a tap out of your partner simply by raising up on their neck and crunching down into their ribs.  If that doesn't work to a tap, you can use it as a distraction and go for the arm bar using your legs.  Nothing says fancy like making somebody tap without using your hands.

*Upcoming Event* Mo Duk Pai Kung Fu All-System Workout

This week we have expanded the Kung Fu floor by 10 mats, and added two new ginormous mirrors which makes for a wider, more colorful floor, and brightens and opens things up quite a bit! But as large as our facility is... we're "gonna need a bigger boat" [JAWS 1975] for the following event:

Next Thursday, December 10th marks another Mo Duk Pai All-System Workout with founder, Professor Frederic D. King. All students of all Mo DukPai Schools are invited and encouraged to participate in the holiday festivities.

The event will be held at the spacious The Academy of Kung Fu in SE Portland; attendees are encouraged to bring gear and be prepared to sweat!

Tabata Bag Work

The Tabata protocol in a Nutshell:
20 seconds of work
10 seconds of rest
 Repeat 8 times for a total of 4 minutes.

The notion:
Work as hard as you can for each of the 20 seconds.  It should be your maximal effort.

Originally, the protocol was designed for speed skaters and done on stationary bikes.  While we're not building speed skaters or riding a bike, I think punching the bag is way more fun.  Sure, it may not deliver scientific fitness but it'll get you on the road to hitting with proper alignment.

Doing Laundry

Functional fitness - what's that?  Does that mean you learn how to put your dirty clothes in the dryer?

Yes.

It means if you happen to be lifting a 40 pound comforter into a stacking dryer unit then you better know how to do a clean properly.

And if you don't?  Well then you just threw out your back doing laundry.

Now why do push ups after the cleans?  Well, because you've got to pass the time while that beast of a load dries.

Here at Westside AKF, we're all about the practical.

Standing Rear Naked Choke

In this short video, Greg and I demo the rear naked choke from a standing position.

To enter, you've got to loosen up your partner somehow.  Here, I've done a groin shot - but the possibilities are endless.  Whatever you do, it's got to give you enough time to get to their back.  Once your there, slip one arm around your partner's neck.  Put the front of their neck right in the crook of that elbow (in the video, Greg is awfully generous in the placement of his neck).  Grab the bicep of the other arm with the choking hand.  Now take your free hand and grab the back of the head.  As with all submission moves, less space for them to squirm = better.

Now slowly (because you like your partner), squeeze your arms while you press forward on the back of their head and pull back on their throat.  If they are taller than you then kick them in the back of the knee to bring them down.

The escape that Greg demonstrates is one of many possibilities.  As soon as you feel that arm slide around your neck, grab at the elbow pit with your close hand and pull!  Create some space so you can breathe.  From there, turn towards the bicep and keep turning.  Climb the arm like a rope.  This escape is by no means foolproof.  Every move has a counter to infinity.  Play (safely, of course) and see for yourself.

Hands Up

I told both our outreach groups today (Capitol Hill Elementary and Robert Grey Middle School) that if they take only one thing away from their two months of training it should be "keep your hands up".

Why would that be the one thing I want students to learn?  Perhaps it's because that is the thing I find myself saying the most to students of all ages.  Perhaps it's extremely important to protect your head in a self defense situation.  Perhaps I just wanted to be dramatic and have a moral at then ending of my story.

If it is the first reason, then I need to find more effective ways to communicate the idea.  Simply saying "hands up" over and over isn't enough.  That's what the windmill drill is for.  One student swings their arms back and forth while the other tries to move in and out while throwing strikes.  It's not easy, even at a slow speed and getting hit in the head once is the only reminder students need to protect themselves.

As for the other two reasons, I'll save those for another day.