Geezer's Long March Toward the Elite Sneaking Up On the Finish Line

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

5 minutes warmup on the bike (3's week)

Standing Overhead Press: Sets of 3, 110-125. Set of 6, 140.

Barbell Row: Sets of 3, 165-195. Set of 6, 215.

Claw Grip: 2 sets of 5 with 220 lbs.

Some stretching concentrating on the shoulders and lower back and hamstrings.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248

In and out fast with a GXP where I got paged in the last minute and then hustled into work for the crisis du jour.

[Gwyn Brookes]

These two distinctions (if in fact they are distinctions) are probably the only differences in our approach at the dojo. I'm not entirely sure I follow the difference between what you are calling an atemi and a strike. I have seen those words used interchangeably so perhaps you mean something slightly different because of a two finger thrust to the throat notch or the eyes. But other than that it tracks right along. The dojo doesn't deal with the sexual aspects of a ground attack, but as you know, I've given some thought and adaptations to this in my own draft that may eventually see the light of day. And thanks again for giving that an unbiased review earlier.

I wasn't being very clear with language there. All of the atemi I refer to can be used both as a pressure point and as a strike. In the context of a basic self-defense class, we teach them only as pressure points, so the damage is easier to control.

The strikes we teach are palm heel, hammerfist and elbow strike. The knee to groin technically comes under the heading of striking and is taught there, the "pressure point" we teach for groin is a slap or a grab and twist.

I don't think that most people think of strikes as more difficult to control, but I actually see them as a higher level of response than, say, a front choke. I have seen too many news stories where two guys are throwing punches, and then one takes a punch funny, falls and hits his head and dies. Or, you put everything you have into your best and fastest right hook, and Mr. No-Neck just shakes it off. So we teach students to use a flurry of strikes if they have to strike, but striking is reserved for responding to higher level-of-intent attacks.

[Oldster]

Man, I ended up with a black eye and bruised ribs just from reading the exchanges between MEH and Gwynn!

I just gotta get quicker so I can sprint my long thin and willowy body from people like these two!

[Mark E. Hurling]

I wasn't being very clear with language there. All of the atemi I refer to can be used both as a pressure point and as a strike. In the context of a basic self-defense class, we teach them only as pressure points, so the damage is easier to control.

The strikes we teach are palm heel, hammerfist and elbow strike. The knee to groin technically comes under the heading of striking and is taught there, the "pressure point" we teach for groin is a slap or a grab and twist.

I don't think that most people think of strikes as more difficult to control, but I actually see them as a higher level of response than, say, a front choke. I have seen too many news stories where two guys are throwing punches, and then one takes a punch funny, falls and hits his head and dies. Or, you put everything you have into your best and fastest right hook, and Mr. No-Neck just shakes it off. So we teach students to use a flurry of strikes if they have to strike, but striking is reserved for responding to higher level-of-intent attacks.

Got it now. Thanks. We talk a lot about punches to the head being a good way to break your hand too and so encourage the same as you and yours. A minor difference is the low and high ridge hand. Low for groin strikes and high for neck strikes. I used to spar with a kempo guy years ago who used a groin slap and wearing a cup didn't really help a bit when he'd tag me with one. Which was most of the time. Those damn things are hard to see coming and hard to block or get away from until you learn an inward bow stance. Which I didn't learn until I took up mushin ryu.

[Gwyn Brookes]

I used to spar with a kempo guy years ago who used a groin slap and wearing a cup didn't really help a bit when he'd tag me with one.

I did not know that could be an issue. We try to get male-bodied baddies, but when we can't, I sometimes do the job myself. I do have to wear a cup, but getting hit in the groin with a cup and being female, it seems like nothing can get through there. I guess that's not entirely true! A funny thing happened in one class, the student grabbed the baddy's cup, pulled it away from his body and let it snap back into his groin. We have since asked students to not do that, although it can be hard to know what you are doing for some when they experience fighting in an adrenalized state.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Oh yeah. The compressive factor on the ballistics can be pretty bad when it's a solid shot. The protective gear saves the effect of a direct hit, but when the tissue shock absorbers are all done doing their job, the plastic containment structure is very unforgiving and unaccommodating.

[hbriem]

Ah groin cups. I did karate for 12 years and once an instructor was using me to demo a knee to the groin. I was wearing a groin cup at the time, the old fashioned kind that doesn't go back under the crotch, just lies there down the front of the jockstrap. He did the knee in ultra slow motion, but as chance would have it, caught the cup going up and sloooowly dragged it up my belly, uhm, pulling my junk along with it. It felt as if it was at chest level before it popped out, but perhaps that was a subjective feeling at the time ;-)

I took a lot of groin shots in my time, but that slow-motion one was the second worst I've ever had.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 248.5

Bench Press: Sets of 3, 180-205. Set of 4, 230

Power Snatch: 3 sets of 3 with 115. Ugly as all git-out this morning.

Stretching of lower back, hamstrings, and shoulders. I went to She of the Magic Hands, Dr. Laura yesterday and was waay out of whack. I told her about my shoulders and then mentioned maybe it was dips. She adjusted my sternum and clavicles and the shoulders both feel oh so much better, thank you very much. Right now swamping my way through a day that reminds me of nothing so much as those poor nurses trying to triage the wounded, dead, and dying in the movie Pearl Harbor just now. I can actually feel my blood pressure spiking in the external veins of my cranium.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 247

Bad news/good news today. No jujitsu with the dojo tented by the building owner exterminators. But I went to the gym and managed to pull off a running GXP without my knee giving out on me. It's been risky to try this since February when my knee expressed great displeasure with me. But all went well. Tomorrow will tell though when I do squats.