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

[Mark E. Hurling]

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Sadly, I no-showed once again. Looks like his complicated backstory and school was all too much for him, G-ma, or both.

But K, the 1st degree blue belt showed. So we worked on his techniques for that rank. He's coming along, although I have to remind him of remembering to and the importance of stepping and turning. It paid off, because after some coaching on the first 5 techniques, he executed a perfect neck compression take down. This is the most complex technique he has seen so far. It involves a turn, encircling both arms from a long arm rear choke. This requires a step backward and pivot to the right capturing the arms with a vicious left vertical fist to the liver. Then, bulldogging the neck just under the mastoid and turning his head 90 degrees into your upper shoulder. The entire spinal column becomes corkscrewed from the skull to the pelvis and their balance is destroyed. Not to mention the fear it induces as their neck starts to feel the strain of gravity and torque applied to it. Because then, you step backward and to left while pivoting clockwise and bowing. Taking them down and maybe breaking their neck if they resist too hard. Also maybe breaking their skull if they fall badly.

He executed it flawlessly.

Average HR was 123 bpm @ 79% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The reset continues with a trip down Bro Lane.

Lateral Raises: 115 for 3 sets of 8.

Rope Handle Triceps Pressdown: 180 for 3 sets of 8.

Rope Handle Hammer Curls: 180 for 3 sets of 8.

Stretched and foam roller.

Average HR was 117 bpm @ 77% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Today was going to be some full body cardio, or maybe a ride on the Dark Lady. She's feeling neglected, but the heat and rain have kept me away. But, my left foot got one of those mysterious attacks of the gimps along with some lower back tightness from some evening duties around the house moving things around.

So, upper body only today. Speed bag, medicine ball toss, SciFit and rower arms only. Stretched.

Average HR was 130 bpm @ 84% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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The foot held up well during Jujitsu tonight. K and E showed and I reviewed a technique K asked about on Wednesday night. What to do about someone who chest bumps you during the opening rounds of the Monkey Dance. My advice then was put a knee in his balls or fingers in the throat notch under the trachea and above the sternum. On reflection over the next couple of days, I realized that I was advising an unwarranted escalation of a non harmful, albeit non-benign threat display.

So what to do? Very simple, once I discarded my first take on it. When someone chest bumps you, their pelvis thrusts forward and they present their balls as some low hanging fruit to take advantage of. More on that gift later. The wanna-be alpha steps forward and presents chest and the defender steps backward with one foot while pivoting on the other. It sets up a strong stance at a right angle to the direction of the force being projected. The defender has at this point made no counterattack, and in fact appears to have yielded ground. This can be important if and when the criminal justice system deconstructs who was the aggressor. In point of fact, the defender is in a perfect position with several options. A benign looking hip or shoulder check is easy to deploy and the defender is nigh impossible to move backward. The hip check is very hard to spot and the side of the defender's pelvis aligns with the attacker's boys, down low. If the attacker elects to bring some hands into the fray, the defender is better positioned to counter.

From there, we worked on that rank's techniques. E has been busy being a high school freshman and was a little rusty, but came up to speed well enough.

At the end, I proposed that we all step off into the deep end of the pool. This week, I began thinking about applying self defense to the protection of others. So I had E grab K's lapel. Then, as a bystander, I simply grabbed E's wrist and twisted it counterclockwise with my right hand, while bringing up my left hand and forearm against his elbow into a really strong ulna press arm bar and face plant take down. I had intended to try several of these, but timed it wrong and had to stop with the one. Great night.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I been dosing up on the Vitamin I to bring down the foot inflammation and it's down to maybe 10% remaining. That said, I didn't want to chance loading it too heavily with hip belt squats.

So, more reset:

Incline Press: 165 for 3 sets of 5.

Hammer High Row: 290 for 3 sets of 5.

Stretched and foam rolled.

Average HR was 116 bpm @ 75% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Round #2 of another jury duty call left me irritable.

So, into the gym for cathartic series of hitting the various and sundry bags at the Rec Center. Rounds of speed bag, round bag, and long bag using sweeps, knee strikes, along with low kicks and stomps.

Average HR was 125 bpm @ 81% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Push Press: 145 for 3 sets of 3.

High Pulls From Blocks: 180 for 3 sets of 3.

Stretched.

Average HR was 115 bpm @ 75% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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K showed, a little late, and then a guy he had been talking about E showed a little later than that as a newbie. E has a little bit of a background in martial arts having done tae kwon do and Kung Fu before. I had K start teaching E to get him back in the groove. K hasn't had a lot of practice teaching, so I thought it would be good for him. Tonight was a lot of coaching the coach along with a fair amount of teaching interventions.

E picked up some of the stepping pretty quickly. Faster than I did at the start. His Kung Fu background must have had some good effects. Or maybe he's a natural. We'll see.

Average HR was 104 bpm @ 67% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Today was a random selection of rounds of SciFit, medicine ball toss, rower, handball, side bends, and stretching.

Average HR was 128 bpm @ 82% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Visited the Bro cul-de-sac this morning.

Lateral Raise: 120 for 3 sets of 8.

Rope Handle Pressdowns: 190 for 3 sets of 8.

Rope Handle Hammer Curls: 190 for 3 sets of 8.

Stretched.

Average HR was 120 bpm @ 78% of MHR.