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

[Mark E. Hurling]

Didn't wake up in time to lift yesterday for one of those unaccountable nights that have 2-3 serial loops of strange dreams waking me up and thoroughly disrupting my sleep. So it got shifted to today.

5 minute warmup on the bike. (Medium Day)

Overhead Press: 180 x 5 x 5. 190 next week and then a shot at 225 for a single.

Dumbbell Row: 120 x 5 x 5. I added this to get some horizontal pulling back in my routine to balance a too pronounced bias toward pressing that I think hurt the delt.

Pinch Grip: 145 for 30 seconds PR! This has stalled for a while, but I'll see if this is the onset of another sustained run of progress.

Delt rehab followed by foam rolling and concluded by stretching.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Jujitsu last night had me leading the blue belt kids in a rear leg sweep that judo calls osoto gari. It's a very hard fall, so I told them to be sure to relax into it and tuck their chins on their chests. We teach this as a counter-attack from a roundhouse punch. You do an outer block, grab the arm and the shoulder and then step in behind them and take out their leg with something like a back kick, except the point of contact is hamstring to hamstring rather than foot to hamstring. They were having a hard time not bouncing their foot off the mat which cuts the effectiveness in half.

Leading the warmups in the adult class I mentioned that some of them were toppling like redwoods doing the front falls instead of letting their knees bend and moving laterally forward. This prompted some questions about how the hands are supposed to hit the mat from a purple belt and how the knees are kept off the mat by a blue belt. Pretty surprising that they needed some correction on this but better that than they should get hurt. I was being used as crash dummy for demonstrating basic escape techniques with some variations. Normally we teach these to white belts with a step in toward the person grabbing them to increase the leverage and a wrist turn into an elbow pry/strike to effect a release. Followed up by a back fist or elbow strike. In the variations he demonstrated last night the lead in was with a strike. I got tagged in the balls several times. Not too hard but enough to be unpleasant. This of course always makes for lots of groans of sympathy and a few snickers of amusement. One of the other techniques he used me to show was a foward roll to escape from an arm bar. Given the precarious state of my right delt, I was a little slow in the execution just to be on the safe side.

I did a GXP this morning on the cross country ski elliptical followed by some delt rehab and foam rolling and stretches.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

I got tagged in the balls several times.

Even with a cup, a kick to the nuts is a wake-up call. You guys do wear a cup. Right?

Many, many years ago, at the end of my red belt test, the Grand Master called our instructor onto the floor for some sparring to finish off the day's festivities. The younger man was quicker and more agile, his kicks much prettier, but Kwang Jang Nim was experienced and wily, and let the instructor wear himself out trying to catch him. Finally, the instructor threw an outside-inside crescent kick, followed by a spinning crescent. Very beautiful. Or it would have been, if the Grand Master hadn't ducked the first kick and, on the second, executed a sudden back breakfall, drove his foot straight up, caught the instructor in the groin, lifted him up by his balls and tossed him to one side. It was one of the most extraordinary things I have ever seen.

"Hope you were wearing a cup, sir!" somebody said. Our instructor nodded sheepishly.

"Oh, yes, he's wearing a cup," the Grand Master said, rising to his feet, grinning like the demon he is. "I felt it."

[Mark E. Hurling]

I've learned that it doesn't help all that much to wear a cup. Knee kicks, ridge hand strikes and hammer fist downstrikes still drive the plastic back and into the pelvis so damn hard it just compresses them together like Moe clunking Larry and Curly's heads. I still get the same sickening sensation south of the border with or without the cup.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

I still get the same sickening sensation south of the border with or without the cup.

Now I'm wondering if you're the kind of cop who doesn't like to wear his vest. My blessing is upon you, my friend: may all your parries be timely, and may you never suffer a ruptured testicle.

[Oldster]

Overhead Press: 180 x 5 x 5. 190 next week and then a shot at 225 for a single.

I can't wait!

[Greg C]

I've learned that it doesn't help all that much to wear a cup. Knee kicks, ridge hand strikes and hammer fist downstrikes still drive the plastic back and into the pelvis so damn hard it just compresses them together like Moe clunking Larry and Curly's heads. I still get the same sickening sensation south of the border with or without the cup.

Right. But, if you took a shot like Sully described you'd have to wear loose sweats for a day and ice to recover (and maybe deal with a rupture, now I consider it further). With a cup, a shot like that is maybe a little gagging and some sweat, and then it's over. No lasting ill effects. And for the younger folk considering future use of those ornaments, that's a fair price of admission.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Those are good points from both of you. I do believe I'll get on the ball with this. Even though I'm probably firing blanks these days.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

I do believe I'll get on the ball with this.

This pleases me, sir.

[tertius]

Those are good points from both of you. I do believe I'll get on the ball with this. Even though I'm probably firing blanks these days.

As it were.

My only regrets about doing mostly Taiji and related arts is that I never learned to roll out and do breakfalls properly.