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

[Mark E. Hurling]

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First day of Jujitsu camp. There were 20+ good but energetic kids who needed some real paint by numbers regimentation. A real hour of cat herding with a few promising possibilities. Maybe more if I can maintain their collective attention. We only got partway through one basic fall and a few of the white belt techniques. More tomorrow. I had Jacob as a crash dummy and one late teen student of the Karate guy to demonstrate with. Not without some fun for all.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Trained John this afternoon. It was a light break in session after his illness with weights at 40%-50%-60% of 1RM. He was enthused to get under the iron again.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Miserable night with left hand getting the needles and the right hand middle and ring finger aching, along with general aches from squatting. Gave up and got up at 0400. Into the Rec Center for a brief intense session with intervals of speed bag, heavy bag, and prowler. I got enough of my hate, shit and discontent ground lugged into the bags to be somewhat better company.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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Day 2 of Jujitsu camp. The Karate guy and the counselors were grinding hard on the kidlets about attention, behavior, and respect for the Jujitsu class. Which paid off, because they comported themselves much better today. Of course I ran them through structured punching, blocking, stepping drills which left them less time for goose-assing around. I had one of the Karate students acting as counselors too push me backward and then forward from behind to demonstrate why knowing how to fall is a good thing. It's one matter for a kidlet to pat the mat in a semi-crouched fall and it's another thing entirely to see and hear a resounding THUD! from a 220 or so adult doing a proper breakfall.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Bench Press: 7 singles with 205 and a back off set of 5 with 185.

Hammer High Row: 3 sets of 5 with 310.

Stretched.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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The heat had the kidlets stirred up like a nest of fire ants. Not as bad as Monday, but they were restless at intervals. In addition to review of other techniques and drills, I taught them how to use keys or knuckles or a flashlight on the back of hands gripping them in a rear bear hug, along with low kicks and foot stomps to the instep and shins. Then how to lever the head back of a frontal bear hug by using pressure under the nose as a fulcrum point. On to basic defensive position on the ground with arms crossed around the neck and one knee up to discourage an attempt to mount and choke. Altogether low key stuff so as not to heat them up any worse than they already were.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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This was beginner's night but since there are none now and Ken and Ethan showed up, we worked on blue belt 2nd degree techniques. Both of them are to the point now where they remember the rough outlines of the techniques I don't have to demonstrate them. Rather, just fine tune and correct the relatively minor flaws they exhibit as they execute them. They did reasonably well on all but a couple of the spinning techniques involving 360 degree turns pulling the attacker's wrists and/or shoulders in bad ways.

This was after a trip to the chiro to get my chassis realigned after squats. Now for some rest to regroup for tomorrow.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Some rounds of rower, speed bag, elliptical, medicine ball toss, heavy bag, and stretching.

Jacuzzed myself to a frazzle last night and this morning to quell the achy. Prepping for Jujitsu camp coming up shortly.

[Mark E. Hurling]

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It might be interesting to graph the behavior of the kids. Much better today with the heat index no longer 106 F. I taught them ground defense with side curl punches and kicks to fend off an incoming attacker if they got dumped on the deck. There was a question about group attacks. Short answer, don't linger, don't get grabbed and immobilized, keep moving, and better yet get out of the vicinity at the first sign of a gathering hostile group. Also, don't expect the car to be a safe fortress if being chased or threatened. Run and make noise to attract help and get to somewhere like a store with others there to aid you and discourage your attacker(s) or would-be captor(s).

They listened well and it was encouraging to think it might help them someday.

[57bergstrm]

Thats good advice for us all, thanks!