Life goes on

It's 2012 and the National Training Center of Lavallees, the change in years in heavily punctuated by discussions of goals. We were urged to finish 2011 strong and to celebrate our achievements. We were exhorted to start 2012 with SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-stamped) goals for 2012.

The school itself did some readjustments so that Kyoshi himself teaches classes many times a week and there is a renewed focus on intensity and foundation details.

Typical Street Scene in Placetas, Cuba Dec 2012

I completely buy into this process and went through the planning steps.  I have goals for my weight, increased flexibility, building my bugo skills, and getting my endurance up to where it should be.

Then, as happens with the best laid plans of mice and men, things went awry.  The trip to Cuba over the holidays  to visit relatives in their small town for a week was great in many ways but not for my training. My doctor finally got me to do a little procedure that men with my age and history should do (a colonoscopy) and that knocked me out for a few days.

Saturday, I was reaching for something (I think putting a dish in the dishwasher) and my back went into spasm.  At first, I thought it would pass in a few minutes. By mid-day,  I couldn't walk.  Now I'm deep into working with a chiropractor and trying to control the pain.  The next two weeks are looking really tough since I was supposed to travel but frankly, the way I'm feeling (and moving) right now, it doesn't make much sense for me to try to go to a trade show.

Of course, with a little luck, I might get the back straightened out and be back on the floor this week.Last year, I also had a back problem (I think it was February) that ended up costing me about a month of training.   Either way, happy new year to all and I'm looking forward to this year, whether the original plan works out or not.

Sparing, More Work on my Bugo

I'm interested in improving my bugo kumite.  This is my main goal this year. As it was last year. Frankly, I find improvements hard to make.  I'm hoping that by watching myself, I'll see and learn from my mistakes (and expand on any successes).  Frankly, I'd like to be more accomplished after all this practice but I still have trouble learning to relax and flow, to circle properly, and to string together combinations.  On the bright side, many of my really bad habits from a few years ago are mostly gone.  My notes after watching this video:

• I'm mostly moving the wrong way, I'm circling to my left but I should be going to my right.
• I should be attacking more, especially with combinations.  And I'm way too tense. RELAX!
• I need to be more dynamic with my shoulders, hands, head, and height constantly changing. I tend to only move my feet. And my footwork lacks those clever changes in angles.
• When attacked, I'm missing opportunities to hold my ground and counter. Or to just side step and counter. Instead, I'm retreating and shelling up.
• My defense is pretty good although I tend to block head kicks with my arms out instead of folded in against my head. Also, I'm overblocking and defending sometimes with both hands.
• Mr Vince, on the other hand, is looking very disciplined, quick, light on his feet and with a good variety of attacks.  He's definitely improved in the two years between these videos.  Well done.

Now here is an interesting detail. In 2009 (two years ago), I was also filmed in a training session with the same training partner. Comparing the two video clips is very interesting. What jumps out at me, frankly, is the huge improvements that Mr. Vince has made. He's faster, more varied is his attacks, and better in his defense. On the other hand, I show more consistency (as in its not clear that I've improved).  But now I'm really really motivated.




And I have a plan.  Every bugo match, come hell or high water, I will do these five things:

A. Circle 80% of the time to my right.
B. Throw each of these combinations at least once:
- Parry a jab down with my right, then  cross, left hook, right cross
- Jab, Cross, jab, front roundhouse
- Jab, left hook, right cross, left uppercut,exit to my right
- Jab, cross, left hook, 180 kick
C. Lots of Relaxed Movement: move shoulders, change height, move head, lean both ways and try starting with hooks. Concentrate on having some explosive speed and real deceptions.
D. Attack the body, not just up top.
E. Don't kick so much. Pace myself for all two minutes.

Daniellas Run

We've run Daniella's Run twice before. We noticed that it was not held last spring and we missed it (I only get out to one or two 5Ks per year).

So we were thrilled when Daniella's Run suddenly popped up again in the form of a team entered in the Live Strong, Live Long run at Gulf Stream Park this past Saturday.

Highlights were that Hunter F came along (since his family was off doing the Disney Half Marathon) along with Kate and David.

The weather was perfect and it was very cool running the last mile around the horse racing track. On the flip side, the track was a little mushy and until we figured out that we  were supposed to  run on this strip of hard packed-dirt, it was a bit of a slop through the mud.  None of us were running for time so its all good.

As background, this run has some emotional significance to us.   Daniella Folleco was a girl who went to school with my kids. We know the family. She had cancer and died. She was, and her mom is, a delight despite this terrible bad luck. The run commemorates her and to me, reminds me how incredibly lucky wePublish Post are to be healthy and all together. Her Mom was there thanking people for showing up. Other parents from the school were there running fund-raising booths.    I often remember the simple ditty:

The world is so full of wonderful things,
I think we should be as happy as kings.
(I just googled this: it was written by Robert Louis Stevenson who also wrote Treasure Island and Kidnapped)