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 relaxing and flowing. I can't seem to circle properly and I rarely 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.

I thought I'd add this video that I just found. It's not really bugo but it's one of my favorite old drills, it's half speed boxing.

Daniellas Run

We've run Daniella's Run 5K twice before. We noticed that it was not held last spring and we missed it.

So we were thrilled when Daniella's Run suddenly popped up again. Instead of being a stand-alone run, it was part of the  Live Strong, Live Long run at Gulf Stream Park this past Saturday.

A highlights was that Hunter F came along with Kate and David: his family was off doing the Disney Half Marathon.

The weather was perfect. It was very cool running the last mile around the horse racing track. On the flip side, the track was mushy and at first, we didn't know to stay on the narrow strip of hard packed-dirt. Instead, we slogged through with our feet gathering a heavy cake of mud with each step.  Since none of us were running for time, it didn't matter. As they say, it's 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 we are to be healthy and all together. Daniella's Mom was there thanking people for showing up. Other parents from the school were there running fund-raising booths. It made me think of this old 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)