Way to the TKDI EC 2012, Part IX

The [European Championships] are closing in with huge steps. Still, there’s some work to be done until then…

Wednesday was rather harcore in terms of training volume, so yesterday I took it rather easy. Before teaching in the afternoon, I did 10 three-minute rounds of shadow-sparring. As always, I set technical goals for most of the rounds. Since I’m going to compete in a TKD tournament I heavily focussed on kicking. Hence, my schedule looked like the following:

1. Stepping only
2. Straight punches
3. Front kicks, all variations
4. Roundhouse kicks, all variations
5. Side kicks, all variations
6. Hook kicks, all variations
7.  Axe kicks, all variations
8. Turning back kicks, all variations
9. Reverse turning kicks, all variations
10. Tornado kicks 

That gets the heart pumping, you can trust me on that.

Today’s technique session looked pretty much like yesterday’s, with just a couple of changes. First, I did two-minute rounds instead of three-minute ones. The notion behind that was that after my technique session, I hit the gym for some S&C training, so completely burning out in the first session wouldn’t have been that smart. Now one could argue that two weeks prior to a fight, specific skill training is far more important than gym time. Still, I feel more prone to injury when I neglect my strength training. I absolutely don’t need to get injured right now. Also, burning some glycogen while tossing around weights definitely helps me with my weight.

Anyhow, back to the first session, I did the following ten rounds:

1. Stepping only
2. Straight punches
3. Front kicks, all variations
4. Roundhouse kicks, all variations
5. Side kicks, all variations
6. Hook kicks, all variations
7. Axe kicks, all variations
8. Turning back kicks, all variations
9. Free shadow sparring
10. Free shadow sparring

Immediately after the technique session, I did my 5/3/1 deload workout. On the menu were bench presses as well as cleans & jerks. Although my [last 5/3/1 session] on wednesday was brutal, I decided to organize things just like then because that form of training is so damn time-efficient. You see, despite being a strong believer in the importance of S&C training I’m not keen on spending all day in the gym. Hence, I set my timer on three minute rounds with a one minute break in between rounds and got to work. During each round, I performed five reps of the bench press and five reps of the C&J. Since the C&J is a pretty long exercise already (in terms of the duration of a single rep), I decided against doing any form of [imitation complex]. On the other hand, I did 5 rounds instead of the prescribed 3. As I mentioned in [my last post], I have a new camera – now I really planned on putting up some video footage, but all of the material is totally useless. Need to work on my skills as a camera operator…

After training, I first spent some time in the sauna to relax, then I went home and had a great low-carb-high-fat-high-protein meal. By the way, I’m currently reading the book „Das Kohlenhydrat-Kartell“ by Clifford Opoku-Afari. You can find the book [on amazon]. If you’re interested in an easy-to-read (yet scientifically properly backed-up) book on nutrition, you should get a copy. It’s worth the time and money.

Tomorrow, I’ll take my new camera to the dojo and take some video footage of the advanced Shinergy class, so stay tuned!

So long,

take care