Boxing, Kickboxing and Thai Boxing fundanentals. We train with gloves, focus mitts, speed bags, heavy bags, Thai Pads and sparring. We combine this with high intensity training using functional movements from gymnastics and weightlifting. Located in Plainfield, Illinois. Check here for out current schedule, next practice time will be listed below. We are a free club. Come join us! You can contact me by email under the "About Me" tab.
Just in case you are wondering: we are still here working every week even though I haven't posted for a while.
I had hoped to have some new videos up but my heavy bag mount snapped of the ceiling yet again a few weeks ago. Since this is at least the third time in the past year that it has come down (no injuries this time or in the past) I decided to do some research on the subject (never having had this problem before). It's been very aggravating not having a bag up since it has limited my solo training to the shadow boxing, slip line and maize bag. Training others I've concentrated on the focus mitt's and thai pads, which has been a lot of fun.
Tomorrow, Satuday, I'm getting the bags back up. As a result of my research I've decided to hang the heavier bag using the mount pictured above with some additions. The first is attaching a heavy spring to absorb shock, something I've meant to do in the past. The second is to use a 3 foot 2X4 attached to 3 ceiling joists and attaching the mount to that to distribut the weight and shock. I haven't really had any problems with the lighter bag but I'm adding a lighter spring to the heavy eye bolt in the ceiling.
Check back later this coming week for some new videos.
I've made a few changes to the blog (don't worry, all the posts and videos are still here). To make finding things a bit easier I slimmed down my tags to 10:
Boxing (including any boxing training, equipment, techniques, etc.)
Jujitsu (wrestling, judo, catch wrestling, etc)
Conditioning (drills, strength, endurance, supplements to improve conditioning) - really almost all the posts are about conditioning but I only tagged those specific to it.
Health (nutrition, hydration, longevity, exercise in general)
Inspiration (stuff that helps drive you to put more into training)
Video (those I've made as well as others I've posted)
Schedule (when we are meeting)
Misc. (humor, or other things I think you may find interesting - this post is listed under "Misc.")
Hopefully these changes will make it easier to find the information you are looking for.
I continue to get more calls from local people for training: I know that I turn up A LOT on searches for local (Plainfield, Joliet, Aurora, etc) boxing and MMA gym searches. Because of this I’m trying to nail down some consistent training times that would be open to all of you. My schedule is a bit in flux due to patient needs at my office but for all of you interested in training I’m going to post a survey on the blog to find the most convenient times for all of us to meet and train (give me a day or so to figure out how to do it). I’ll post it within the next few days so we can get to work.
This is definitely wacky stuff. Both people are tethered to the table and tied to the other person by the hand. Supposedly you can win by pinning the hand (arm wrestling) or knocking them out. This "sport" was started by one the people who started the original "Ultimate Fighting Championship". If you want more info or videos on this craziness check out http://www.xarm.com/
(Post comments, suggestions or questions to "Comments" below)
I made my first visit to a local fight gym Combat-Do last Tuesday evening. I first heard about this gym from a neighbor friend of mine who is a High School wrestler – his wrestling club was using their mats for practice on the weekends. He gave me a big thumbs up about Master Bob and the grappling training at the school – that was enough to make me want to check it out. At that time, the location was new and it took me a few trips over searching for the address to find it (the location didn’t have its own phone number at the time). After finding the location I had to find out when they held classes – they didn’t list their Plainfield location until earlier this summer (I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had just called the Cicero phone number). Well, it’s taken me awhile but I finally got there last week for an evening MMA class.
Workout: Combat-Do is owned and run by Master Bob Schirmer a very experienced and dedicated instructor. I originally set out just to contact the school but missed everyone at lunchtime and after calling and reaching Master Bob I was set to come in at 6:30 for the MMA class. I have heard many good things about Master Bob by word of mouth and he lived up to all of it. He runs a tough class; we did literally hundreds of push-ups, sit-ups and flutter kicks. General conditioning also consisted of sprint work interspersed with push-ups, sit-ups, flutter kicks, jumping jacks, etc. So, without a question you will get an amazing workout.
Trainers: The class I was in was run by Master Bob so I can certainly state that instruction was excellent. Other people who helped out the class at points were also effective and attentive instructors.
Equipment: The school has a boxing ring, MMA Cage, wrestling mats (that’s where the workout I attended was held) in addition to hanging thai heavy bags, focus mitts, thai pads, kicking pads, a large tire for flipping and sledgehammer work, etc. All in all a very well equipped gym.
Type of Fighting: Combat-Do does not focus exclusively on stand up or grappling, they train both but there is a concentration on grappling (jujitsu/judo etc.) at least in the MMA class I was in. In addition to conditioning a good portion of my workout consisted of low and high thai kicks on kicking pads, stand up Greco Roman wrestling drills, and Jiu-Jitsu throws and submissions.
Sparring: While we didn’t do any sparring in the class I was in they do spar at the gym (hence the ring and cage).
Competition: Not only do they encourage competition in judo/jujitsu (which is easier to enter into at my age group – there are enough competitors that age and experience level allows you to be matched with people of the same level of experience) but they also host competitions annually or semiannually the Combat-Do Fighting Challenge and the Midwest Jiu-Jitsu Tournament (which are both being held this month). The video below is from Combat-Do Fighting Challenge 9:
Cost for training: For MMA training costs range from $150 to $175 a month, which is comparable to other gyms I have been to. This covers you for any and all classes that you attend at either location as well as open gym time for training. If you have more than one family member training additional members are discounted.
In addition to MMA classes they also offer Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing and children’s classes (outside of training with me, this is where I really want my daughter Callie train).
If you live in Plainfield or Cicero this is a group you can really learn a lot from, I wholeheartedly recommend Combat-Do and intend on working out there in the future when my schedule allows it.
(Post comments, suggestions or questions to “comments” below)
This video comes straight from Ross Enamait, I saw it on his blog and was so impressed I had to share it with everyone here.
So many times I here people say they are just to old to do this stuff, either going to the gym or working out at home. “Oh I’m just to old”, “I can’t do that kind of training anymore” are the types of refrains I hear almost daily along with “You must be crazy to do that stuff at your age” (I’m 41 now – 9 years younger than this women when she started training). I have only competed in one marathon – the infamous Chicago Marathon of 2007 where firemen forced me off the course with firehouses at the 22 mile mark due to the race being cancelled because of the hot weather. A marathon is nothing in comparison to an Iron Man Triathlon. Watch this video and be ready to put aside all your excuses for not training due to your age.
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If you want your workouts to be more enjoyable (easier) and perform at your best you will need to stay hydrated. A loss of just 5% of your body weight in sweat is enough to significantly decrease your performance (that works out to 7.5 lbs for a 150 pound person). Even a loss of 2% (3lbs for a 150 pound person) can result in a reduction in your performance, as well as placing greater stress on your heart. In addition, all of us remember the Gatorade advertisements stating that thirst is a poor guide for hydration.
Maintaining hydration is especially important when engaging in longer duration exercise in hot weather (greater than an hour) or even high intensity exercise for a shorter period of time. These are just guidelines – the harder you exercise the greater the sweat loss and the more you need to drink (water and electrolytes). Electrolyte replacement is especially important if you are a salty sweater (do you get white salt stains on your cloth’s? – then you need to replace more electrolytes, especially sodium).
The first step in staying hydrated during exercise is to stay hydrated during the rest of the day. As a minimum you should be drinking a half-gallon of water (or at least total fluid – not counting alcohol) over the course of the day. If needed, you can flavor water with sugar free drink mixes or mix juice half and half with water. Drinking flavored water has repeatedly been found to increase fluid intake (most of us can down a glass of juice or other beverage faster and with greater ease than the same volume of plain water). PowerBar now makes an electrolyte drink mix that is a good low carb alternative for the electrolytes that you loose in sweating (think Gatorade without the sugar). Chilling your drinks also helps increase consumption, especially on hot days.
It is actually better to drink small amounts over the whole day instead of drinking all your water in just a few sittings – this is because too much water at once just results in more of it being lost in urination.
I make it a practice to keep 32 and 16oz refillable bottles of water in my refrigerator at home and the office. Anything larger than that becomes warm before I can drink the whole thing (some people I know use just use 8 oz bottles).
Hydration during workouts:
Prior to your workout
When to eat – any meal should be eaten at least 2 hours before your workout, to soon before your workout and you could end up with cramps, nausea or worse vomiting. What you eat is something you’ll have to experiment with, as a general rule eat something light and easy to digest. – you will want to experiment with what you can eat before your workouts to find out what you can tolerate.
About 2 hours before your workout drink 17oz of water or sports drink.
Weigh your self as soon before your workout as possible and record it!
During your workout
Aim for about 8 ounces every 20 minutes. You may need to adjust this depending on weight lost during previous workouts as well as your opportunity to drink during your workout (between rounds have a bottle handy that you can drink from with your gloves on).
On workouts longer than one hour you also need to pay attention to electrolytes and carbohydrate.
Sports drink guidelines:
Max of 15g of carbohydrates per 8 ounces (any more and absorption slows down)
70mg Sodium per 8 ounces
After your workout
Weigh yourself at the end of your workout and compare to pre workout weight.
If you have maintained hydration you should weigh the same, if you weigh less after a long workout you didn’t drink enough to keep up with fluid loss (you aren’t going to lose pounds of fat in one workout). To replace fluid loss you will need to drink 23 ounces of water for each pound lost (eat some salty snacks with the water or consume a sports drink that has sodium).
If you want more detailed information on hydration during exercise I encourage you to follow the links below:
I mainly deal with training on this blog but I thought I'd write a bit about “self defense”. Self-defense isn’t just about being able to overcome an attacker (or multiple attackers) but mostly about being able to avoid confrontation when you can. Looking like a victim or an opportunity to those out for easy cash presents a great way to get into a confrontation. While working as a bicycle messenger in Washington DC I saw many messengers with ratty looking bikes, they were dirty, spray painted, etc but if you looked close they were good (think expensive) bikes. Whenever you made a delivery you always had to leave your bike outside and even with a kryptonite lock it could be stolen (I had mine stolen while it was locked with a kryptonite in the stairwell of a locked building). Part of the trick, I learned later, was to make your bike look like crap, if it looked like a valuable bike it was a target. The lesson here isn’t that you should look like someone living on the street with no money but not to look like an easy opportunity.
Too many people see fight training and self-defense as being the same, its not. Training to fight does prepare you better for when a confrontation takes place but true self-defense is realized in avoiding that confrontation. Many people who train want to show others that they can “handle themselves” in a fight and go looking for one. I, personally, don’t want my students to be like that – I want fighting to stay in the ring. I don’t mean to say that you should walk away from all confrontation since that’s not really possible – if you are truly threatened and can’t remove yourself safely, or a loved one is in danger then confrontation is unavoidable – but avoid confrontation or disarm a possible one when possible.
Tony Blauer is an excellent instructor in this area. He trains people to be ready for a fight and what to do to avoid it as well as how to react once it actually happens. A recent video posted on Crossfit does an amazing job at illustrating how to avoid potential confrontation: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_BlauerATMStrategy.wmv
Always be vigilant, know who and what is around you, sense the atmosphere.Avoid a fight when you can, the ring is a different matter since you are there to fight.
In a recent search I found that one great individual that I trained under at a good number of seminars (I even lent him my car at one seminar – that is another story though) died recently (actually last August). I have not been formally in the JKD community for a while (was an apprentice instructor in Lee Jun Fan Kickboxing and Filipino Martial Arts) but I have always followed its main concepts in my training.Below is an interview with Larry Hartsell, he trained with many of the greats (as well as being one himself) and was always learning and teaching what he learned to his many devoted students:
We’ve had a few starts and stops with training but I’m optimistic that the improving weather will help. We were finally able to open the garage on Saturday for training – actual fresh air is always nice. I was hoping to have some more pictures now that I’ve got a camera with a timer but the batteries died after this one picture.
Roll Call: Tony
Warm-up: 2x3min jump rope (last 30sec doubles)
2 rounds of – 10 pull ups, 3 ring dips, 10 squats, 10 sit-ups, 10 back extensions, hip stretch
Defense Circuit 2 circuits of 3min/1min
Maize ball
Top + Bottom bag
Heavy Bag
Slip Line
Stick Basics
Grip – basic blocks – single stick largo mano and mid range
Double stick – largo mano and heaven six
“Fight Gone Bad”
1 minute rounds – ran through 2 times
20lb wall ball
54lb Sumo deadlift high pull
12” box jumps
75lb push press
Jump rope
Rest 1 min
As you can see we've added some basic stick drills into our usual mix of boxing and thai boxing and I'm hoping to start some groundfighting as soon as it gets a little warmer,
Getting all set for Saturday’s workout, we’re expecting a new victim to join us tomorrow. We’ll see how the garage handles 5 people jumping rope at the same time. It sure will be nice when it warms up a little – when we can open the garage door we can spill over to the driveway and that’ll make handling more people pretty easy.
I was hoping to have a video post of the finish of Saturday’s workout but I won’t have access to a digital video camera for about 2 weeks. See you all with a new post tomorrow night
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