by Gene Crawford | Dec 30, 2016
Did another long(er) endurance and skills field test today. Getting comfortable being uncomfortable as much as I can in the lead up to the test in just 7 days…
Evo 1:
Full Kata & Weapons review
Taigo 1, 2, 3
+ 5x Sand Bag Squats 40#
Pinan 1 & 5
+ 5x Sand Bag Squats 40# + 100 Jump Rope Singles
Naihanchin + Too San
+ 5x Sand Bag Squats 40# + 100 Jump Rope Singles
Giin + Empi
+ 5x Sand Bag Squats 40# + 100 Jump Rope Singles + 10x Push-ups
Seisan
+ 5x Sand Bag Squats 40# + 100 Jump Rope Singles + 10x Push-ups
Konku
+ 5x Sand Bag Squats 40# + 100 Jump Rope Singles + 10x Push-ups
Sieunchin
Sai & Tonfa Katas
Evo 2:
Full Mat-Chan Warm Up Routine (~15 minutes)
2 mile – steady pace run
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1502720761/share/0?lang=en
Evo 3:
10x Elbow Push Ups
10x Knee to Chest Lunges
10x Leg Cradle Walks
8x Inch worms
8x Dragon & 8x Low Dragon
8x Lizard Crawl
10x Stiff Leg Dead Lift
2x 15 Yards Butt Kicker to Straight Leg Kick Ups
2x 15 Yards High Knee Skips
2x 15 Yards High Knee Pump-run
2x 15 Yards Straight Leg Kick Ups
2x 15 Yards Back Pedal to Sprint
PLYOMETRICS / Agility + Speed:
Agility Ladder – 2 sets of:
2x 2 feet per square
2x 2in 2out
2x Icky Shuffle
Tire Work – 8x Tabata Intervals 2, 4, 6, 8 toe touches on tire & then jump back and pushup off of tire
Jump into and out of tire going straight through
Jump into and out of tire going sideways
2 Rounds:
10x Medicine Ball Toss against wall
2x 5x Medicine Ball Side Toss against wall
2 Rounds:
10x Medicine Ball Slams
4x Medicine Ball Throw up into the air while lying on your back + Jump up before it hits the floor…
5x Burpee + Broad Jumps
Evo 4:
2x Rounds
10x 1:00 rounds on the heavy bag
Jab x2
Jab + Cross
Jab + Cross + Hook
Jab + Cross + Round Kick
Evo 5:
4 mile – Ruck (30#)
**Climbed every hill on the property
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1502721129/share/0?lang=en
*Fueled with a Frog-Fuel gel packet and it felt good.
*Fueled with a 10 hour energy, works pretty well for about 45 minutes
**Tried the Vanilla Waffle for solid Fuel, I couldn’t eat much when I tried it. Lesson learned is to force the fuel down. That may prove difficult.
***Also generally just used water without any other supplements in it.
by Gene Crawford | Dec 13, 2016
Not really much to write about here. Well, sure there is, but i’m not gonna…
Instead here’s a Haiku about drinking, that I think sums up this night:
At first I wanted
to remember what we did,
now I can’t forget.
by Gene Crawford | Oct 13, 2016
Did some filming of Kata this morning. Got through Taigo 1, 2, 3, Pinan 1 and Too San. Put out some work and felt good.
by Gene Crawford | Jun 11, 2016
Today we did a simulated rank test. We had someone sort of proctor a test outline that we developed to help get us ready mentally and physically for our January Blackbelt test. She did really great for us, she took what we outlined and then added her own style to it so had the element of surprise and had to work to adapt and use our minds as well. Much like a class or actual test. Just to get the vibe to help get comfortable in the mindset needed.
We did about 5 hours of working through our material. We did 1 hour each on; Basics, Weapons, Kata, Self Defense and then about 30 minutes for fighting/sparring. I did about 175 pushups during the Basics portion. Due to time, we’d set a limit of 1 hour on each section, just so we wouldn’t be there more than 5 hours, we only had one “challenge”. Now in retrospect I wish we’d done more of those to see what’s what.
After all the Karate parts were done, and to finish off the simulation we Rucked from the Dojo all the way down to the river. ~5 miles total with a 30# pack and vest. It was about 95 degrees and the heat really sucked the life out of us. When we got to the river I actually dumped my gear and got in the river. The cold water really helped a great deal.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/embed/1208099739
She was nice enough to keep notes on what I did and her feedback on what I was able to do properly. There’s so much here that this post doesn’t do it justice. But I can honestly say when we were done, I feel like we recreated the same feeling/result physically that we had for Brown Belt test or the Spartan Beat from last year.
I’ll be focusing on recovery and paying attention to my body the next 48 hours, which is the real reason by doing this simulation. To see how I recover and perform after a good deal of stress.
All in all, 6 hours total of work. I’m very drained and fighting leg cramping like crazy. But I think we’ll look back in a few months and say how much this helped us prepare. Only time will tell.
by Gene Crawford | Mar 12, 2013
I heard a great anecdote in class about the Blackbelt. Specifically the way you spell it in our Dojo.
We spell all the belts that lead up to Blackbelt out as two separate words: White belt, Yellow belt, Blue belt, Green belt, Brown belt but when we get to the final Blackbelt it’s written as one word. Because all belts leading up to this one are simply pieces of clothing that signify rank. The Blackbelt is who you become, signifying unity between you and the mindset of the Blackbelt.
That is a tale truly worthy of real life Bushido.
