Training Diary November

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Monday 3rd November - Fitness @ Milestones Gym

Its not always easy to motivate yourself to train outside of the club but the chance to start early (5pm) was good. 
I pushed the treadmill and need to really start hitting the road properly soon but 20 minutes followed by a 10 minute interval based session resulted in tearing a muscle in my calf.  Cleverly deciding to carry on I proceeded through to do my limited weights routine followed by the boxing room.  The urge to finish early through a combination of pain and general weariness I kicked into touch and finished at 7.30. Unfortunately not enough I fear.

Tuesday 4th November - Core Skills Class
A good turnout and good class.  The return of Joe Mcgarrol was a welcome site whose boxing is really outstanding now.  We covered some basics like the pac sau and then concentrated on switching leads to the southpaw stance.  Something encouraged in CSL but not my personal favorite thing.

Wednesday Grappling.
A quiet night but as ever rescued by Dave Harewoods excellent tuition.  We worked some wrestling escapes then sparred for a half hour.  New guys Dave and Simon just need to learn to tone their aggression down a little!!

Thursday Fighters Night
Sedge had his work cut out tonight as there were actually more beginners than fighters but a good showing in both quarters.
The Fighters group really pushed it tonight and there was blood on the mats again this time from Big Daves noses and Joes shin.  Big Dave C had this to say:

"The best thing about Fighter's night this week was the progression visible in everyone.  In areas outside their base art. Phil the kickboxer, has progressed so much in his clinch work, it's unreal.  Despite being a stone heavier than me, I used to bounce him round the mat in pummelling drills and throw him from side to side.  No more, he makes me work for every underhook.  His clinch is damn good, add to that his big, fast hands, and you have a great fighter.  

Alex's throwing and trips need to be seen to be believed, he applies his MMA training and knowledge to the "traditional" throws and tripping.  His understanding of the throws is shown by his increased ability to counter other peoples  throws.  Add in both his western boxing and chinese boxing skills....its awesome to train with him. I learn so much sparring with people who could take me apart piece by piece, but don't, and instead work on their weaker points, it is definitely a two way street with both fighters improving.

Joe's structure and wing chun skills mean that its really hard for me to bully him around despite having an eight stone weight advantage. Damn that guy knows the precise angles to mess with your distancing.

Me? my stand up defence is still getting better, which is great for me coming from an art where striking is secondary, and the throw or pin is foremost. My timing in my throws is slightly off against some people, meaning I have to struggle to destroy their structure to complete the throw.
Knowledge of a weak link in your chain is the best type of progress.  Something to focus on in the long cold months ahead at cyclone"

Tuesday 11th November - Core Skills Class

Having missed my usual Monday night fitness I decided to work hard on the fitness of the group.  45 minutes fitness working with kettlebells and bodyweight exercises over 5 minute rounds saw many of the group wishing they'd brought spare Tee shirts but it was good to get the big hunks of Iron out again. A well attended night with work on the form, structure and then lot of work on core defensive skills. 

Wednesday 12th Grappling

Dave couldn't make the class so we did some work on mount escapes followed by me and Ben sparring for the rest of the night.  Triangle heaven or hell depending on your point of view (or which side of the triangle you were on) .  Jenna and Chris were a little mismatched for training but worked hard on their core ground skills.

Thursday 13th FN
Well attended again with good progress from 6'million" Chris who tortured me with his 6" reach advantage for most the night till I made a bit of a break through.  Its excellent to get to work on your skills with a new problem to solve and it took an hour and 15 minutes of me working on getting inside the guys reach to get there.  Chris has improved so much in the short  time he's been training with us I'll be interested to see how his ground game comes on.  In his weight category he could do well on the local MMA circuit.  Joe and Cambell worked very hard and are both looking really good.  Sedge took the others through a mix of Wing chun defensive skills and counter attacks which looked like everyone appreciated.... In fact I quote...

"I have to agree, from what i experienced last night, that Sedge is a great instructor and has the patience of a saint. After last Tuesday i was worried that i'd lost any training that i'd had but last night seemed to help bring a lot of it back."  David Peake

Friday 14th Milestones Gym , Walbottle
Milesstones will soon be hosting a return to a regular monday class which will be MMA Stand up (our Chinese Boxing System) but today I was Training with my good mate Craig Jose who is helping me progress my stand up skills Muay Thai style. Craig is an awesome Thai boxer and has a really good overall understanding of stand up fighting so getting one on one training with him is a real boost. It goes with our mentality at Cyclone of not rejecting things based on a defunct style philosophy and Craig thinks very much the same way adapting his Muay Thai style and merging skills he's picked up elsewhere too.  My left hook is improving too!

Monday 17th Milestones Gym, Walbottle
A bit of a mix up lead to Terry starting the monday nights off a week early but we had a good workout in the end. I transfered to doing some weights until late after working some drills with Terry and then hitting the bags for 8x3 m rounds.
A two Tee shirts night for sure.

Tuesday 18th Core Skills
Undoubtedly the best turn out for some time with numbers around the 20 mark, keep it up guys.
After 45 minutes of gruelling kettlebells and fitness everyone was glad to start the Sil lim Tao form.  We looked at applications and the use of lan sau and lap sau as part of a simple bosing combo.

Wednesday 19th Grappling
Another busy night with the arrival of quite a few of Dave Harewoods guys along with Bryan Moore and Davey.  Working on hip switching in a guard pass brought up some interesting core skill issues and then onto sparring.  After nearly being choked unconcious by Jeff I went on to train with Richie the Gentle Giant.  For such a big guy Richie is a skilled individual and quick too.  don't know what his stand up is like but if its even halfway decent he could be ripping up the local heavy weight division.

Thursday 20th Fight Night 
The injury list saw Mark L and Big Dave training in what no longer looked like a beginner session.  Sedge is really coming on as an instructor and his stretching routines at the end of the class are a fantastic addition to the class. 

It was great to get Dave Jewitt back and again the turnout this week was excellent. Tall Chris is now a solid member of the group and he's improved massively since his arrival (Where TF are all these heavy weights coming from??)  It was also nice that Aaron came along from the Karate Group who train in the building on Fridays.  Its tough to go from being the instructor of a class into someone elses group but the best guys always remain a student and Aaron took to the training well.  When I changed my routines and started wrestling etc it took me on the journey that eventually led to starting Cyclone Wing Chun. As a martial artist you must constantly question your training and a different perspective always helps you expand.  Having guys like Big Dave from Trad Jitsu, Chris from San Shou, Phil from Kick Boxing has been great for the group so I'm really hoping Aaron will continue to train with us, It was good for Joe to have someone closer to his weight too!!

Some of the lads comments:

"Last night was excellent! I think doing the forms with Sedge and then moving over to the fighters group was inspirational (even though I was apprehensive of joining the fight group with being out of training for such a long time). Sometimes you need some "hard love" to force you to do things and your, "Dave you're tall - you're fighting with us" was the tonic I needed. All I need to do now is to work out how to take Phil down! " David Peake
 
"Just to say Tuesday and Thursday were two great training nights.  
 Have a good weekend mate and provided I don't have any major dingers on the bike at the weekend I'll see you next week.Cheers "Colin Graham

Monday 24th Milestones MMA Boxing Session
The first official night at Milestones proved to be a big success and the gym was almost full with 11 guys making the first session, a big improvement on Newburn LC.  New boy Phil found it direct from the website and a couple of lads from the gym made it too.  Lots of fitness and then mainly boxing saw a good start to the week.

Tuesday 25th Core Skills
Another good turnout. The fitness session is seemingly turning out to be an attraction despite a gruelling 45 minutes with the evil kettlebells.  We then worked from the first and second forms mainly on clinch positions and body structure.

Wednesday 26th Grappling
Very quiet night but sparring with Jeff and Dave was great for me.  We're all looking forward to getting Dave's gym back. 

Thursday 27th FN
An excellent turnout yet again.  Tristan and Joe are turning out to have a good training partnership and the guys were all looking good. Great to have Ben back too who proved he hasn't lost too much(other than a bit of control) in his absence by knocking Big Dave down with a right hand whom travelled past me horizontally I seem to remember.  I'll leave this one with
Marks comments though.

Just a quick note to give some feedback on last night.
 
"It was my first week back in the fighters group after four weeks off injured and I quickly realised how much I have missed it. Sparing with Chris was an awesome experience as his size, strength and skill level are a huge challenge to overcome. This helped loads with my movement, and despite being peppered with shots for the first few minutes it was evident towards the end that I was able (occasionally!) to get in and out and land some decent shots (on nice body shot in particular seemed to make an impression). It was also great to see Steve again after being like ships that pass in night for a month or so. Safe to say we picked up where we left off, getting some good quality rounds under our belts and both landing some decent shots. The little trick that Alex showed us towards the end to block a takedown (when someone catches your leg) was a reminder that sometimes it is the simple things that are the most effective and Alex's 'crowd pleaser' arm bar transition is something to work on as it looked wicked when he demonstrated it. All in all another insightful and hugely rewarding session."
Mark Longbothan