Sunday session

It's easy to pretend you're fit!

When you're an instructor and coach, it's easy to fall into a trap where you think that doing a bit during the class you're teaching that this is the same as training.

Today (Sunday 20th) I headed out to Loughshinny to train with the rest of the ETA lads. The class was conducted by Terry Donnelly with the help of Marto. Martin Lawless is great to have around every session, he breaks everything down to the minutia!

The class worked on drills and foot postioning. I was hoping it would remain at a nice pace. I was kidding myself! I felt grand during the drills, the legs were moving ok. The last few weeks of stretching my over tight hips had been paying off. High hook kicks weren't a problem.

We moved into sparring then. Jeez it's unbelievable how flat footed you can become when you haven't sparred for a few months. The initial drills were just about moving and dodging around your attacking opponent, five seconds in, yours truly takes a hook kick to the mouth, courtesy of Mr Donnelly!

That was frustrating, but it'll be a couple of classes before im back up on my toes properly.

We did a few rounds of moving and dodging, I was feeling it on the old lungs!

We moved into proper sparring then and after about 8 short rounds of sparring I was wearing down, slowly but surely. The sparring is always at a pace arond 70% of full on speed and power. There's no better way to train. It allows a high pace but at a comfortable enough level where you can use the techniques learned in the drills and you can put them to work. Laying into each other inhibits you from experimenting and finding out solutions to circumstances as you spar.

Here's a small sample, after the class Terry and Marto moved around. Plenty of action at 70% with an emphasis on constant movement, enjoy!



We moved through the rounds alternating between boxing rounds and Taekwon-Do rounds incorporating an emphasis on both the hands and the feet. At the end I was out of gas, well and truly. The lungs were on fire, this blog as no problem telling you that!

Not to worry, it won't be long before the fitness levels are back up a tad. I'll have to start hitting the road again for some 'morning runs' down by the canal if possible.

Anyway, to finish, one of the best things about training with these guys is the approach to scientific sparring. That's not to confuse the issue, it simply means drills, movement and body positions are put to the test and if they're usefull they're kept, if they're not working they're disposed of. Simple really.

Afterwards it was back to Terry's house for a cupán tae and a video of the master at work.. Tomaz Barada.