Tuesday 30th March

I took a step outside of the comfort zone on Tuesday gone. We made a trip to Rivervalley in Swords to train with the ITA guys and see how they do things.

When we arrived, there was a larger crowd than I expected. It turned out to be a special session for their junior national team, so there was students there from across the country.

The training was super, although it got very intense very quickly probably at a pace I wasn't used to which caused me to retire for ten mins to get some air and some lucozade. Once I was settled into the pace of things I enjoyed the pad work. Stephen Cooley is a very knowledgeable guy and I picked up lots of different bits, he spoke about not using the side facing position at all for sparring, this made sense when I picked his brain after the class. I like his coaching style and everyone enjoyed the session.

I developed a little twinge in the right sartorius muscle, nothing major but I need to just watch it and not aggravate it.

We'll pop out to Rivervalley again next week, there's lots to be learned out there!

Wednesday 24th March

It seems procrastination is my reoccurring dream every morning at 6am. I have to let all the excuses rise to the top so they disappear into the ether.

Excuses this morning:

1. I'm still sore from the other day

2. If I train again this morning, I'll be tired for class tonight

3. I deserve to stay in bed an extra hour

4. I'm tired.

5. I deserve to stay in bed an extra hour

Then the other side kicked in.

1. Highly effective people are proactive - according to Dr Stephen Covey. Google that lad he's great.

2. I'll cycle to the dojang instead of running.

3. No I'll drive

4. Ah feck it just get up.

Effective people are proactive - That's my mantra for this morning.

So up I got and stuffed the haversack, got the pineapple and the pre training shake in, let it settle, got the Asics on and hit the road. I hate Wayne McCullough he makes it sound easy.

Cranked up the Ipod, I'm enjoying some Petshop Boys at the moment. Some of their stuff is great to run to.

At the gym, I got stuck into the shoulder routine;

Standing military press - empty bar, high reps as a warm up.

Seated dumbbell shoulder presses - 3 sets again high reps for an awful burn!

Rear delts were hit using the resistance bands

Lateral raises with Dumbbells and resistance bands finished off a burner on the deltoids.

Then onto the Triceps. No good in working Biceps without Triceps, the largest muscle group in the upper arm and a muscle a lot of gym rats forget about. If you want big arms you have to pay attention to the tri's.

Some seated dips to start, 3 sets of 20 and the tri's were nice and pumped.

Skull crushers followed for that intense burn closer to the elbow followed by cable pull downs with the resistance band to finish.

All of this took about an hour, and a good stretch and I was back on the road.

I was so glad to get back home, not that I was tired just happy I beat the excuses and was proactive in the approach to a very early start. It's hard enough to motivate yourself to train in the evening, but 6 in the morning is another days work!

Job done.

Monday 22nd March

The alarm kicked in at 6am, I could hear the rain outside which prompted thoughts of procrastination. In other words - "ah I'll leave it 'til tomorrow". Thankfully I didn't.

Up and at it, I got my pre training meal into me, 4 rings of pineapple, amino acids and an arginine based shake.

I loaded up the haversack with water, a towel and a dry t-shirt. Stretched off and hit the road. The run down to the gym is a quiet one, headphones on, head down, rain catching on the breath it's a good warm up for the training that follows.

When I got there I got straight under the bar for bench pressing. Two sets of 20 with the empty bar to warm up the shoulders and chest. Then came the plates. I kept it light with high repetitions. After three sets I did some dumbbell flies again three sets. Some cable cross overs followed using resistance bands and worked until failure. After the chest it was time for some ego training. Biceps. A useless muscle really but boys should have big biceps, so I'm told :-/

After some preacher curls and concentration curls I got into some stretching. I'm picking up some great tips from this guy - http://www.elasticsteel.com. I watched his DVD last night and picked up some great ideas for my tight hips and posture. Loose hip muscles are crucial to good kicking.

After some nice deep stretching I hit the road for the run home. The rain was heavier now. I remember speaking to Wayne McCullough once and he said he loved running in the rain, it was old school training, but it reminded him of home. Well it certainly reminds me of home! I felt good and strong over the last mile and kept a good stride right up to the finish.

Back in the door and straight to the protein isolate followed by a hot shower. For breakfast there was the usual 100 grams of porridge oats uncooked with alfalfa bean sprouts and mixed berries on rice milk. I don't eat a whole pile of dairy. In with the multi minerals and vits some DMAE and away we go.

In the news today, Barack Obama's health bill was passed. While it means very little here to us in Ireland, it means a lot to 30 million Americans who did not have access to health care cover. In the US health care wasn't a right, it was a luxury. Not anymore. That's another chink in the armour of what is a highly unequal society. Fair play to him.

At home, sad news at the death of Robert O'Shea. A member of the IUTF and most commonly known as the photographer at the IUTF competitions. He suffered a stroke. He'll be sadly missed by all that knew him.

Lá na Phádraig

We trained today for a few hours. Went over all the patterns all the way up to the vital three! Above is a snap shot from Juche/Kodang, pretty happy with the twin directional.
Here at the end of all of that I did Sam Il tul, again unedited mistakes and all. Critique please!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2gG26YUiXI

ITF Irish open (INTA)

We headed off to the INTA ITF Irish Open last Saturday and Sunday. It was a great pleasure to see all our friends again from the other schools, clubs and associations and catch up.

The tournament was certain to be a cracker as it had some top class Taekwon-Do teams from across Europe. The Norwegians never fail to impress. The first time I saw them in action was in Stratford Upon Avon in 2004 at the GTUK Open and they were great then, they were great at the weekend.

The standard of this tournament was extremely high, and the technical content was, well, technical! Our guys did well, it was a real eye opener for some of them coming face to face with excellence. None the less, they performed well. For me the the highlights were both Erika and Lauren winning gold in both patterns and sparring, Néidin counter fighting and Alvy. Alvy stole the show in the senior -80kg black belt sparring. When it went around the ring that he was only gone 18 he became a crowd favourite, especially after he clobbard a big Norwegian with a back reverse which sent him crashing to the mat. He was on fire. I was very excited at his performance, even though I nearly blinded him earlier in the day!

My goal for him was getting past the first round, he surpassed that and him with a flu. Another big step on his way into senior territory. He has come such a long way, when he came to our club first he couldn't take a smack! Alvy was eventually beaten by a very experienced Darren Smith. Darren is a gent, a true warrior of the art. No better person to be beaten by, he went on to win the section.

I was happy over the weekend. Some of the top Taekwon-Do guys were commenting on our performances, we're still only one little club, but we're punching above our weight. I love seeing the Europeans and the Scandanavians. Their will to prepare is super. It's frustrating to see how focused they are on the day, even their juniors. Some of our guys were too busy chatting each other up, the Europeans had their ear phones on, in the zone. It's that Irish thing I gave out about before. Irish teenagers, always content to operate 100% below their own natural potential. I know I'm making a broad generalisation, there are plenty of teens who break the mould, they know who they are and again I have big respect for them. They will ultimately determine their own destiny, and good luck to them.

I had some interesting discussions while I was there. The Irish Taekwon-Do Advisory board seems very promising. If it works out the way it should, it will the future of ITF Taekwon-Do in Ireland. I'll be putting in my forms. What ITF you belong to is irrelevant, this is a big step forward.

So in closing, fair play to Dave Elson from the INTA who organised this event. No doubt there was pressure. In the end, even after a long day, it was a great tournament so fair play to him and his team.

Fair play to all those incredible Taekwon-Do athletes who made my day, and fair play to our Red Star competitors who continue to make my time in TKD very worth while :)

A special visit

One of the worlds most prolific Taekwon-Do historians was in Ireland this week, and I was happy to meet up with him for three hours of mind blowing Taekwon-Do information.

Master George Vitale from New York City was in Ireland for the GM CK Choi seminar in Cork this week. This blog couldn't make the seminar as it was mid week, on a Wednesday, unfortunately.

Master Vitale was in Dublin for the last few days of his visit to Ireland and dropped me an email. I was delighted to have the chance to meet with this wonderful fountain of knowledge. He sleeps, eats, breaths Taekwon-Do and its history. He is personally known by most of the Korean pioneers and current Grand Masters and Masters around the world.

We met at the iconic GPO in O'Connell street and walked to a cafe where the master class began!

The only thing this blog regretted about meeting Master Vitale was not having a pen and paper or my trusty dicta phone. I had to pay extra attention to the detail.
Master Vitale gave me some great information relating to Taekwon-Do history and its subsequent arrival to Ireland which will go along way to helping me with my thesis as it progresses. He also agreed to stay in touch from New York and provide any assistance I need. A true gent of the art.

Unbelievably, three hours past in what felt like 10 minutes and we had to say our goodbyes as Master Vitale had to catch a train back to Malahide. We covered a huge range of subjects, from step sparring to General Choi, Park Jung Soo, Park Jung Tae, CK Choi, Nam Tae Hi, sine wave, chambering, the KTA, Taekyon and Tang Soo Do... I had no dicta phone!

I won't make that mistake again. It was great to meet Master Vitale. When I interviewed Senior Master Howard, he told me he knew Master Vitale;

"He was a state trooper in New York. A tough man, tough but a lovely man, he knows his stuff!"

Master Howard is dead right.
I look forward to staying in touch with Master Vitale.