Group Training

I ran my first group class in a year this last weekend. It went pretty well. We had 5 people at the park for swing day. I have decided to break it down and add skills as we go. I think that will give us a chance to really set the skill that we are working on. In what turned out to be good timing, a 5k run for took place around the park trail and we had 500+ people run by and see us. We had a few people that were walking at the park stop and ask us about kettlebells. Hopefully this will be something that will grow. The next session will be October 11th at 8 am at Fox Chase Park. We will be at a seminar this next weekend.

I am really working on swings these days. swings will fix what ails you! I have also been working a lot of joint mobility. I really learned what areas needed some love. I am probably doing 30 minutes a day of joint work for myself. I also incorporate it into my children's classes.

The workout tonight was pretty intense. I am really working on the hike pass and exploding from the bottom. I did 12 sets of swings 10 left and 10 right. My active rest time was 30 seconds. I really started feeling it around set 9. I am shooting for 20 sets and will then switch to a heavier bell.

I am also working to fix my military press form with some Grease the Groove. I am doing a rep or two throughout the day. I am only working on my form and not weight. I have also been working on Naked MP's and just working out the pathway and lat activation.

Only a few more days until Camp Lansdale. If you are in the East Texas area, this is well worth attending. some real world self defense from an incredible group of instructors, Joe Lansdale, Brandon Jones, Billy Jack Worsham, Coy Harry and Eugene Frizzell. If you like Arnis, Eugene is incredible. He is a great teacher with a wealth of knowledge.

Camp Lansdale 12

Here is a great training opportunity!!!!!!!!!

CAMP LANSDALE 12 is just around the corner, and we are gearing up for what will be one of the best ones yet. CAMP LANSDALE is geared to practical self-defense. Not sport. Not full-contact combat. But a jam-packed weekend of realistic self-defense.

This years Camp will spotlight Shen Chuan and its formidable Self Defense aspects. Each instructor will bring to the table their unique flavor and application of Shen Chuan, from Professor Lansdale, Grandmaster and Founder of Shen Chuan to this year's Headlining Guest, SHIHAN PAUL BRITT of Britt's Self-Defense Systems in Rockwall, Texas.Returning special guests will include GURU MIKE CASTO of the Sikal System, our close and personal friend who spent time with us to cross-train and become an instructor in our system.

Also returning As a Headlining Guest this year, SIFU BRANDON JONES is a 26 year veteran of the Seven Star Praying Mantis System and has owned and operated Tyler Kung Fu & Fitness for the last twelve years.
Returning Special Guests will also include SIFU MICHAEL BILLINGS of American Kenpo Karate. Those of you who have been to our Camps in the past will know Sifu Billings and his outstanding abilities.
Rounding out the instruction will be slots instructed by Professors' Eugene Frizzell, Coy Harry and Billy Jack Worsham and Senseis' Adam Coats and Larry "Doc" Laurich in the mix.A Tentative schedule can be viewed here.
WHEN: First full weekend in October (Friday October 3rd thru Sunday October 5th)
HOW MUCH: $75.00 for all three days if you preregister/prepay online, or $100.00 at the door.
WHERE: This years camp will take place at Lansdale's Self-Defense Systems dojo at 2820 South East Stalling Drive in Nacogdoches, Texas. Our phone number is 936.569.1426 / Fax number is 936.569.2511 and email is sensei6@joerlansdale.com.
WHO CAN ATTEND: Anyone fifteen years or older with signed permission from Parent or Guardian if under eighteen.
HOTELS: For a map of area hotel / motels in Nacogdoches, go to this page: Hotel Map
Nacogdoches Chamber of Commerce "lodgings" page (hotel phone numbers)
Tentative Schedule
Friday Night:
6:00-7:00pm: Guru Mike Casto
7:00-8:00pm: Senior Instructor, Sensei Adam Coats.
8:00-9:00pm: Sensei Larry "Doc" Laurich.
Saturday:
9:00-10:30am: Sifu Brandon Jones.
10:30-NOON: Grandmaster Joe Lansdale.
NOON-1:00pm: LUNCH
1:00-2:30pm: Shihan Paul Britt.
2:30-3:30pm: Grandmaster Joe Lansdale.
3:30-4:30pm: Sifu Brandon Jones.
4:30-5:30pm: Sifu Michael Billings.
7:00pm: Dinner/Plans are being made so that we can all have dinner together. More information to be revealed closer to camp.
Sunday:
9:00-10:00am: Shihan Paul Britt.
10:00-11:00am: Grandmaster Joe Lansdale.
11:00-12:00am: Professor Billy Jack Worsham.
NOON-1:00pm: LUNCH.
1:00-2:00pm: Sifu Brandon Jones.
2:00-3:00pm: Soke Dai Coy Harry.
3:00-4:00pm: Professor Eugene Frizzell.
Final Words and Photo's

Group Workout

We are going to have a group workout tomorrow morning at 8am in Rockwall. We will be at Foxchase Park. It is mainly the core training group at this time, but anyone can show up. We are not charging anything as I am trying to cement some of the material that I received this weekend. If you are interested, email me asap.

It has been a pretty good week training wise. There has been a change in the getup and I am trying to perfect it. No worries about it as it might change again soon. That is what is so great about RKC and Hardstyle. It is constantly evolving and improving. But, it does not change just to change. It changes because of the research of Pavel and others. the changes always follow the core principles of RKC. Those principles are sound and they are effective.

My training this week has followed the Right of Passage. I have been performing swings and get ups. I deviated some and hit 10 sets of 10 each arm with a 30 second rest between sets. I really fine tuned my swings at the RKC and love how they feel.

The Get Up has helped me fix some lockout issues. I have lost a lot of flexibility and developed the habit of not locking my elbows. What I like about the new Get up Progression has really helped that problem. I performed 5 minutes of Get Ups. After my swings, I worked on a ladder of Clean and Press to help reconnect my lat to my press. It makes such a difference when you do it correctly and there is no leakage.

Home From the RKC

What a great weekend I had at the RKC. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with a lot of great people. I was an assistant for Team Neupert this go round. Geoff is a Sr. RKC and knows his stuff. He is an incredible Instructor. He is so squared away with kettlebells that he is worth the time and effort to train with if you can. He helped me make a lot of corrections on my presses and getups, which suffered from bad training habits.

We started out Thursday by taking our snatch test and skills test. I came in light, not drinking a lot of water helped, and only had to hit 56 snatches. I knocked those out fairly quickly. I ran into some form issues for my press and Get-Ups. Some of it was bad habits other parts were lack of flexibility. I eventually got those skills rehabbed and passed my skills test.

I have become a firm believer in FMS and Z-Health. Zachariah Salazar helped immensely with adding some flexibility to my shoulders and hips. He is almost a miracle worker. I spent five minutes working with him and ended up with 4 more inches of flexibility. Z-Health rocks for sure. I am ordering the R-phase manual and DVD to learn a lot more. I would also love to attend the CK-FMS to learn the screenings and corrections. I see a real need to be able to help those of us that are beat down or have movement issues.

It was really great to be on the other side of the fence at the RKC. It is so intense that when you are attending as a victim, you miss some important information. It is inevitable. The RKC is not a show up and earn your certification. It is a balls to the wall, intense weekend of physical and mental exercise. As it was explained to me again, "The RKC is a school of strength." I fully understand that now. The amount of information that you receive is mind-boggling. Pavel is truly a visionary. Some would call him a heretic, but I have drank the kool-aid!

As I have said before, I have been incredibly lucky in that I have never had any issue with my hands and kettlebells. I have used Corn Huskers during the day and a greasier lotion at night. This weekend Darlene McCaffrey, RKC and I learned learned how to tape hands really well. We spent all of our breaks taping and re-taping hands. The volume of kettlebell work that you do at the RKC takes a toll on hands. I saw a lot of chalk being used and I think that it had a lot to do with the blisters. It is an abrasive and doing swings just digs it in.

That is probably enough for tonight. I have some training to do.

Last Night's Training:

1 hand swings10 x 10 l/r with the 24kg. Trying to implement some info from the weekend. what a difference it makes. In the words of Rif, "Swings fix everything!"

Final Prep

I am coming down to the wire for the RKC. I am as ready as I am going to be after being injured. Tonight was a snatch night. I did 5 sets of 10 left and right with only 30 seconds rest between sets. I feel pretty good and I am ready for the snatch test on Thursday. I will workout tomorrow and maybe Tuesday just to keep in the flow.

Last night, I went to do 5 minutes of Get-Ups. I started pretty strong and went for quite a while. My goal was five minutes. After I realized that there were at least three different songs and lots of commercials on the radio, I realized my Gymboss had quit working. Oh well, as near as I could figure, I did about 10 minutes of Get-Ups. I was using the 24kg and got into a good rhythm. I was a little tired today, but not bad at all.

I am going to set up a few workshops sometime in mid-October and early November. I will have more info coming after this next week.

Not to make any light of Hurricane Ike. I have a lot of family and friends in Houston and Nacogdoches. Both area were hit hard. My parents are in Nacogdoches and running a generator to have some power. Hopefully everyone will continue to work together to get things up and running pretty quickly.

It takes all kinds...

Rethinking Ballistics

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on swings, snatches and get-ups. I have also been doing a lot of each in preparation for the RKC next week. I have forgotten what a great program can be developed based on a ballistic, Swings for ETK, snatches for fun and the Get-up for full body beating.

As I prepare for the RKC I have been performing a lot of snatches. Last night's workout was 5 x 10 l/r with the 24kg. I took 1 minute between sets and performed active recovery. I was tired at the end, but energized. I have noticed a change in my body composition in about 2 weeks after following 3 x 3's for a month. I feel better for the most part and have seen some extra "stuff" melt away.

I am glad to be doing more ballistics and lots of high reps. I am getting to the point in my life where I can't/don't want to keep up the big weights like a 20 year old. I realize that I don't have to. I think that with age and experience, we learn to cheat a little better. In rereading the RKC manual, I see that there is so much study that says that we do not have to push for inhuman levels to live a good, healthy long life. Look at Jack Lalanne and Pavel's dad. Both are older than the norm in the fitness world, but still going strong.

Probably enough for now. Time to go put up stuff in preparation for Ike.

Tazer Crazy!

RKC Snatch Test

I have lost two weeks due to my injury and I can really tell. I did the RKC Snatch Test tonight. I have to hit 64 snatches to pass. I made it, but the last two were ugly. I feel pretty good about the numbers since I have not attempted the snatch test since the last RKC in 2006. There is nothing like a little pressure to make the world go round.

This is a really busy month for me. We have started a lot of new schools already and I have been performing a lot of Demos. I love doing demo's but they are usually 2-3 hours of straight running, jumping and throwing. I will be slowing down the week before the RKC so that should help me hit my numbers.

I have had to pretty much back off of my workout plan to attempt the Beast Challenge. I was pretty close to hitting the exercises and if I feel froggy, I still might "jump." My workouts are consisting of swings or snatches one day and Get-ups the next with one day off afterwards. I hit 5 mins with the 32kg the other day. Tomorrow is my get up day and I will be going for sets of 10 snatches with the 32kg on my next snatch day.

Not a kettlebell video, but real talent and passion. I think they are incredible.

Running Out of Time

I was able to get in and be looked at for my injury. The good news was that it was not a hernia, but a bad strain on the psoas and/or oblique. the bad news is that I am still hurting and 2 weeks out from the RKC. I hit the Kettlebells tonight in an attempt to be close to my numbers. I did about 100 swings and 25 pullups all with the 53. I am a little tender, but will grit through the snatch test, because I have to. Since there is no hernia, I should be pretty well recovered by the RKC. I hate being injured. I guess it might be time to realize that I am not 25 years old now. That is something that I hate to face. Nah, I can still run with the young'uns. hahaha

Great tutorial on how to perform a renegade row.