Less than 7 Degrees of Separation between Me and Bruce Lee

So I've got the day off and I'm sitting in my home office, broken toe elevated, watching old interviews with Martial Arts greats from my past.

I love to think of my connection to martial arts in these terms.  There are only 1-2 degrees of separation between me and Bruce Lee in my training.

I have two connections to Bruce Lee:

1. My Arnis Master was Grand Master Norlito Soriano Sr. who came to the U.S. in the 60's with Dan Inosanto. Dan is the only Jeet Kune Do instructor certified by Bruce Lee himself.  Of course they were close friends.

2. Ed Parker (Kenpo) - I trained under Bill Miller who was a direct deciple of Ed Parker. I had the opportunity to meet Ed Parker a couple of time and attend Kenpo clinics with them. Ed Parker was good friends and room mates with Bruce Lee back in the 60's in SoCal when Bruce first came to the US.

Here are two good interview with Dan Inosanto about Bruce Lee

Keep Your Eye on Your Opponent at All Times, Sometimes You're the Spectator and that Sucks!

It sucks when you're out with an injury.  I can still lift weights, punch and stretch but I just can't kick or walk very well.

So it was Monday night sparring night and I went to the Dojo because it is not always about you. My training partners still need help in the Dojo.  You always need that critical eyes sitting outside the ring to fine tune your technique or break bad habits.

I think my favorite piece of advice of the night was for beginner who was flinching when a strike was incoming.

Here is my advice to him:

When you take your eyes off your opponent, you are sabotaging your chance to survive the attack and ruin any chance of a successful counter strike.

Why?

Because the majority of our training is hand-eye or foot-eye coordination and muscle memory.

Your eyes are at least 50% of this equation so when you look away from your opponent for any reason you loose your ability to block and counter strike effectively.

He applied this in the next match and it was a huge difference immediately. This is not something I see often in advanced fighters but it is something to get rid of immediately when you see it.

With Broken Toe, I Have Time to Go Through Game Film from 11-7-2016

So here I am on Saturday night going through and editing game film for the other students at my Dojo.

I'm just 5 days out from breaking my right big toe in a couple or places and I'm pretty sure I've damaged the ligaments in there pretty good too.  Can't move it yet.

Fellow "Engineer Nerds" at work have named me "Tae Kwon Toe".  So I've got that going for me now. LOL

While I'm out with the broken toe, I'll still blog and get video for others in my Dojo.

Here is some game film from 11-7-2016 of various matches.  Enjoy!

Merafuentes Korean Karate Sparring Sessions 11-14-2016

I'm on day number two of "Broken Toe" time off from the ring [Frowny Face].

So now I have time to slow down and get caught up on video editing.

Here are some video from some of my classmates and training partners from our Monday night sparring sessions on 11-14-2016 before I broke my darn toe.

Sparring Session 1: The ladies are kicking butt!

Sparring Session 2: Dave vs Mr. Kumar

My Best Fight Yet and I Broke My Big Toe. F#$k!

So it was Monday night, sparring night, and I had one of the best fights of my life with someone I really respect but had not fought until tonight.

But I broke my big toe.... But I got it on video!!!

Mr. Kumar is good, really good. He travels and fights competitively at a very high level so getting a chance to spar with him has been on my to do list.

I was feeling great!  I had several good matches and in the Zen Zone.

I add this to one of my best lifetime fights because... Look at me, I'm at least 40 lbs overweight and 50 years old and I've still got some speed left. Look at my counters! I ain't dead yet and I'm always in the fight. Until I've broken my toe. LOL

I got a chance at the very end of the evening to go toe to toe Mr. Kumar. It was awesome!!! Thank god he was already tired at the end of the night.

Here we go let's break a toe!  Typing this with broken toe that has not been to the doc yet. Not moving it either.

SLOW-MO CAM

FULL SPEED

Karate Training for Old Farts. Yes, it is going to hurt and it is worse than you remembered.

I'm discovering that Karate training in your later years really takes a lot more time and patience than it did when I was in my teens and 20's.  That would be the 1980's and 90's if you're keeping track.

I'm talking in terms of being able to train hard and recover fast enough so you don't miss any training opportunities. Everything just takes longer and I'm learning to accept that. I'm not saying because your older now, that can't achieve your martial arts training goals but after 50, you just need to be patient and give yourself a little more time to get to each milestone.

Sadly, I just don't heal as fast as used to. Add to that, a lifetime of cumulative sports and military training injuries that nag me from time to time. Including one injury in Thailand from 1989 that unfortunately did not receive proper treatment while I was on a military deployment.

Unfortunately for me, the injury never healed right and I was always prone to re-injure it. That pretty much ended my fighting career way too soon.  I am praying that injury does come back and curse me again.

My biggest fear at the starting line is getting injured bad enough that your training is adversely affected by a prolonged absence from training.

This week I rolled my left ankle sparring and limped all week on a sore left knee. But it wasn't enough to keep me out of the Dojo.

Here is a short video of me practicing kicks before our formal Kang Duk Won class.

Be Like Water, Ebb and Flow. Translating Martial Arts Philosophy to Action in the Ring

I think one of the hardest concepts to grasp and to teach in martial arts is this...

How to allow yourself to be present in the moment but not thinking. Mind open and body waiting for anything, just allowing your subconscious to take over and trust in your ability to react on muscle memory.

Just typing that out was therapeutic in some respect.

Can you teach it?  Yes, sort of.  A good instructor leads your there but for me this is the self discovery part of martial arts that gives it the deeper meaning that martial artists seek. This is the part that transcends the physical aspects of martial arts.

It takes time, a lot of time, training and fighting to get to this pinnacle of martial arts training. I feel like I'm there or almost there in my head but obviously I've a ways to go.  My problem right now is my breathing.  I'm too tense during the match and breathing is off. I am present but need to relax more in the ring. I'm sure that will come as I improve and learn to trust my skills again.

Here is the last fight of tonight's training matches.  Pay attention to my footwork, that is one of the things I'm focusing on right now.

Video

Point Fighting Training 11/03/2016

Tonight we had a point fighting class tonight with Mr. Kumar!

Rather than just straight sparring, we did kicking drills before doing workout sparring then some lightning round sparring.  It was a great workout.

In terms of my comeback, my cardio felt really good despite coming off a week with really bad cold. My biggest gains have been in cardio and endurance.

Also, I've been stretching like crazy, almost to the point of over-stretching. My left knee seems to have some ligaments on the inside of the knee that are resistant to my stretching routine and giving me some pain.

My training goals from a big picture perspective are to get some really good kicks back in the catalog. You will probably notice in some of my sparring videos that my fights are hand heavy.  That is because I'm old and don't have kicks in my sparring catalog just yet.

When you're fighting (sparring) and your opponent knows you won't or can't throw a technique then they don't need to guard against it. I want my opponents to be just as worried about my feet as I do my hands.

Martial Arts Sparring Video



Spinning Jump Kick Practice 11-02-2016

Learning to Fly Again, Dropping Weight to Get my Jump Kick Back

    Once upon a time I was 21 and skinny, about 155 lbs.  I was in such amazing shape that I could jump kick the hoop and a little higher of a standard height basketball backboard.  At one huge tournament in San Francisco, I placed in the top 10 of jump kickers from among some pretty amazing martial artists.

    I always took pride in my inherent talent and ability to convert forward movement and spinning motion in to height and power for my kicks.  And once you've got a lot of height you've got some time to try and make it look good.

    Now I'm 50 and of as this writing, about 218 lbs. Two weeks ago I was 227 lbs and taking creatine for bodybuilding.  Now that I'm focusing more on tournament fighting, I've cycled of the creatine and quite a bit of water weight came off.

    I feel so much better not carrying that extra weight in the ring.  Every pound I can shed, will give me increase endurance and less drag when I'm trying to get air born.

    Here is a short 15 second clip from tonight's warm up before class. I tried to get a couple of jump spin kicks in and I think they didn't look half bad.  

Progress!

Training Video