SW Portland Martial Arts Blog

Not Always Heavier

December 7th, 2015

http://youtu.be/uWnjeCH6bic

There is great value in doing reps at lighter weights.  I recommend that when you are struggling with a move and you figure out a specific piece of that move that you need to work on that it is time to go down in weight and drill that specific piece.

For instance, I struggle with keeping my back from bowing in the jerk.  As the weights get heavier, I bend my back and (unsurprisingly) it hurts.  To remedy the problem, I dropped the weights down until I stopped making that mistake and then slowly tried to add more weight back on.  If the problem reappeared, I dropped the weight back down.

There is merit in trying to fix problems while staying at a heavier weight.  But if it is a persistent problem (I’ve been bowing in my back for quite some time) then maybe dropping the weights down is a good idea.

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Moving Along

December 1st, 2015

http://youtu.be/BV0Wzl5TQ4A

Next on the kids requirement list are the front snap kick and the knee kick.  As you might expect from the first two kicks that kids are introduced to in our system, they are fairly simple.

Conveinently, the front snap kick uses a knee kick as a chamber, so once a student learns the knee kick, they are halfway towards knowing the front snap kick.

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A System Standard

November 24th, 2015

http://youtu.be/yKhOSA3jS24

Coming down the pipeline for 2016: a system wide standard for the kids requirements!  I’m sure not too many people are as excited as I am about this but it will be nice when all three of the schools are on the same page with the basics of what we teach the kids.

The standard, we hope, will encourage creativity, not stifle it!

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3,2,1… Sparkle!

November 23rd, 2015

imageCan you see the sparkle?  Can you find the two PRs on the zoomed whiteboard photo?  We should be getting heaping piles of these as we are retesting our front squats this week.  Why are we retesting?  Because at the start of October we tested our front squats and now, after doing lots of front squat work, we are retesting.

How much should you expect to go up?  Have a coach watch you as you get into the heavier weights.  They will have a decent idea of how much more weight you can put on the bar.

When should you retest?  This week!  Don’t worry if you don’t see it written on the board.  Do it.  Get it done.  Find the number.

What if you didn’t test your front squat earlier?  Then do it now!  Collect data.

Everybody got the mission?  Front squat!  Alright people, let’s sparkle!

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Saturday Kids Class

November 22nd, 2015

image
Let’s take a moment to give a shout out to Dug, yet another awesome instructor here at WAKF.
Dug Martell runs the Saturday kid’s classes at WAKF, both the regular class and the sparring class. He also does teaches outreach martial arts classes at the Portland French school. He has been training at the school since our opening day in 2009 and currently holds the rank of green sash.
Dug loves it when students get brave enough to show up to sparring class and is thrilled whenever a student scores a point on him.

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