SW Portland Martial Arts Blog

Kimura Time

December 20th, 2015
Grappling 12.20.15

Today in class we worked how to close the Kimura from side control top.  There are a million things to talk about but in my opinion, the most important thing you can do to increase your odds of closing the Kimura is to aggressively use your hip to smash down the other arm.  That is to say, kill the arm.  It usually involves moving to a nearly north south position so that you are more diagonal relative to your partner rather than a true side control.

I meant to get the drills on video but instead just got some short clips at the beginning of the free roll.

Bounce Out of the Bottom

December 15th, 2015

http://youtu.be/HJUxDz1qSnM

Some days we do crazy moves like pause squats and people are all “aargh!  Why do we sit down there and wait?”

There are several good reasons to pause squat but one particularly strange one to consider is because you aren’t supposed to pause when you clean.  Instead, you should bounce out of the bottom of the squat.  So why the heck practice something that you aren’t supposed to do?  Well, pause squats will make you stronger because you lose the assistance of momentum but the point of today’s post is that sometimes it is good to do things the “wrong” way so that when you do it the “right” way it feels so much easier.

So yes, you should do pause squats to get stronger but you should also do them so that when you bounce out of the bottom of a clean properly you think to yourself “wow that is 1000 times easier that sitting at the bottom and waiting.”

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.

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.

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!