SW Portland Martial Arts Blog

Got Rhythm?

May 26th, 2015

One of our fighting principles is called “broken rhythm”. The idea is that if you can set up a rhythm and lull your partner into it, you can then break that pattern and catch them unawares.

It is a valid and powerful idea. However, you must first have a sense of rhythm in order to break it. If you can not feel or see patterns in the way that you and other people move then you can not break those patterns. You may have the advantage of not being susceptible to a rhythm based fake but you will also be unaware of any rhythms that you are unintentionally caught in yourself.

So tonight’s sparring class was all about setting up and countering simple patterns. As simple as: take three steps then jab. Repeat that over and over until your partner finds a counter for it. When they find a counter switch.

Hopefully this simple introduction to rhythm leads people to the much more complex patterns that occur during live sparring.

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Offensive Choices

May 20th, 2015
in class we focused on leg kicks. Kicks to the shin, knees and ankles, mostly. It’s a perennial favorite for us. The idea behind this strategy is if you can take away your opponents mobility, then you don’t need to fight them anymore because they can’t catch you.

In simple terms: if you kick them hard enough in the leg and get a significant reaction, you might have time to run away.

Now, of course, things don’t always unfold the way we want them to but that doesn’t invalidate the strategy. When we are talking self defense and not sport fighting in a ring, there is sometimes no need to continue to engage your opponent if you don’t have to.

Thanks to Sifu Jeremy for the reminder on the importance and effectiveness of low kicks in self defense.

On the flip side, good leg kicks are incredibly effective inside the ring as well. Take out the other fighter’s base and they can’t get close enough to punch you or grapple with you.

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Raffle

May 18th, 2015

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Wanna win some stuff? Cool stuff? Perfect. Buy a ticket for 5 bucks and win something cool.
Up for our raffle we have… A one hour massage, and a travel-size “Stick” massager! A month of cross training at Alive MMA! A weekend yurt rental! A gold glitter CrossFit Hillsdale shirt and two “Modern Crown” headbands!
So many awesome things. Buy as many tickets as you want. All the money goes towards buying equipment for our new upstairs space for 0-5 year olds.

Posted in All school programs | Comments Off on Raffle

Focus

May 13th, 2015

So you want to get better at moving? Good. That is our focus here. There are lots of ways to get better at moving. First and foremost, we believe that you actually need to move to get better at moving. It sounds obvious but despite this obviousness, it is easy to fall into the trap that you can think, talk or wish your way to better movement.

Another way we can get better at movement is through video feedback. You move, then you watch how you moved, then you try and improve on that movement. Watch the video. You’ll see Carrie do the same lift quite a few times. Do you see one mistake that she makes consistently? If you do, THAT is the thing that you want to offer as a correction. If you see multiple things that she consistently does wrong, then you want to give the biggest mistake as a correction.

In other words, you want to focus on one thing. Only one.

Now that you’ve read all these words and watched the video, go clean a broomstick or a barbell. Do you make the same mistakes that you saw?

Posted in CrossFit | Comments Off on Focus

Movement Capacity

May 12th, 2015

There is always something more… some new move out there just on the periphery of your ability, taunting you, tempting you to try it.

What is that move? It depends completely on you. It could be part of the basic stable of CrossFit moves: the double under, the muscle up or a pistol. It could be something surrounding basic motor patterns like: getting a healthy range of motion in your hips, or being able to deadlift with a neutral spine.

Whatever it is, make sure you have something. Something to pursue. Something that helps motivate you. Something worth working for.

Posted in CrossFit | Comments Off on Movement Capacity

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