Saturday Morning Training

More training in the sunshine with the Wash U club. Sofia makes the most of her guillotine choke on Katherine.

Training at Wash U

It was a beautiful day for our morning training session at Wash U today.

Linked Article: Before Reaching War Zones, Troops Risk Concussions

Considering that concussion risks are compounded by repeated injuries, and that the risks of concussions can include slower reactions, impaired cognition, and even changes in mood this should be something that concerns non-military self defense athletes as well.

A new military study suggests that some soldiers suffer mild traumatic brain injuries even before they go to war. These concussions, as they’re also called, can come from taking “combatives” classes that teach hand-to-hand fighting during the soldiers’ training…

The study looks, in part, at soldiers at sprawling Fort Hood, Texas, one of the Army’s main centers for basic training. The preliminary findings, which NPR and ProPublica have obtained, suggest that a soldier got a concussion in those classes every other day, on average, over nine months.

“The more hits your brain takes, the less likely it will be that you will have a full recovery,” said Dr. Alex Dromerick, director of neuroscience research at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. Dromerick, who has studied brain injuries with the military, didn’t work on this new study on concussions. But he says that based on our description of the findings, they raise a troubling scenario.

Click here to read the article.

George Bellows at the National Gallery of Art in DC

“I am just painting two men trying to kill each other” said Bellows.

MMA Competitor Brent Weedman Interviewed by JREF’s D.J. Grothe

Don’t try the “touchless” knockout on this guy!

While I have met my fair share of practitioners that believe in Qi, you won’t be surprised to learn that the evidence for it is quite lacking. Ultimately I feel that people are simply uninformed at the incredible limits the human body can achieve. I’m reminded of Arthur C Clark’s 3rd law “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It’s easy to write off incredible athletic feats as woo-ww. Side note: there are examples of martial artists performing “tricks” to prove their powerful Qi, but I relegate those to the dustbin of spoon bending.

Read the rest of the article here.

Motivating and Nurturing Students

I am always inspired when I see good teachers and coaches that understand and respect the interdependent nature of their relationship with their charges. Those that inspire and motivate while demonstrating a healthy respect for the challenges of daily life faced by their students, and their basic humanity always make me want to be a better instructor. In that vein I offer the following video:

Then again these guys are from Wall Street, so…

2012 FSRI Summer Camp Info and Registration

There is more info up about the forthcoming FSRI Summer camp at the http://www.tkri.net website. Check back often for details and updates.

FSRI Events Page

General Camp Info and Payment Options

Registration

Release/Waiver

Online payment options are now available on the General Camp Info page, however make sure that if you use this option you remember to print out the registration and release forms and mail them in ASAP and include a copy of your receipt in the same envelope. No registrations will be accepted at the camp site.

2012 FSRI Summer Camp

Mark your calendar!

Join us for a weekend full of great training, informative presentations, comradery and fun in the beautiful Meramec State Park in Sullivan Missouri the weekend of July 6th through the 8th, 2012.

• Outdoor training with instruction by Senior FSRI Instructors and NASM certified trainers.
• Tent camping.
• Campfire talks by special presenters.
• Shower facilities within walking distance.
• Camping is within hiking distance of the scenic Meramec River.

You do not need to be affiliated with FRSI to attend.

We will post more information soon.

Snow Day

There was snow on the ground this morning, but the Wash U club trained anyway.

Survivors' Photo: Katie, Sofia, Sharon - plenty of grit here!

Training Tip: Don’t Just Train to React to Visual Information

One of the greatest programing challenges for instructors and coaches of fight and self defense athletes is coming up with training ideas for the recovery or injury prevention periods of the training cycle.

Here’s a suggestion; use the time to practice established skills in new ways. Mastery of athletic skills requires the ability to adapt them to a variety of environments and conditions. Many established skills can be regressed allowing safe, low-intensity practice in ways that would have been unproductive, or needlessly difficult during the initial skill acquisition phases of training.

Many fight athletes— especially those who have not practiced sports that emphasize attending to non-visual information in their youth have some difficulty reacting quickly and appropriately to auditory, proprioceptive, and tactile information.

Quick and appropriate responses to non-visual information can substantially improve performance and reduce the risk for injuries. Including training to enhance reactivity to non-visual information can substantially enhance skill mastery while contributing to performance.

Ideally this type of training involves progressions from very simple and not particularly reactive, to complex and substantially reactive— while allowing the student time to experience the differences in performance represented by each step along the way.

Two very basic grappling skills that we practice at FSRI are mount escapes and guard sweeps. Because these are simple, yet crucial skills that when practiced slowly and carefully represent a low risk for injury, and because most of our students have significant experience practicing them they are great candidates for this sort of training.

These can each be rehearsed a few times as “dead” drills requiring no reactivity whatsoever. After that the person affecting the escape closes their eyes and performs the drills as before. Once they are in the superior position, they reopen their eyes. This is done slowly without much intensity.

Excessive coaching here is not productive. Their partners and their coaches watch the environment for hazards and intervene only where there may be a danger to the participants. The intension is to allow the participants to experience the drills in new ways.

Next coaches should introduce some small degree of reactivity. The partner in the mount position (for example) can change their weight, or post with a particular limb in a way that requires the person practicing the escape to find an appropriate response. This is also practiced far below performance speeds or intensities.

Finally the environment can be manipulated through a variety of means. A simple one involves blindfolding the person practicing the escapes and placing them in unusual locations on the training floor-such as near a padded wall then asking them to perform the drills. Small pillows can also be randomly placed around the mat and the person practicing the escapes can be coached to scoot around and avoid them as they practice.

Valleys can be created in the wrestling mats by placing pillows or cushions under it in places. This can be especially relevant for people interested in practicing escapes from attacks that might occur on compliant surfaces such as beds, car seats, or couches.

Being “stuck” in a valley can be an especially difficult challenge so coaches should watch this one carefully as frustration may result in the intensity escalating beyond what is appropriate for blinded training during the recovery phase. Coaches should avoid making the engagements too difficult in this phase. Slight elevations in the mats can significantly change the experience of the drills. Remember that the goal is to enhance spatial and positional awareness and improve reactivity to non-visual information at this stage, not to needless frustrate students or increase the risk of injury.

Linked Resource: Customizing your Medicine Ball

I love using medicine balls with rope handles, but they can be expensive. Take a look at this excellent article by Ross Emamait, from the always interesting RossTraining.com Blog on how to make your own own rope handles.

Customizing Your Medicine Ball

Linked article: Couple badly injured after bodybuilder attack

Something for the “size is irrelevant in martial arts” crowd to chew on:

apparently (he) was under the influence of steroids and other drugs, and it took four police officers, two stun gun blasts and four sets of handcuffs to restrain him.

Steroids and “other drugs” indeed.

Read more here

Linked Article: Anthony Miranda Tried Robbing Ultimate Fighting Champion

At some point, Miranda’s attention was diverted and the victim was able to grab control of the gun and the two wrestled.

During the fight, Miranda accidentally discharged his gun, shooting himself in the ankle, Mirabelli said.

Read the rest here.

Paying Respects to Joe Frazier

Boxing legend Joe Frazier passed last night. Boxing fans will remember his devastating left hook and uncanny bobbing and weaving skills,  and the trio of  grueling, legendary fights with Muhammad Ali.

What better way to remember him than by watching some highlights of his first (1971) fight with Ali, in which he gained the heavyweight title and delivered his opponent’s first professional loss:

Help at the Push of a Button

This semester I agreed to teach a series of weekly self protection seminars for a women’s resource group on Ferrum College campus. Without going into too much detail here (more will follow in later posts), part of my planning for these included researching the contexts and scenarios in which violence against women tends to happen, as borne out by DOJ victimization and outcome stats and reviewing case reports. The incidence data, and conversations with friends of mine who have been victimized made it woefully clear that the “carry your keys in your hand” strategies, and “on the street/in a dark alley” conceptualizations of violence against women are pretty inadequate by themselves, because they only apply to a limited range of the situations in which a woman may find herself at risk . Since this seminar series is for college-aged women, I structured the program to explore the scenarios and types of assault that are created by social, interpersonal and predatory contexts.

FSRI-STL Members Discover Gravity.

We feel like this could be an important discovery. For the time being we are calling it gravity. We’ll keep you posted if there are further developments.

First Aid

I was buying some new supplies for our first aid kit tonight. Next person to get scraped up at the Wash U club is getting one of these…

(Also, we have more alcohol swabs, athletic tape and neon stretchy bandage.)

Random Training Pictures

Here are a few photos from a recent FSRI (Missouri) training session.

Chris hits the jump rope. (Photo credit: Anais Miller)

Balance training with Jon. (Photo credit: Anais Miller)

Bob dancing with the heavy bag. (Photo credit: Anais Miller)

Study looks at why second ACL surgeries fail

Apropos of our current “Injury Comeback Story“, this new study will examine the reasons 2nd ACL surgeries are more likely to fail.

News link: Mugger Stomped by Pregnant Kickboxer

Mugger steals purse from a pregnant woman. Woman pursues. Mugger attacks woman and strikes her in the belly. Woman turns out to be a kickboxing student with a mean ankle stomp:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81783380/?lt=ep

Note: as Ms. O’Brien mentions, the best idea would have been to let the guy have her bag. Bags can be replaced, health and life can’t.