tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33097553327830474012024-02-18T19:40:22.742-08:00Systema Sweden: Göteborg Dynamo Russian Martial Art ClubThe Göteborg Dynamo Club of Russian Martial offers unique performance enhancement training for both self defense and combat sports, that combines elements from various styles of Russian Martial Art (ROSS, SAMBO, Systema) and modern-day sports science.Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-87918416379760816772013-06-05T03:57:00.004-07:002013-06-05T03:58:11.310-07:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos: Biomechanical Training - Russian Stick Twirling<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;">After the few <b>Cossack dancing patterns</b> we presented in</span> <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2013/04/dynamo-concepts-training-videos.html" target="_blank">this previous post</a> <span style="color: white;">in the Dynamo blog, it's time to take a look at another method of <b>training biomechanics</b>, i.e. quality of movement, in <b>Russian Martial Art</b> and namely, <b>stick or saber twirling</b>. </span></span></span></span><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></h2>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Once again I would like to point out here that it is practically impossible to practice biomechanics and tactical skills in the same training drills. What you need to do is cultivate good quality of movement and the ability to generate power in non-tactical drills and then develop tactical awareness in another, totally different series of drills.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And herein lies the ingeniousness of folk-style Russian Martial Art: the biomechanics were taken care off through a series of training methods with a high social and entertainment factor! By learning to dance, young men practiced powerful pelvic and hip rotation, both components of tremendous importance in power generation. Then, by practicing stick or saber twirling, core stability, coordination and relaxation of the arms was developed, resulting in pure ballistic movement. This means that, when the time came for youngsters to study actual fighting methods, their body would not presents constraints in the learning process.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Enough with the talking: this is a short video presenting only a few stick twirling patterns that you could try out. Now, I only used baseball bats in the video, because I had just moved back to Greece from Sweden and my stuff was in boxes in a storage facility, so I could not find where my sticks were! <i>This means that you should first try the exercises with something lighter, say a pair of sticks made of oak. </i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">How do you practice these drills? Well, make sure to have fun and don't go all OCD, counting reps, sets and rest intervals. You should literally <i>fool around</i> with the patterns and make sure that you can execute them slow and relaxed before you add speed and power, or else the momentum of the stick might rip apart your wrists or shoulders. Take it easy, and enjoy the process. You should expect a dramatic imporvement in your fist fighting skills after a few months of this type of training. PM me if you have any questions.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Spyro</span></span></span></div>
Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-2908366735629233532013-04-23T02:15:00.000-07:002013-04-23T02:16:22.800-07:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos: Biomechanical Training - A Few Cossack Dancing Patterns<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One of the most common problems in martial arts training arises when one is trying to mix up <b>biomechanics of power generation </b>with <b>tactical skills acquisition</b> in the same drill. In my almost thirty years in martial arts training I have witnessed more than a few times instructors trying to embed good biomechanical habits in their students (with comments such as "swivel those hips!" or "exhale sharp!") while they are sparring under live conditions. Well, let me - once again - be the bearer of bad news: <i>training biomechanics and tactics in the same drill is impossible!</i> If one has not learned to extend the back hip when punching, it is not a good time to learn it when he is being punched back!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, what I love about Russian Martial Art, or to be more precise, the folkstyle aspect of RMA, is the availability of numerous non-tactical drills that the practitioner can use to develop solid biomechanics of power generation, separately from the drills with tactical or technical content. I have only seen similar biomechanical drills in Chinese 'internal martial arts', and especially BaGua, but the difference here is that RMA drills are also fun to practice: for those of you who do not understand what I mean, I suggest you try some Russian stick or sword twirling or maybe some Cossack dancing patterns and then 'walk the circle' BaGua-style and tell me which is more enjoyable to practice.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the two videos I'm posting today you will find a few Cossack dancing drills. The point of those is to teach the practitioner to coordinate pelvic rotation with hip rotation, in order to improve foortwork, punching power and kicking power. For most people in martial arts the expressions 'turn from the hip' and 'rotate the pelvis' are considered to describe one and the same movement (god knows why). Well, these are two separate movements that, if coordinated, can tremendously enhance your ability to express power.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I certainly hope these videos will be of value to you, make sure you let me know if you have any questions. In our next blog post we'll present a few stick twirling drills.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,<br />
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Spyro </span></span></span></div>
Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-8439228967583571322013-02-28T09:44:00.005-08:002013-02-28T09:49:56.105-08:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos: How to Breathe for Performance, Practice Drills<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the previous Dynamo blog post, we explained the two roles our breath plays during an activity that requires power generation for a significant amount of time. A friend who read the post inquired about drills one can use in order to prime the 'body as bellows' type of breathing, and that is what the Dynamo Concepts training video I am posting today is all about. I learned a great number of these 'vibration drills' from A.I. Retuinskih, founder of the ROSS system, and I came up with a few of my own variations down the road, for more sport-specific applications. The ones you will find in the following video are the most basic and the most important one<span style="font-size: small;">s</span>. You can practice th<span style="font-size: small;">em</span> as part of your warm-up before any type of training, to elevate your heart rate and lubricate your elbow and shoulder joint<span style="font-size: small;">s</span> before more strenuous activities, but also as part of your cool-down routine, to relax both your muscles and your nervous system. Besides embedding the 'body as bellows' type of breathing to your body, the drills will also help you relax your arm muscles and develop 'heavy hands' for strikes.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One last thing: through the following drills I hope you get to see that the funny huffing and puffing that passes as 'burst breathing' in some Russian Martial Art circles is just a defective version of the body as bellows principle: your breathing has to be coordinated with your movement so as to ensure it corresponds to both the physiological and biomechanical needs of your activity - otherwise, it will just get you <span style="font-size: small;">hyperventilating, tense and panicky</span> in no time.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I hope the video is of help to you. Please let me know if there is anything I could explain further.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,<br />
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Spyro </span></span></div>
Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-20652712152391689162013-02-20T02:28:00.000-08:002013-02-20T02:33:07.043-08:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos: How to Breathe for Performance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I don't know why, but way too many people in martial arts circles project mystical properties on breathing. And people who want to take advantage of other people make sure that confusion is perpetuated and as widely spread as possible - in a few words, ignorance sells seminars.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I hate to be a party pooper, but breathing is just a physiological process, that helps provide energy for the activities involved in... well, life. Now, if an activity demands lots of energy, breathing performs one more role, namely that of delaying the onset of muscular fatigue: you breathe faster, thus you exhale more often, so you remove the excess carbon dioxide from your blood, so you slow down the acidification of your muscles - no biggie there either. Let's take this one step further: if your activity involves generating significant amounts of power or absorbing significant amounts of force, then your breathing acquires one more role, this time a biomechanical one, that of stabilizing your core, in order for your limbs to have a stable platform to generate power from. - simple as ABC!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In case you did not notice, in both cases above, physiology AND biomechanics, it is your exhalation playing all the important parts: removing excess carbon dioxide AND stabilizing your core. So, the basic idea behind the performance breathing method we use in the Dynamo Concepts system is to emphasize exhalation and the rest will take care of itself. I was first taught this method of breathing by A.I. Retuinskih, founder of the ROSS system. Down the road, through personal communication with Dr Vladimir Tikhonov, a sports scientist working with the Russian kettlebell sport national team, I found out that this the exact same way elite kettlebells athletes breathe during the later, most fatiguing stages of their sets.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the following video I am explaining this method of breathing that, in the ROSS system, is known as 'using the body as bellows' and I am using the kettlebell snatch lift in order to demonstrate one type of application. Besides my work with kettlebells, I have applied this breathing technique with my students during bag and focus mitts work and have found out that it helps keep the heart rate significantly lower during intense effort exercise.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Go ahead and check the video, then, and If there's anything I could further explain, just send me a message. Please keep in mind that my breathing in the video is a bit more pronounced so that it can be audible - you definitely don't have to breathe so loud, but you sure need to coordinate your breathing with the rhythm of your movement.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,<br />
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Spyro </span></span></span></div>
Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-16647156903910133892013-02-12T03:41:00.000-08:002013-02-12T04:03:24.033-08:00Book Review: Understanding Physical Consitioning - A Movement Based Approach, by Luis Preto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;">This is the second book by Luis Preto I will be reviewing for the Dynamo blog and, let me tell you here that reading Luis' books is always a treat for me! I was quite impressed by his </span><a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2011/10/book-review-how-to-sequence-teaching-of.html" target="_blank">How to Sequence the Teaching of Technique and Tactics</a><span style="color: white;">, a book about how to construct a sound curriculum for any martial art, and I am just as impressed (if not more) by his new book on physical conditioning for athletes, which is aptly titled Understanding Physical Conditioning - A Movement Based Approach.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>OH MAN, ANOTHER BOOK ON PHYSICAL CONDITIONING... DO WE REALLY NEED IT?</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Well, yes. I happen to own a great number of books on physical conditioning for sports and I have found most of them either too simplistic (little more than exercise prescriptions) or way too wordy, full of jargon and somewhat complex to actually apply in the gym. According to most of these books, an athlete needs to do resistance training in order to a) strengthen connective tissues, then b) increase muscle mass, then c) increase maximum strength, then d) increase explosive strength and finally e) convert to strength endurance, while simultaneously training to improve the body's ability to supply energy for repeating the activities her sport demands. Now add to these some range of motion training, plus some more training to prevent injuries and you are left with an algorithm of so many variables, that one inevitably has to wonder whether conditioning for athletes is actually way more complex that rocket science and quantum physics put together. Plus, if an athlete has to do so much conditioning work, is there any time in her life to practice technique and really participate in her chosen sport?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>IS THIS BOOK ANY DIFFERENT THEN?</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Oh, you bet! Preto starts the book by arguing that the common systematization of physical conditioning into the categories of strength, flexibility, speed and endurance is wrong, plus the all too common approach that has these physical abilities developed separately, in distinct training stages is short-sighted (yes, he actually uses this word). This way, the process of physical preparation for an athlete becomes necessarily complex and hard to manage. The argument is a very sound one, if you think about it: your skeletal muscles contract only in one way and depending upon the masses you have to move in your sport, you either want them to contract very fast and then relax or maintain the contraction for a little longer. So, the idea of training first for maximum strength, then explosive strength, then speed is actually absurd! </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Let's follow this train of thought to the next station: when one muscle (or muscle group) is contracting on order to cause movement around a joint, the antagonistic muscle(s) are being stretched. In this sense, strength training, if performed in full range of motion, can make specialized mobility training sessions redundant or, in the worst case scenario, can help the athlete save lots of time by reducing the number of mobility exercises needed.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, let's take this logic one step further: if endurance training is necessary for one's, why spend hours at the track, when the athlete can build all the endurance he needs practicing sport-specific skills at the same time? This view is also endorsed by very successful MMA conditioning coach Joel Jamieson, who claims that cardiac output training does not necessarily have to be slow, long-distance running, but it can also be shadow boxing, bag or pad-work, performed in the 130-150 bpm heart rate zone - you train technique and endurance at the same time, thus saving time! </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the end, the complex algorithm of an athlete's physical preparation, says Preto, boils down to a two-factor training system, which can easily be managed if one follows the guidelines explained in the fourth section of this book. Athletes don't want to spend hour after hour in the weight room or the track - they want to play. In my opinion Preto's approach, allows for this delicate balance between physical preparation and tactical/technical training that makes a successful athlete.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>ANY GOOD PROGRAMS INCLUDED IN THE BOOK?</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here's the bad news: according to Luis Preto, people who claim to have one-size-fits-all and easy-to-follow training recipes either have not done their homework, don't know what they're talking about or are simply trying to sell something. The good news is that if you study Preto's book and follow the guidelines provided, you will be able to design training programs yourself.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>ANYTHING ELSE WORTH MENTIONING ABOUT THE BOOK?</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Wow, where do I start? There's a number of training myths debunked in here, case studies of maverick athletes and coaches and there's also the point where Luis accuses some sport scientists of intellectual laziness or cowardice!What is there NOT to love about it? Oh, I almost forgot: at the end of each chapter Luis provides a series of questions, so that readers can test their understanding of what they read and flex their intellectual muscles.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>HOW ABOUT THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE IN THE BOOK?</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The layout could be a bit better and I would appreciate more<b> </b>tables and diagrams to visualize the knowledge.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>ALL IN ALL?</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I would say this is one of the most important books I have ever read on physical conditioning and I have read many. <b> </b>If you want to understand the way your body generates and fuels movement, the adaptations various training stimuli promote and how to organize those in training programs in order to improve athletic movement , you need to get a copy of this one! As usual, knowing the 'why' before the 'how' can make all the difference in the world.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>HOW TO GET<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>THE BOOK</b> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">You can purchase it from <a href="https://www.createspace.com/3823137" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">the Create Space <span style="font-size: small;">self-<span style="font-size: small;">p</span>ublishing </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">platform</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> and</span> Amazon <span style="font-size: small;">online </span>bookstores</span></span>.</span><br />
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-36183886363399856212013-02-04T08:53:00.001-08:002013-02-20T02:29:01.384-08:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos: Long Power, Short Power, whatever...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, I am embarrassed to admit that this is my first post for 2013. To my defense I have to say this has not been out of laziness, but because I have a number of training projects currently going on, so my brain is somehow always occupied...</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Enough said - today's Dynamo Concepts Training video is a sequel to the previous one on punching power and, at the same time, an answer to a question a couple of friends of this blog posted some time ago: "If I am to recruit my joints consecutively, I need a lot of space in order to the distal part of my kinetic chain to develop maximal speed. What if I have to use 'short power'?" Honestly, I believe the term 'short power' does not exist (it could be something used for a nonsensical title of one of those useless Systema RMA instructional DVDs). Whether you have to generate long-range or short-range power, your body does not have two types of muscles, one for each type of power, and definitely doesn't generate power in 'different modes'. The only thing you can do is limit the degrees of freedom around a joint, by creating rigidness through muscular tension (once again, 'tension' is not necessarily a bad thing) - basically, you remove one or more links of the chain, so the movement ark becomes shorter - and the end result is, of course, less speed than if you could use all joints consecutively, but still, <b>maximum speed and power under given circumstances</b>.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Check out the following video to see a couple of examples. If there's anything I could further explain, just send me a message.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,<br />
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Spyro</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">P.S.: Once again, I apologise for the quality of sound :-</span>)</span></span></div>
Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-55111401571416374992012-12-24T01:17:00.002-08:002013-02-20T02:29:12.504-08:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos: A Tip to Significantly Increase Your Punching Power<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With this blog post being 'the one before Christmas', I just wanted to share a small gift with the readers of this blog, and, given that we're into martial arts, I suspect that a gift that will improve one's punching power will be appreciated by most :-)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anyway, this video is all about maintaining rigidity at the wrist, so that the object I am striking an opponent with is the forearm-fist complex, which has significant mass. By making sure that, when striking with the fist, there is no movement at the wrist (limiting the degrees of freedom at the wrist, if you prefer), we limit the amount of kinetic energy that would otherwise be dissipated in our own soft tissues (and very delicate ones, since there are many things in one's wrist that can get very screwed up).</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">From a teaching perspective, it is quite often not enough to state that the wrist should be rigid, since a lot of students have never practiced this action, so their local muscles and nervous system are in no way primed to do this. The drill which is demonstrated in the video does exactly this: with the help of a partner the exact muscles needed to limit degrees of freedom at the wrist are activated. I suggest you go ahead and practice this drill a few times before you strike the focus mitts of the heavy bag. I guarantee you will be surprised by the results!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's all for now, folks! I hope you find this video of help. Make sure you send me a message in case there is something I can explain in more depth.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays to you, your families and loved ones!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: white;">P.S.<span style="font-size: small;">: Once again I <span style="font-size: small;">apologise <span style="font-size: small;">for the sound quality of the video. When you're filming in the garden you cannot quite know when the alarm of <span style="font-size: small;">a <span style="font-size: small;">neighboring</span> house will go off. Still, you have to admit th<span style="font-size: small;">at an image of summer in Greece can be quite heart-warming in the middle of the winter.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <br />
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-48309172842509278562012-12-13T05:13:00.000-08:002013-02-20T02:31:21.509-08:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos - Interlude: The Spinal Wave and Drills<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In this fourth part of our series of Dynamo Concepts instructional videos, we're dealing with a power generation 'plug-in', the spinal wave. By plug-in, I mean that the wave of the spine can be added to any of the three basic movement patterns, in order to further enhance power output. There is nothing exceptional in the spinal wave - it is just one more application of kinetic linking which is one of the five principles of maximizing power, that we have described in <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/11/dynamo-concepts-training-videos-part-2.html" target="_blank">part 2 of this series of videos</a>. I should point out here that, if this movement seems to you large and telegraphic, it is only performed this way in training, not in application. A very important guideline in the Dynamo Concepts is that we train in full range of motion and we apply in the range of motion necessary. A big movement can be trimmed down to a short one, by restricting degrees of freedom. On the other side, if one only trains short and tight, it is not possible to perform longer movements by adding degrees of freedom that are not available in the body.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I believe you will find the drills included in these spinal wave videos very effective in increasing your power output potential - in my personal experience, the kettlebell jerk is the best of them, since additional resistance can be added, by using heavier and heavier bells.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I hope you find this video of help. Make sure you send me a message in case there is something I can explain in more depth.
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,<br />
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Spyro </span></span></span><br />
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-88793203879286256132012-12-05T02:48:00.000-08:002013-02-20T02:31:38.888-08:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos, Part 3: Generating Power in 3-dimensional Space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is the third in the series of Dynamo Concepts training videos, dealing with generating power to all directions from a static position, including the basic drills for priming basic movement patterns. Any action we perform should be powered by either one or a combination of these movement patterns, otherwise it will be lacking power. Another idea that emanates from these movements is the rhythm of power generation: since we can generate power by loading and unloading our structure in specific ways, our ability to apply force depends upon which part of 'the beat' we find ourselves. We will have the <span style="font-size: small;">opportunity to elaborate on the subject of rhythm later in the series.</span> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The first two of these movements I have been taught by Alexander Ivanovich Retuinskih, founder of the ROSS system and I believe it is worth noting that he also uses these exact same movement patterns for a series breath training exercises, aiming to improve integration of movement and breathing.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I hope you find this video of help. Make sure you send me a message in case there is something I can explain in more depth.</span></span></span>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,<br />
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Spyro </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">P.S.: The drills might remind <span style="font-size: small;">you <span style="font-size: small;">stuff you have seen in traditional Chinese martial arts. Please keep in mind that power generation i<span style="font-size: small;">s not a cultural issue :-)</span></span></span> </span></span></span><br />
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-63649406293970326672012-11-29T09:39:00.003-08:002012-11-29T09:42:48.995-08:00Review: Russian Martial Art Instructionals by Paul Genge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Paul Genge’s Combat Lab organization is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting things to happen in the world of Russian Martial Art in the past couple of years. Through his excellent blog, his seminars and instructional resources, Paul has made available a steady flow of coherent information on the cutting-edge martial methods that were developed in the former Soviet Union around the late 60’s through the work of A.A. Kadochnikov and later became popular in the Western world under the umbrella-term Systema, through the work of instructors such as A.I. Retuinskih (ROSS), Mikhail Ryabko and Vladimir Vasiliev (Systema Ryabko-Vasiliev). <br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">In this blog post I would like to review some of the training resources Paul has produced and are available for purchase through <a href="http://combatlab.russianmartialart.org.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the Combat Lab website</a>, namely the books <i>Systema Structure Breaking Manual</i>, <i>Encyclopedia of Systema Drills</i> and the video <i>The Principles of Disrupting Balance</i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><br /><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR</b><br />Paul Genge is the founder of ‘Combat Lab’ and Russian Martial Arts Northwest. He was one of the leading Systema Ryabko-Vasiliev instructors in the UK from 2000 until 2010. He currently studies the military system of A.A. Kadochnikov under Alexandr Maksimtsov, head of the Ukrainian branch of the school, and is a member of the Federation of Russian Martial Art. He has also trained extensively in Systema Homo Ludens with the founder of the system, Alex Kostic.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">Paul trains in Brazilian JuJitsu and competes for the Factory BJJ gym in Reddish, Stockport, UK. He holds a 5th dan grading in Bujinkan Taijutsu, and an instructor certification in kettlebells training. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><b>ABOUT THE INSTRUCTIONALS</b><br /><b> </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><b>Systema Structure Breaking Manual</b>:To the degree that there is no resource written in English detailing the principles of Kadochnikov's system (there was one written by Matt Powell during his K-Sys days, but I believe it is no longer available), </span><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">this book is quite important to begin with. About one third of the manual is devoted to explaining Newtonian laws of motion, levers, the axes and planes of human movement, types of joints in the human body and the concepts used in Systema Kadochnikova in order to manipulate another human body, disrupt its balance and achieve a throw (pendulum movement, coupling of forces, triangulation, the question mark, etc). The remaining sixty pages or so contain a great number of throwing techniques that are used as case studies of how the a fore mentioned concepts and principles work in action, with lots of pictures enhanced with diagrams showing the vectors of forces applied. This part of the book could also be described as 'find out why your Systema throws are not working when your training partners resist'! There has been a lot of debate in the world of RMA during the past few years on whether the knowledge of biomechanical principles that apply during a throwing technique actually helps a student learn how to perform a throw, since as some claim 'your body will find out the right thing to do eventually'. In my opinion, this view is... well, rubbish, both in theory and in practice: in theory, because when teaching physical skills, even when using an ecological perspective, it is of crucial importance to define <i>the task</i> the trainee needs to perform in as clear terms as possible, and 'take your opponent down any way your body wants' is not in any way a clearly defined task. In practice, because I know people out there practicing RMA for years who still cannot perform a takedown against a partner who is not compliant. So, to sum this up, this manual will be a very useful addition to the library of people practicing any martial art that includes takedowns and throws. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">The <b>Principles of Disrupting Balance </b>video, filmed during the first Combat Lab residential training camp is a very useful companion to the structure breaking manual, to the degree that it contains video demonstrations of most of the throws explained in text and photos in the book.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><b>Encyclopedia </b><b>of Systema Drills</b>: The way I see it, this encyclopaedia is essentially Paul's training log after twelve years of studying Russian Martial Art, and I bet Paul suffers from some kind of OCD, because he must have kept an incredibly detailed log. I'm just joking, of course, but I bet Paul has kept notes for each one of the drills practiced during his sessions</span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="color: white;">and seminars with Ryabko, Vasiliev, Maksomtsov, Kostic and the other RMA instructors he's trained under. The good thing about this manual is that we get to read a very well structured and somehow shortened version of Paul's notes, which otherwise might have proved frighteningly extensive. All drills presented in the book are classified in chapters according to the attributes or skills developed, so we get chapters with drills on punching, 'leg fencing', defense from grabs, throwing and tripping, defense from knife attacks, low acrobatics, escaping joint locks and quite a few more. I admit there was a number of useful drills from my Systema Ryabko-Vasiliev days that I had totally forgotten about and I found in here (since, unlike Paul, I'm not big on keeping notes), but the stuff I found most interesting were the chapters on teaching people new to Systema and solo training. All in all, I'd say this is a most useful resource for people who want to start their own RMA training groups and do not have access to a certified instructor, but also for instructors who want to have a resource presenting some kind of a structured 'curriculum'. Finally, I want to point out that I really appreciated the fact that Paul is always referencing his sources and giving credit where it is due.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>ABOUT THE LAYOUT AND PRINTING QUALITY</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">The layout is quite simple and easy to read. What I did notice though is that the quality of pictures looks better on screen than on printings (I did print the manuals, since I cannot read anything longer than an article from a computer screen). The quality of the video was more than adequate.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>HOW TO GET THE BOOKS AND VIDEO</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span">These are downloadable products, instantly available through <a href="http://combatlab.russianmartialart.org.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the Combat Lab website</a>.<b><br /></b></span></span></span><br />
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-8532710422108685492012-11-21T00:48:00.001-08:002013-02-20T02:31:53.744-08:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos, Part 2: Five Principles of Maximizing Power<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here's the second from the series of videos I have promised to post on this blog, this time with the Dynamo Concepts system's five principles of maximizing power. This is plain sport science here, people, stuff that good boxing coaches (track and field coaches too) have known for years.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In a nutshell, these principles are:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. Ballistic movement: 'casting' the limbs</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2. Kinetic linking:
recruiting my joints consecutively, from proximal to distal, timing
recruitment in such a way that the movement at a distal joint is created
at the exact moment that maximum speed of movement has been developed
at the nearest proximal joint.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">3. Continuous movement: preserving momentum of the moving limbs, flowing from one direction to another.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">4.
Stored elastic energy: using connective tissues (both parallel and
serial elastic compnents of the muscle-tendon complex) as rubber bands
that stretch and spring back into their resting length, adding an
additional force component to that of muscular contraction.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">5. Rotational movement imparts additional kinetic energy to the moving limbs and involves more muscle groups in each movement.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I hope you find this video of help. Make sure you send me a message in case there is something I can explain in more depth.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,<br />
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Spyro </span></span></span><br />
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-19789873149369355882012-11-15T08:19:00.001-08:002013-02-20T02:32:10.458-08:00Dynamo Concepts Training Videos, Part 1: System Structure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, it's been a while now that I've been somehow quiet through this blog, since many changes have happened in my life this year and frankly, there hasn't been enough time to think and ponder upon training ideas. On the other side, within the past few months I have taken some time to film a number of training videos, in order to help some friends who live far away to put some of their martial knowledge into perspective, so that they can make their training more substan<span style="font-size: small;">tial and </span>productive. After giving it some thought and discussing it with a few close friends, I decided to make these videos available to everybody, through this blog. In any case, it is my belief that the knowledge I'm trying to convey through the videos has been out there and available to everybody all the time, as long as they took the time to think themselves instead of hiring a master to <span style="font-size: small;">'reveal'</span> it <span style="font-size: small;">to</span> them. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Anyway, I hope you enjoy the videos and make sure you drop a line in case I can explain something better. Please keep in mind that these are home videos and sometimes the quality leaves a lot to be desired - can't control background noise, <span style="font-size: small;">can you?</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This first video I am posting today is about the Dynamo Concepts system structure: Use your body in the most efficient way, affect the opponent's body in the most effective way, develop tactics and use them according to your strategy - that simple!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Train smart, train safe, be your own instructor,</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Spyro</span></span></span><br />
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-1311523668909712642012-10-15T04:34:00.002-07:002012-10-15T04:35:32.663-07:00Food for thought: training articles I recently read - (15-10-2012) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There's a small list of articles I read plus a TED video I saw during the past month, which I found of great interest - enjoy!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/functional_bodybuilding#.UGWnPQmovrQ.twitter" target="_blank"><b>Functional Bodybuilding</b></a>: <span style="color: white;">Can bodybuilding training protocols be used as part of a functional training program that will improve athletic ability? In this most interesting article, Coach Nick Tumminello argues that the answer is a resounding 'yes' (includes sample training program).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/the-breath-stress-relationship/" target="_blank"><b>The Breath - Stress Relationship</b></a><b>: </b><span style="color: white;">Strength training expert Mike Robertson argues that the breathing and stress are connected through a "the chicken or the egg came first?" type of relationship and that failure to assess breathing, and correct faulty breathing
patterns when necessary, means your programs will not be as effective as
they should be.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/understanding-your-muscles" target="_blank"><b>Everything You Know About Muscle Is Wrong</b></a>: <span style="color: white;">This is an article I first read a few years ago in the printed version on Men's Health magazine and recently saw again posted in the Facebook group of my good friend Thong Nguyen. The basic premise here is that, understanding the way myofasciae function and the ways to bring about training adaptations to them might be the secret to a stronger, more athletic body (includes excerpts from interviews with experts Thomas Myers and Rober Schleip, plus lots of exercise descriptions).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html" target="_blank"><b>Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language Shapes who you are</b></a>: <span style="color: white;">In this TED talk, social psychologist Amy Cuddy argues that our minds shape our bodies, but this also works the other way around, so there is actually a way to "fake it until you make it".</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><u><b>Book I am Currently Reading:</b></u></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1475024835?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1475024835&linkCode=xm2&tag=thimansmarart-20" target="_blank">Understanding Physical Conditioning: A Movement Based Approach</a></span></span> </div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">by Luis Preto, MSc</span></span></span></div>
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-72142162057970858402012-10-01T06:47:00.004-07:002012-10-01T07:07:56.785-07:00Guest post: Barbro Olsson on the Alexander Technique<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Alexander Technique teacher </i><i><b>Barbro Olsson</b> is by far one of the most talented practitioners I have had the privilege to learn from, regardless of discipline. I mean, have you ever met someone who, by placing their hand on your sacrum, can accurately determine whether you have excessive muscular activation on your thighs of calves? Well, Barbro is that person, and I still don't quite understand how she did it! I had the opportunity to take lessons in the Alexander Technique from her back in 2009 (if I recall correctly) during a period that I suffered from a nagging injury in the supraspinatus muscle in my right shoulder, so I could do very few things with my right arm. After a few lessons with her, my shoulder (as well as most of my joints) felt decompressed and strong enough for me to go back to my strength training. After completely recovering from my injury I continued taking lessons in the AT, because I felt I had a lot to gain in my posture and movement awareness. Later, Barbro also helped me polish my deadlift technique, during my preparation for a strength competition. Today, I still use some of the 'tips</i></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>' I learned from Barbro, to help my martial art and kettlebells students to understand a more efficient use of the body during specific tasks. Now, although I wholeheartedly recommend the Alexander Technique, if you asked me to describe in a few words what it is exactly, I would be able to. That is the reason I asked Barbro to share some of her insight for the readers of my blog. After staying off-line for four months, due to relocating from Sweden to Greece, the time has come to post this article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!</i></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUUyalG0wVf5kWN4CUO_XuwMDtyQI3y-9Jp9XiTgUtcO77RmK9EVWD42uIuMa1Pwy0NtBBiPJuiv8Aa74la88USttsH8V2upmDUZW58f5-ZH8mvvCkfcrG9CnB8WveE1OCspMByyshaeZE/s1600/Barbro+Olsson+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUUyalG0wVf5kWN4CUO_XuwMDtyQI3y-9Jp9XiTgUtcO77RmK9EVWD42uIuMa1Pwy0NtBBiPJuiv8Aa74la88USttsH8V2upmDUZW58f5-ZH8mvvCkfcrG9CnB8WveE1OCspMByyshaeZE/s320/Barbro+Olsson+2.jpg" title="Barbro Olsson" width="320" /></a><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">What can a
person who practices martial art, learn from the discoveries a young man – an actor
in his early twenties – made more than 100 years ago? F.M. Alexander was facing
vocal difficulties that occurred during his theatrical performances and from
his wish to cure his own problem, he gained great insight in how the Use of the
Self effects functioning and thus, he developed what is known as Alexander
Technique (AT).</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Young and
determined as he was, he started to observe himself in a mirror and he noted a movement
habit of his, involving his head, his neck and his back. He came to realize the
importance of having a free neck that allowed the head to have a direction out
and away from the body so that his back could lengthen and widen – he called
this the Primary Control.<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>He also
developed a set of principles which unify body and mind in order to help a
student work on himself during all sorts of activities (simple or complex),
through the process of stopping and inhibiting a reaction, thinking through the
best way to reach what one wants, and then allowing a more constructive
response. This process is very practical and useful when working with habits.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The AT-work
is quite physical and practical but at the same time, a very intellectual
technique. Fredrick Matthias Alexander called it a Psycho-Physical Reeducation,
because he realized he could not affect one part of himself without considering
the wholeness of how the body/mind worked. The Primary Control, when it is
working, creates a basis for a natural coordination of the whole body, by
allowing the head to lead and the body to follow. The Primary Control and
posture reflexes will result in ”good posture”, a strong back, and connection
through the whole body, which will benefit anyone who is practicing martial
art.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Every time
you react to a stimulus, your habitual patterns of thoughts, emotions,
movements, and posture are activated. Take a minute to think about how you got
out of bed this morning: Where did your
movement start from, that split second when your intention of getting out of
bed was formed? Was it your feet? Your legs? Stomach? Chest? Arms? Neck? Head? What
happened to each one of your body parts? What happened when you actually
started to move? What information did you perceive through your senses while
you were doing this? What did you see? Did you relate to what you saw? What did
you hear? Where was your mind, your thoughts while you were doing what you were
doing? Probably somewhere else – perhaps you were already making coffee while
you were still sitting on the bed. Well, if the mind is in the kitchen it´s not
easy for it to know what the body – still in bed – is up to! <i>We usually don´t think of how we do what we
do – it all happens on a subconscious level.</i></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">We have all
habitual patterns of how we walk, stand or sit in front of the computer. We have
even more habits when we’re driving a car, standing up from a seated position,
talking or even thinking. These situations and, more or less, everything we do,
think and feel, trigger the habits of movement or posture, that which we “practice
and train” over and over again, day after day. Eventually, the habits become
the Use of our selves. A student of any martial art that takes up the Alexander
Technique will soon realize that his/her habitual movement pattern in bending
to pick something up from the floor or reaching for a coffee mug will eventually
transfer to their performance on the mat or in the dojo.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">When studying
the Alexander Technique students develop and expand their awareness of body and
mind. The practice awakens or lifts the subconscious to a conscious level.
Through self-observation and feedback from the teacher (both vocal feedback and
”hands on”), an awareness and understanding develops of how the intention, the pure thought of getting
out of a chair, for example, trigger muscular tensions and a habitual pattern
of standing up.<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>Through the
AT the proprioceptive sense develops and allows a person to more accurately
sense the position of the body in space and in relationship to itself. This
gives a basis for better functioning of the musculo-skeletal system which will
mean less wear and tear in your tissues. A martial artist can benefit in numerous
ways by applying the Alexander Technique principles in martial practice: better
balance, coordination, body awareness, smoother movements, increased strength, better
grounding, focus of mind, accelerated learning and a good natural posture are
just a few of them. Should you decide to apply the teachings of the AT in your
everyday life, injuries can be prevented
and recovery from injuries can happen much faster.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Alexander Technique is a great experience and a process to bring into Your
life! </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">As F.M
Alexander said: “<i>You are not here to do
exercises, or to learn to do something right, but to get able to meet a
stimulus that always puts you wrong and to learn to deal with it</i>”. Now, who
wouldn’t benefit from something like that?</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: cyan;"><i> For more information on Barbro Olsson and her work, you can visit her website (in Swedish)<span style="font-size: small;">: <a href="http://www.alexandertechnique.se/">http://www.alexandertechnique.se/</a> </span></i></span></span></span></span></div>
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-44161320496580976012012-06-18T07:39:00.000-07:002012-10-01T07:03:23.483-07:00On Breathing: An Interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin, Part 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is the fourth and final part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing. In the <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/04/on-breathing-interview-with-dr-sergey_04.html">first part</a> of the interview, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general, in the <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/04/on-breathing-part-2-find-out-how-well.html">second part</a> he described a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing, while in the <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/05/on-breathing-part-3.html">third part</a> he discussed matters related to breath training as treatment to diseases, the ways that our diet can affect our breathing. In this fourth installment he discusses the use of breath exercises in managing survival stress and enhancing sports performance.</span></i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Sqa8Z-rMuH0rcLJeGZZXJO_2vlYSmSY3y2LFDCKjN23GdSTqCb2qWoIBivUeRV345jFYzdmEuX6xG7HtUBfsbifXv0PSu4XhBZ7DEvW-1cg6EXkgGGT3j1Amy-Mk_KNON9Yx1acZ8Rp2/s1600/ZinatulinSpecial+Forces.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Sqa8Z-rMuH0rcLJeGZZXJO_2vlYSmSY3y2LFDCKjN23GdSTqCb2qWoIBivUeRV345jFYzdmEuX6xG7HtUBfsbifXv0PSu4XhBZ7DEvW-1cg6EXkgGGT3j1Amy-Mk_KNON9Yx1acZ8Rp2/s400/ZinatulinSpecial+Forces.JPG" title="Breath training for special police units - Dr Sergey Zinatulin" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching the use of the Frolov Device to members of a special police unit in Novosibirsk</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Dr Zinatulin, I happen to know that over the years you have consulted special units of the police in Russia on the use of breathing exercises to minimize the effects of survival stress. Is it long-term breath training you are advocating to law enforcements officers or specific techniques that should be used when one is under survival stress? </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></b><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I have a special interest in this subject since my son does his service in a special tactical assault group. I have also been invited to teach a number of seminars to various special units. In general, breathing techniques requiring the use of the Frolov Device that are being used by sportsmen can just as well be used to enhance fitness for special forces soldiers. I also teach basic methods of breathing without the device, which are extremely useful for relieving stress and the replenishing of vital resources while on the field. These techniques have been developed around Buteyko’s core ideas and my personal experience on the subject of breath-training. The main focus in my method is to perform slow diaphragmatic breathing using strict formulas of duration of inhalation, exhalation and holding the breath. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><b style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Let’s move ahead to the relationship between breathing and athletic performance. First of all, are the breathing habits and patterns of an athlete necessarily healthy? Does physical training guarantee optimum breathing patterns for health?</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></b><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Respiratory Illnesses in sportsmen are not rare. According to the available data, the rate of bronchial asthma in athletes is higher than in general population. It is actually assumed that nearly 20% of the athletes participating in the Beijing Olympic Games had symptoms of exercise-induced asthma (EIA).</span><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There is no doubt that physical activity can increase the capacity of the respiratory system. A very interesting example is that of Australian potato farmer Cliff Young who, in 1983, at the age of 61, he won the first Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon. Young was not a professional athlete but he spent most of his life running in heavy shoes in order to round up his sheep! But in order for one to achieve elite performance, special breath-training can be used to develop the reserve capacities of the respiratory system that can translate to significant improvement, especially in certain types of sports. This includes resistance training of the respiratory muscles both in inhalation and exhalation, increasing the vital capacity of the lungs, and developing resistance to hypoxia. Most often, what athletes do is improve their ability to hyperventilate during intense effort, but they rarely learn how to regulate their breathing in order to restore the body after the effort. In order to balance performance with overall health, athletes need to learn how to breathe optimally in a normal state so that they do not develop hyperventilation syndrome by transferring the breathing patterns they use when they're performing their sport to their everyday life. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><b><span style="color: cyan; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What is the difference between training the breath with and without a device? Is there an advantage in using a device?</span></b><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Training with various equipment and devices is widely accepted in sports circles – athletes lift weights or use exercise machines to increase muscle strength, endurance, coordination and movement speed. For athletes, it has been proven time and again that training with equipment is more effective than using bodyweight exercises exclusively. It is the same with breath-training: training with a device allows us to create more complex and varied training programs at each stage of sportsman physical training (preparing for competition, competition, rehabilitation). With the help of a device we can develop and regulate additional resistance during both inhalation and exhalation, perform breathing trainings in regimes of hypoxia (low CO2) or hypercapnia (high CO2). </span><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I personally advocate the use of the Frolov device, since it allows us to manipulate all the above parameters. In addition to that, it offers added benefits such as the vibratory stimulation of the respiratory muscles and bronchi, while it can also be used for performing inhalations with essential oils. </span><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Finally, I often like to point out another two important factors regarding breath-training that are not talked about much: breathing exercises improve adaptation to changes in climate and time zones which is important for sportsmen who compete internationally, plus breathing exercises with a device help athletes recover after injuries and surgeries faster and easier. </span><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><b style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Can breath-training enhance athletic performance in measurable ways? For example, is there solid research indicating that training the breath can improve aerobic power or capacity or maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max)? I know for sure some of this blog’s readers would be most grateful if you could point them to that research.</span></b><br style="color: cyan; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There are numerous studies about it in the sports medicine literature and this link is just one of those studies: <a href="http://www.intellectbreathing.com/files/sport-device_eng.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.intellectbreathing.com/files/sport-device_eng.pdf</a>. </span><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><b style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Is there currently any particularly promising research conducted on the effects of breath-training on our health? If it depended entirely upon you, which area would you chose to conduct research in?</span></b><br style="color: cyan; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Nowadays, laboratories always have some research going on around breathing and its potential to affect health. This is closely connected with the need to qualify specialists that work in special conditions (lifeguards, divers, spacemen), and quite important for the development of non-pharmacological treatments and prevention of various diseases and the improvement of the quality of life for the elderly and patients with Parkinson’s, Altzheimer’s and other diseases. Rich Stacel (a natural health practitioner, and practitioner of Chinese martial arts) summed up this situation very successfully when he said that ”...science has only recently begun to open up to the idea that breathing might have more going on with it than the simple exchange of gases with each breath. Scientists are now coming to see that breathing also acts as a metabolic regulator, has immune boosting potential, increases oxygen flow to the brain and a lot more”.</span><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In my opinion, the most exciting part of this research is breathing and brain function. Our breath is a link between body and mind. The brain weighs only 2% from the body mass, but consumes 20% of oxygen coming into the body, and that is exactly why the quality of breathing directly influences the condition and function of the brain. At average, a single man takes 14 breaths per minute, a trained one 8, and one that is meditating only 6. This type of breathing is considered by scientists as deep and efficient. American scientist R. Wallis has found out that during meditation the body starts to work more efficiently, consuming 16% less oxygen, only 8% less than during sleep! Breathing exercises improve not only our emotional state, but the intellect, attention, long-term and short-term memory as well. If we think about it, these benefits are of the utmost importance for our civilization, because the progress is dependent upon the products of our intellect. Prevention of stress-related and psychosomatic diseases is also highly important. My professional experience shows that breath-training improves patients’ state even in the most severe of cases like head injury after-effects, multiple sclerosis, depression, and stroke. From a social point of view, an important field of the breathing-related research should be obstetrics, because the health of a baby – the future of our society, that is - fully depends on the quality of the mother’s breathing. I sincerely hope that medical science will soon begin extensive research on this remarkable resource and we will get to witness the health revolution of humanity!</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This fourth installment concluded the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin. I would like to thank him for offering valuable insight into this subject which is often the source of misunderstanding in martial arts circles. I would also like to thank Anna </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Chistyakova</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> for translating back and forth between myself and the good doctor, as well as my student Charles Franz, Thong Guyen, Pete Jensen and Joao Furia for sending over their questions. </span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: cyan;">For more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiration Training Device, please visit:</span></span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: cyan;"><a href="http://www.intellectbreathing.com/">www.intellectbreathing.com</a> </span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: cyan;"><a href="http://www.vitaltkoncept.se/">www.vitaltkoncept.se</a> </span></span></span>
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-61315577073771650442012-05-15T06:54:00.000-07:002012-10-01T07:04:09.858-07:00On Breathing: An Interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin, Part 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="color: cyan; font-weight: normal;">This is the third part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing and breath-training. In <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/04/on-breathing-interview-with-dr-sergey_04.html"><span style="color: #b9e7e7;">the first part of the interview</span></a>, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general, while in the <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/04/on-breathing-part-2-find-out-how-well.html">second part</a>, he described a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing. In this installment he discusses matters related to breath training as treatment to diseases, the ways that our diet can affect our breathing and offers his opinion on some breath-training methods used in psychotherapy and sports.</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcPCgzNuWRcfZ6Md7MTcmxleT_QJmTUucOdNN-4f63OwABhIL_kpvUla4m6_jj5VNfmb6uI4KWCK9kep2e35kEmRRRcJxsaN45UmB3Q71OsbqD_EJJEHYj1cRqqYeEjMsCeDCERl8KNZvU/s1600/Zinatulin+Special+Forces.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="300" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcPCgzNuWRcfZ6Md7MTcmxleT_QJmTUucOdNN-4f63OwABhIL_kpvUla4m6_jj5VNfmb6uI4KWCK9kep2e35kEmRRRcJxsaN45UmB3Q71OsbqD_EJJEHYj1cRqqYeEjMsCeDCERl8KNZvU/s400/Zinatulin+Special+Forces.jpg" title="Breath training for the Russian Army special forces - Dr Sergey Zinatulin" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: small;">Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching the use of the Frolov Respiratory Training Device </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: small;">to members of the Russian army special forces</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: cyan;">Dr Zinatulin, in cancer related research, it is often claimed that hypoxic cells are more aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Do you believe that breath training can affect the oxygenation of cells and thus be relevant in cancer treatment?</span></b> </span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When we talk about cancer treatment, we are usually referring to special methods such as surgery, chemotherapy, etc. However, we should remember that the success of cancer treatment depends not only on the treatment done, but also on the overall state of the patient’s health. Further rehabilitation of the patient is very important, since surgery does not equal recovery. While a lot is said about the importance of a proper diet on the overall health, almost nothing is mentioned on the role of breathing exercises in treatment and rehabilitation of cancer patients. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /><span style="color: white;">Breathing exercises are a valuable tool for the successful rehabilitation of oncological patients, as part of a health-improving physical training program. Experience from oncological patients treatment shows that they need rehabilitation even after successful surgery. These people are in a state of stress, their physiological reserves are reduced, and their immunity is weakened. Properly chosen breathing exercises, combined with the oncologists’ recommendations, help restore the nervous and immune systems to their normal state and provide for effective prevention of recurrence. <br /><br />My personal experience in working with cancer patients is not extensive, but my observations are the same as those of the specialists in the field. For example, Johnny Suskevitch, consultant of the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, has taught breathing exercises to most of his patients since 1999 and about half of them suffer from cancer. Japanese professor Muraki Hirosama who studied different breathing methods says: “<i>…few people know that great results can be achieved just by breathing properly. The most impressive effect of correct stomach-breathing is an increased ability of the body to heal itself. Many diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, liver and stomach conditions are treated better if the patient combines treatment with breathing exercises. Moreover, medications intake decreases greatly</i>”. Finally, my colleague doctor S. N. Paschenko reports good results on using the Buteyko method in women with breast cancer: special treatment led to increased three-year survival rate, better quality of life, including reduced fear of unfavorable outcomes of the treatment, increased work capacity, easier social adaptation and relief of edema in upper extremities.</span><br /><b><span style="color: cyan;"></span></b><br /><b><span style="color: cyan;">How about the relationship of nutrition with breathing? For example, we know there are foods that can trigger allergic reactions and also some other, dairy products for example, that increase the production of mucus. What would an ‘optimum breathing diet’ be like? What should we avoid?</span></b><br /><b><span style="color: cyan;"></span></b><br /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This topic seems to be of great interest to many people, because quality of nutrition is considered to be the main factor for health and longevity. But it is almost impossible to give specific universal nutrition guidelines, due to the fact that breathing exercises are performed by different people, with different needs, living under different conditions and circumstances, from children to seniors, from sedentary patients to professional athletes. </span><br /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />Various foods have different pH indexes and thus can indirectly influence the activity of the breathing center, the pH balance in blood and tissues, lung ventilation and breathing processes in tissues. K.P. Buteyko has pointed out some factors that can cause overbreathing, and those are: overeating of high-protein foods (fish, eggs, pork, fatty cheese, black caviar, or lots of vegetable protein) and consuming strong tea, coffee, cacao, chocolate and alcohol in large quantities. Also according to Buteyko, vegetarianism and intermittent fasting make your breathing lighter. </span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: white;">My experience shows that when people perform respiratory training consistently, they need less food. On the whole, there is only one basic one recommendation on nutrition I can give to people who practice respiratory training: keep your diet diverse and consume everything in moderate quantities - avoid overeating and avoid eating the same foods all the time. Deep-fried and smoked foods, sweets and sugar, white flour products, alcohol and coffee should be kept to a minimum. It is also important to switch to a vegetarian diet from time to time and occasionally do short periods of fasting with fruit juices or just water. Finally, keep a log of what you eat to determine which foods are best for you. </span> </span><br /><span style="color: cyan; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b></b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: cyan; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b>In cases of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, is seems quite obvious that breath training can offer great benefits. But, what if the patient is at a very young age? I know that the main focus of your practice is treatment and health improvement in children, so in your expert opinion, how easily can we teach breathing exercises to a five year old, for example? Do you have any specific suggestions for such cases?</b></span><br /><br /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Indeed, respiratory exercises are mandatory in cases of lung diseases (asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, after pneumonia or lung surgery) and just as important in cases of children suffering from lung diseases. It is fairly easy to teach breath-training to school children, because they understand those exercises better, but I have also worked with pre-school children of age 3 to 5. In such cases, I have found that the most effective approach is to introduce the simplest exercise – slow diaphragmatic breathing through the nose – in the form of play. It is most important for a child to breathe with the diaphragm. You can also teach a child to exhale slowly by having her make bubbles with a straw in a glass of water. It is more complicated to teach a child how to use a respiratory training device, such as the Frolov device, but these basic exercises we mentioned can be quite effective. It is also important to teach a child to breathe only through the nose during the whole day. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /><span style="color: cyan;"><b>Let’s talk a little about the connection between breathing and our psychological state: we know that psychological stress can alter our breathing patterns. How does this happen? Can it work the other way around, and by this I mean, can we alter our breathing patterns to minimize the effects of psychological stress on our body?</b></span><br /><br /><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Breathing, brain function and the nervous system are closely connected. Psychiatrists, psychotherapists and physiologists know that all emotions (happiness and sorrow, anxiety and depression, fear and calmness, strain and relaxation) have a direct and immediate influence on the breathing function. To simplify things, think of it this way: when we are crying or laughing, the rhythm of our breathing is offset, we are ‘missing a beat’. It is mainly stress that throws the system that regulates breathing off balance and in turn deregulates the function of organs (heart, intestine, etc.) and systems (endocrine, immune). In this sense, it is of great importance that we perform respiratory training <i>regularly</i>, so that we can prevent possible ‘breakdowns’. After periods of great stress, I suggest daily breath-training sessions combined with relaxation for 7-10 days in order for one to recover mentally and physically. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /><span style="color: cyan;"><b></b></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: cyan;"><b>There are some methods of self-exploration and therapy (for example, Stanislav Grof’s Holotropic Breathing), advocating the use of hyperventilation in order to achieve non-ordinary states of consciousness for the purpose of self-exploration. Such methods claim to be successful in treating psychological problems, but what do you think about possible side-effects in the physical health? Are there cases where consciously practicing hyperventilation can actually be good for us?</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: white;">It’s true that the experience from using Grof’s method shows how deeply and strongly one can influence the mind through breathing. I personally view this and other similar techniques as ways of affecting consciousness by way of breathing, but not as breath-training, and that is why such methods should only be performed under the supervision of a specialist, as opposed to respiratory training, which we can practice without supervision. A Holotropic Breathing session can take up to 2 or 3 hours depending on the level of participants. A much less extreme alternative that I suggest, in order to effectively relieve stress or anxiety, is to lie on your back, inhale slowly for about 10 seconds, exhale in a relaxed manner for 10-15 seconds, and repeat for 5-10 minutes.</span> </span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /><span style="color: cyan;"><b>How about practicing breath holding? I believe there is a specific practice in a Russian martial art system where practitioners hold their breath while performing physical exercise (for example, push-ups) in order to gradually induce a feeling similar to that of panic and then recover by breathing fast and sharply. Is it possible to build ‘mental toughness’ through breathing practices such as this one? How about the effects such practices might have on our health?</b></span><br /><br /><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Yuri Bulanov, doctor of sports medicine, who has been working a lot with strength training and bodybuilding, has developed his own patented system of breathing training, which is based on breath holding. He calls it hypoxic breathing training, since when you are holding your breath, the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood is increased and the oxygen saturation is decreased. Bulanov thinks that breath holding in a calm state has a strong effect on the body, but he adds that it should be practiced with great caution. </span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /><span style="color: white;">Breath holding is an extreme type of training that places significant stress on the body. It can be used as a method of physical training for different sports, but it is extensively used in free diving. If you are interested in that, you can find detailed descriptions of specific methods in the book «Breatheology» by Stig Avall Severinsen, a four time World Champion freediver. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that the experience of both sports medicine and martial arts tells us that it’s more important to be aware of your breathing and learn how to control it during physical activity, rather than to be able to hold it for long periods of time.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: cyan;"><i>This third part concludes the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey ZinatulinFor more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiratory Training Device, please visit:</i></span><br /><span style="color: cyan;"><a href="http://www.intellectbreathing.com/"><span style="color: #b9e7e7;">www.intellectbreathing.com</span></a> </span><br /><span style="color: cyan;"><a href="http://www.vitaltkoncept.se/"><span style="color: #b9e7e7;">www.vitaltkoncept.se</span></a> </span><i style="color: cyan;"> </i></span></span> </span> </span> </span> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> <br /> </span></div>
Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-58710888648501893912012-04-10T03:02:00.002-07:002012-04-10T03:19:21.360-07:00On Breathing, Part 2: Find out how well you are breathing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h3 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: cyan; font-weight: normal;">This is the second part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing and breath-training. In <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/04/on-breathing-interview-with-dr-sergey_04.html">the first part of the interview</a>, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general. In this installment he describes a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing and provide a reference point to determine the effectiveness of our breath training.</span></i><b style="color: cyan;"> </b></span></h3><h3 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: cyan;"> </b></span></h3><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-o5aysTnr1q37SrCOiygPe0j3nbAFv3v_Ww08RJPDQhBlfdk1hFu1eFBa9-pENQMXW5PpmWe34Z8mu8pTMnhP5-rC6whZ9GJQ5gHMv0gWc1CniqVPQt-YSBSTVNkL9dQOf7VV27nV6OE/s1600/Zinatulin+-children.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-o5aysTnr1q37SrCOiygPe0j3nbAFv3v_Ww08RJPDQhBlfdk1hFu1eFBa9-pENQMXW5PpmWe34Z8mu8pTMnhP5-rC6whZ9GJQ5gHMv0gWc1CniqVPQt-YSBSTVNkL9dQOf7VV27nV6OE/s400/Zinatulin+-children.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching his 'ABCs of breathing' program </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">to the students of a school in Novosibirsk, Russia.</td></tr>
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</tbody></table><h3 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: cyan;">Dr Zinatulin, is there a simple way or a test we can easily perform to find out how well we are breathing?</b></span></h3><h3 style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></h3><h3 style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We can assess our breathing at home by using a number of simple tests. Your readers can go ahead and try any of the following tests or all of them.</span> </span><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">First we can determine our <b>type of breathing</b>, which can be <b>thoracic, mixed or diaphragmatic</b>. Sit comfortably, preferably with you back and neck supported, and note what happens to your torso when breathing in. In thoracic breathing, the chest goes upwards and ribs expand, during the inhalation. In mixed breathing, both the chest and the frontal abdominal expand while breathing in. In abdominal, or diaphragmatic, breathing, the frontal abdominal wall comes forward and the stomach swells, still the chest does not expand during the inhalation. As we mentioned earlier, when in a calm state, only diaphragmatic breathing is recommended. In healthy persons, diaphragm expansion during the inhalation act is 6-8 cm, while in physically trained people it can be up to 10 cm.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h3><h3 style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h3><h3 style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The second assessment test you can perform is to determine the<b> frequency of your breathing</b>. Count the number of breathing cycles you perform in a minute in a state of rest. One breathing cycle consists of one inhalation and one exhalation. If you count 15 breathing motions and one inhalation, this would be 15.5 motions per minute. According to the Buteyko Table of Health zones, <b>a healthy person should be performing somewhere around 8 breathing cycles per minute</b>.</span></span></h3><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Another thing you can check is your <b>breathing rhythm</b>. Healthy people usually have a very rhythmical breathing in a calm state, but each with their own special characteristics. All you have to do is pay attention to your breathing, and follow the peaks and valleys of each cycle from inhalation to exhalation, paying attention to the points at which one phase changes into the other. Also note whether or not you make pauses during the two phases and if yes, before which part of breathing cycle. <br />
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These three parameters (type, frequency and rhythm) are what we could call ‘external characteristics’ of breathing, they give us a basic idea about its external, visible aspects. But breathing, just like an iceberg, has an invisible and actually more important part – it is the part of breathing that is happening inside the body, in our cells. This determines the quality of our breathing and state of our health. <br />
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There are three tests that are commonly used to evaluate the quality of our breathing. The first one is known as the <b>Control Pause test</b>, in which you measure the amount of time you can comfortably hold your breath after a calm exhalation. This is a rather sensitive test: you shut your nostrils with your fingers after you calmly exhale and then you hold until you feel the very first signs of air shortage. You should not hold your breath until you feel discomfort! At the end of the test you should be able to resume your breathing exactly like before, without taking a deep breath – if you do, it means that you held your breath longer than the test requires, so the measurement you will get will be inaccurate. Do not be surprised if your control pause is very short. Even athletes rarely do better than 30-40 seconds. According to KP Buteiko, the control pause for healthy adults is somewhere around 60 seconds. <b>If a person has CP of 60 seconds, this person is considered to have a normal CO2 content</b>. <br />
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The second test is known as <b>Stange’s Test or breath-holding at the stage of a calm inhalation</b>. Breathe in and out normally, then take another inhalation at about 80% of your maximum capacity and then hold your breath. Once again, do not hold your breath until you feel extreme discomfort. A good result for this test, indicating good health, would be <b>75±5,5 seconds for men, and 54±5,2 seconds for women</b>. </span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
The third test you can perform is <b>Hench’s Test, or breath-holding at the stage of a calm exhalation</b>. This is similar to the Control Pause test, but the difference is that, after a calm exhalation, you want to hold your breath for as long as you can, without of course going to extreme levels of discomfort. In general, <b>a good result for this test would be 46,0±3,3 seconds for men, and 32±4,0 seconds for women</b>. </span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
These tests show how tolerant our body is to hypercapnia (high level of CO2) and hypoxia (low level of O2). If a person suffers from disease, these parameters decrease. On the other side, through regular breath-training, these parameters can increase by 10-20 seconds, and that is why I believe that breathing exercises are essential to maintain excellent health. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i style="color: cyan;">In the third part of this interview Dr Zinatulin will address the effect of breathing on brain performance and the immune function of our body and he will also discuss the possible benefits of breath training in cases of serious diseases, such as cancer.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: cyan;">For more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiration Training Device, please visit:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: cyan;"><a href="http://www.intellectbreathing.com/">www.intellectbreathing.com</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: cyan;"><a href="http://www.vitaltkoncept.se/">www.vitaltkoncept.se</a> </span><i style="color: cyan;"> </i></span></div></div>Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-38691416899866241932012-04-04T08:18:00.001-07:002012-04-10T02:20:38.908-07:00On Breathing: an Interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin - Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i style="color: cyan;">Today, I am really happy to post the first part of my interview with Dr Sergey Nakifovich Zinatulin, on the subjects of breathing and breath-training. Now, judging from the variety of breathing-related suggestions, aphorisms, truisms, and 'facts' that I have heard over the past 25 years that I have been into martial arts, my conclusion is that, although the importance of breathing is almost universally accepted in circles of martial artists, </i><i><span style="color: cyan;">its function is barely understood. In this sense, I thought Dr Zinatulin might be able to offer valuable insight, so it was about two months ago that I announced that this interview would happen and asked the readers of this blog to send me the questions they would like to ask the doctor. I have to admit though that what I originally conceived as an interview, ended up being closer to a small scientific textbook. I hope the contents are as insightful to you as they have been to me. A great big thanks to my friends who contributed their questions for this interview!</span></i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocoa7bAGWU9rTvUc-bxpLgONROBuTxGraPG4odoBrQJiwdopkXXeTpMbkkuJ4isqq4aLJDWpWPGmkJjcH4A6y1N-63AOxmki85H6wU3DXXXrlguX4sPE8452g9JrP9E6HghCFRdxHrUS4/s1600/Dr+Zinatulin.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocoa7bAGWU9rTvUc-bxpLgONROBuTxGraPG4odoBrQJiwdopkXXeTpMbkkuJ4isqq4aLJDWpWPGmkJjcH4A6y1N-63AOxmki85H6wU3DXXXrlguX4sPE8452g9JrP9E6HghCFRdxHrUS4/s320/Dr+Zinatulin.JPG" width="213" /></a><span style="color: cyan; font-size: small;"><b>Dr Zinatulin, could you please introduce yourself to the readers of this blog, and could you provide some information about your background?</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">I was born in 1959. In 1982 I graduated from medical University of Arkhangelsk, Russia with a major in therapy and specialization in psychiatry, neurology and narcology. I worked in this field for about 4 years, and then in 1987-1988 I took courses in the Buteyko Breathing Technique under Konstantin Buteyko himself. </span></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="color: white;">From 1997 on, I have been studying and researching the use of different breathing training devices, respiratory kinesiotherapy, and developed various methods of respiratory training both with and without special devices. My main focus is treatment and health improvement in children: I’ve been worked in a clinic for children, created a special program to teach the Buteyko method to children and have overseen its application in kindergartens and primary schools. I have authored several books on respiratory training and I have lectured extensively on the subject.For the results of my work in the field of healthcare and clinical rehabilitation, I was awarded the A.P. Chizhevsky gold medal “For Professionalism and Business Reputation” by the Russian Academy of Medical and Technical Science.</span></span></div><div style="color: black;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><br style="color: white;" /> <span style="color: white;">I’m currently working as the head of the scientific department of the Russian company </span><a href="http://www.intellectbreathing.com/">Dinamika</a>; <span style="color: white;">I am offering consultations to patients from all over the world on the use of the</span> <a href="http://www.vitaltkoncept.se/frolovs-andningstranare-hem.html">Frolov device</a><span style="color: white;">. From February 2012 I also started giving classes of my program for children “ABC of Breathing” in one of the best schools in Novosibirsk. </span></span></div></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="color: cyan;"><b>Who or what was it that prompted you to devote your life and career to the study and research of breath training, respiratory therapy of various diseases, and the use of breathing devices?</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br />
During the period I was studying under Konstantin Buteyko, I became convinced of the health benefits that we can reap from breath-training - I completely restored my nose breathing and managed to cure myself of my stomach ulcers, gastritis and cholecystitis. My personal experience and numerous successful cases of other Buteyko practitioners lead me to the decision to further develop these ideas scientifically and in practice. Down the road, I got to understand that learning the Buteyko method can be quite difficult, and that is why I became interested in breath-training devices that help learn correct breathing in a much simpler way. </span><br />
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From 1987 until today I have witnessed many cases of patients that recovered ‘miraculously’ thanks to the benefits of breath-training, with help from our specialized knowledge, after putting in a lot of effort themselves, of course.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b style="color: cyan;">Everybody seems to know (or claims to know) that “Breathing is Living”. Would you like to explain in the simplest way possible why this is true, and perhaps provide an analogy so that we better understand the role breathing plays in our body?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br />
I have developed a special program where children from the age of 5 years old get to learn about the benefits of controlled breathing. I use a very simple test to help them understand how important breathing is and you can try it too with your children: put some food and a glass of water on a table. Have them sit by the table, then hold their breath and wait to see what is the first thing they desire; air, water of food? It is air, of course!</span><br />
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Medical research shows us that a human being is a single whole. It is a proven fact that breathing is part and parcel of blood circulation, metabolism, energy exchange, acid-alkaline balance, and water-salt metabolism. The interconnection of breathing with sleep, memory, emotional tone, ability to work, physiological and adaptive capacity, etc. is also widely known. Between all those, we exist due to the energy of breathing. At my lectures and workshops, I often call breathing “an invisible thread of life” - if it is cut, we die. <br />
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<span style="color: cyan;"><b>Each and every one of us breathes, but is there a correct or an incorrect way to breathe? How could we define ‘correct breathing’ and what are its benefits?</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br />
The first rule of correct breathing entails nasal breathing (both during inhalation and exhalation) at rest and during light physical activity. When we are speaking, singing, or we are engaged in a moderate physical activity, we should inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.</span><br />
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Second rule: diaphragmatic breathing is the only normal type of breathing in a state of rest. During rest or light physical activity (quiet walking, slow race, speaking, singing), we must learn to breathe diaphragmatically, expanding the stomach during the inhalation. During intense physical activity, if necessary, diaphragmatic breathing can be augmented through work performed by the auxiliary respiratory muscles (intercostals and thoracic). Once intense physical activity is completed we should once again return to diaphragmatic breathing.</span><br />
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Correct breathing improves lung ventilation and prevents hyperventilation. It has a positive effect on the circulation of blood and lymph, our metabolism, the function of intestinal organs and our nervous system. <br />
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<b style="color: cyan;">How does our breathing become disturbed in the first place? How do we ‘learn’ to breathe wrong?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br />
Generally, the brain respiratory center controls the whole process of breathing. The neurons of the respiratory center receive information about the composition of inhaled air (temperature, humidity and various impurities), gaseous composition of air mixture in the alveoli of the lungs, gaseous composition of the blood, the lungs ventilation parameters (inspiratory and expiratory volume, respiration rate and frequency), pulmonic tissue stretching, ventilation apparatus performance, and respiratory muscles tension. The respiratory center receives this information non-stop; it analyzes, processes, and compares it with data on body temperature, metabolism, acid-alkaline balance, pulse and blood pressure indexes, etc. Therefore our breathing reacts to pretty much all the processes happening inside our body and in the environment. K.P. Buteyko, for example, pointed out that overeating (especially too much protein), allergens, hypodynamia, sleeping on one’s back, stress, smoking, and alcohol consumption have a bad influence on our breathing. <br />
I personally think that the main reason of disturbed breathing in people today is the lack of a “breathing culture”. Now that I am working with school children I see proof of it all the time: children at the age of 7-8 know about food supplements and vitamins, but know nothing about controlled breathing and correct posture. Gay Hendriks has made a similar observation in his book, Conscious Breathing; he writes that he has rarely seen newborns who couldn’t breathe using their diaphragm, but among 6-graders it was almost impossible to find one who could. </span><br />
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If we fail to understand the way to breathe properly, all other factors lead to dysfunctional breathing, chronic hyperventilation and other disorders. And this, in turn, leads to development of different diseases (lung, heart, vessels, metabolism, and nervous system pathologies). </span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="color: cyan;"><b>How about oxygen and carbon dioxide? Could you explain how each one affects the acid-alkaline balance in our body in the process of breathing, and subsequently how does each of them affect our health?</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><br />
Through the process of breathing, oxygen is brought to the lungs, where it gets absorbed into the bloodstream and then delivered to all the body’s tissues for the important energy-creating function of metabolism. The part of the breathing process that takes place on the cellular level is the oxidation of food molecules that releases energy and has carbon dioxide and water molecules as by-products. In our cells, breathing and nutrition come together in metabolism, which is a constant process of substances and energy exchange.<br />
Regarding oxygen, our body uses approximately 600 liters per day, in a calm state. About 90% of that oxygen is used in the cells for oxidation of nutrients, to provide energy for the various functions of the organism. The thing is that part of this oxygen creates active forms of oxygen with high oxidation activity. These are known as free radicals. These are are very active chemical substances that circulate in the body and are ready to react with other molecules of vital importance to the living cell. If oxidation stress develops in the body, it may be the cause for a number of serious diseases, including heart disease, cancer, cataract, atherosclerosis, and many others. The contradiction here is that a certain amount of free radicals is actually necessary – for example, our immune cells use free radicals to kill bacteria. In this sense, it is important to maintain balance between the role of oxygen as oxidant of nutrients, required to produce utilizable energy, and the damaging role of oxygen as oxidant of DNA molecules and cell membranes. Interestingly, this balance can be maintained with the help of carbon dioxide that is a universal inhibitor of active oxygen forms generation in cells: it noticeably slows down the reactions where active oxygen forms are generated. Thus, it protects our cells from destruction.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;">Carbon dioxide develops in our cells as a result of chemical reactions. For a long time it was assumed that it is a waste product of cellular respiration and must be removed from the body. That is why it was considered important to breathe a lot and deeply to get more of the “good” oxygen and remove more of the “bad” carbon dioxide. Nowadays, after long-term research, it has been established how significant the biological role of carbon dioxide is. It is now common knowledge that carbon dioxide plays an active part in the regulation of breath, blood circulation, metabolism, acid-base balance, electrolytic balance, permeability of cell membranes, nerve cells excitability, bronchial motor tone, and the tone of blood vessels, digestive organs, and urinary tracts. Through specific breath-training practices we can ‘harness’ the healing properties of carbon dioxide and use them to prevent a great number of diseases or assist in their treatment.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"><i style="color: cyan;">In the second part of this interview, Dr Zinatulin will present a number of simple tests we can use to assess how well we are breathing.</i></span><br />
</span></div></div>Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-5217168969870115312012-03-12T04:10:00.003-07:002012-04-03T06:56:07.901-07:00Wrestling made easy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The purpose of this blog post is to provide a short report of the Dynamo Wrestling [1] Concepts four-month course. I will try to analyze the concepts and principles which were explored during the course, describe the training methods that were used, and share our conclusions.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b>DYNAMO WRESTLING CONCEPTS – WHAT?</b><br />
Dynamo Wrestling Concepts is the teaching and training methodology we use at the Göteborg Dynamo Club to provide students that have no wrestling background with a good understanding of wrestling concepts and principles and a firm grasp of basic technical skills (throws & takedowns) and tactical options (arm-drag, duck-under, slide-by etc) within a relatively short amount of time. The basic idea behind this program is to teach wrestling skills mostly through open drills and games, with as little technical instruction as possible.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
The Dynamo Wrestling Concepts course was held for the first time during the period September-December 2011. </span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b>DYNAMO WRESTLING CONCEPTS – WHY?</b><br />
A question you might come up at this point is “why bother teaching wrestling to the students of a Russian Martial Art Club?” The reasons are actually numerous – let try to explain a few:<br />
First and foremost, we commonly describe our work at the Dynamo as ‘one human body – one set of movement skills – endless possibilities of application’. It is of the utmost importance for practitioners to understand that the same set of power generation movements that they learned during the entry level training at the Dynamo, and then applied during a three-month fist fighting course, was applicable with practically no modifications at all in the wrestling course.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Another reason we consider wrestling important: it is an excellent teaching tool for understanding the mechanics and experiencing the kinesthetic sensation of an ‘ideal throw’. In my experience, about 90% of the throwing techniques I have learned in various martial arts over the years follow the same set of biomechanical guidelines and when executed correctly, give the thrower the same - very specific - ‘feeling’. In modern Russian Martial Art, throws are often performed and demonstrated through small joint manipulations or with minimal contact, so the subtle technical nuances can become very complex. Practitioners often become overwhelmed by complexity so they never actually get to ‘sort out’ what makes a throwing technique successful. Wrestling provides the simplest possible context in which the guidelines of throwing techniques can be implemented with very direct actions that make the application of forces obvious and easy to understand. Once the student has acquired the feeling of a good throw through simple means, it is natural to progress to more sophisticated applications. The opposite (progressing from the complex to the simple) makes for a very bad educational approach.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Wrestling provides with some of the most typical applications of what in judo is known as ‘the push-pull principle’, i.e. changing direction of attack when the opponent resists in one direction. This principle is tremendously important for any type of martial art practice because, in combination with rhythmic and continuous movement for power generation, it provides a way to understand and experience the sometimes mystical and hard-to-grasp concept of ‘flow’. Thus, wrestling promotes flow – simple as that.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Finally, wrestling drills are an excellent way to develop muscular strength and aerobic/anaerobic conditioning.</span></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Charles and Henrik demonstrating wrestling flow/soft work. Neither of them has any wrestling experience besides approximately sixty hours of training in the Dynamo Wrestling Concepts</span></span><br />
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<b style="color: white;">DYNAMO WRESTLING CONCEPTS – HOW?</b><br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> In the process of first explaining the contextual logic behind every wrestling technique before proceeding to develop specific skills (explaining the ‘why’ before the ‘how’), here are the steps we followed:</span></span></div><ol style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: small;">We described the main task of the activity of wrestling in the simplest way possible, i.e. ‘to bring the opponent off his feet and depending on the context (sport wrestling or restraint and control tactics), either on his back or on his face.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">We described the task of ‘throwing an opponent down’ in terms of simple physics: we explained the concepts of center of mass and base of support and how an object topples over if the projection of its center of mass falls outside the base of support. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">We explained how, by placing the opponent’s weight on one of his legs, his movement and power generation become restricted, plus a number of options for throws present themselves: we can either apply force in three directions to move his body so that his center of mass moves outside his base of support, or we can attack his supporting leg (either with our hands or our legs) to remove support from underneath him. This way the main task of wrestling is reduced to a much simpler one – to apply force on the body of the opponent so that his weight is supported by one leg only. This task definition is nothing else than what the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, was referring to as ‘kuzushi’ or ‘unbalancing’, but in my experience, students understand what they must do much better when asked to “bring their opponent’s weight over one leg”, than when asked to ‘unbalance the opponent’.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">After defining our task in the simplest terms possible, we proceeded in discovering the means to achieve it – our question was: “how and where do we apply force on the opponent’s body in order to bring his weight over one leg?” At this point the main wrestling grips were introduced: the elbow-collar tie-up, the underhook and the biceps tie-up. Although the grips were specifically demonstrated, a ‘game’ could have been used instead where students are asked to push and pull their partners around the mat, so that the most effective ways to grip and apply force would eventually present themselves. I decided that, at this point, ‘re-inventing the wheel’ could have been constructive, but not time-efficient. The drill we used instead asked of the students to combine the power generation movements they learned during their entry-level training with the force application points dictated by the basic wrestling grips to move their partners forwards and backwards, left and right, or in a spinning movement. The conclusion reached was that it is relatively easy to bring the opponent’s weight over one leg by moving him to one direction, then suddenly switching towards another. The first version of the drill was performed using only one of the basic grips each time. Gradually the drill became more complex with the students switching from one grip to another.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The next step was to discover ways to attack the opponent once his weight had been brought over one leg. In this step, the concept of ‘hyperfunction’, from Aleksander Retuinskih’s ROSS system was introduced, and a small number of specific force applications were presented. Finally we practiced various rhythmical footwork drills that helped seamlessly connect the power generation movements from the breaking of balance, to entering, to performing the throwing technique. All these new elements were inserted in the previous pushing and pulling drill, thus resulting in something that started looking like… well, wrestling!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Finally we ended our exploration by introducing ‘fighting for grips’ in the upper body, since specific grips offer a positional advantage that allows us to bring the opponent’s weight on one leg without him being able to resist (for example, if we manage to position ourselves to his side or his back). The pummeling drill (and pummeling contest drill) was introduced at this point and a small number of specific attacks demonstrated.</span></li>
</ol><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>DYNAMO WRESTLING CONCEPTS – RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS</b><br />
As I said at the beginning, the Dynamo Wrestling Concepts program was implemented for a limited period of time, since the goal of the Dynamo Club is not to train wrestlers, but to develop all-around combat skills through training underlying fundamentals (‘the essentials’) that are as generally applicable as possible. We prefer not to allow students to acquire stylistic habits, but rather develop the ability to understand the needs of various contexts and adapt to them. </span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
In this sense, there were significant aspects that although included in our training, did not receive special mention – an example might be the idea of defending against having one’s weight brought over one leg and counterattacking by redirecting the opponent’s force. The current plan is to revisit those aspects in the future.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span style="color: white;">Based on my experience after training in martial arts for over two decades, the results were quite impressive – students with absolutely no wrestling experience whatsoever were able to execute throws in a dynamic environment (against fully resisting partners) that I wasn’t able to after two years of judo training. The embedded Youtube video features two members of the Dynamo, Charles and Henrik practicing wrestling soft work, and might give you a sample of what was achieved</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: white;"> in a very short amount of time. All in all, I believe there is tremendous potential in teaching wrestling (and any other combat sport or fighting style, for that matter) using a constructivist approach.</span></span></div></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
I would be very interested to any feedback and suggestions the readers of this blog might have, so you’re welcome to leave your comments or send me an e-mail.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
[1] I am using here the term 'wrestling' with its broadest possible meaning: that of competing against an opponent from a standing position, with the goal of throwing each other down, without the use of strikes. I am not referring to the Olympic sport of wrestling or any other specific style of wrestling with or without a jacket. I am also not referring to submission wrestling.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br style="color: white;" /> <i><span style="color: white;">A great big thanks to Vadim Kolganov, SAMBO Master of Sport (</span><a href="http://www.dynamosambo.co.uk/">http://www.dynamosambo.co.uk</a><span style="color: white;">) for his valuable insights and feedback regarding wrestling tactics techniques and training methods, and Luis Preto (</span><a href="http://www.pretomartialarts.com/">http://www.pretomartialarts.com</a><span style="color: white;">), whose book Fencing Martial Arts: How to Sequence the Teaching of Techniques and Tactics provided great insight on how to construct a basic curriculum.</span></i><br />
</span></div></div>Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-34653653159755779682012-03-07T02:21:00.004-08:002012-10-01T07:04:51.434-07:00SAMBO / ROSS seminar with Vadim Kolganov at the Dynamo Club Göteborg<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>The Dynamo Club Göteborg, in collaboration with Systema Norway proudly present:</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="color: cyan;">SAMBO/ROSS seminar with Vadim Kolganov</b></span><br />
<span style="color: cyan; font-size: x-large;">From Jacket Wrestling To Russian Martial Art</span></div>
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<li>Breaking Structure, Affecting the Balance</li>
<li>Flowing from takedowns to submissions: ‘quick kills’</li>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Saturday-Sunday April 21st – 22nd 2012, 10.00-16.00 </span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b style="color: cyan;">To register or request additional info contact info@dynamoclub.se </b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifr98zXZkMkf9JRCVXSn45zgreFHSKxU0RtN9IoRfrz321-BGhKaSDeHlxTqyWcG-ulh26xVmcyAXektRJOVQ3X1iMFw1miZDtVRgRzH39CXJWE5e1x8982IkUX-ZcColveJj6t8hL714S/s1600/SeminarVadimPosterIIfinal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifr98zXZkMkf9JRCVXSn45zgreFHSKxU0RtN9IoRfrz321-BGhKaSDeHlxTqyWcG-ulh26xVmcyAXektRJOVQ3X1iMFw1miZDtVRgRzH39CXJWE5e1x8982IkUX-ZcColveJj6t8hL714S/s640/SeminarVadimPosterIIfinal.jpg" title="SAMBO Seminar with Vadim Kolganov" width="437" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THROWS/TAKEDOWNS!</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Did you know that every single throwing/takedown technique – regardless of the martial art or combat sport it comes from – follows the same set of simple biomechanical rules?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Once you understand these rules, <i>all techniques become one – learning and practicing become incredibly easier (since you know what you might be doing wrong) and practical application of technique becomes automatic</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">In the seminar From Jacket Wrestling to Russian Martial Art, Vadim Kolganov, Master of Sport, is going to present and explain: </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;">The basic concepts and principles of Breaking Structure and Affecting the Balance, which apply to both sport combat and self-defense throwing techniques.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The most effective drills to practice them to perfection.</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The second subject of this seminar is ‘Quick Kills’: </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>How to quickly and effortlessly flow from throws/takedowns to finishing techniques</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">, for either sport or self defense applications.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">There are no ‘Russian Martial Arts’, there is only one Russian Martial Art! This unique seminar, organized by the Dynamo Club Göteborg, provides you with a great opportunity to </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>link all martial knowledge (whether it comes from SAMBO, ROSS, Systema or any other ‘style’) upon one single thread!</i><b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Have you been thinking of ‘adding SAMBO to your Systema’ for some time now? Well, the time has come!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Vadim Kolganov is one of the foremost exponents of Russian Martial Art in Europe today. He has earned the rank of Master of Sport in SAMBO after winning the Moscow SAMBO championships twice, has won a bronze medal in the SAMBO World Masters Championships and won the British SAMBO Championships. He is a certified instructor in Alexander Retuinskih’s ROSS system (the Native Russian System of Self-Defense). He teaches and practices the sport of Russian Army Hand-To-Hand Combat (Armeiski Rukopashni Boi), and the traditional wrestling style of Kurash (belt wrestling). He has worked in the Moscow Region Police Force as an inspector of physical education and self-defense. Besides Russian Martial Art, Vadim has also studied Wing Chun, Western Boxing, Jujitsu and American Freestyle Wrestling. He is also a certified kettlebells instructor in the RKC organization.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">All martial arts practitioners of any level are welcome to attend to the seminar. No prior knowledge in SAMBO or other style of Russian Martial Art is required. Participants must be at least 18 years old.<u><b> </b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>SEMINAR INFORMATION</b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>LOCATION - TRAINING SCHEDULE</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Shorinji Kempo Göteborg Branch Dojo, Landerigatan 9, 41670 Göteborg, Sweden</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Training Schedule: Saturday April 21st (10.00 – 16.00), Sunday April 22nd (11.00 – 16.00)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>SEMINAR FEES</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">1200 SEK (135 euro) – The price includes ten hours of training (five hours per day for two days) with Vadim Kolganov.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The fees are payable upon registration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The seminar will be filmed and made later available in DVD format. If you participate in the seminar, you can get a copy of the DVD at the special discounted price of 120SEK (13.50 euro), shipping included. If you want the seminar DVD, go ahead and add the amount to your seminar payment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">For all others, the price of the DVD will be 435SEK (49.00 euro) plus shipping.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>REGISTRATION - PAYMENT</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Register in advance in order to reserve a spot on the seminar. Send an e-mail to info@dynamoclub.se, including your: full name, age, address, city, postal code, country and a telephone number where we could reach you if needed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Your registration is considered complete only after we have received your payment. We will send you a confirmation e-mail once we have received your registration and payment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Send your payment to:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Accountholder - Göteborgs Systema-RMA Klubb, c/o Åhrman, Töpelsgatan 8B, 416 55 Göteborg, Sweden.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">If you live in Sweden:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Bankgiro: 381-8721, Plusgiro: 501661-3</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">For foreign transfers:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">SWIFT: NDEASESS</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">IBAN: SE67 9500 0099 6018 0501 6613</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Name and address of bank: Nordea Bank AB, 105 71 Stockholm, Sweden.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Please make sure that we can identify the payment as coming from you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>REFUNDS</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">If the event is cancelled, then the full amount of your payment will be refunded. If you cancel your registration (by any means) before Friday, April 6th 2012, a charge of 200 SEK is levied on cost refund. If you cancel after this date, we cannot issue a refund; you can have another person take your place in the seminar though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>THINGS YOU WILL NEED</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Since training will be conducted on mats, no shoes are allowed. All you will need is comfortable training clothes, a water bottle and a towel. If you have a wrestling jacket (judo or jiu jitsu/jujitsu jacket, SAMBO kurtka), although it is not necessary, it will help you explore more possibilities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We will be having a small break around 13.00 on both days, so it’s a good idea to pack a light lunch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>PHOTOS / VIDEO</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Photographing by participants is allowed at any time. Filming is not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>IMPORTANT NOTICE</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Training takes place under your own responsibility – the club/organizer and the instructor of the seminar can in no way be held liable for any damages/injuries occurring during the event. Be respectful of your training partners and place safety before everything else. Registering to the seminar entails you accept this clause.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Our goal is to organize high-quality training events, not social events or get-togethers (although we quite enjoy hanging out with fellow martial artists – after training). This means that the number of participants in the seminar will be limited so that the instructor can offer personal attention to each and every one of them.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Go ahead and register early!</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There can be changes to the program, but if there are, you will be promptly informed.<b> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>TRAVELLING TO GÖTEBORG – ACCOMODATION</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;">You can find pretty much all the information you need at this link</span>: <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Gothenburg%20">http://wikitravel.org/en/Gothenburg </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">We will be happy to answer any additional questions you might have or give you our own suggestions, so go ahead and contact us!</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: small;">For additional info – inquiries contact</span><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: cyan; font-size: small;">Charles Franz E-mail: info@dynamoclub.se</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;">or</span> </span><span style="color: cyan; font-size: small;">Spyro Katsigiannis Tel: +46 (0)767 67 91 79</span></div>
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-88506951869602419192012-02-27T02:23:00.001-08:002012-02-27T02:27:21.666-08:00Food for thought: training articles I recently read - (27-02-2012)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There's a list of Dynamo- recommended reading from the past month - enjoy!</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.8weeksout.com/2012/02/23/roadwork-2-0-the-comeback/">Roadwork 2.0: The Comeback</a> </b><span style="color: white;">-</span><b> </b><span style="color: white;">In recent years long, slow endurance training (mostly roadwork) is being often attacked as a </span></span><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">training method </span><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">inferior to high-intensity interval training, as far as combat athletes are concerned. In this most interesting article, strength and conditioning coach Joel Jamieson argues that roadwork is anything but dead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/7_things_i_learned_in_2011">7 Things I learned in 2011</a></b> <span style="color: white;">- The gems of knowledge offered by Eric Cressey, my favorite strength and conditioning coach, at the end of 2011, were recently re-published in the T-Nation website - some fantastic insight in there!</span></span><span style="color: white; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-candy/201201/everything-you-thought-you-knew-about-learning-is-wrong">Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong</a></b> <span style="color: white;">- TED speaker and best-selling author Garth Sundem explains why you should not try to learn, by breaking down knowledge into blocks. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/">Instinctive sleeping and resting postures: an anthropological and zoological approach to treatment of low back and joint pain</a> </b><span style="color: white;">- Physiotherapist Michael Tetley argues that your posture during sleep might be responsible for musculoskeletal pain and offers alternatives he picked up in his 14 expeditions all over the world to meet native peoples and study their sleeping and resting postures - absolutely fascinating!</span></span><br />
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<div style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Book I am currently reading:</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="btAsinTitle"> </span></span></u></div></div></div></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1463788614/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thimansmarart-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1463788614">Combat in outnumbered scenarios: The origin of Historical Fencing</a></span></b></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">by Luis Pretto </span></div><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thimansmarart-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1463788614" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-28314652316697690342012-02-22T01:45:00.001-08:002012-04-03T06:55:51.533-07:00Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts: Martial Arts Training... with Kettlebells!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: white;">“DYNAMO KETTLEBELLS CONCEPTS”? WHAT’S THAT?</b><br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> It is a form of specialized strength training that you can use to </span><i style="color: white;">make your martial arts/combat sports-specific movements more powerful</i><span style="color: white;">.</span><br />
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<b style="color: white;">HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM ‘CONVENTIONAL’ KETTLEBELLS TRAINING?</b><br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> The most popular forms of kettlebells training out there offer what is known as General Physical Preparation (GPP), i.e. they increase the body’s capacity for work (especially strength endurance) regardless of the specific activity one wants to become better at. Other methods of training for GPP are running, rope skipping, weight-lifting, calisthenics, etc. </span></span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
If you think of your body as a car, GPP methods mostly increase the horsepower of the engine and the size of your tank. On the other side, specialized strength training methods, such as the Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts, improve the way your car can apply the power on the road – we could say that they improve the grip of the tires, handling and cornering, the mechanics of the car, but also the skills of the driver!</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
In a few words: GPP improves your strength, your power and your endurance, but can also address possible muscular imbalances in your body (lack of mobility, stability, etc). The Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts use those improved motor abilities and apply them in specific key-movements of martial arts and combat sports, so that you can become better at them.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b>CAN THE DYNAMO KETTLEBELLS CONCEPTS REPLACE GENERAL PHYSICAL PREPARATION?</b><br />
No, they can NOT. The Dynamo exercises and drills should be used in combination with other training methods of physical preparation in the context of a periodized program. In order to put the Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts to good use, you need to have worked on your GPP before.</span></div><div style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
If you already have a conditioning coach who is helping you with GPP, that is great - the Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts will be an excellent addition to your training. If you don't have one, and you wish to <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/p/training_09.html">improve your GPP</a>, the Dynamo Strength and Conditioning Concepts will bring you where you need to be physically.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<b>WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PRACTICING/TRAINING AT THE DYNAMO KETTLEBELLS CONCEPTS?</b><br />
A dramatic increase in punching power is the most obvious benefit, but also your footwork, evasion and head movement, rhythm, timing, flow and efficiency of movement (more work done with less effort) will be significantly improved.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;">For more information on the Dynamo Kettlebells Concepts, contact</span> <span style="color: cyan;">info@dynamoclub.se<span style="color: black;">.</span></span><br />
</span></div></div>Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-11973709052227795382012-02-13T04:03:00.001-08:002012-04-03T06:54:46.601-07:00On soft training in martial arts: Part 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: cyan;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A series of posts on the subject of softness and soft training in martial arts, wouldn't be in any way complete without the taiji (tai chi) perspective. In this fourth, and last, installment of the series, my good friend Glenn Gossling, Chen Taijiquan practitioner and instructor, offers his insight on the subject, viewing soft work as tool that allows for development without injury and accelerated recovery. A very big thank you to Glenn and the other three contributors to this collective post, Grigoris A. Miliaresis (<a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/01/on-soft-training-in-martial-arts-part-1.html">who wrote about the Ju No Kata of Judo</a>), Mark Lajhner (<a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/02/softness-and-soft-training-in-martial.html">who wrote about soft training in MMA and combat sports</a>), and Thong Nguyen (<a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/02/on-soft-training-in-martial-arts-part-3.html">who wrote about the use of soft work as a tool to sharpen awareness of movement</a>). I would also like to thank the readers of the Dynamo blog, whose enthusiastic response to this series of posts exceeded my expectations by far!</span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: cyan;"></span></span></span></i></span><br />
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<div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>FEAR INOCULATION OR, LISTENING TO A SLIGHTLY SCARY STORY AGAIN AND AGAIN</b></span></div><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Everyone knows that taijiquan is based around the principles of yin and yang, hard and soft. Still, it is comparatively rare to see taijiquan used as a martial art, or to see its hard side. Chen style taijiquan preserves both, but even when working with the ‘hard’ it is still important to maintain the principles of good posture, relaxation, and coordination between breath and movement.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">My experience of taijiquan and other martial arts has shown me that achieving a balance between stress and relaxation is essential to all good martial arts training, both hard and soft. Taijiquan begins by teaching and emphasizing the soft, but it still leads to the hard. The methodology is that soft slow movements can be used to teach clear and precise principles and techniques while gradually conditioning the body. A similar principle is used in systema where the slow squat and the slow press up are core to body conditioning.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">My approach to teaching is to focus on relaxation, or to put it another way, non-tension, as rather like Saussure’s structural linguistics, taiji is - from a philosophical point of view - a system of difference without positive terms. There are two aspects to non-tension, the physical and the mental.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Before doing ‘hard work’ the person has to be physically capable of doing it. A degree of physical conditioning is essential. It sounds obvious, but most of us have been gung ho enough at some stage or other to injure ourselves by trying to do something we weren’t ready for (remember the one arm hand stand push up craze? or is that next year?).</span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">In simple physical terms, this means working within our capabilities, but at a sufficient level to challenge ourselves. How do we know what that level is? Tension is the indicator - for example, if someone goes rigid with tension and falls over while doing a pistol (a form of one legged squat), then to develop they should do an easier exercise – simple squats or negative pistols (ie just a controlled descent). Moving them to a harder exercise such as pistols with kettlebells may not be beneficial to them at this basic stage.</span></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Digression 1</b> - Stress is a comparatively new concept first outlined by the Slovakian/Hungarian scientist Hans Selye in 1936 as a short hand for what he called General Adaptation Syndrome. The English word ‘stress’ is actually a bit misnomer as in mechanical terms the concept is closer to that of strain. A simple mechanical example may help explain what explain what Selye meant – if you apply a sufficient external force to a piece of steel, the steel will temporarily deform, but it will pop back into shape when released from that force with no great harm done. If a much too large force is applied the piece of steel will be permanently deformed. Similarly, if a repeated force is applied to the steel, microscopic stress fractures may occur that could lead to an eventual catastrophic failure. Biological entities such as humans are slightly different to a piece of steel in that they are able to adapt. If you apply an external stress to a bone it will flex or break. If you repeatedly stress a bone without breaking it the bone will adapt, build in density and be able to take greater degrees of stress. Selye’s work found an underlying pattern to stress which is illustrated in his 'human function curve'.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhogrFHk9roQzrFjuCdTFi9VULjeJ3UhGilEvMg1ntqhAmU9KUbDtqha-yZd47SVNnYpOxQumbljZfQL-a0sRsP8Nr4a4qxFhw-vU05P4myXGN7urbrOtQmnmMgahNy04MqJAf-7eK9EIgP/s1600/Stress.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhogrFHk9roQzrFjuCdTFi9VULjeJ3UhGilEvMg1ntqhAmU9KUbDtqha-yZd47SVNnYpOxQumbljZfQL-a0sRsP8Nr4a4qxFhw-vU05P4myXGN7urbrOtQmnmMgahNy04MqJAf-7eK9EIgP/s320/Stress.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white;">(image from</span> <a href="http://www.stress.org/" target="_blank">www.stress.org</a><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are a number of key considerations here:</span></div></div><ul style="color: white; text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Stress isn’t all bad</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Stress can help you develop</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Work at a level that is below the ‘breaking point’</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Allow sufficient time for recovery</span></li>
</ul><div style="color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">The human function curve can be used to explain two of the ways that soft and hard work interrelate. First, soft work allows you to build incrementally towards hard work allowing development to occur without injury. Secondly, soft work can be used to accelerate recovery.</span></div><div style="color: white; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">For example in Chen taijiquan we have a ‘hard’ form called the Pao Choi (‘Cannon Fist’). This form uses a lot of stamping and ‘fajin’ (‘explosive power’). It has been known to cause splits in the shin bones and strains to the tendons if progressed to too soon. The softer ‘Yilu’ form that you do first allows bone density to gradually develop by applying lesser stresses. It is important to be able to do the harder form without excess tension as if you do it while tense or in poor posture you are much more likely to injure yourself. Even when you know the Pao Choi it is still important to do the soft form as the prolonged interlinking of breathing and movement encourages a relaxed state that promotes recovery. As a rule of thumb it takes between three and five years to get to the Pao Choi.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Master Ren Guan Yi performing a shortened version of the Pao Choi form - his power generation is tremendous!</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;">Humans, however, don’t only operate on a physical level. They are also subject to mental or psychological stress – and in particular fear. Again, as with physical stress, a degree of mental stress can lead to a positive adaptation, but excessive mental stress can lead to or reinforce negative adaptations. This is particularly the case when dealing with fear.</span><br />
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<b style="color: white;">Digression 2</b><span style="color: white;"> – The anatomy of fear: The amygdala, a small almond shaped part of the brain just above the brain stem, is the body’s alarm system. It is one of the oldest parts of the limbic system and as such is capable of emotionally ‘hijacking’ the brain. The amygdala monitors what is going on and decides on the body’s emotional response. The process by which it does this is profoundly unconscious and can happen very quickly. Sensory information from the eyes or ears goes to the thalamus, where the information is split. The main part of it goes to the neo-cortex for detailed analysis, and a smaller portion goes to the amygdala and hippocampus. If the hippocampus - using a quick but inaccurate memory system - recognizes the sight or sound as a threat, the amygdala prepares the body for action while waiting for more accurate confirmation from the neo-cortex to see if it really should be frightened. The amygdala sends impulses to the hypothalamus for activation of the sympathetic nervous system (which controls the fight or flight reaction). The metabolic rate rises and a variety of hormones are released: dopamine (for concentration) and noradrenaline (aka norepinephrine), adrenaline (aka epinephrine), CRF (the main stress hormone of the body) and endorphins (to dampen pain). If the neo-cortex agrees that there is something to be frightened of the body can then proceed to a full state of fear. It is around this moment that you may become aware of it. You may notice the increased heart and respiration rate, you may feel a tightening in the stomach, tunnel vision, tension around the throat and neck, trembling. This will all have occurred in under a second and most of it will have happened completely unconsciously. If on the other hand, the neo-cortex decides that there is nothing to fear the amygdala relaxes its responses. However, a number of hormones such as cortisol will already be in your system and can remain there for some hours. This can be problematic as a number of small stresses can have a cumulative effect. (for more info on the anatomy of fear see:</span> <a href="http://www.absolutetaichi.co.uk/articles/an-anatomy-of-fear">www.absolutetaichi.co.uk/articles/an-anatomy-of-fear</a><span style="color: white;">)</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Again the concept of the stress curve is useful. A small amount of fear is good. It focuses the attention and encourages development. Larger amounts cause an emotional hijacking by the amygdala, which stops you using your cortex – the thinking part of the brain. Chances are you’ll already have experienced this at some point in your life (if you have ever done an exam where you read the test paper and could not remember what you read by the time get to the end of the first sentence, gone blank in an interview, or been at a loss for words in an argument with a loved one). You can monitor other people’s or your own stress levels during training from breathing patterns. Fast breathing correlates strongly with fast heart rates. Most people’s performance begins to break down at heart rates of between 115 and 145 beats per minute, with a severe breakdown of performance at above 175 bpm. There is an important difference between people breathing hard because they are working hard and breathing hard from stress – exercise makes you redden, fear makes you pale.</span><br style="color: white;" /> <br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> An emotional hijacking can happen during a fight or training, often just momentarily, but that can be enough. Your brain responds with shock at someone throwing a punch. You inhale sharply, hold your breath, tense up. One of the downsides of this is that being tense, when being hit, makes it hurt more. Another downside is that if you are tense you will move poorly making you easier to hit. Yet another down side is that your reactions may become exaggerated (bigger than necessary), easier to read, avoid and counter. And finally, if your cortex isn’t involved you will not be able to judge the situation or response accurately.</span><br style="color: white;" /> <br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> This is bad enough in a fight, but during training it is worse, because not only will you not be learning appropriate responses, but you may very well be ingraining poor ones. I regularly see this in people who have trained ‘hard styles’. You present a relatively soft or slow punch to them and you get a fear reaction from them – typified by big jumpy moves and large blocks – the problem with this is that the stress state becomes a habitual response that is easier and easier to slip into.</span><br style="color: white;" /> <br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> The point here is that if someone is physically capable of hard training, they can start it, but you may find that their stress levels can quite quickly stop them getting any benefit from it. If all that is happening is that they are getting hit, getting hurt and learning to be frightened of being hit this isn’t training.</span><br style="color: white;" /> <br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> What is required is to build up to hard training with soft training so that bit by bit the mind can mentally adjust and realize that it is something that it can deal with. This is a process known to psychologists as ‘fear inoculation’. The repetition of set forms allows the brain to understand that there is a set story and that it has predictable and understandable patterns. This is why children like to hear the same slightly scary fairy tale over and over. So, the brain is programmed with a set of responses to being hit softly, how to move, avoid and deal with it. It has reference points. Then you can ramp it up, but it is important to try to work within limits that can be dealt with, moving in and out of the comfort zone. Bit by bit the limits increase and as the fear diminishes you can find that actually you can take a good hit. (for postmodern martial artists – an understanding of these narrative structures also is useful because then you can see how to disrupt them in unexpected ways)</span><br style="color: white;" /> <br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> It is necessary to understand that the cortex has no direct way to control the amygdala. The rational part of the brain has no direct means to tell the amygdala, a primal and unconscious part of the brain, to stop being frightened. What you have to do is work with your breathing. Your breathing connects to an even older part of the brain, the medulla oblongata in the brain stem. The medulla is the brain’s interface with the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system comprises the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). By slowing the breathing you can directly engage the sympathetic nervous system to encourage relaxation.</span><br style="color: white;" /> <br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> If you understand this from the outset you can train yourself to co-ordinate movements and breathing so that all your basic training works to create a state of relaxation. Thus when you start hard training, the body already has some ‘slack’ and it will take a bit longer to create stress reactions. Similarly, as the patterns are ingrained they become easier to use to recover from stress. By linking movement with breath it means that you can use movements to encourage good breathing patterns when it is difficult to breathe (such as when you are winded) This is another advantage of using set forms in training. Finally interlinking breathing and movement is demonstrably effective for power production (for more on this see: </span><a href="http://www.absolutetaichi.co.uk/articles/breathing">www.absolutetaichi.co.uk/articles/breathing</a><span style="color: white;">).</span> <br />
<span style="color: white;">However, even when you do all this, you will still occasionally come across something new, that takes you by surprise and you may still get that moment of panic where you inhale sharply and hold your breath, but from working through this many times in the past, hopefully you will have conditioned some good reactions to this response.</span><br style="color: white;" /> <br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> Thus, when looking at hard training overall, you can say that if the body is ready to do it the mind should be as well, but throughout the training attention should be paid to stress and excitement levels to keep the metabolism at a level where you can still work and learn through conscious engagement. Yes it is good to push. As students develop they may even come to quite like getting a good hit, after all it teaches you something about yourself. You learn exactly where you hold your fear and tension and so just as the soft work prepares you for hard work, the hard work deepens the soft work.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Glenn Gossling</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicRJOSEc9oAscY-bvNqF6NlAczpSlsgg2z0t1x9CxLwda5dk2BOICOlhRpWbRg1Zdzbn2_9_yyXv35Qy6Q43O-Oq-TWpPdu0Ub-ECkNk4UhaMIXXpC4gz3EROmtk-66CEq0D0WGx8mgRSG/s1600/Glenn+Gossling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicRJOSEc9oAscY-bvNqF6NlAczpSlsgg2z0t1x9CxLwda5dk2BOICOlhRpWbRg1Zdzbn2_9_yyXv35Qy6Q43O-Oq-TWpPdu0Ub-ECkNk4UhaMIXXpC4gz3EROmtk-66CEq0D0WGx8mgRSG/s200/Glenn+Gossling.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b style="color: white;">Glenn Gossling</b><span style="color: white;"> has been studying taijiquan since 1988 and since 1996 has been a student with Grandmaster Chen Xiao Wang, 19th Generation Lineage holder and current Chen family inheritor. He is a registered grade A instructor with the Tai Chi Union of Great Britain. He has also been an instructor of Dayan Qigong, Changquan kung fu and Stav, as well as having studied Systema, Muay Thai and kickboxing. For more information visit: </span><a href="http://www.absolutetaichi.co.uk/" target="_blank">www.absolutetaichi.co.uk</a></span></div>Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-42687556558889849602012-02-06T23:44:00.000-08:002012-10-15T06:17:06.411-07:00On soft training in martial arts: Part 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i style="color: cyan;">In the third part of this series of guest posts on the value of softness and soft training in martial arts, <b>Thong Nguyen</b> a veteran martial arts instructor and teacher of dance offers his own unique perspective on the subject: soft work as an essential component of developing body awareness and perfecting movement BEFORE proceeding to dynamic application. For those of you that haven't read the previous installments of the series, here is <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/01/on-soft-training-in-martial-arts-part-1.html">Grigoris A. Miliaresis' post on the Ju No Kata of Judo</a> and <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/02/softness-and-soft-training-in-martial.html">Mark Lajhner's post of incorporating soft work in combat sports</a>. What I personally find most interesting in this series, is that each of the contributors approaches the subject from a rather different viewpoint, continuously offering additional insight. Enjoy the post!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>SOFT WORK: DETECTING SUBTLE NUANCES OR, 'THE FLY LANDING ON A FEATHER'</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">As a lifelong teacher of dance and martial arts I find soft work and kata an invaluable tool for learning any skill. Kata can range from the stationary exercises found in Qi Gong to Judo's slow moving Ju No Kata, to Kung Fu's dynamic forms. They serve to develop and educate a understanding of the body on a somatic level with minimal brain intrusion.</span></div>
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I consider kata to be the body's ultimate muscle-body-memory trainer. It helps students in evaluating their internal, physical and mental processes. The kata itself is but a part of the benefit. The greater benefit is in how the students learns to find and remove their debilitating barriers/habits in attempting new and unfamiliar tasks. A self-imposed learning curve if you will, stemming from a lack of confidence and connection to their own bodies. The slower the kata the better it permits the students to pick up on subtleties in order to correct them. Imagine trying to detect the weight of a fly that has landed on a kettlebell you're holding, as compared to one that has landed on the tip of a feather in your hand. Slow work enables your whole body to move and feel like that feather. You'll better detect nuances and variances in movement. When a student finally "sees" his body and its idiosyncrasies it is like the first time he heard a recording of his voice - he can't believe it isn't the sexy voice he always thought he had.<br />
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At my dance studio, the first thing a beginner is taught are foot patterns: where to go directionally, on which foot to step and where. Then, they're introduced to the foot work; how the foot first contacts the floor- heel, ball, flat, toes, inside edge of toes etc. Then, styling: how the upper body accompanies the lower body during the weight shifts. Next comes rhythm, timing and synchronicity to music. Only after these are reasonably executed is a partner added. The recipe is methodical and by the numbers, which begs the question: "How would that translate in application on a crowded dance floor?" The following video shows me dancing with a girl I'd only just met that night. Once ALL knowledge, coordination, mobility, timing, rhythm and consistent results are addressed and resolved, the "hard work" phase comes naturally with regular exposure, practice and experience. This is the method I use in teaching martial arts. Without it, "free-play" is a messy blur. With it, things come into focus and start to make sense.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">There are no shortcuts or panaceas for building lasting skills, only a clear understanding of what to do, how to do it, when to do it and the determination to do it. Real learning can't be rushed. Katas provide a way to groove and polish the essential basics. Learn the techniques (soft work) in order to throw them out (application of hard work). Professionals know if they can't perform under a controlled scenario, they will never last a real one.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Enjoy your Path,<br />
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Thong Nguyen</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> <b>Thong Nguyen</b> was born into a martial arts family. His uncles were masters of various Asian arts and his father was a Judo champion. This provoked a curiosity and an openness at an early age. He holds Dan grades and teaching certificates in Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Filipino, Vietnamese and Russian martial arts. He has been teaching dance along with martial arts for over 38 years based in Washington, DC. He developed KaizenTao (</span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.kaizentao.com/">www.kaizentao.com</a></span></b><span style="color: white; font-size: small;">) 24 years ago as an amalgamation of his primary expertise in Dance, Chinese and Japanese arts and professional sports. His students are renown for being a fun and respectful group of people spanning a wide spectrum from professionals at the forefront of local and national security to dedicated martial artists to those with no experience in combative forms. He also worked as a fashion photographer in Paris, Milan, NY, LA, and DC.</span></div>
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3309755332783047401.post-64951265694358521782012-02-01T02:38:00.000-08:002012-10-15T06:18:29.023-07:00On soft training in martial arts: Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i style="color: cyan;">Softness and soft training in martial arts: what is it, is it really necessary, how do we practice for it, how much, how often? After last week's first part of this series, <a href="http://www.dynamoclub.se/2012/01/on-soft-training-in-martial-arts-part-1.html">a guest post by Grigoris A. Miliaresis on the Ju No Kata</a> (“form of gentleness”) of Judo, today <b>Mark Lajhner</b>, a former Judo competitor, MMA competitor, and currently MMA coach, shares his own perspective on how we can benefit from soft work and most interestingly, by 'investing in loss'. I found this post most fascinating - I hope you enjoy it!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b> <span style="color: white;">SOFT WORK IN MARTIAL ARTS - SHOULD WE DO IT?</span></b><br style="color: white;" /><span style="color: white;"> There has been a lot of debate whether soft work should be included in martial arts training. Before we start to do that let us define what soft work is. According to my friend Spyro Katsigiannis (who asked me to write this article) we could describe it as follows: "<i>In Soft work we practice using real force and energy but in a slowed down time framing, so that the startle reflex is minimized - there is no fear response, because there are no fast threats leading to spastic reactions</i>". To me, this description brings to mind the Ju-No-Kata from Judo as well as the absorption drills often used in Systema.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The goal of soft work is to "prime" the martial artist to react in the most biomechanically efficient way in a stressful situation. It can be done in a free manner, just "playing" with forces our partner is giving us, or while exploring a specific technique, like in nage komi in motion in Judo (throwing exercise without partner resistance).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Systema absorption drills are an example of non-technical soft work training. When people first try them, they usually find them weird and not quite credible as a training method, because they are missing the point of the drill, which is priming the body in generic movement patterns. But in order to develop fight worthy skills we need to go past priming and into the specific technical realm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Although priming drills can be effective as a supporting tool, I don't think they are necessary. We can benefit from soft work if we do it in a context of the martial art we are practicing. Here are the examples of soft work that I often give my athletes:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;">Nage komi (throwing practice) in Judo or wrestling</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Slow motion grappling sparring</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Grappling & ground and pound flow drill (it can be both slow or faster, but I recommend it being slower)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Striking flow drill: we use only 50 % of speed and 5-10 % of power </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">MMA flow drill using the same principles as in striking flow drill</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Slow motion grappling sparring is a form of soft work training and can lead to a significant increase in skill development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">All of these methods give us time to think and execute our techniques with precision, limit the startle reflex and are actually quite enjoyable, since full-on sparring is demanding, not just physically but also psychologically. They eliminate (or minimize) competitiveness in training, which can sometimes limit our learning. Many of my athletes report a significant increase in skill development from just one of these sessions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Numerous fighting moves come to us quite naturally (headlock, trips, the double leg takedown, elbow cover, fading), but at the same time, there are a lot that don't (slips, bobs and weaves, most throwing techniques), so how do we practice those until we become proficient? The answer is pretty simple: slowly and deliberately. In order to explain this, an analogy from computer lingo might be helpful: if we imagine the reflexes and instincts that evolution has equipped us with as a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), we need to ‘progress to Windows 7’ by enhancing some of our instincts and completely overriding others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Except the above mentioned drills, there are other "soft components" of training we can include in out sessions. Back in my days as a Judo competitor, I made a terrible mistake by always training with "balls to the wall" intensity. I thought that if I always gave 100% of my effort and fought until there was no glycogen left in my body, trying my hardest to never be thrown, I would eventually become a champion. This is a mistake that cost me dearly: I was only able to place 3rd in the nationals, and I became a real live encyclopedia of trauma (many injuries and surgeries). Don't get me wrong, I'm all for intensity, but it has it's time and place. This is a very broad theme and we don't have time to go into detail in this article but I will give you an example of this principle: there was this young guy in my Judo club that became national senior champion at the age of 18 in my weight class - very talented, with gymnast-like moves, great physical attributes and impeccable technique. During Judo practice, he was repeatedly ‘destroyed’ – he was getting thrown many times by many people. At one time, I manhandled him so badly in sparring, that he stopped midway through our randori, calling me a savage and asking me "what kind of Judo is this" because I was relying on my strength to "bend him down" instead of trying to throw him. While I would never stop a randori for any reason other than injury, and was mad at him for doing so, I eventually got to learn a lot from watching him train. He might have "lost" a lot of randoris, but he devastated his opponents in competition in spectacular fashion and became one of the youngest champions in Serbia. At the same time, I was struggling to also become a champion but it simply never happened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So what was the secret of his success? When I did randori practice, I wanted to throw people for sure, but I mostly wanted to dominate them. He, on the other hand, wanted to practice technique and often put himself in dangerous situations, even if it meant that he would get thrown. For example, he deliberately let people try uchi mata on him so he could redirect the force and counter. Does he get thrown many times in training? You bet! But his matches usually end with him performing a spectacular ippon (an equivalent of knockout in boxing) on his opponent because he takes risks in training and learns from them. In my mind this is also soft work. Why? By giving yourself the permission to fail, you are not struggling against your opponent's forces at that moment, and there is no psychological pressure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The point of this example was not for me to tell you what a ‘stud’ I am for dominating my teammate in training, but to explain that his training principle was far superior to mine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I might have trained wrong during my Judo career, but it all changed when I switched to MMA and it paid dividends. I just wish I had done it sooner. As humans, we all have limitations, both physical and mental, and by training sub-optimally, we can hit those limitations earlier than necessary. That usually leads to injury, lack of motivation and often, quitting training altogether. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">By including the softer components, we can make our training more efficient, more to the point and a lot more fun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Mark Lajhner</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: white;">Mark Lajhner</b><span style="color: white;"> is the founder and chief instructor of the Kaizen MMA Academy, in Belgrade, Serbia (</span><a href="http://www.kaizenmma.com/" style="color: white;">www.kaizenmma.com</a><span style="color: white;">). A distinguished Judo competitor and national team member, he made his debut in MMA in 2005 and retired undefeated in 2008 as the best Serbian MMA fighter in the 85 kg category. He has studied MMA and Submission Wrestling with August Wallen, one of the world’s most renowned MMA experts. He has also competed in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Submission Wrestling (Grappling) and Freestyle Wrestling winning numerous medals in these sports. Mark is a Judo black belt and a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He is a certified MMA, Thai Boxing, Submission Wrestling (Grappling) and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor.</span> </span></div>
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Spyro Katsigiannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17668264882086939171noreply@blogger.com0