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But ever since the past 6 months, I really have felt that I am getting weaker and weaker. My trainings have not been consistent, I have not gone to the gym, I have not been going to karate trainings, and I have not been going running. My self confidence on the mat is really at a rock bottom low. I am even resorting to counter attacks tactics instead of offensive ones which I am more at home with.
So what has changed in my life?..My decision to take up a Masters must be it. I now have homework which takes about 10 hours of my weekly time. I finish classes at 9 pm on 2 weekdays. I have exams for which have to study for. And another big factor is that Uni is so far away from work and my house, so the travelling hours wears me out to some extent.
I have thought about it for quite a while. The only solution I have is to maintain a very high level of organisation. And for me to maintain that I will need to sleep more, otherwise I can anticipate myself coming home and just dropping on my bed rather that going for that run on my training schedule. So..more sleep?
Georges Li Ying Pin : " Le rôle de seconds couteaux nous convient "
Le karaté fera partie pour la deuxième fois de son histoire des Jeux des îles de l'océan Indien. Ils seront douze karatékas mauriciens en compétition à Madagascar lors de la septième édition avec pour mission de faire une meilleure récolte qu'en 1998 à la Réunion, soit une médaille d'or, deux d'argent et cinq de bronze.
" Le rôle de seconds couteaux nous convient ", déclare d'emblée Georges Li Ying Pin, entraîneur national de karaté. " Le moral est là. Il faudra batailler ferme, nous en sommes conscients. Les Malgaches partent avec un avantage psychologique, les Réunionnais sont eux techniquement bons. Nous présenterons nous une sélection composée d'une majorité de jeunes qui seront encadrés par quelques anciens ", ajoute-t-il.
Les karatékas retenus sont en masculin Jaykumar Rampersad (-60 kg), Fabrice Arékion (-65 kg), Imthiaz Sairally (-65 kg), Kevin Wan Chow Wah (-70 kg), Teddy Ah Chin Kow (-75 kg), Bruno Vingtassamy (-75 kg), Joël Wan Chow Wah (-80 kg), Brian Burns (+80 kg), Frédéric Bazire (+80 kg), Philippe Wong (kata) et en féminin Joëlle Godère (-65 kg) et Coralie Châton (-60 kg).
Fabrice Arékion (-65 kg), Imthiaz Sairally (-65 kg), Kevin Wan Chow Wah (-70 kg), Teddy Ah Chin Kow (-75 kg), Bruno Vingtassamy (-75 kg), Joël Wan Chow Wah (-80 kg), Brian Burns (+80 kg) et Frédéric Bazire (+80 kg) seront en compétition dans le volet combat. L'unique représentant mauricien dans le volet technique sera Philippe Wong. En féminin, Joël Godère sera en action et en combat et en kata alors que Coralie Châton sera elle engagée uniquement en combat. Le grand absent côté mauricien sera l'ancien champion du monde David Li Yuen Fong, qui poursuit des études en Exercise and Sport Science à l'université de Melbourne.
" Durant les six semaines qui nous séparent du rendez-vous malgache, beaucoup de choses sont réalisables ", assure Georges Li Ying Pin. " Je félicite l'entraîneur national pour le travail assidu qu'il réalise depuis janvier à la tête de la présélection tous les dimanches. Le moral est au beau fixe. Il y a une bonne ambiance au sein de la sélection. C'est dommage que David (Ndlr : Li Yuen Fong) ne soit pas parmi nous ", a déclaré pour sa part Brian Burns, président de la All Mauritius Karate Federation (AMKF) et capitaine de la sélection nationale.
Il est un peu tôt, selon lui, pour évoquer les chances de Maurice à Madagascar en août prochain. " Notre inquiétude demeure l'arbitrage. Techniquement, nous sommes prêts. Nous avons de bonnes chances, mais tout dépendra de l'arbitrage ", souligne-t-il. L'entraînement se déroule deux fois par semaine, les jeudi et dimanche au gymnase de la Mauritius Karate Association et au collège d'État Renganaden Seeneevassen. " Il s'intensifie ", note Brian Burns. Les sélectionnés s'entraînent dens leurs clubs respectifs durant les autres jours de la semaine.
La sélection nationale et ses sparring-partners se mesureront à une sélection sud-africaine le 30 courant à Vacoas ou à Phoenix dans le cadre de sa préparation en vue des 7es Jeux des îles. Une quarantaine de karatékas, membres du club de San Pillay, sont attendus à Maurice le 28 courant.
En 1998, lors des 5es Jeux des îles disputés à l'île de la Réunion, Maurice avait enlevé une médaille d'or (Normohamed Roheeman, -65 kg), deux médailles d'argent (Teddy Ah Chin Kow, -75 kg ; Ah Yen Chung Kwan Fan, +80 kg) et cinq médailles de bronze (Philippe Wong Ying, -65 kg ; David Li Yuen Fong, -70 kg ; Jithanand Dalmond ; Neguib Khodabocus, -70 kg ; et Clovis Papie, open).
La sélection rendue officielle hier
La All Mauritius Karate Federation (AMKF) a rendu officielle la sélection qui défendra les couleurs de Maurice aux 7es Jeux des îles de l'océan Indien (JIOI) en août prochain à Madagascar. Elle est composée de dix éléments masculins et de deux éléments féminins, le grand absent étant David Li Yuen Fong, qui étudie à l'université de Melbourne dans la filière Exercise and Sport Science.
Les karatékas retenus sont en masculin Jaykumar Rampersad (-60 kg), Fabrice Arékion (-65 kg), Imthiaz Sairally (-65 kg), Kevin Wan Chow Wah (-70 kg), Teddy Ah Chin Kow (-75 kg), Bruno Vingtassamy (-75 kg), Joël Wan Chow Wah (-80 kg), Brian Burns (+80 kg), Frédéric Bazire (+80 kg), Philippe Wong (kata) et en féminin Joëlle Godère (-65 kg) et Coralie Châton (-60 kg).
Fabrice Arékion (-65 kg), Imthiaz Sairally (-65 kg), Kevin Wan Chow Wah (-70 kg), Teddy Ah Chin Kow (-75 kg), Bruno Vingtassamy (-75 kg), Joël Wan Chow Wah (-80 kg), Brian Burns (+80 kg) et Frédéric Bazire (+80 kg) seront en compétition dans le volet combat. L'unique représentant mauricien dans le volet technique sera Philippe Wong. En féminin, Joël Godère sera en action et en combat et en kata alors que Coralie Châton sera engagée elle uniquement en combat.
David Li Yuen Fong fut pour rappel champion du monde le dimanche 2 décembre 2001 au Perth Entertainment Centre à l'occasion des 3rd Karatedo Gojukai Championships. Il s'est retrouvé dans l'impossibilité de rejoindre la sélection mauricienne après le changement des dates initialement retenues pour les compétitions de karaté à Tananarive. Celles-ci ont été avancées d'une semaine et se tiendront les 11 et 12 août au lieu des 18 et 19 août. David Li Yuen Fong s'était libéré en prévision de ces dates mais ne pourra, vu les circonstances, faire le déplacement à Maurice puis à Madagascar. Il sera en action les 11 et 12 août sous les couleurs de Victoria au championnat d'Australie de karaté.
La sélection a été rendue officielle hier au collège d'Etat Renganaden Seeneevassen en présence de Ram Lollchand, chef de mission du Club Maurice aux 7es JIOI et des responsables du dossier karaté au ministère de la Jeunesse et des Sports.
My training has come to a standstill because of my lower back. And after my karate test, things just got worse and worse. It even took me 7 hours to get out of bed one morning. I had woken up that morning and realised that something was terribly wrong. My eyes were open but i seemed all paralysed. Have u ever seen that scene from Kill Bill, how Uma Thurman slowly escapes from hospital, after coming back from a coma. That's exactly how it was. I was slowly stretching my fingers, arms, the back, lower back..and after 7 hours, I was up.
So after that, I spoke to the Oracle, about what needs to be done, and the online diagnostic via webcam seems to suggest that i have not slipped a disc, but I have damaged something that sounds like "facets". So yeah with me having damaged something that sounds like facets, I have decided to be extremely careful.
This week is my 4th week doing nothing, and it's going to be a 5th week next week because I have a business trip yet again to Kuala Lumpur.
But One thing that I need to say and DO. Is that I realise that I am deviating from the objective. I am smoking damn it. I need to stop. Not one, Not half, Not one puff. ObjectiveZero.
I am going to Mauritius on the 6th of June next month. See you homies
Hoshu Ikeda
I guess I know why. This week, I didn't work out, but I slept late and got about 4-5 hours of sleep daily. Usually I would get home after the gym and rush to bed,so that I would get a good 7-8 hours of rest. Although everything is supposed to be mind over matter, it works once, or twice. But if you have to do if over and over again, your mind will get tired. I am coming to this point because I was trying to stretch during the week, but I just couldn't. I guess I must be exhausted. My daily stretching program is becoming more of a 3 times a week thing. And I need to really re-plan and know what I must do.
I was having a discussion with my brother the other day. I learnt the phrase "premature optimisation". Sounds complex, but this is what I've been doing. Even during my studies I felt that I need to read it all from cover to cover, when in fact, a feel of subject is more essential at the earliest stage. I understand why I didn't pass the last karate assessment. I understood it when it happened. I noticed that the person that was doing the same kata as I was, did not have a good foundation. His moves seem somewhat, careless, but he passed. He had a good feel of the whole kata, the whole problem. I had broken my kata into pieces and analyses each movement piecewise. The test day came and I had trouble rearranging them all back together. I did complete the kata but the flow was not there.
We'll see this Monday.
But eating wise, I am still around 73 kg. It’s still light compared to what I should be. My cardio sucks. I realize that I am running out of ideas of how to improve it. Run everyday? I could try to run interval everyday, but damn. I can’t do it. If I do a good interval run one day, the next day would be a lower intensity one…but it doesn’t work cos my heart beat would only reach at 150 at most.
Plyometrics were going fine, until I found out that my back started to ache. I took a rest, but continued the arms plyometrics.
Techniques wise, I think I will pause on that. I will just work on my fitness and get it to an acceptable level. And also on my stretching, to gain the finesse I want. Or perhaps am I doing it wrong? Should I be working on just techniques? I am not sure. I realise I need to train my 1-2 and then mawashi or maigeri with the front leg. Rather than the back. I need to unlearn my usual offensive, anr relearn more efficient and faster attacks like this one.
I must update this journal to monitor my progress, organize my thoughts and reiterate my goals. I have realized that the two hardest things in this journey are:
- To work on being flexible
- Cardiovascular trainings
I guess I am already quite flexible, but not to the extent I wish to be. Cardiovascular, hem hem, I suck and I have always sucked. Running was banned in my primary school because there were just too many students. So if I were to be in a fight, I would probably have to finish the opponent/s off in the first 15-20 seconds, if I can’t, then goodbye. Beyond the dynamic 15-20 seconds, my heart automatically fails and shuts down.
About stretching
If anyone wants to be flexible, they need to stretch. I have figured out that I should not be over-enthusiastic about stretching. If I over-stretch, the result is: muscle rip. My daily stretching program would be ruined and I’d need a three-week break from stretching. So a good way to go is to stretch to the limit, and then go just a tiny bit over, not more. And definitely not to the point where you say, DAMN! I improved by 10cm today, because that would mean the end for you for the next 3 weeks. Be patient.
About stretching and cardio
I have been running for quite and I observed that when I go running, my leg muscles seem to get so stiff and it becomes quite challenging to continue with the stretching. It’s a dilemma. How do they do it?
About Cardiovascular
Although I am not the best runner, I do ok. However my cardio sucks big time and I need a major change in my training. Recently I have thought of maintaining my heartbeat at a very high rate for a long period. My previous training consisted mainly of running longer and longer distances, which is good, but it does not bring my heart to the stress level that is experienced in a fight. I noticed that I began to feel quite stressed when my heart beat reached 155 last week, and I was kinda blacking out at 180.
Target
My target is to maintain my heart beat at 170 for one whole minute within the next two months. And I shall achieve this by trying to maintain my heart beat at 160 for at least 3 minutes for 3 times weekly this month.
As for the stretching, I need a solution damn it.
I don't think I am afraid of going to the threshold of pain. But I am afraid that I do get something permanently damaged. Although, I know that it's useless for me to go to a doctor right now, cos the so many times I've been, I get 24 pills of muscle relaxants which I can place in my collection in my wardrobe. But with me reluctant to go towards chinese traditional medicine and go to sensei masters, the big question is how am I gonna fix my back. I missed out on training yesterday and looks like I will miss out on running today too. So how am I gonna do it? The training must go on.
I am posting this in small fonts because I know this post will bore most people so please don't read.
I really don't know if I should post this. But here it is. Today I believe that I may have gotten a very accurate description on how to work my way towards doing the splits. A very accurate stretching program that I even had to say "WHAT!!! , Couldn't u have told me that before?"
I use to be able to do it, when I was very warmed up, but now...hhppmmt. I don't think I have done a perfect split in the past 4 years. I think my brain has given up on me. Each time I stretch and attempt to do the splits, my brain is telling the rest of my body " Don't listen to him, he's lost his mind" and I end up never being able to do it.
And the thing is that, when u ask most people, how do u do it? They are either highly flexible people who naturally can do the splits, or people who are just flexible, almost there, but can't actually do the splits. So the advice you get is not always reliable. You do try them, but it's like oh well.
But my dear sis, the genius of the family, who's a physiotherapist just told me THE SECRET. Let's hope THE SECRET works. The accuracy of her description really intrigued me. Now let's see if my neighbours don't complain about me screaming from pain for the next 3 months.So I do feel that this is it. Is this it?
OK, today I was in a weird mood after training. No I was not angry. No I was not dissappointed. I got news that my master had failed me for the Karate grading exam I had for 3rd Kyu in Shitoryu. The results are not out yet. But he did come up to me and told me that my second kata that I did was not there, and he had to fail me. I have never failed before. Never at anything really, especially for an examination. I had prepared and I wanted the 2 katas (Godan and Shinsei) to be really flawless.
It had been 2 years since I last took an examination and I was really thinking about taking on training more seriously, so I was like, OK GO!. But even when I was doing the movements over and over again, I did not feel that I was comfortable with Shinsei especially with the sanchin stance which I rarely ever use.
I felt very comfortable with Godan. It was easier than the Godan I had learn in both Shotokan or Shorin Ryu previously.
I was called up, I did the Godan, and was then asked to do Shinsei. I was asked to repeat it 5 TIMES!!!!
I had never been made to repeat a kata previously so I did not know how to react to that. I didn't do well on any of the other 4 times. The pressure just got to me. And after the examination that day, I did feel really frustrated. Why did I miss? Where did I miss? I knew the movements well but still, I was asked to do it again. I guess that when u are alone, walking up to the floor with 30-70 people watching you, the pressure is on and you just tend to fold under the pressure.
I guess that under pressure, you just tend to let out the techniques that you have practised over and over again. When interviewers asked Michael Jordan, how did he do it? how did he steal the ball and run up and layed the ball in. He answered simply, it's the most basic move that he has been practising over and over and over and over again and he wanted to get the ball so bad, and his body did the rest on its own when he got it. I am not comparing myself to Greatness or Royalty like MJ, but I believe that even for the best of us, when we are under pressure, when there's 10 seconds left on the clock, our mind just do the most basic thing that we have practised all so many times.
So what I can conclude is. I did not practise Shinsei enough. And that was the final assessment. An assessment that was made my a Japanese master instructor that has been exposed to more karate than I ever will be exposed to in my life time.
Singers never forget the lyrics to their own song. I must do Godan and Shinsei as if I invented the movements myself. This is my assessment.
Today I heard a click in my right ankle. I heard it yesterday too but today it was more like. Man. This is not good. And I could make it click everytime I wanted it too.
I recall that before, each time I was training at a certain intensity. I would always get injured in one way of another. I knew at that point that I would need to rest it. But when I rested it, all my other trainings would get impaired and I would just become complacent. Definition of complacent: I slow down my whole rhythm, train less, miss trainings because I am injured. Train with a low intensity.
But I made the decision at one point to continue training regardless of whether I was injured. I realised that muscular injuries can easily be healed and you can just keep on pushing without any consequences. However, with injuried to the joints, like my knee or in this case my ankle, it will turn into a recurring injury if you don't take good care of it.
So how do I prevent myself getting injured all the time? Is it the warming up properly, and preventing rapid cool down of the body, with adequate stretching before and after?
I must find out a way to continue training while resting my ankle. But isn't standing up the basic thing that you are required to do in our regular trainings. I mean you don't see someone sign up for karate and then they go...ohhhhh u can't stand up. Man I am screwed.
I think it takes a long time to move from zero training and climb up the ladder and gradually work to the peak. At the peak point you can just maintain it there quite easily and reach higher peaks with not much difficulty.
So how do I do this? I don't know. I dunno...
Today I didn't sleep well. I had 5 hours of sleep. In the early hours of morning, I realised that my sleep was disturbed and I knew had not slept much. I felt tired and wrecked so I purposely kept my eyes closed so that I would get more rest. But then out of no where, a song got stuck in my head, and I started singing it. The Prince song, that goes like...you don't have to be rich to be my girl, you don't have to be cool to rule my world. Damn, and I am telling my friend about it on msn at this very moment. How good am I at sabotaging my own reputation.
Oh well. So I got up, ate, went to lunch in Orchard at Food Republic and now, I should technically be in Katong in about 2 mins for a feast. Eating again. But Oh well, I am going to be late. It's a Karate Reunion thingy, with all the Kenyukai Karate People.
Anyway, yesterday I did go for a run. I smoked 6 cigarettes. Current Status: DAMN FULL and One cigarette.
Oh well I'll have to consider that seriously although I do know that going out on late nights means smoking aggrrrrh. So in life (I ain't trying to be philosophical here), there are BIG objectives and SMALL objectives. BIG objectives require endless sacrifices which are in turn small objectives at a certain level. Am I making sense?
So if I have made one objective, which is the theme of this blog i.e. To become a much better fighter than I am right now, there are many sacrifices that needs to be done.
1. Go to all trainings: For this to be achievable, I must sleep early nights and get adequate sleep so that I do not find training stressful
2. I must quit smoking, to improve my cardio. So whatever reason is, if I do go clubbing, I must not smoke, which is IMPOSSIBLE. So conclusion, I must not go clubbing which is yet another sacrifice.
3. Yes I must go running. Cardio again
4. I must get more flexible. I can't do the splits for nuts. I was very close before but now it's like me doing a star jump. I need to stretch before and after trainings. Yes I love pain.
5. I need to to hit a gym to get to get stronger.
6. I need to eat a hell of a lot, 3 meals a day to not get thinner.
So in summary, without considering training, I need to do weights to get strength, I need to improve my cardio to get speed, and I need to stretch to get finesse. 3 vital components. So the true objective is to get strength, speed and finesse which I will use in my regular Monday, Thursday and Saturday trainings.
So after smoking over 20 sticks a day on average, and suddenly cutting down to 10 within 2 weeks, and today was a 1.5 ( Non smokers wil never understand the magnitude of this monumental feat), I am hoping that it was not too sudden. I am wondering whether my mind and body somehow will want a stick so bad that it will just go into denial and give up on me. I know that all this is mental. I see my flatmate 'rizzle fizzle' smoking. He is purposely making me crave... but I know that it's all mental. If I want to quit, there are no excuses...no " but they were smoking infront of me" or "man they were giving out free cartons of cigarettes, i swear" or anything like that. I must quit and this is about me. I must quit to get fitter. I must get fitter to train better.
Today I started working on a better 1-2 and I am still reading on html, it's so basic.
- Mood:
cranky
Ok, with a whole week off, and today is monday, so that leaves me approximately 7 days to try to do something productive. So after walking around the house this morning, trying to figure out what I could possibly do this week, I made up my mind to do two things.
1. to learn HTML
2. To practise my 1-2
Please read further if you wanna know how crazy I am.
Reason for 1
Lol, if you wanna know how I came to the crazy conclusion. Well, firstly with my C programming background in my prehistoric university days, with a little peek at Java and perhaps some Java Script, I have always wanted to to learn a language that is more useful. I mean why the hell did I have to go through so much programming and never had to use it. What was my Uni thinking! And the answer comes to me today, to be able to learn other languages. So here goes, I shall learn HTML this week. And the best way to get good at it is to use it, and I shall use it to customise this blog. PLEASE BE READY for some awful html coding which may or may not load upon clicking.
This is my teacher http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/document/
Reason for 2
Secondly, I noticed some time ago that none of my moves are killer. I actually told my training mate Patrice during training of my intentions to make my 1-2 become better. If you wanna know what the hell a 1-2 is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Qi_6PUU
This is Alex Biamonti. It's the front punch followed by a subsequent reverse punch while gliding forward. He does it on the very first move before tripping the opponent. So yeah with years of training, I cannot pin point one move of mine which is above average. So I have decided to take it slowly, and practise just one offensive movement over and over again, starting with both right fist and left first ... in the hope that one day it will become at least 1/4 as good as the Godlike fighters in WKF.
Ok this is the first time I am posting a pic, here goes nothing. I hope this works. And let me try to change font colour too. And try to bold something. Hmm, I am getting quite good at this. Changing Font Size?. Sure getting the Hang of this.
- Mood:
curious
I am beginning a blog. Yes I am. To expose the side of my life that I almost never reveal. Karate. And my training re-re-re begins today, and this time I MUST not take any more breaks. I am uncertain why I am so in love in my karate side of life. And I don't know what I expect at the end of it. I know it's not fame, I know it's not to be able to bash up random people on the street and bully them. All that I know so far is that it's the furtherest I can ever be from reality. When I'm sweating on the mat, pushing my body to the limit and all I'm thinking is that this feels like shit, gasping for air and loving it, that's when I feel like myself, away from reality...a materialistic reality
So far this has been my ride,
1996-2002- Shotokan: Sensei Ajay Jooron
2002-Present- Jyoshinmon Shorin Ryu: Shihan Georges Li Ying Pin
2002-Present- Shitoryu: So-Shihan Ishikawa
I have tried everything to get a disciplined training schedule. Writing down resolution, keying in excel files to see the progress of my training, but nothing seems to work. My training begins today and this is my first post.
