Tag: Jeet Kune Do

Martial Arts 01/07/2020: Sandal Rubs the Forehead, Tang Kao, and Siep Kao

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, JKD, Martial Arts, Muay Thai, Muay Thai, Fitness, Weight Lifting, workoutLeave a comment

I really love Muay Thai. I love learning the rich tapestry of history that is behind this art. I love learning about Thailand, the people, and why this art came about. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I practice. I feel like I am making my body and mind stronger. I feel like I am learning an art and that I can eventually pass it down myself. This week I learned many new terms, words that are the names for some of the strikes we do, and they mean. Like Tang Kao, and Siep Kao, names for some of the knees. I learned names of some of the teeps. Like Sandal Rubbing the Forehead. I love how descriptive the name is in Thai.

Also as a person who has learned multiple languages in my life, Thai is one of the hardest I have ever tried to learn and pronounce. English, Japanese, Spanish, and some German, are the languages I have learned. In various levels of fluency. English and Spanish being the ones I am most fluent in. Japanese I learned from my grandma and mother when I lived and visited Japan. Finally German when I have time to study, so I have a basic kindergarten level knowledge. =) I digress though. Thai is so nuanced and the letter y seems to have a sound like ny. I could be wrong on this, but that is my understanding. I may want to pick up a class on Thai and pronunciation.

Tuesday 01/07/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

3 hours of Muay Thai and JKD training tonight.

I love it when my instructors say that they can see that changes, the progress in my training.

This time last year I was feeling like I was in a rut. I felt like I had hit a plateau. However this year, I am feeling like I am making progress on the training side of things. My cardio is head and shoulders above that of last year, my endurance is improving even more, my technique is improving to the point my speed. Yessss!

Conditioning warm up:

  1. 4 count rear to lead on bag, then sprawl
  2. bob and weave drill down under a rope hanging across the mat
  3. ladder where we switched our lead foot in and out of the ladder

Training:

  1. Check the kick lead leg, return kick lead leg, teep lead leg
  2. Check the kick rear leg, return kick rear leg, teep rear leg
  3. lead knee (siep kao, pushing knee), to lead kick
  4. rear knee (siep kao, pushing knee), to rear kick

JKD:

  1. sitting hubud (sitting removes the ability to move around with your feet. You have to feel the partners movements and focus on working the technique.)
  2. sitting 1 to 1 flow drill
  3. sitting 5 to 5 flow drill
  4. sitting 2 to 2 flow drill
  5. Then we flowed between them
  6. Then we worked on standing up while doing one of these drills and sitting back down, without stopping the drill.

We were drilling without shin guards. We were going light but still shin bone on shin bone will cause bone bruises. This is normal. You have to push out the fluid in the bruise. I treated it with Thai Oil, and rolling it out with the tiger tail. It hurt, but cumulatively it will start to hurt less the more it happens. So this is toughening up your bone and shins.

I only document this and show it to show what really happens in this martial art. These kinds of bruises happen, you need to know how to treat them. I am going to put a hot compress on it as well as roll it out again.

Wednesday 01/08/2020 – 2 hours… Muay Thai

2 hours of training Kettle Bell and Muay Thai. I let my baby girl take pictures and that is what I got. However, I am a little shook. Is this what I look like? It’s blurry but heck.

4 rounds of:

  1. KB swings 10
  2. 1 arm KB swings 20
  3. Side to side KB swings 10

Anyway I digress… today was Kettle Bells, then all knees all the time. My coach Tony who is Thai and is teaching me all the Thai words for the move we are doing. Siep Kao, yat (pronounced yhut), thee (pronounced tee) and Tang Kao We learned different kinds of tees today.

  1. 5 minute round of doing Siep Kao knees on the bag
  2. 5 minute round of doing Tang Kao knees on the bag
  3. 5 minute round of Siep Kao with partners
  4. 5 minute round of Tang Kao with partners
  5. 5 minute round of Swimming/clench work while getting knees in

Then we finished with core workout! Woot!

Terms for knees in Thai:

Siep Kao (pronounced see ep cow) – is pushing knee, where you knee the person with upper shin bone/knee

Tang Kao – is the spearing knee, where you knee the person with the top of you knee.

Yat (yhut) (pronounced nyet or yhut) – when you push with the knee

Thee (pronounced tdee, you will hear Americans say Dye) – word said when you knee a person

45 seconds each exercise, with 15 rest, 4 rounds

  1. dead bugs
  2. crunches
  3. leg raises
  4. bicycle
  5. mountain climbers
  6. clenching core with feet off ground and hands on head
  7. pike ups

Friday 01/10/2020 – 2 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

2 hours of Muay Thai practice. My coach Tony kicked our butts again. We learned the names for three different teeps. I thought I took a pic. You the kind of thought you took pic, remembering you put camera up and clicked, but for some reason it is not in your pics. I will get the terms tomorrow at training. But it was the rear teep, a rear hop teep, and lead head teep (that is called Sandal rubbing the forehead) will get terms in Thai tomorrow. Thank you so much for the awesome class. 🙏

Something I was thinking about. When I learn a term like ( Sandal rubbing the forehead) it’s easier to remember for me and I get to learn and extrapolate the culture from it.

Warm up:

  1. jump rope till all students got there

2 rounds of:

  1. bent over KB row
  2. push ups, inside and outside
  3. mountain climbers
  4. bicycles
  5. leg lift
  6. alternating lunge jumps
  7. sit sweeps
  8. plank ups
  9. prison squats

Training:

  1. 2 rounds of pad rounds – feeder kicks and you hold for immediate response
  2. Rear leg teep
  3. rear leg hop teep
  4. lead leg head teep
  5. Tiger walk or begging of Wai Kru in Muay Baron style ( meaning 50/50 stance, fist over fist movements, goal is to make it pretty, and to work on balance)
  6. Abbs – 50 crunches, and Tony hit bellies of trainees with pad 10 times in a row.

Terms for teeps in Thai:

Mon Yun Luk (pronounced mon {like Monday}, nyun, lock) – rear leg teep

Ka Don Teep (pronounced ka {like caw caw}, don {like Donatello}, teep) – jump teep, or feign leg shield teep

Bata Loop Pak (pronounced bata {like baton}, loop {like lopping}, pak (like pac in Tu Pac) – means sandal rubs the forehead, or head teep, executed where you blade the body to your opponent and using lead leg teep the head.

Saturday 01/11/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

3 hours of Muay Thai and JKD training. I did less conditioning and more pad holding which is a skill in itself.

JKD we worked on bridging the gap, feigning, nao tek kicks, ping choi, pak sau, and punches.

Thank you Khun Kru Krysta for great training and a fantastic class.

Saturday was a busy day after training, so I am posting this today. I did less conditioning yesterday, but I did a lot of pad holding. I feel soreness in my ribs today. My hamstrings are tired from the training this week. I clocked 10 hours of training total this week.

Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think. If I got the terms incorrect, let me know and I will fix them. I am still learning. As always keep working to be the best you that you can be.

Martial Arts 01/02/2020: “Deal with your self” Tony, “My safe word is a teep!” Krysta

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, JKD, Martial Arts, Muay Thai, Muay Thai, Fitness, workoutLeave a comment

Today starts a new week of training. When we have several days off, sometimes it feels like I may have lost my conditioning. I know it is a silly worry. But it did crop up today, I was working and had to do some heavy lifting (literally 30 and 50 lb buckets of product). Well I was tired and thought oh crap am I going to make it through my classes tonight?

Thursday 01/02/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai and JKD

Muay Thai and JKD- Little less than three hours of training tonight.

I did 4 rounds before class with my coach Tony thank you Sir.
We did 3 x 4 minute rounds and 1 x 3 min round.

Then Muay Thai and JKD with my coach Khun Kru Krysta. Thank you for the great classes. We did boxing in Thai, and trapping in JKD!

Muay Thai:

We worked on the boxing 20. Focusing on the cover of your organs.

JKD:

We worked on Jeet Kune Do (JKD) today. I am going to digress here and talk about what JKD means “The way of the Intercepting Fist”. It was developed by Bruce Lee and was personal to him. There has in his own lifetime been a lot of controversy over the art he developed. Wing Chun was his basis for the martial art, and what he started with first. He added to it with the best of Taekwondo, Boxing, Fencing , and Wrestling. He had many people in his time that were upset that he was melding and mixing martial arts the way he was. They wanted their art to stay pure. However, I really like the way he always wanted to learn from everything and use the best.

“Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful. Reject what is useless. Add what is essentially your own. “

-Bruce Lee

My instructors, Ajarn Chai, and Dan Innosanto worked with him while he was alive. I have the honor to learn from them, and from my other instructors who have subsequently learned from the legends above.

We worked on the following today:

  1. Ping Choy, Gua Choy, Lop Sau, Gua Choy, Pak Sau Da, Loy Pak Sau

Ping Choy = low strike block or horizontal fist

Guay Choy = back fist

Lop Sau = grabbing/pulling hand

Pak Sau Da = slapping/grabbing hand

Loy Pak Sau = inside (of the arm) slapping hand

So with those definitions, this is the trapping drill we did is as follows:

  1. horizontal fist, back fist, grabbing/pulling hand, back fist, slapping/grabbing hand, inside slapping hand

I also learned the hand positions names:

Biu gee = Shooting fingers, or finger jab, usually to eye or neck

Tan sao = palm up block

Jong sao = Palm inward block, or sideways hand, (between biu and tan sao)

I made some graphics for those who are visual learners below:

Friday 01/03/2020 – 1.5 hours… Muay Thai Conditioning

1.5 hours of Muay Thai conditioning and practice. My coach Tony kicked my butt again. It was amazing. I like when he pushes me! I want to push through. He was working with me. When we had a break Tony asked me if I was feeling heavy and tired, and I said yes. He said, “good, you are pushing through the barrier. I can tell you are working past it.” He meant the tired, the pain and the haze you get when you are pushing hard.

He had us doing one for one drill, kicking on pads right after a conditioning warm up. And then the more one for one hit response rounds. I am getting better about being hit, tougher. Then we did asymmetrical response
rounds. Finally he had us doing core. I am exhausted but a good exhausted.

One of the most awesome things was I got to train with my first instructors side by side. Thanks you Khun Kru Krysta and Kru Kristen for working with me! It’s amazing to work with them and train with them as well. Different than just being taught by them.

After Thai training snack was yogurt, fruit, and almonds. Nom nom nom

Favorite quote of the night, “Deal with yourself”, Tony. This was in reference to how he was taught Muay Thai. Sometimes you just kinda have to suck it up. Its going to hurt, change is hard. When your molding your body to your art, it gets hard. However, you persevere.

Saturday 01/04/2020 – 3 hours… Muay Thai Conditioning, and JKD

Whew! The last training day of this week. We did 3 hours. 2 hours of it were conditioning training.

We did between 12 to 15 rounds, either holding or working the pads. I got my numbers in for my upcoming testing. I was tired from Friday, but it was a good tired. I got a chance to work through it and it was not so bad.

For class this day we worked on JKD (Jeet Kune Do) again. This time adding the Nao Tek or pendulum kick to the routine. We worked on feigning and getting out of the pocket using the nao tek. I really enjoy JKD. I like learning the trapping and response moves. It transitions so nicely into Muay Thai and I learn better how to redirect blows with JKD.

Best quote of the day, “my safe word is a teep”, Khun Kru Krysta. This was absolutely hilarious and I loved it. I wanted to write it down so I would remember forever.

There were two great quotes this week from my coaches/trainers. “Deal with yourself,” Tony. “my safe word is a teep,” Khun Kru Krysta. This was a fantastic week of training. We did 7.5 hours of training this week. Even though it was shortened due to the holidays it was a fantastic start of the new year. I got to work on JKD trapping which I love. I got to work with and alongside two of my coaches/trainers with us all being students. It was a wonderful experience.

Finally as if the week could not get any better. I had the honor of being asked to help demonstrate Muay Boran from my coach Tony. From what I understand we are going to demonstrate this art at the Royal Thai embassy. For this I will be learning Muay Boran. Muay Boran is predecessor to current modern Muay Thai.

What I have learned so far is that this style and art was used by the slaves to get out of slavery, to fight off the Burmese, and was used as the Thai soldiers martial art style. As modern day Muay Thai moved to more of a martial sport in the ring, they had to take some of the Muay Boran out. It changed partially because it was a style used to kill, and not used for scoring points originally. It also changed partially because it was easier to award points to the person who hit more often then the person who was able to deflect and control the fight. This made it more accessible to everyone in watching the fights. (I am still learning, and if I made a mistake let me know I am happy to change it. Everything I wrote is from what I have read, and been told/taught by my instructor Tony.)

Thank you for reading. I hope you all had a fantastic new year, and I hope the rest of the year is amazing for you all as well. Keep working to be the best you, that you can be.

Saturday Striking…Pak Sao Da, Violent Rainbows, and a kick for good measure

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I missed Krav today because I got home from work at 1130 pm. I was exhausted and really did not want to wake up. I decided sleep was more important. I only did 1.5 hour Striking workout today. We focused on JKD, or Jeet Kune Do.

Today we worked on dealing with a jab, and returning a strike. For instance we worked on what to do when some one was throwing out noise, or just crappy jabs that were not committed. We need to watch the body movement for when they commit to a jab and put their body into it. One way is the Violent Rainbow. Where when they jab you perry, grab the glove pull them in, and elbow them. I then like to grab a hold of the person and then knee them or kick them for good measure.

We worked on slipping the jab, and then hitting them with a gut shot. Coming up with a uppercut, hook, cross, and then a nao tek. Or what is referred to as a nut shot.

The hardest part is watching the other persons body, and realizing when they are actually going to commit to a shot. You have to do this analysis all while you are parrying incoming hits, and trying to avoid getting hit in the face, or kicked for that matter.

It seems to me that a lot of people do not realize how much brain power goes into these arts/sports. When you see a person get into the ring to fight it just looks like two people going at it. You don’t see what they are actually doing internally. You have to:

  1. protect yourself,
  2. you have to block hits
  3. you have to return hits
  4. you have to look for openings
  5. you have to also look for committed shots so you can use their momentum against them
  6. you have to learn to read people
  7. you have to look for minute shifts in their stance

These are are hours taken to learn, and so many more hours spent training your body to have a reflexive response. This allows for lightening fast reactions.

I am not at that level yet. I have to actively remember to protect myself/block, I have to consciously look for openings, and I am still studying people. I have however, seen times where I block as a reflex before I knew what I was doing. I have also returned shots/kicks, that surprised my training partner, that I did, because I have been training to get those in, when I get the opportunity to. I assume its my training starting to seep through.

One of these days I hope to have some skill. Alas for now I will just keep training. I had a great day, and it was a fun class.

I hope you all have a great rest of your day. As always thanks for reading.

Saturday Muay Thai and Striking… entry, rhythm, and JKD (Jeet Kune Do)

On By Thinks with SpinksIn Fitness, Fitness Links, Food, Muay Thai, Fitness2 Comments

I sit here writing this after a 2.5 hour training session, we also just refueled with some delicious Thai food. Because it is H’s birthday and we are celebrating. In most Asian families, long noodles are the thing to eat to ensure a long life. =)

I trained Muay Thai for one hour before our striking class. We worked on entries to get in and land our punches. We were working our range management. I am very short, 5 foot nothing, and my range is very short. In a fight I am going to get up close and personal. Where a taller 6 foot person is going to be hit me from further away. I have to get in close. There are advantages for the taller person. They can kick and hit from further out, and I have to eat a hit or kick to get into their pocket. However, the advantages for a shorter fighter are to my knowledge I have a shorter range, which is good cause I can then switch up what I am doing faster than they can. I can change my range with moving a little bit. I can cover up my actions by putting interference in their faces and then kick them without them seeing my legs move if I am executing the move correctly.

In Striking class we worked on JKD (Jeet Kune Do). ” Jeet Kune Do, “The way of the intercepting fist” in Cantonese, abbreviated JKD, is a hybrid philosophy of martial arts heavily influenced by the personal philosophy and experiences of martial artist Bruce Lee.” Wikipedia

We worked on both orthodox fighting and south paw fighting. What this means is we had to change our stances. We had to change our lead leg. Orthodox fighters have left leg forward, and south paw fighters have right leg forward. We had to faint, high, and low jabs, then work on entries into and range management to get the crosses, hooks, upper cuts, and then lead pendulum kicks a.k.a. Nao Tek.

From a technique point of view, this is hard to switch up. When I an orthodox fighter has to switch up to south paw, or right lead leg. It takes all your mental acuity to just make sure your throwing a hook with the right hand and not a cross like you would with orthodox stance. We then worked on a pop the leather practice where we try to use the tools we learned in JKD to asymmetrically spar our opponent. It was a fantastic training session, and I had a great time.

I have rambled on enough. I hope you have had a great day. Talk to me if you have questions or thoughts.

Here is a video of me doing some training on the bag. I was working on some left and right kicks. As you can see I am a orthodox fighter and I have left lead leg.

Working on Muay Thai Kicks