I hope ya’ll are doing well. I’ll be pulling out the nerds for this one. The personal trainer in me, the kettlebell coach, the ortho-shoemaker and the combative escrima instructor get excited about the video interview below.

To give a little back ground, we’ll start with some competing theories that supplement each other at different points. There are different systems of thought that govern treatment and training of the human body.

Part of the basis for Z-health is the order of mobility and stability in the joints of our body. The general principle is this. Ankle joint = mobility, knee joint = stability, hip joint = mobility, lower back = stability and so on. Hopefully you get the idea. Lack of a given function in a joint means the load is transferred to the next joint up or down the chain. An example is the way some people squat with a rounded back and their knees goes waaaay forwards. Other people hinge much more in the hip joint and look like they are doing a squat. Because the hip joint works some what like it should, you see a better squat and that person does not have knee pains.

In another system people talk about how the body activates other muscle around a joint to stabilize it. Why? Because the muscle that should have been activated to start with never kick in. One of the corner stones of this Muscle Activation System is how our nervous system is triggered to work optimally if a specific muscle starts the movement chain.

We all have experienced the gym class in school, where you do a lot of static stretching to warm up. That was the general idea for years. The modern criticism of this idea is that the nervous system becomes slow and is slow to compensate and adjust as needed. The result is an injury because the nervous system did not quickly activate the muscle(s) needed to perform the skill.

What happens if we start to look at the common ideas of the different systems and start to look at what is a common factor in all systems. Yoga, general static stretching that the Dr. tells you to do for neck pains (The problem is short muscle on the front of your body compared to the back side by the way), olympic weight lifting training, and martial arts. The answer is you start to get an understanding of how our bodies work in the best possible manner.

I have been a big fan of coaches like Mike Boyle and Martin Rooney for while now. That’s because they say a good specific sport athlete should be a good general athlete. Of course a baseball pitcher will have to work more on shoulder issues compared to some other type of athlete. The key is that there should be some common ground if we are to avoid pain, injuries and have a general sense of well-being … not to mention longevity.

The same goes for escrimadors, BJJ fighters, karate folk, smart crossfitters, RKC kettlebell coaches, and olympic weight lifters. I’ve been checking out some videos from Kelly Starrett for a while now. We can always talk about the difference in treatment and training according to differing systems, but lets talk about what they have in common instead. When we do that we see how a KB swing can help an escrimador become stronger faster and have a better balance. The escrimdor’s everyday life becomes better because his body works like it should. That’s why the podcast/video below is really cool and the different nerds in me get excited by the video. ( It get’s crowded in here sometimes!)

I hope ya’ll enjoy it. Have a great day.

Stay Proactive in Life and Training

CW

As you can see in the picture I pulled one of those different workouts out from nowhere just because we can do it.

Some of the subjects for this entry are: The box,  what I expect from the men training for the 3rd grade and new members.

Before we get started, I would like to say welcome to our new members J and A. They seem like they will fit in very well. That brings us to 8 (+ myself) members in Copenhagen. Now we just have to get everybody together at the same time. We may have to send a letter to all our employers. Real men need to hit each other with sticks without bosses getting in the way. UGGGGG!

As a quick note, you might want to look at GM Latosa’s website to see where he will be in the future. I know he was in Germany not too long ago.

Once again … Congrats to the men for passing the test for then 2nd Latosa Concepts Escrima grade. They can look forward to a lot of box training. The Box System ( Click to see an entry on the box) was created as a fast and hard solution to many situations. The men will be working on making the live hand more active and powerful as well as many other ways we can improve chances in a weapon scenario.

We’ll be building on some of the counters to the unarmed techniques they trained earlier. You can see an example in the video. The GG starts with an attack and counters the BG’s counter. They started work on more effective preempting skills the other day as well. We’ll keep them working on those. The men can look forward to 2 stick requirements for the 4th grade test. We are getting them ready for that with different drills unarmed and with sticks.

All the members well be doing more multiple attacker drills. It’s still very basic in that, there is no strategy require right now, they are simply learning to cope with many different attacks in the same drill. Now we are outside we’ll be using the wonderful green lawn and the space we have.

As you can see in the picture above, we are ready for more members now. All you have to do is write to us and make an appointment to come give it a try. Spread the word! Be fair warned though, no big a-hole egos allowed. We’ll be posting different pictures on FB. I’ll post them here on the blog as well.

That’s it for now, get you some sunshine vitamin while you can and have a great day.

Stay Proactive in Life and Training

CW

I hope ya’ll are doing well. The sun has been showing it’s self and we are training outdoors when ever possible now. We’ll be looking at a few possibilities for some outdoor training today.

My own strength and conditioning training has changed up as a result of the weather. I’ve given up my membership at the gym and the kettlebells are getting used along with rings, a sledge hammer and a backpack filled with sand. If you use the backpack idea here, make sure you use a good one or one you just don’t give a hoot about. The 3 previous backpacks could not hold together at the seams. The first two didn’t last that long with 35 + kgs in them. In the video you will see a figure-8 swing and how to build up to it. You need a good stable core for the fig-8 swing.

With regards to the subject for today, If I had to choose between a clubbell and a mace,  it would be a mace. You can change the ball at the end, thus changing the weight.

The men are starting to use hickory axe handles as a way of building up strength for escrima. The men are building up more strength and are getting used to the added weight. If we are to take this idea even further, I could give them a hammer and they would have to learn how to control the added weight via control/power mechanisms. The next step would be to go even heavier. Clubbells, maces and indian clubs have all been used for years by many cultures as a way of strengthening the core and doing full body functional exercises as well as working on mobility and end range strength. You can see one video posted with regards to some of this here.

The picture is a link to a website where you can read about some exercise that a hammer, clubbell or mace can be used for. I have tried all the exercises shown on the site and liked them. The dynamic Curl was really cool because it forced me to lock my core down in yet another direction. The men will see this as part of training as well as the spear exercise.

Remember to spread the word… we are ready for new members now that

outdoor escrima training has started in Gentofte.

This was just a quickie so ya’ll have a great day.

Stay Proactive in Life and Training

CW

Reblogged from Science & Space:

CW

We’ll start with a big Congratulations to Jesper and Niklas for passing the test for the LC second grade. They start training the basics of the Box System from GM Rene Latosa on Tuesday. I like to ask a bunch of questions as part of the grading process, that way they perspire that extra little bit. They did well, so give them a clap on the shoulder for a job well done when you see them.

Regarding the grading diplomas, we’ll have to see what picture I use for the background next time. MA and I will have to keep the guys guessing. For the second grade; the men have been training feeding drills for unarmed and single sticks, variations of the #2 strike as well as a bunch of other subjects such as sparring drills. The whole idea is to get them ready for the box system. The first two grades help to prepare the students for other subjects, that makes the life of the old fart much easier later on down the line. We have one man away with family business. When he returns we’ll get him ready for the 2nd grade test as well.

Regarding the sweat shirts, they are the same color as the t-shirts. There are hooded versions and non-hooded versions. It all depends on your taste and /or mood. There ar plans for a more graphic design in the works. I have to speak with some artsy fartsy types before any are made.

We have some people coming by to see if they want to train with us. The doors are open for people new members. Now that the weather is warming up, we are looking forward to new members joining the Latosa Concepts Escrima group i Copenhagen / Gentofte. Regarding Aarhus, send a message and MA will get back to you. Go to the Contact page here. There’s no excuse folks, get off your duff and send an email to make an appointment for a training session. You can do it! We’ll continue to use the basement for “bad weather days” if/when they happen.

Some of the physical training we’ll be doing as part of the outdoor season will be wind sprints, pull-ups, and a bunch of other stuff like animal crawls, sit-outs. You can see some of the training activities we have done in the past here… PT Courses Youtube. I left a few videos up after I closed the company.

Regarding more pictures, there should be some more pictures in the Latosa Concepts Escrima Photos section by the time you are reading this. The picture to the left is one of them. I am debating putting some pictures from the past up so it’s easy to to see where MA and I came from. We’ll see what happens.

Finally, I have updated a few links on the link page. The next update video should be a video post as well. I might be putting a clubbell like conditioning link up as well. As for the rest, I’ll keep you guessing. That’s it for now. Have a great day. We’ll talk at you later. Long live old farts.  ;)

Proactive in Life and Training

CW

Any hoo! Enjoy the video, you can see his acting skills show themselves as well as his knowledge of Ginastica.

That’s it for now, have a great day!

Proactive in life and Training

CW

Fly’er new members Latosa Concepts Escrima. English

Fly’er nye medlemmer Latosa Concepts Escrima. Dansk

That’s it for now, my boy and I are going to go shoot a bow we made. We’ll be shooting at a target we made also. Go enjoy the sun shine and have a great day!

Proactive in Life and Training

CW