Once again our intrepid Judo coach has been away representing Ireland, this time in Austria.
While I’m waiting on more details, here’s a clip of Donal scoring yet another perfect Ippon.
The man truly is a softly spoken warrior:
For more info on Donal have a look at his profile page: CLICK HERE.
Also check the home page for an up to date schedule of classes.
Regards
Wild Geese
www.wildgeesema.com
www.wg-fit.com
An eye opening collection of footage that may change the way you view your self defence training.
Have a look at this video and tell me if you’re training prepares you for the kind of things you see here.
Our instructor, GM Danny Guba has been on the giving and receiving end of more than one knife attack, this is one of the reasons we learn from him and pass his methods onto you. But even the training and skills he passes on to you through us will merely raise your survivability, there are no guarantees against a blade.
My mistake, there is one – You will get cut, hopefully your training will allow you to minimise the damage and live to see tomorrow.
Regards
Wild Geese
www.wildgeesema.com
www.wg-fit.com
Kettlebells, we just love them at Wild Geese.
Why do we love them? Because we are fighters, and that means we look for the most efficient technique for any given situation, we look for the most bang for the buck.
We know that a jumping cartwheel kick may look cool, but in a fight the good old fashioned rear cross is far more valuable to us.
We put that same philosophy into our training, and the most efficient tool we have come across to date is the Kettlebell, and the most efficient Kettlebell movement for our needs is the one arm clean & jerk.
The Clean & Jerk (or Long Cycle) involves swinging the bell from between the legs, up to the “Rack” position on the chest, then powering it overhead using the legs, back and finally the shoulder and arm.
It is a full body lift.
Done with a single bell will involve a whole heap of core stabilisation, far more effective at strengthening your midsection than any amount of sit ups. Driving one bell over head using the whole body is as close to a punching action as you’ll get while lifting weights.
Forget punching to the front with dumbbells, that trains the shoulders in the complete wrong manner, the jerk is actually better for developing a sharp snappy punch that just keeps on coming.
Taking the combat element away from our training, after all not everyone is a fighter, we are still left with one of the best full body conditioning drills. The One Arm Clean & Jerk uses every muscle in the body, and does so explosively. There are few other lifts that will ramp up your metabolism as high in a short space of time, so it is perfect for fat loss as well as strength and conditioning.
To learn this lift purely from a blog post is doable, but really you ought to find an instructor. You will also learn this lift on my Level 3 Kettlebell workshop. However, I have filmed the lift for you, even including a bit of slo-mo. Please remember, unless you have a foundation of swings and presses (as in the Level 1 workshop), there’s not much point in rushing ahead of your self and trying to perfect this lift.
He’s the greatest, He’s fantastic,
He certainly seemed impressed with our facility, but on the way out he asked “Do you have a gym?”
I started to explain that he’d seen the weight training area with the array of kettlebells, barbells etc but he wasn’t satisfied.
“I mean any gym equipment” he continued, seeing I was a little perplexed he continued to explain, “I like to run.”It became clear.
“Oh, yeah, I suppose. I’ve just…..” At this point I changed the subject to spare his embarrassment.
So what is this philosophy?We don’t rely on any one piece of equipment. Yes we love our Kettlebells, but we also have barbells, sandbags, sledgehammers, but above all else we have our body which is really all we need to train.
We love our Eskrima, it has the same philosophy, one weapon is all weapons, the same principles apply regardless of the weapon at hand, even if it is your hand.
This means we are never caught out, we never have to make excuses, we need nothing and want for nothing.
If we want to run, we step out our front door and we are running. If half way around the run we feel like doing some upper body strength, we can droop and do push ups, or jump up and do pull ups from a bus shelter, goal post or tree branch. If we get mugged along the way, we don’t panic that we left our sticks/swords/knives/gloves/belts/gum shields back at the club, no we defend ourselves with whatever is at hand, and run on ( a little faster now..)
In the real world you can’t rely on anything other than what you are wearing. There is no crutch for you to lean on. If you specialise in one area, that’s fantastic, if you only ever train for one thing, that’s great, until the day you area outside your specialist area.
As my old mate, a former marine, likes to say “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome”. Failure to do so can lead to unthinkable consequences.
So do we have any gym equipment?
The answer is yes, you are your gym, now train with it.
Regards
Dave
Wild Geese Martial Arts & Fitness
http://www.wildgeesema.com/
http://www.wg-fit.com/
In conversation this week two things have become a recurring theme. Two things that seem to have gone out of fashion and are in danger of being relegated to the history books, just like the Dodo.
The two items in question have been essential tools in the furthering of our species since time began, they are two of the things that made us top of the food chain and without which we will start to slide back down it again. We may no longer be worried about a sabre toothed tiger hunting us down, but we sure as hell ought to be concerned about a mugger, rapist, junkie or scumbag having a go.
So what two things am I talking about?
Common Sense and Personal Responsibility.
We’ve spoken about common sense on many occasions, it is the master sense, the 6th sense that allows us to act appropriately to the information gathered by the other 5 senses.Without common sense we are stupid and irrational, impulsive and illogical, which is all well and good in a safe environment, but ridiculously dangerous and irresponsible any where else. Such as on the streets on a Friday night.
So what about personal responsibility? What’s that got to do with anything?
Simple. You are responsible for your own safety. You alone, nobody else.
As a society we look to blame everyone else for everything. A person scolds themselves with a coffee they’d just bought from a fast food store, so they sue the store and win. Read that back, THEY scolded THEMSELVES with a COFFEE that THEY had just bought.Yet they were allowed to pass the blame onto the vendor. They took no responsibility for their own actions. It is common sense that coffee will be served hot, you must use this common sense information appropriately and take measure to ensure you do not scold yourself, failure to do so will result in injury.
Now the coffee incident is not a life threatening situation, but it does highlight the problem.
You MUST open your eyes, ears and mind, you must engage the brain and utilise common sense, if you do not then it is your fault that you become the victim.
In other words, should you find yourself face to face with a mugger, it’s your fault.
Is that a bit harsh? Maybe.Is it justified? Yes.
Unless you are attacked completely at random, there will be a sequence of events leading up to the attack. You will have been selected as a potential victim, targeted, maybe followed, possibly approached, all before anything gets physical. It’s very much like the nature programs on the discovery channel, the Lions don’t attack the Alpha male in a herd of wildebeest, instead they go for the weak one that’s not paying attention. Joe Scumbag will do just the same.
If you present yourself as a target, you will be treated like one. It’s your fault.
If your head is down and Joe Scumbag approaches you, then you haven’t seen him coming, that again is your fault.
If you find yourself in a situation where you must physically defend yourself, have you trained yourself to do this? Are you fit to run away? Are you strong enough to push him back? Are you skilled enough to escape his grasp? Are you aware of the vulnerable targets on a body? No? Guess what, it’s your fault that you were unable to defend yourself.
That’s a hell of a burden to carry.
The alternative is simple, do something about it.
Leave the iPod at home and listen to what’s going on around you, walk tall, keep the head up so that you can see around you, be aware of your surroundings. Train a little (or a lot) to be physically able to at least run away, at best throw a knock out (or knock down) strike and then run away.
When we take some responsibility for what happens to us, we can look for ways to change what happens. We can start to take control of our lives, our health and our safety. Once we have control of our own selves, we can then help others either by looking out for them or by inspiring them to better themselves.
Take action today, it will become a habit, you owe it to yourself.
Wild Geese
www.wildgeesema.com
www.wg-fit.com
Due to the high demand for the Brazilian JuJitsu and Kettlebell fitness classes on offer at our Dublin HQ, we are expanding our class schedule.
We have added more classes to the Saturday afternoons so it now looks like this:
10:30am – 12:30pm Iaido
12:30pm – 1:30pm Kettlebell Beginners
12:30pm – 2:30pm Muay Thai
1:30pm – 2:30pm Kettlebell Inter / Adv
2:30pm – 4:00pm Brazilian Jujitsu
4:00pm – 6:00pm Kickboxing (invitation only)
Abnel from the Morceago fight team, our Brazilian jujitsu instructors has also suggested that he and Andre, would like to hold an extra class during the week that will only be open to a few handpicked individuals. A closed door session for their fighters, this will not be advertised, if you wish to attend these special training sessions, you’d better ensure that you are attending the regular classes, amking consistent improvement and doing some extra training outside of the BJJ class.
What extra training?
Take advantage of our Dave’s.
Dave G is our Muay Thai coach, he does all his own training in Thailand where he spends several months a year. Muay Thai and BJJ go hand in hand in the ever popular mixed martial arts, Wild Geese are blessed to have top coaches in both arts under one roof.
Dave H is our conditioning specialist, currently training himself for the Irish Kettlebell lifting championships in Kilkenny in July, he has brought many an athlete and combatant up from average to exceptional by improving
their athleticism, strength and endurance.
Another option, and one that has already been taken by Andre, the BJJ coach, join the judo class. I often hear how wrestling is the missing link in many an MMA fighters chain. You may have great striking and amazing submissions, but that middle ground, the devastating takedowns could be the deciding factor.
A good Judo takedown is poetry in motion, the opponent seemingly helpless as he goes from standing to slamming into the mat and the whole time you are in control, deciding where he will land and how you will finish in a control position. There is no guess work in Judo, quite often the opponent doesn’t even realise a technique is being applied until it is too late.
For a dedicated MMA athlete we can offer a full package, each range of combat plus the strength & conditioning to last a fight.
Think you’re man enough?
When a member of the Wild Geese coaching team issues a challenge, it rarely goes unanswered.
On this particular occasion the challenge was to find an efficient way of doing a Janda Sit Up, without the need of a training partner or specialised kit.
Participants in this challenge were:
1 – Dave G, the challenger
2 – Dave H, the challenged.
Dave G is our resident Meat Head, if somebody can lift something, he has to better it. So far his max effort Deadlift is 200kg, why only so far? Because when our next delivery of equipment arrives, he’ll have more weight to play with and therefor undoubtedly go bigger. He also teaches Muay Thai.
Dave H is our resident conditioning coach. One of Dave’s specialties is problem solving, finding new and unusual training methods and working out how to get as much training done with the least amount of equipment.
The Janda Sit Up is a quite possibly the ultimate in training for the Rectus Abdominis, or the 6 pack muscle. Normally when we do a sit up or crunch style movement the hip flexors (Psoas muscles) are heavily involved. The way to remove them from the equation was discovered by Dr Janda.
The good Doctor realised that he could use reciprocal inhibition to stop the hip flexors firing. He saw that if the exerciser was to fire their Glutes and Hamstrings (the hip extensors) then the Psoas (hip flexors) would not fire.
For a quick and easy example of recipricol inhibition, take the bicep and flex it, this will bend the arm. It’s opposite number, the tricep relaxes to allow the arm to bend. The hip flexor and extensor muscles are no different.
The problem has always been to get the hip extensors working while in a position to work the abdominals. Usually a training partner is on hand to hold the ankles while the exerciser tries to pull his heels in towards his backside.
We don’t like having to rely on a training partner, so we look for methods of doing it without.
After a few false starts, Dave H stumbled across a solution.
The Lat Pull Down, a machine we never use. The cable is just long enough with a couple of extra karabiners to allow the bar to be hooked under the knees. With some weight added the Hip Extensors have to work to keep the feet in contact with the ground and the Psoas are effectively switched off.
In the video Dave G does a few reps with 10kg, Dave H jumps in and attempts 20kg on the pulley. Dave G then just shows off with 20kg at the end.
Enjoy.
Regards
Wild Geese
www.wildgeesema.com
www.wg-fit.com
Brazilian Jujitsu (BJJ) and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) have been tought at Wild Geese Martial Arts for some time now, and while we’ve had good instructors, we’ve never had great instructors.
This is about to change.
Since our old BJJ coach, Mariousz left us we’ve had a bit of help from a few friends. Lads have stepped up and taken on the classes, and we’re extremeley grateful, and extremely lucky to have had them do this for us. It’s a debt we’ll be repaying for some time.
But one of the lads came to us a week ago and told us about a group of BJJ coaches and students that have recently been left without a studio to train out of.
He brought them to us.
We were immediately impressed.
They are starting here NEXT WEEK.
As of Monday 19th April 2010, Wild Geese are proud to offer you the opportunity to learn from Andre Ramos, a BJJ Brown Belt. A rank he earned in Brazil.
Take a look at the following clip of him in action:
We have changed the class schedule slightly to suit the boys a little better, the new class times are now on our homepage, www.wildgeesema.com.
Regards
Wild Geese
