Kong Falls Dead from Empire State Building

Training
41

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:

[quote]DeadKong wrote:
As always, thanks for responses of late, I am sure this thread could be of use to many others like me.

As I pore over the ideas of what to do next, I wonder if I should put a bit more stress back onto pure lifting, as footwork and shadow boxing for the near term won’t actually work my muscles.[/quote]

In your case, in which you have a very hard time with relaxation and not using too much muscle, I don’t think that focusing on lifting is going to be a great idea. Instead just put more time and energy into training your fundamentals.

Try this simple workout that is footwork, punching technique skills and punching hitting skills focused and tell me that you feel like going to the gym afterwards or would want to try this when you are sore from heavy lifting:

  1. Footwork “clock drill”- 25 repetitions of
    -forwards then back to center
    -backwards then back to center
    -left then back to center
    -right then back to center
    -diagonal forwards to the right then back to center
    -diagonal backwards to the right then back to center
    -diagonal forwards to the left then back to center
    -diagonal backwards to the left then back to center
    -pivot “in” on front foot then back to center
    -pivot “out” on front foot then back to center
    -circle right then back to center
    -circle left then back to center

You should strive to keep moving through the whole flow and do your best to try to complete all 25 reps of this flow stopping as little as possible (with the caveat that your focus should be on striving to stay in balance the whole time, not crossing your feet, and maintaining your fighting position including keeping your hands up, chin down and slight bend in your knees the whole time).

  1. Perform 20 more repetitions of the same footwork sequence as above but this time throw a “1, 2, 3, 4” combination (with as perfect form as you can meaning that at least one hand is always on the side of your chin/face, both when not punching) every time you step in a given direction (not when you return to center though).

  2. If you can find a partner to hold pads then perform 10 more repetitions of the same drill as above, but this time you’ll actually be hitting the pads instead of just practicing the punches in the air (make sure your pad holder watches you to make sure you are "re-covering/bringing your hands back to your chin/head after you punch with them and of course try to hold yourself responsible for doing this as well).

All in all that’s 55 repetitions of footwork in each direction, 240 reps of each punch thrown in the air, and 120 reps of each punch thrown on the pads

If you don’t have a partner to hold pads for you then on a heavy bag do:
-50 jabs
-50 straight rights
-50 left hooks
-50 right uppercuts (to the body if you don’t have an uppercut bag)
-50 jab, straight rights
-50 jab, straight right, left hooks
-50 jab, straight right, left hook, right uppercuts

Again, tell me that you would want to do this workout when you are sore or that you would want to go lift afterwards[/quote]

hey sento-absolute quality advice! both posts! thanks for setting all that down.that stuff is definitely a keeper for anyone looking to build themselves a strong base before diving in deeper.

hey kong-i’d say it would be best to take as long as youre comfortable with away from the weights(I know that can be difficult lol)while you master this new set of skills.even a month of pure technique work would work wonders for you imo.then work the strength work back in.

keep us posted mate.

cheers,

42

[quote]DeadKong wrote:
As usual, thanks for the advice.

I thought that if I was going to have to back down from bag work for a while, i might take up the exercise slack with weights, that was the idea.

So, I took a quick look at the routine you wrote out, might I hold approximately 150g skipping rope handle weights in my hands as I do this? Same idea there.

So i will probably kick into this soon, this coming week, especially if someone else concurs. How many times a week should I be at it? Should I continue with skipping rope work twice a week as I am? I was thinking of doing a leg day by itself once a week as I have been, should that stay?[/quote]

Two days of pure boxing skillwork, at the least.

And don’t give up skillwork for weights - honestly, if there’s anything that can actually help you, it’s shadowboxing. Do it all the time - in the morning, at work, after work, before bed, when you’re bored, while watching TV - ALL THE TIME. It should get to be second nature - you’re punching all the time, unconsciously, whenever you get bored.

DO this all the fucking time.

And then do your skillwork on top of it. If you’re looking for one possible way of structuring your workouts, check my log out.

43

[quote]DeadKong wrote:
As usual, thanks for the advice.

I thought that if I was going to have to back down from bag work for a while, i might take up the exercise slack with weights, that was the idea.

So, I took a quick look at the routine you wrote out, might I hold approximately 150g skipping rope handle weights in my hands as I do this? Same idea there.

So i will probably kick into this soon, this coming week, especially if someone else concurs. How many times a week should I be at it? Should I continue with skipping rope work twice a week as I am? I was thinking of doing a leg day by itself once a week as I have been, should that stay?[/quote]

What would be better would be if you just wore a pair of 16oz gloves as you did it. Those will protect your hands as you are punching the mitts/bag and also add resistance to help build up your shoulder endurance.

I’d try starting out doing this 2x per week and see how you do with it. If you recover fine then try 3x and so on. How much volume/frequency you can handle is going to vary depending on your diet, rest/recovery habits, age, stress levels, training history, and genetic predisposition. The only way to know for sure is to find out through trial and error.

I would maybe keep the rope skipping as a warm-up on one of the workouts, maybe both.

44

[quote]Robert A wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
a monkey with down syndrome after too much vodka.
[/quote]

Bourbon, usually bourbon.

Sometimes Scotch.

The vodka is mostly for making a bloody mary.

And I don’t have Trisomy 21…I’m just not that good at thinking.

Regards,

Robert A[/quote]

hahahahahahahha

45

As I keep a journal over in 035, I will just post a short summary of recent work here.

I this past Wednesday and Friday cut into Sentoguy’s routine set out above, and have put the Dempsey book on hiatus for the time being, I was just getting into reading about hooks. I find the endurance is truly tested with this, so maybe the rope work for the time being is unnecessary.

I was thinking of Using Monday’s, for the time being until I determine if I can do the routine only twice per week, for double end ball work, it might be helpful for additional footwork purposes.

As to lifting, I want to keep Bulgarian split squats on sundays, this avoids neglecting leg strength obviously, and shouldn’t interfere with the other stuff. I also think I should do chinups after, to work muscles that oppose the punching motion.

Irish’s advice about frequently during the week shadowboxing I am going to start today, and continue, including doing the slow motion work he mentioned in his journal.

46

I have been chipping away at the routine for a few weeks now, and have some videos I posted on my journal:

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_senior/deadkongs_latest_journal?id=4659878&pageNo=17

I have my own comments and invite others, particularly Sentoguy as he set it up, to offer opinions.

47

[quote]DeadKong wrote:
I have been chipping away at the routine for a few weeks now, and have some videos I posted on my journal:

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_senior/deadkongs_latest_journal?id=4659878&pageNo=17

I have my own comments and invite others, particularly Sentoguy as he set it up, to offer opinions.[/quote]

hey mate,

are you still working with your coach?

I think youre misunderstanding some of the concepts,especially the footwork part and the idea of a ‘snappy’ punch.at the very least when ‘shuffling’ your hands should be held high and close to the face-textbook.at the very least when working the heavy bag,your jab should snap into the bag and come straight back to your chin.

I think you need someone alongside who you can ‘mimick’.youre devoting a lot of time to training actions that you’ve read about and I suppose pictured in your head but its actually doing you a disservice as far as improving your boxing.

also,when trying to decide which stance,orthodox or south paw,in my opinion pay attention to how the jab feels.this will give you the answer.your power hand will catch up once you find a natural feeling for your feet and jab.some may disagree on this but it is what I have found.

48

[quote]flipya4it wrote:hey mate,

are you still working with your coach?

I think youre misunderstanding some of the concepts,especially the footwork part and the idea of a ‘snappy’ punch.at the very least when ‘shuffling’ your hands should be held high and close to the face-textbook.at the very least when working the heavy bag,your jab should snap into the bag and come straight back to your chin.

I think you need someone alongside who you can ‘mimick’.youre devoting a lot of time to training actions that you’ve read about and I suppose pictured in your head but its actually doing you a disservice as far as improving your boxing.

also,when trying to decide which stance,orthodox or south paw,in my opinion pay attention to how the jab feels.this will give you the answer.your power hand will catch up once you find a natural feeling for your feet and jab.some may disagree on this but it is what I have found.[/quote]

I am not with the coach since early April, a budgeting thing as well as criticism others on this thread have directed towards him that I told him about and soured him on me.

By the time I got to the bag, I was somewhat winded and realize the slowness of many of my hits. I hope to get with a coach in the next couple of months, just uncertain about who.

49

DK, checked out your recent vids and left a response. I’m going to post a couple videos for you (probably later today) which should help you out with your mechanics.

50

As usual, thanks to both flip and Sento for recent responses. The encouragement from Sento is priceless.

I wonder if maybe I should do the shuffling/shuffling 1-2-3-4 on let’s say Tuesday/Thursday, and do the bag work as prescribed on M/W/F. You see flipya4it noticed my sluggish hands not snapping at the bag, by the time I get to it my deltoid is a bit sore. therefore maybe breaking up the schedule a bit more would have me fresh days I hit the bag?

EDit: and I forgot, double end ball work doesn’t create a recover issue, so even if not above, a few sessions per week?

51

[quote]DeadKong wrote:
As usual, thanks to both flip and Sento for recent responses. The encouragement from Sento is priceless.

I wonder if maybe I should do the shuffling/shuffling 1-2-3-4 on let’s say Tuesday/Thursday, and do the bag work as prescribed on M/W/F. You see flipya4it noticed my sluggish hands not snapping at the bag, by the time I get to it my deltoid is a bit sore. therefore maybe breaking up the schedule a bit more would have me fresh days I hit the bag?

EDit: and I forgot, double end ball work doesn’t create a recover issue, so even if not above, a few sessions per week?[/quote]

You can split the workouts up if you feel that would allow you to perform more quality skill work. Of course you can always go back to doing both on the same days as your conditioning improves and you learn to relax more and use less muscle/effort in your punches.

52

Hello, Sentoguy, I tried to message you a while back but you were busy with your newborn (congrats if I didn’t say it already). My send box had nothing, I don’t know why.

Since you are the Doctor Frankenstein who put a bolt of knowledge on my head (joke) in early July I just want to know if you think I should switch format to regular heavy bag drill in which I would randomly move around the bag and throw randomly made up combinations, something like if I was facing an opponent.

Otherwise keep up with clock drill, clock with combinations, double end ball work and such.

Even if not, a word of encouragement would spark me, several people seem to view my log in over 35 lifter.

53

[quote]DeadKong wrote:
Hello, Sentoguy, I tried to message you a while back but you were busy with your newborn (congrats if I didn’t say it already). My send box had nothing, I don’t know why.

Since you are the Doctor Frankenstein who put a bolt of knowledge on my head (joke) in early July I just want to know if you think I should switch format to regular heavy bag drill in which I would randomly move around the bag and throw randomly made up combinations, something like if I was facing an opponent.

Otherwise keep up with clock drill, clock with combinations, double end ball work and such.

Even if not, a word of encouragement would spark me, several people seem to view my log in over 35 lifter.[/quote]

I think PM’s are either not coming back online any time soon or back burnered for higher priority site improvements. Either is very understandable.

I am not speaking for Sentoguy, but video would likely help answer the “what to work on next” question.

Regards,

Robert A

54

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

As I was stating that I would post a ream of this week’s videos on about Saturday, and said the same thing about last week, I will post today’s last bag drill round now. I am double posting this over in my ‘Kong Falls Dead from Empire State Building’ thread over in combat, to attract some feedback as to where I sit at this time. doing it piecemeal keeps people aware that I am not just going to say nothing at the end of the week, but more importantly to help adjust form mid week and see how I look later on.

I last had actual lessons in early April, the coach was soured on me after I gave him some idea of what was said by board members back then, and I am working on financing another batch of lessons, but have not really researched a replacement coach. So I am in limbo.

I have had a lot of outside stress over the last week, and did nothing yesterday. today was centred around the bag, as will be thursday, Wednesday Friday will be more rope work and double end ball. the ball I will treat as if it was a bag, working the same technique just with no muscular recovery issues.

Today:

10 rounds clock drill

10 rounds clock drill with 1-2-3-4 combinations.

4 rounds shadowboxing, various combinations incorporating bobbing different ways.

3 rounds on the bag, culminating in a free form more as if I was trying to face an opponent.

last round:

I wasn’t at my sharpest, as I am saying I have been dealing with life, but have my own observations. Too jumpy with my footwork. Telegraphing hooks by moving fist before body twist. Uppercuts still shitty. Inconsistent with bobbing and head movement.

Other comments I invite, advice I will enact on the double end ball tomorrow.

55

Can’t see your video brah. It’s private, it says.

56

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Can’t see your video brah. It’s private, it says.[/quote]

Oh, I thought it worked fine, maybe you got to it at an early stage. It works now, according to my download capability.

57

thanks to Irish answering, largely on my journal thread in over 35 lifter. I made a double end ball video today, but see no point in near term posting until I absorb better his observations and advice. Maybe improve tomorrow, or when I can get to it.

58

I just decided I want to get a medicine ball. they cost a few dollars and I wonder if anyone has insight into how heavy of one I need, I want to bounce it off a close by wall 2 minutes on, 30 seconds off, 3 rounds. My past coach said it will build arm strength, and he mentioned way back then that my arms are weak.

I am about 200lbs and 5’ 11" tall. Please and thanks in advance.