what makes a good training platform.

April 23 Thurs


Tang Soo Do





" My god have mercy on my enemies, because I don't"
a Russian toast. ( performed with Vodka)


WO du jour:
Heavy thai bag warm up for 10 min, jump rope, bands and foam roller.

1 set of 3 min. each kettlebell push jerk @ 12 reps per min.

10 sets of 5 reps without stopping for 25 mins,
pull ups
barbell bent rowing: 185#
kettlebell high box step ups 2-24kg.
Dips, body weigh.




When I studied Martial arts in Korea in the 60's during the Vietnam war, the facilities were about as basic as it was 500 years prior. We trained mostly outside in all weather,(snow, rain, heat of summer) on dirt ground year round for the most part. In very cold weather, and Korea can have brutal winters, we trained inside a hut ,with basically no heat. The frost would cake on the walls from our breathing. Every time you got kicked or punched, it was double pain from the cold. In summer, you would sweat so much, there was always a wet puddle around your feet, as though you pissed yourself. If you passed out from heat exhaustion, you were ignored. No, there were no kettlebells, but we did have some primitive hand weighs that resembled kettlebell used to enhance punching and arm strength.

The training was not hard it was just a sadistic as it could be made. Your push ups were performed on your knuckles and if they started to bleed, it was a welcome sign that the scar tissue would form and it would not happen again. When I left Korea, my first two knuckles resembled human golf balls. 40 years later, I still have disfigured hands from the sticking hard structures so I could break bricks and ceramic roof tiles without feeling pain.

As an American, I had to earn respect, as we were all precised to be weaklings and soft even though we were in the military. It was several months before I was worthily of consideration, as I persisted and many of other Americans did not continue the training any more than a few lesion's or a month. The Koreans were correct, they were weaklings and soft.

When I left the military and started to train in an American training studio, the owner, and a Korean who trained as I did, informed me that I have to adjust to the American culture so the students stay around. Here, he suggested, its about the money, and not what is useful.

Fast forward a few months of dealing with, overweight, complacent, weak, arrogant students, and one shit-head decided I was not for real, so he wanted to fight for " real" It was like music to my ears! He threw his best punch, and I did not move. I said it was my turn and hit him in the chest with a round kick, which knocked all the weak ass wind out of his chest so he had to be revived. At that point, I decided to retire my uniform, as my employer was upset and I knew my next action would lead me being fired or jail.

I never regretted the experience of working as a martial arts instructor, but I took what I believed was useful and made it part of my life, which provided me the confidence that I could do anything if I was willing to perceive, regardless of how hard it was. This foundation, I got from my training, like Chuck Norris, who was also a student, of the same system, gave me a life's accelerator I could have not gotten anywhere else. So when people wine about hard training that they have, I don't usually have a lot of compassion as I shook that off a long time ago.

"La ndssion est sacree,tu l'executes jusqu'au but, a tout prix"