This is not a regular update of the beginning of the week but a longer explanation of the blitz month for the trainees, for us.
Before the explanation, the schedule. August times and also the location of some of the sessions change.
Throughout the month, there will be no basics training in Tel Aviv on Fridays.
Tel Aviv group training will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 18:00 to 20:00. Tuesday sessions end at 20:00.
Jerusalem group training will be held in the Wohl Rose Garden in Jerusalem, the highest grass meadow, near the Supreme Court. The training will be held from 18:00 to 20:00 at Sundays and Wednesdays.
Monday dojo training in Ramat Hasharon is in vacation and Ramat Hasharon veterans are invited to the Tel Aviv dojo on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
And now to the point. AKBAN is a school based in tradition and therefore is reluctant to be based in trends. We always come, we always wear the black gi, black hakama and always practice as usual.
However I built AKBAN as a place of learning and research, not as a stagnant museum. In the training year there are many measurable goals that help me as a teacher.
There are many successful targets, many successful goals in relation to groups of Akban, but I noticed one was lacking.
I use video to not only spread the perspective of AKBAN (17 million views on our YouTube!), But also to investigate processes and techniques. Analysis of the videos of the last three years showed me that despite a satisfactory level of combat - AKBAN Veterans are strong and fight well - there has been no relative improvement from year to year.
When I watch the veterans randori in video, one of the parameters that I check is the AKBAN Randori weighted index. Number of techniques multiplied by level of difficulty multiplied by how well the techniques are executed. As this may be of interest to other instructors then I will elaborate.
The number of techniques. how many techniques per minute? Not for one opponent, but for two of them together. This reflects the behavior of our teams, behaviour as part of a dojo and not competitors. Good team allows mutual execution of many techniques. Hooligans are characterized by a tense battle with very few techniques per unit of time.
Technical difficulty. To make a job easier I divided the difficulty of techniques to arbitrary units. Tai Otoshi is more difficult than a front kick. Tai Otoshi is more difficult then catches. A simple technique gets one point. Medium difficulty techniques get two points and a complex technique gets a score of three points.
The degree of success. A technique which failed receives a single point. Technique that almost succeeded gets two points. Technique that completely succeeded get three points.
BTW, A technique that almost caused injury or, Gd forbid, caused injury, completely eliminates the couple's total score.
The total score I get is by adding up all the multiplications of each technique.
The high speed and technical complexity of our sparring require video analysis using slow motion.
I expect the overall score of the veterans battles in the blitz to improve each year. But the analysis and investigation of these objectives showed statistical stasis. There was no statistically significant change from one year in the three years I conducted the analysis.
Last year, when in the summer we trained in Tel Aviv in a makeshift dojo without air conditioning, I began to make changes in the syllabus, infrastructure and emphasis fitness to lead to a better result in the Blitz.
We all went through these changes in emphasis, and the colloquiums conducted this year show that preserving tradition is still another successful objective.
Because of this, the format of the training in blitz will change too. No longer will we make an hour and a half of full battle. I divide the time to throws and locks, ne waza and stand up with or without boxing gloves.
This month is very strenuous, not only physically but with inner work. Many sessions will be captured on video, and after blurring faces, will be publicly uploaded to YouTube for further analysis and improvement. Each trainee will receive points to correct in his sparring. If the trainee receives two or more of the same points a week after week it means that he didn't do his inner preparation well. So this requires us not only physical effort in training but also inner work of preparation between sessions, at home.
If you are not prepared internally you rarely succeed. If you prepared well sometimes you can do what you set as a target.
As of the end of the month we have another big challenge. The 120 battles. The physical difficulty of this two hour long session is more than running a half marathon. Good luck.
