Two strong Men with strong minds

Ken Black and Mark Riefkind at the APC Nationals. Two great RKCs!

Academy Training/Master Instructor Development Program

Part of my Master instructor development program project deals with creating an intermediate PT instructor's course for academy instructors. The major issues that I believe are common in training are budgetary, facilities, equipment, and progressive training concepts.

The 20 week program I have put together mimics one that I have seen in Hard Style. I have played with periodization before, but I think I like how this one fits with academy training. I am open to your educated suggestions for making it better of course.


weeks 2-5: ASSESSMENT/ STRENGTH PERIOD
weeks 6-8: MUSCULAR ENDURANCE
weeks 9-11: MUSCLE MASS/ HYPERTROHY BUILDING- EDT
weeks 12-15:FAT LOSS
week 16: ACTIVE RECOVERY
weeks 17-18: STRENGTH /POWER
weeks 19-21: MUSCULAR ENDURANCE
week 22: PEAK/TEST

I have 50 recruits of extreme varying levels of fitness. I have one recruit with over 30% body fat, and one who is very lean at 4.6% BF. One who ran the 1.5 mile at 8:30 and one who ran it in 16 mins. In the beginning, I use duration as the goal, and not performance, ie. how far can you run in 20 minutes, etc. Lots of joint mobility and dynamic drills/stretching to get them to understand their body better.

My Workout:
7-28-06
Just enough time to do a ladder workout with pullups (1,2,3,4) x 4 rest periods mimiced if someone was doing them with me. IGO-UGO method.

7-29-06

Fun in the park with Ken and crew. Met two new students of Ken's, and I trained with Bob and Kathy. Good times. Weather was cool, and very pleasant as opposed to last week.

Joint Mobility
Halo 5 x 2 sets
Slingshot 5 x 2 sets
BW squats 10 x 2 sets
Mil. Press 1,2,3,4 x 3 sets
Row 1,2,3,4, x 3 sets
Racked walking lunges + step ups x 3 times
Windmills

Bob and I finished it off with a couple of sled sprints with 25lbs on it for approx. 4 passes of 50 yards. It was a good way to stretch it out.
Ken as always was motivating me to do better! I was a little late, so I had to do pushups! Ken has a bit of the DI in him, like I knew he did! :)

Critical Reflection

Critical reflection on learning as presented by Jack Mezirow is defined as “the process of reflecting back on prior learning to determine whether what we have learned is justified under present circumstances.” Mezirow further added “this is a crucial learning process egregiously ignored by learning theorists.” How this becomes important to the adult learner is that once you reflect on your past, you determine on what path your future learning must take. For the instructor of adults, this becomes a very important factor in stating your course objective and how you present your instruction.

As I am teaching the new recruits, I am constantly reviewing on whether or not my instruction is received or believed. I am fighting against their past experiences in training whether quality training or not. Usually, I get more resistance from those whose knowledge is culled from the "muscle mags". Sigh, the fight continues. I am sometimes frustrated that those who need this the most are those who use it the least. If I hear how great a Spin class is for fitness again, I am going to scream, especially when I see videos of middle-aged mothers training boot camp/underground strength coach style.

7-24-06
warmups: halos, wall squats, Russian Pump, and squat thrusts 2 supersets of 5 reps each

2 sets of supersets of 3 reps of the following circuit:
Swings-slingshot-swings-Figure 8s-swings-tactical lunges-pushpress 16kg

5:00 non stop of the following circuit:
swings-snatches-jerks-squat thrusts

5:00 nonstop of the following circuit:
Farmer's walk-mountain climbers
(Most of the above was copied from a Ken Black KB class- Thanks Ken!)

7-25-06
Warmups with the academy class
Tabata squats with the class 8 sets/4:00
My score: 25
Cycle (gym gerbil training) 15:00 (bored out of my skull with it, but wanted a brief change of pace)

7-26-06
JM drills/Dymanic Drills for warm up

Rack deadlifts (just below the knee)
135 x 5
135 x 3
225 x 3
295 x 3
315 x 1
325 x 0 (failed)
315 x 1
320 x 1

Renegade Rows
2 x 24kg 5/5 x 3
2 x 32kg 5/5 x 2

Janda Situps
3/5/2 (core fried..need to do more of theses)

Superset powerball slams with dips
30 PBS-10 dips x 2

For a good laugh check out these video clips of Terry Tate-Office Linebacker.

http://board.iexbeta.com/lofiversion/index.php/t47380.html
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, baby! Yes, the Corporal is coming out!

One nation under a groove

7-21-06

warmups of halos/wall squats/windmills/
deadlift w/barbell
135 x 8
135 x 8
205 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 3
225 x 3
225 x 3

clean and press 24kg (1,2,3) ladders x 4

7-22-06
workout in the park with Ken and Bob!

warmups: 20kg
JM drills
swings
snatches

Pullup ladders 8 then (1,2,3) x 3

Jerk Ladders 1,2,4,8,16,18,10,8,5,3

Hot, humid, and loved it!

Taking a moment to post!

OK! I am finally getting my groove back. Hot hot hot in the Sacramento Valley! 104 plus, and I sweat like the porcine that they call me :)

Warmup:
Wall squats, Halos, Pumps, and RKC armbars

Back to basics-
Swings (2hand) w/24kg
7 sets of 10
3 sets of 10 w/32kg

total: 100 swings

Snatch
16kg
10/10 5/5
24kg
5 sets of 5 L/R
32kg
1 set of 5/5

Felt good to be back on a schedule!

First week under way!

The first week of the academy is completed and next week we are off and running with the start of Physical Training.

I met with 20 recruits prior to the start of the academy for a 2 day introduction to the kettlebells. Three hours total for both days. I will post some pics from them soon.

I covered the KB deadlift, swing, clean, C&J, high pull, and the snatch. We also did some sled sprints, and I gave them a quick feel of the overhead walk, rack and farmer's walk. They had all prepared well to start the academy.

This week for me consisted mostly of GTG pullups (got some bands to increase the rep range while I was at the Nationals!) benching supersetting with low pulley rows EDT style, swings supersetted with jump rope EDT. Powerwheel rollouts, and power ropeball slams. The ropeball slams (Thanks for introducing them to me Franz) has been a great stress reliever!Getting my GPP up for the classes that will officially start next week.

New Class Starting up

There was a major change in my workplace with the retirement of my mentor and friend, Dan DeLeon. Dan retired after 30 years of being a cop, the last 20 being a master instructor at the academy. I could go on and on about his list of accomplishments, but that wasn't the whole picture of the man. He trained THOUSANDS of officers throughout Northern California, but you would not meet a more humble and respectful man.

It makes me a little sad knowing that on monday, it will be the first academy without Dan to turn to for guidance, or sometimes a reality check that he would give us when I was going down the wrong path. He truly lived his philosophy which was a mixture of Sun Tzu and Musashi, and the Hagakure. He truly loved his teammates as brothers and sisters in arms. (His retirement gift from the many officers who he trained was a tractor!)

This weekend before the start of the new academy will give me a chance to reflect on the past and focus on the future. The only real way to thank my teacher and sensei (My defensive tactics instructor) is to continue his way of teaching others.

My workouts this week have been a misture of GTG with pullups, and rollouts front and back with the Power Wheel (30 ft. front and then back), slams with the Power Rope ball (30 reps per set), renegade rows 2x24 kg (5x5) front squats 2 x 16kg (3 x 5) snatch 16 kg 5 x 10(L/R) 24kg (3x5 L/R) and RKC armbars.

I ran a basic introduction to the kettlebell to the next class (preacademy cadets) this last week. There was 20 of them. I covered the swing, clean, C & P, front squat, and snatch. I had them pull the power sled, and I also had them walk with double KBs overhead into a rack walk into a farmers walk. (2nd day) They were all very receptive and seemed excited about this type of training. I am going to introduce to the tempo runs and sprint workouts that I have gleaned from Franz's blog.

Well, off to the Nationals to meet up with Rif and watch his friend, Nick his a PR! I have never been to a powerlifting meet so I am pretty excited to go. Then afterwards, I am meeting my old road dog, (patrol partner) to go to the boxing matches at Raley Field. This will be a good de-stressor before the start of next week.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

I had a nice little workout with my friend, Ken Black on Sunday. He posted the workout and pics on his blog, so please visit his blog to enjoy my pain! It is always good to visit Ken and play in his dungeon of pain. :) (I got to jerk the Beast! Thanks to Ken for fine tuning my form while handling the monster! I got to play with the Rolling Thunder....my forearms are still feeling it)

I have not been posting lately since I am in a reorganization process. I only have one week break before the next academy class starts back up. My work in the Master Instructor Development Program needs revamping, and I need to prioritize where I place the majority of my energies.

After consideration, I know that my blog will have to take a lower priority in posting for now. So I must apologize if my posts are less frequent now. I will be posting/reading other blogs, however, it is a nice mental break, and it has been a fantastic way to stay motivated and listen to some very talented minds in the underground strength world! I will still be visiting Ken's, Rif's, Franz's, Tom's, and Joe's blogs for their brilliant insights and postings.

Strength and Honor my friends!

(To be continued)