Hill People Gear - Recon Kit Bag

I just received my HPG kit bag. I was debating whether or not to pick it up, but I justified it because I'll be spending a lot of time training around my house, and want to be able to comfortably carry a gun while running. I have the pistol wear 2 for under the t-shirt carry. But quite honestly, I am starting to run out of reasons NOT to be more overt when I run in my neighborhood. I can also carry a bigger gun, and it doesn't sit over my belly, which needs to move for me to breath. The PW-2 will be used for when discretion is more important, like during a race.

Unfortunately, I haven't been for a run with it yet, since I've been at the gym quite a lot. I'll try to make time this week to actually get some miles in it.

It's designed to be worn under a pack, and even docked to a pack in lieu of straps in the front. It's got a rather wide space envelope as a result.

The flat profile does two things. It keeps everything nice and tight against your chest, so it doesn't bounce too much, and it prevents me from putting too much crap in it. If there's space, I'll fill it with stuff. Also, pardon my slouch.

The back mesh is comfy and distributes the load well. You can see the shock cord stabilizer (an add on accessory) at the bottom to prevent it from flopping up and down as you run. 

I wove a punch dagger between the shingle and the bag.... just 'cause.

The drawstroke. I'm not totally stoked about how the bag opens, since you're ripping zippers open 90 degrees from their designed path. We'll see how it holds up. Regardless, you have to get a grip inside the panel where the pistol is held.

You rip it open until it stops. The vertical path stops the horizontal path from opening the whole kit bag like a taco. There is no 'retention' in the bag. The gun just uses gravity to stay put. I plan to carry a J-Frame in it, so hopefully it won't be an issue. There's a strip of vertical velcro that I might be able to use to keep the pistol still if it's a problem. Test runs will help me figure it out.

Avoid flagging yourself when drawing by keeping the angle of the muzzle down, and your off-hand elbow splayed out. I realize this isn't a perfect, efficient, AIWB draw stroke, but sacrifices have to be made.

The press out.

There is a flat admin pouch in front of the pistol pouch. You can see my ITS EDC trauma kit, phone, and keys fit nicely.

Having the mag shingle on there allows me to quickly outfit it for a range session or for teaching. The elastic pouches could also easily be used for snacks, phone, other gear that needs to be on hand.

This is smart kit. I'll make it dirty with  few months worth of use and will report back, or update this.

week of 7/23/12

Monday:

MT: Pads: 1,2, switch, 2x lk, check, step rt knee
1,2,3, 2x rk, check, step lk

pads: 1,2,1,2,slip, 4, 3, 2, switch, 2x left knees
1,2,1,2, slip, slap, 5, 2, 3 , 2x rt knees
10 punch, slip, sliap, 5,2,3,2, step, 2
6punch slip, 6punch slap

Clinch work: went over some cool ways to regain dominant position:
elbow bump, bump elbow above while ducking under, take back
cross face, swim outside hand back in
'always be close'
'grip at the crown of the head'
as soon as you get a grip, off balance him or throw a knee'
'never duck out of the clinch, because of North-South Knee'


'running man knees, kick leg back bring up and around, impacting on floating ribs'

'tall guys, work plum, shorter guys, work body lock w/ head pressure, aim knees at thighs'




Tuesday:

BJJ

guard opening: same as before

arm bar: break posture, use attacking side leg to trap ops same side leg, use opposite leg to fling across the back while escaping hips, trying to get perpendicular. leg on attacking side then goes up and over head, finishing arm bar.




- don't keep hands in bad position, stay tight, explode out. I got caught in 3 triangles. none were finished, but I was still in a bad spot. My arm positions are as they are when we are drilling, and I'm not getting my head in the game. I need to be more mindful of elbows and arms. I successfully did an arm bar, though I was super stacked when it happened. also got a few good sweeps. If Jr. doesn't get his blue belt months before me, then something is broken. Dude is just flowing so well. I need to study more closed guard attacks and hold positions. For instance, the overhook that reaches back under and grabs the opposite lapel. I know there's several chokes and sweeps from here, but I couldn't pull any off.




Wednesday:

MT:

same combos as monday.

The interesting thing was sparring. Anthony sparred a round with me. It is eye opening to realize just how bad you are. His ability to read my intentions, and abuse me at will was just awesome. He swept me 4x or so. He head kicked me at will. I was in awe. It's an honor to be able to spar with someone as good as him, even though he was probably going at 10%, it was still great.




Thursday:

off




Friday:

KB work alternate 1:00 KB, 1: jump rope

pass the kb around the body, 2 arm swings, left arm swing right arm swing, l arm clean press, r a c p, 1arm snatch, r arm snatch, l high pull, r high pull

then some abs and mobility work.




dry fire.

1. 20 reps of Wall Drill from extension, 2H

1. 5 reps of Wall Drill from extension, SHO

1. 5 reps of Wall Drill from extension, WHO

1. 20 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, 2H

1. 5 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, SHO

1. 5 reps of Wall Drill from press-out, WHO

http://pistol-training.com/archives/5185

Saturday: No Gi
Wrestling:
double leg takedowns, all about angle. These guys are doing it how we did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVi2pzMgt6U&feature=share
the drills are smokers, walking while shooting, alternating legs, taking turns getting the penetration step. Wrestling practice is brutal, but I need to keep it up. The constant pressure is something I'm missing.

My gripes on the new Batman movie *spoilers*

Overall it wasn't terrible. However, there were some key points that really took me out of the experience. I can suspend disbelief for a lot of things, but there were some that made me shake my head. I'll list them.

• Bain's voice. Did anyone else hear Sean Connery talking through a voice changer?
• Bruce Wayne had no cartilage in his knees, then he's put into a hole in the ground, and is able to climb out of it. I know that Bain didn't let him keep his ninja knee brace in the prison.
• The random characters showing up, un-introduced. Like those special forces guys who were disguised as supply delivery dudes. What was the point of bringing them in (the movie), to get them shot in 3 seconds. Why didn't they have rifles?
• The crazy way time slowed and sped along. When they got the core, to Bruce being taken to damn Uzbekistan, thrown in a hole, then he can go from herniated disc to rock climbing within 3 months? Then he can get out and get BACK to Gotham in a few days? C'mon
• The way that Bain could be literally in every building in Gotham, seemingly at will sort of bothered me. OH HE'S RIGHT BEHIND US AGAIN!
• I didn't like the way the city was supposed to be under control, yet there were citizens openly walking around wayne enterprises and all sorts of other key buildings. How was robin able to communicate with the trapped police, and noone else saw him? They were allowed super close to the transport trucks also.
• So the guy with the rope in prison. It was tied off at least 100 feet up the walls of the prison. Why the hell wouldn't they lift you up to the top of THAT rope, then let you climb from there. Everyone in there wanted out. They were chanting "rise". It's not like they rooted for him to fall. Save the dude some energy, and lift him as high up as you can.
• I hate being 'that guy', but the gun play was so silly. No need to go into detail, since it was so obvious. I thought they did much better with it in the previous movie.
• If 16 million people were going to die from that bomb, why the hell didn't he use the missiles of the BAT on the crowd. He literally got out of an attack helicopter, and fist fought someone who kicked his spine out of his back earlier. wat.

Week of 7/16/12

Monday: 192 (this will get under control starting now). Did some KB work in the basement. probably 150 swings, 3 sets of 8 shoulder presses, 3 sets of 15 bent over rows, and some one arm cleans.

Tuesday: Boxed for 1/2 an hour, then realized I didn't have an hour of that in me before BJJ. I keep hitting some wall in boxing. I can't do it, it's too exhausting for me.

BJJ:
worked a forced turtle position.
get the same '2 inside' arm position like you would be going for a pass, but instead of putting his knees to his chest, get onto a knee and lift and force him to roll into turtle position. You can end w/ a knee in his ribs, w/ over under grips.

do the same, but  if he resists rolling, you can go for a keylock, he'll probably roll toward that arm to defend, quickly take the space away by scooting the knees into his back, you can mount or take back as needed.

Counter:
from turtle, protect your neck on the side the opponent is on. lift the far knee up into your chest, and insert it across as you fall to your back. You can pull guard or 1/2 guard this way.

Did some good drills from here. I was having pretty good success both pulling guard, AND preventing others from pulling guard when they were on bottom.

MT:
combos:
1,2,switch,lk, cross block, evade teep, 2xright
1,2,3, rk, cross block, evade teep, 2xleft

mitts: 1,2,1,2 block rt body, rtuppercut, 3,2, step, 2 switch left knee
1,2,1,2, block rt then left body, lft uppercut, 2, 3, 2, left body shot, 3, rt knee

Sparring- I did well enough in sparring with everyone but Thomas. He takes a lot of boxing classes and can out strike and out aggress me easily. I'm still bitching up when I get hit hard. He hits with lots of flurries and can land punches at will. This is frustrating to me, and the more I get hit, the more frustrated I get. I need to work on circling and hitting back. I think maybe wearing my headgear will help this for me. I need to get over being hit. I'm still too scared.

Burnout: Battling a Crisis

I have been having a crisis with my training and fitness lately. I have had a shit-load of stuff playing on my mind in the last 4 months. Chief of which is my wife being pregnant. That happening is seriously something that I didn't expect due to my medical history and being told I would likely be sterile. This was a big OODA loop interrupter for how I thought the next 5 years would go. None of that is worrisome at all, it's just been on my mind a lot. Then I got a cold last week and was out of training for 5 days.

In that time, I remembered something... Sitting on the couch is easy and fun! I'd go home from work, and not have to run around getting ready and walking dogs and then run out of the door to get punched or choked. I'd just watch TV and drink a beer or something. This allowed me to get further into my own head.

Over-training is another contributing element to this. After finding out my wife was pregnant, I made it a point to train as hard as possible, as much as I was able to. I was driven a little harder than my body could handle, which I think is part of the reason I got that cold.

Lastly, I have been having bad days at MT and BJJ. Days when I can't finish a technique, or I can't get in to punch someone or land a kick to save my life. It's as if I've never done the techniques before. This really gets to me, as the only thing I've got is technique. So, when I can't pull it off, it enrages me. I almost walked out of BJJ yesterday.

Anyway, I'm saying all that to say this. I've been having sort of a crisis of training recently. I am constantly having to remind myself why I'm going to martial arts training. Sometimes I have trouble thinking of a reason.

I initially started doing MT and BJJ because it plugged into ECQC so well. It allows footwork and positioning and control to access weapons and get out of trouble. Plus a MT round kick to the leg is a near perfect street kick. After a year or so of making myself go to class, I started falling in love with the art. I wanted to compete, fight, and win. I went a few more months and was improving and on the upward swing. I am currently in a slump where I feel like I can't get out of my own way. I'm sure this is a mental game and I know lots of people go through the same thing. Many of them quit. There are a lot more near blue belts, than blue belts. A lot of people stagnate and lose interest. I didn't want to be one of those people.

I also have sort of a reputation to uphold. I initially started training and put my 'journey' under public scrutiny (damn you FB) to help motivate me off of the couch. Well, since then, I have had at least 5 people tell me thanks for motivating them and how much I've helped them. I also have guys on FB and some forums who message me and update me on their progress. This means more to me than I can write on here. So I feel an obligation to them to keep going. I feel like I'm a poser if I don't.

On the other hand, I really only have to answer to myself at the end of this life, so who cares what anyone thinks.

I'm a list maker. Here's a list.

Reasons to remain in MT and BJJ as much as possible until baby comes and after:
-The skill set is still the most applicable thing to 0 feet gun fighting that exists (as far as I can tell)
- I am more confident now than I have ever been in my life
- I don't want to be a quitter. I HATE being a quitter.
- I am motivating people to do new things, and change their lives (maybe overstated, but give me a break)
- I am in better shape than I have ever been in my life.
- To earn higher rankings (I don't want to be a belt chaser, but I'd be lying if this wasn't part of my motivation)
- Being in martial arts helps me remain disciplined and gives me goals (Can't be overstated, I need goals in my training or I stagnate and eventually quit)
- They help me remain compliant to my diet and other aspects of health (lifting weights does this too)
- It's hard, and most people don't want to do hard thing. I can be different and do hard things.
- I want to be able to tell good stories to my kids. No good stories come from sitting on a couch.

Reasons to quit:
- Quitting is easy
- I'm frustrated with my progress, and suck at this crap
- I'll never be a fighter, and I'm not even good against people who are new in our gym.
- I have a strong enough base in this to keep practicing on my own, and be serviceable
- It's hard. Both on my body, and my ego.
- I don't owe anything to anyone, and I can be a slob if I want.
- I'll save money every month ( more money for beer)
- I'll have more time for other sports (the only really legit reason I can see)

I guess when I'm logical, I need to continue. Overtraining is something I will cure when the baby comes. I'll be on a forced hiatus. Actually, I'm pretty glad I'll have to take time off. I'll be able to get strong and lift weights, maybe do some races, trail running, and other stuff that I can do at home. The trick there will be finding motivation. But maybe wanting to get away from a screaming baby will be enough.

Staying the course,
M

Week of 7/9/12

I took last week off due to a summer chest/head cold. I was feeling better and probably could have worked out last friday, but decided to force myself to rest. On saturday, I took J. to run at Juhan Road park. after a 40 minute trail run, we did 100 pushups, 100 body weight squats, and 100 vertical scissors.

Monday: AM WEIGHT 192.4! This is the heaviest I've been in probably a year. This is to be blamed on my knack for power eating when I can't train and am kept from working out. My biggest problem is that I have an 'all or nothing' attitude when I'm training. When I can train, my diet adherence is very good. but a day I'm not training, and watch out. Booze, Fried foods, lots of volumes of both. It's pretty bad.

I'm going to change my diet starting this week to more of a 4 hour body (slow carb) diet, with the only simple carbs being consumed after training. I also will do 2-3 fasts a week, lunch to lunch.

MT: Drilled basic combos with a kick evasion at the end.
1,2,2x lk, check, evade, 2x rk
same on other side

mitts: 1, 2, slip 2, 3, 2, step 2.
mirror for other side.

Drilling: I'm stoked Anthony is letting us work some 'positional drilling'
round 1, one guy offense, other guy teeps and jabs

round 2 boxing and clinch(knees)

round 3 free spar

Tuesday:
BJJ
started w/ judo basics! W00t! We practiced sleeve and collar control and popping the sleeve and collar away while penetrating with the body and kicking the sleeve controlling side's leg across (setting up a trip)

foot work for hip throw: right leg lead, step right leg forward and cant it slightly inward, step left leg to the right of that leg while rotating hips, end up with feet square, level changed and facing the other way. This works off of an underhook on the same side as the forward leg.

we also tried a fancy hop back, then enter the same footwork as above. It's like dancing, and I need a lot of practice

omaplatas

Then we worked kimura, hip bump, and back take from the closed guard.

I almost quit bjj last night for good. I'm inside my own head about getting better and not being able to submit people who I think I should be able to submit. My guillotine sucks. my setups for arm bars suck. I'm not very good at this.

Wednesday:
MT More of the same stuff we did monday, as well as Clinch work.
game is to get inside control, throw light knees, and break while throwing a strike. Control at the crown of the head.

Thursday: rest

Friday: did the Stanley workout. 100 burpies, flutter kicks, squats, pushups. completed in 19m:53s

Saturday: 45 minute trail run w/ kuo.