Train-ing

Those of you who know me know that I live a long way away from work --- A LONG way.  That gives me over an hour each way every weekday to commute.  It sucks.  However, like many things in life, it is what you make of it.  Every day I see the people around my trying to sleep, daydreaming, listening to music, checking their blackberry and so on.

As a martial artist and kalista, here are some ideas to help make your commute time more productive and worthwhile.


Videos
I spend a lot of time watching videos on youtube or ones I have downloaded.  While funny cat videos, fail army, music videos, anime and so are fine and dandy, I usually use my commute time to watch martial arts videos.  Youtube has plenty to find in the FMA space. My top pick (obviously) are KM videos featuring Punong Guro Fred Evrard, our founder.  You can find the online training here.

Watch them all.  Watch them again.  And again.  Seeing the best helps make you the best.  It has to do with visualization and all that.  Pay attention to every little detail.

For free, you can check out the KM Youtube channel here if this does not make you want to subscribe to the Online Academy, watch them all again until it does :-)

Some other folks that are always in my playlist include:
Maul Mornie of SSBD (his seminars are CRAZY GOOD - and he will have a joint seminar with Kali Majapahit founder Punong Guro Fred Evrard in Jan in Paris!!)
The Kali Society in Sweden --- these guys are AMAZING!!  Guro Claes is AWESOME!
Dakilang Guro Jeff Espinous and Kali Sikaran --- one of Guro Fred's teachers and an incredible martial artist!
Doug Marcaida --- Kuya Doug is unbelievably good!
Luke Holloway of RAW
Kit Acenas of PTK --- Mandala Kit is a fantastic martial artist!!
Tuhon Ray Dionaldo of FCS --- especially love his karambit and barong stuff!
Pintados Stickboxing --- love their videos!
Dan Inosanto --- you cannot go wrong with his stuff
Peter Weckauf --- love his Panantukan stuff
Mark Hatmaker --- his training DVDs are fantastic!

Movies
While obviously choreographed, there are some movies which do a good job of highlighting FMA/MMA/JKD/Hakka.  I suggest:

Bourne Series --- Matt Damon/Jeremy Renner
Taken Series --- Liam Neeson (especially collapsible baton sequence in Taken 2)
James Bond --- Daniel Craig (watch Casino Royal for footage of Yamakasi Parkour founder Sebastien Foucan!)
Raid Series --- Iko Uwais
Ip Man Series --- Donnie Yen
Ong Bak Series --- Tony Jaa
Blade Series --- yes, it's kali
Batman Begins --- The League of Shadows obviously do kali
Hannah --- great job of showing empty hand and blade work
The Hunted --- Tommy Lee Jones/Benecio Del Toro (cool Sayoc Kali bladework)
Warrior --- Tom Hardy
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon --- too beautiful to miss
Mission Impossible 3
Daredevil (if you can stand the rest of it)

Any Bruce Lee Movie (watch Dan Inosanto in Game of Death!)
Any Chuck Norris movie (I especially like The Octagon)
Steven Seagal (Above the Law was the his first and his best)

Books
get a Kindle Paperwhite.  These things are great (and cheap).  I have tons of books on mine, the battery lasts a long time, and they are easy to read.  My favorites are books about martial arts/martial history and books on philosophy and personal development.  Ask me if you want some recommendations.

Meditation/Breathing
Always a great idea when you can get a seat.  I put the headphones on to help eliminate distraction.  Kitaro (especially Silk Road) is some of my favorite instrumental for this.  Try not to fall asleep (I know you're tired), and concentrate on your breathing --- try to breathe using your full lung capacity and match inhale/exhale duration.

Grip
I carry a squeeze ball and do consecutive right and left hand grip strength training (see how many sets of 50 squeezes you can do).

Just some thoughts.  Let me know yours.

See you at the station.