Heartcore » GIC1 http://www.heartcore.me ett hjärta - många slag Wed, 27 Apr 2016 21:07:03 +0000 sv-SE hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.40 GIC3 Day 2: Shoot me. Shoot me now. http://www.heartcore.me/2015/11/gic3-day-2-shoot-me-shoot-me-now/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/11/gic3-day-2-shoot-me-shoot-me-now/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2015 20:36:26 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3473 My oh my what a technical day..

My brain is overflowing. My body doesn’t know where to turn anymore. My stomach is in uproar. My arms are bruising. My legs are wobbly. And my knee is swollen.

But worse is that my throat is itchy. It doesn’t hurt – don’t worry, I know better than to work out with a sore throat – but it itches. Like there’s a tiny hand holding a miniature feather tickling me right above my vocal cords and behind my uvula. It’s annoying as fuck, and it’s helling up my mind. No wait, it’s annoying as hell, and it’s fucking up my mind. See, I can’t even get my words straight today.

Luckily for me, today’s teaching in micro groups were to be done in absolut silence. No words, not a peep – and twelve minutes to teach a technique. It was awesome for my throat, and a real nice challenge. I messed mine up a little (headlock from the front, ”guillotine”) in the beginning, but got it right in the end. It might have had something to do with the fact that Jan was throwing pillows at me as I was starting to teach.. Crazy German.

But yeah, I’m scared shitless of getting sick. That, and/or injury, is my biggest fear at this point.

If I would get sick now, even if I rested tomorrow and only did my teaching test on Monday and didn’t participate when the others did their teaching, I still wouldn’t be healthy in time for the grading on Tuesday. This is what’s fucking up my mind. Don’t get sick, don’t get sick, don’t get sick. So there is only one thing to do. Don’t get sick.

Today, apart from the very quiet teaching bit, we’ve worked with knives, sticks and guns. It’s all good fun, but very difficult..! So many things you need to get right.

Tomorrow is the last day of repetitions before the testing starts. Time to hit the hay!

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Marton talking about kick defenses against knives.

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A close up of Tevini’s butt. Hey, I’m not weird, he posed for it..!

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Dima’s legs are cramping up.

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Bernis is showing stretching exercises. Markus is sitting still.

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Getting attacked by Tevini.

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Dima attacking Tevini.

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The general feeling in the end of the day.

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My right knee (here to the left) has seen better days.

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After-dinner-snack. Yup, kebab for dinner, and pizza for dessert. Dima’s idea of fine dining.

Todays word/s: Hustenbonbon (cough drop).

I also got the pleasure of trying to side kick Bernis today. While Dima flies like a frisbee, my kicks barely had an impact on Mr. B. He’s like a Serbian armor tank.

Lessons to be taught by this:
1. Practice stronger kicks.
2. Don’t upset Bernis.

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GIC3 Day 1: Groundwork http://www.heartcore.me/2015/11/gic3-day-1-groundwork/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/11/gic3-day-1-groundwork/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2015 21:28:04 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3459 We survived day 1.

Barely..

Nah, wait a minute, I made it sound awful straight away. It’s been a great day!

We’ve been fighting a lot (as always) – both slow fighting, two against one, wrestling, standing opponent, two against one with sticks, teams against each other, jumping on one another, stomping and kicking.

It’s been mainly stuff on the ground today, and if I’m not mistaken we still have a few ground techniques left to cover. Let’s just say my back is cramping up. A little bit. And my legs are sore. A little bit. And my abs are worn out. A little bit. And my arms are getting blue and purple again. A little bit.

I just love being back in the Krav bubble!

And it’s been so great to see the gang again – although they didn’t really recognize me with unbruised arms (although we’re getting there). We’re quite a few Krav Maga’igans staying at the same hotel, Ibis budget, here in Krefeld. The hotel reeks of smoke, the toilets stink like we’re at a camping or in a shed in the woods, the elevator is the. slowest. one. ever. And – to Dima’s joy and glee – the doors to the toilet and to the shower have no locks… But hey, it’s cheap!

And the Krav Maga training centre here is really stepping up. The day started off by us getting a free Krefeld ice cream speciality from the owner, Roland, and continued with a buffé of water, soda, pretzels and bars. Way to go Krefeld!

After crawling around on the floor all day, I’m effing tired. Ground fighting really gets the most out of ya. So I’ll just leave it to the pictures now and say night night.

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The gang’s back together!

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Our home for the next five days.

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LUNCH!

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… which turned into a massage and twist-Dima’s-back-session with the Vietnamese waitress.

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Buffé of everything one might need! #melike

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We spent a lot of time on the floor today.

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”Please, stomp me here” says Jan.

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”Okeydokey” I say… or wait, I missed..?

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No groin, no Krav Maga.

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Ever seen a flying Emma?

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There she goes!

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Cobi’s jumping on Jan. A completely ordinary day in Krav.

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Bernis is just hanging out.

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First day. First blood.

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Dima is about to get his assed kicked.

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And there we go…

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… not like we’re surprised or anything.

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The Swedes are teaching the Germans how to cross a street when there are no cars coming. #livealittle

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Ah! There she is! Hi Emma!

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Meat. Meat. And meat.

Todays word/s: Essen (food). Ich bin hungrig (I’m hungry).

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GIC3 Pre-Germany. Uploading. http://www.heartcore.me/2015/11/gic3-pre-germany-uploading/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/11/gic3-pre-germany-uploading/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2015 20:07:39 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3401 Here we go again!

On the plane to Germany for the final part of the general instructor course. In less than a week I’ll either be an instructor or… No wait, there is no ”or”. I’m going in 100 % with my mind set on becoming an instructor and passing the course.

These last weeks between GIC2 and 3 I’ve trained as much as I could, though not nearly as much as I would have wanted. Remember how my shoulders kind of broke a bit right before GIC2? Well, it’s better, but they still ache – especially when I do pushups or other shoulder based activities. So I’ve tried to walk on a thin line here – train a lot, and at the same time rest a lot.

I went to Växjö and Vrigstad the weekend after I got back from Mainz, for a theme day ”Knife and Stick attacks” on Saturday, and on Sunday Fight Academy in Vrigstad with Daniel Gustafsson, Expert 2, held a ”Knife Survival Tactics Seminar”. Needless to say, my arms were a bit sore afterwards. We got to try an electric shock knife. That sure was interesting to say the least.

The weekend after that I went to Oslo for a one day P&G-camp, and trained on G1-techniques for six hours. My group had Natasha Naccarato, Expert 1, as our instructor. My oh my, she’s awesome! There was a lot of G1-material that I hadn’t done before, like sliding kicks, headbutts, releases from wrist grabs while on the ground and some other stuff – sliding kicks being by far the most difficult – so it was real nice to go through all of that.

The following day I met up with Nicklas from my club, KMG Krav Maga Academy Karlstad, to practise some more. The hand defenses against kicks are slowly (slooooooowly…) getting there.

And last week Dima came to town! Yay!

We’ve been training as much as we could during the weekend, and among other things we noticed that my regular back kick is highly effective, as I managed to kick Dima in the groin behind the cup.

He. Went. Down.

Nice to know it works, right?

And last night, after going to Gothenburg for work, I met up with Nima to hang out, which turned into almost four hours of even more training. Sweaty? Me?

Now we’ll see if all the hard work has payed off. Will the techniques abandon me on the day of the grading? Or have I mustered to ”get them into my spine”? Have I spent too much time on training for the grading and not enough time to prepare for the teaching test?

The next couple of days will tell…

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Knife survival tactics in Vrigstad.

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Jarmo looking good.

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Got to catch up with Anna in Oslo!

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Ahh, the memories..

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”Iron pipes” in the making.

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Evening practice – going on the ground.

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Weekend practice…

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…at SATS Karlstad.

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Even the apples are Krav!

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Me, Nima and the head.

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Nima being very pedagogic.

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Nima being playful.

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Yes Nima, it bends and kicks. It’s a leg.

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Some light reading on the plane.

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Or some light sleeping…

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Krefeld – here we come!

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Krefeld – here we are!

Today’s word/s: Hauptbahnhof (main train station)

 

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GIC2 Day 9: Last day. 154 bruises later. http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-9-last-day-154-bruises-later/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-9-last-day-154-bruises-later/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2015 21:21:19 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3392 Yeah. That’s right.

I don’t have four bruises. I don’t have 50 bruises. I don’t even have 100 bruises.

I have 154.

We counted on Sunday night, Dima can vouch for me. There’s one bruise above my right eye (almost faded), one on my lower lip (still swollen, not that visible anymore), 8 bruises on my back, 26 on my right arm, 35 on my left arm (yes, hands are included), 40 on my right leg and 43 bruises on my left leg.

Oh, yeah, I also have a sprained finger, a sore right knee and throbbing shoulders.

And I couldn’t be happier!

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not enjoying the fact that my body looks like it’s been skydiving without a parachute – I’m enjoying what’s behind it. The last nine days have been awesome in so many ways, and Sunday, the final day – was the toughest one. After quickly working through some wrist grabs we did a summary drill of the entire part two, that lasted over three hours.

It was not a test, not a grading, but still it kind of was.

It was built up like a level test, and Dima and I got into our aggressive mode – switching on, switching off – one second kicking and punching each other in vulnerable areas, and the next quickly checking that the other was okey, before continuing. It was a great way to see where we were at, not just for Jan to get an evaluation of us all, but for ourselves to realize what we need to work on.

When you’re training at your club, or training by your own or with a partner, you normally work through a family of techniques or something specific that you want to train on – meaning you always check with your partner, your instructor, the DVD’s or maxkravmaga that you’re doing the right thing. This way, a small surprise grading of sorts, you can’t double check anything. You either know it or you don’t.

And by realizing that you don’t know something, it kinda makes you want to go home and train that much harder, ’cause it’s not a nice feeling standing there and literally hear how empty your brain is, when it comes to certain techniques.

”What the fuck am I supposed to do? What are the different ways to defend against side kicks..? Moving out of the way? Yeah, well obviously that’s a good thing, but I can’t back away the whole time… Man oh man… This. Is. Awkward.”

So yeah, hand defenses against side kicks will be something that I’ll master in GIC3. I swear!

After a little over three sweaty hours, we got some personal feedback from Jan (brilliant, brilliant, instructor!!), we hugged everyone good bye (it’ll be great seeing y’all again in November guys!) and headed home. One last night at the hotel, and finally we made it down to the pool!

Here’s one thing I know better than Dima. Swimming.

Gosh, 10 metres and he was huffing and puffing. I tried to teach him some stuff I was taught before swimming The Vansbro Swim (3 km open water last July), but it turns out while he’s frickin’ awesome on land, he can’t for his life use both his legs and arms in the water…

Don’t worry – he didn’t drown. He’s up and running and will be just as eager as I am to go back to Germany in a few weeks and complete the GIC. Part 3 starts November 20th. The final part. But – if I pass – it’s only the beginning…!

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Marton going through wrist grabs.

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Benny – the German with the best laugh ever!

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Nico, me and Matthias – on Matthias birthday – congrats man!

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Bernis and I are celebrating part two!

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My knee, however, is not in a celebrating mood.

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Dima just discovered the size difference of our feet. Don’t really sure if he’s trying to tell me something…?

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Jan, Bernis, Markus and Marton – say burpee!

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Germans are weird. How on earth are we supposed to get to the pool if we can’t open the door?!

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We opened the door…

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Dima’s practicing his breast strokes.

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No, I didn’t drown, I’m trying to teach Dima how to simply trust your body and float. It’s really not that hard. You just play dead.

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Going to the airport at 4 am in the morning. Did I mention that I’m NOT a morning person?

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Dima having fun with sleeping Emma on the plane. Wait, that did not come out right.. Ehm, and neither did that.

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Brekkie!

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Well, hello Sweden!

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This tiny little bugger is the reason for my many bruises. It’s a blood thinner I have to take for preventional purposes, since I have a new heart and all that jazz.

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HOME! MY bed! MY pillow! MY bed cover!

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The gang!
Picture from Krav Maga Global Germany’s FB-page

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The weird gang!
Picture from Krav Maga Global Germany’s FB-page

Today’s word/s: Ich bin müde (I’m tired) & Sie sehen im November (See you in November)!!

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GIC2 Day 8: Potpurri and a Christmas cone http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-8-potpurri-and-a-christmas-cone/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-8-potpurri-and-a-christmas-cone/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2015 20:42:11 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3366 Day number eight. The body’s beginning to feel it.

I’m a bit stiff and not very alert. Almost feel asleep several times today (don’t tell Jan).

We did a mix of a lot of stuff – punches, inside defenses, sliding defenses, stick attacks, shirt grabs and more gun and knife attacks. A real potpurri of techniques. It was fun and quick. And Jan and Marton noticed (as I was already aware of) that my wrists are not made for punching.

At least not punching correctly.

If I’m going to strike with the first two knuckles (the correct way), then my wrist will be crooked. And that’s not good. There’s supposed to be a straight line from the knuckles that you hit with, through the wrist and the forearm – aligning the two bones in the forearm so that they are ”behind” the strike, so to say. For me, it’s just not possible. I’m not aligned. I’m twisted.

Well, haha, yeah, we knew that already. Shut up Dima.

It’s a structural difference in the hands, wrists, bones, whatnot, between men and women. So I can’t do much about my twistedness. Other than work on getting more powerful wrists that will not break if I hit crookedly, or I’ll simply strike with open palm.

After the training we went to the supermarket, and for some reason (he’s Asian, so who knows what the guy’s thinking), Dima bought a Christmas cone for almost 2 euros. We found it among the fruit and he claimed we could eat it, but so far it’s just been sitting on his nightstand. Together with Stuart the Minion.

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Hitting with the first two knuckles. Really twisted wrist.

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Straight wrist. Hitting with the fingers. NOT recommended – at all.

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Marton Pinter from Hungary is assisting instructor, here going through shirt grabs.

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Who the F took this picture..?

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Bernis is sticking his thumb under my scapula. No, it’s nothing dirty.

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Jan being fast as lightning.

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Relaxing at home – refilling the salt depots with chips..

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They’ve got an advents calendar (whatever it’s called in English) with 650 grammes of chocolate! Wowawewa!

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Dima finding a cone..

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Thinking about getting wasted tonight. Or maybe not.

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Shopping in Germany. Want any cigarettes?

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Our dinner makes me feel like I’m back in France again – brie and saucisson! 

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A cone! A cone? A cone..

Todays word/s: leicht scharfe (a little strong – in reference to food)

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GIC2 Day 6 & 7: Knives and guns and sticks and burgers http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-6-7-knives-and-guns-and-sticks-and-burgers/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-6-7-knives-and-guns-and-sticks-and-burgers/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2015 18:11:38 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3314

Schön Emma!

It’s now a running joke amongst the group, and it might sound weird to the outsider. Basically it means ”Nice Emma”, or ”good”. But… There’s always a but.. I happened to mention that it reminded me of German porn.

Yup.

Where the guys go ”Aaah, schön, schön” etc, etc. You get the picture.

Apparently I must have been mistaken (or there was some very weird stuff I happened to watch), ’cause the gang told me no, no, they don’t say ”schön” in those movies. But now everyone thinks it’s very funny to say ”Schön” all the time.

So the last two days there’s been a lot of schön going on. Other than that we’ve worked on defense against gun threats/attacks, stick attacks, knife threats/attacks and more. I must say, it’s real fun being here with this crew – ’cause we’re getting a lot (A LOT) of new ideas. Everything from warm ups and stretching, to games, to summerizing drills, to ways of teaching the techniques. We learn by teaching, and learn from each other.

Steal with pride is a very good expression, and yo guys in Karlstad – I’ve got some real nice treats to try when I get back! (oops, I almost wrote ”threats”, well, I guess that works just the same)

Some of the techniques are still pretty new for me. Not brand new, it’s just that I haven’t trained on them for that long, so they’re not ”in my spine yet” as we would say in Sweden. Sometimes I get frustrated. Especially since I’m training with the most ”fluent”, efficient, and fast-as-a-weasel guy that was ever made in China (no, sorry, Uzbekistan). Yeah Dima, that’s you – you’re fucking brilliant in case I don’t say it that often. Most of the time I just hit you on the head.

But – there’s a but here too – some of the techniques are starting to make their way into my body, making me a bit faster in decision making and acting/reacting. It’s a helluva feeling – and I like it! Schön Emma!

Last night all of us went out, to a diner with bio-burgers. Ergo, environmentally friendly meat. It was not only environmentally good, it was also good. Period.

I’m realizing that I really have to change my dietary habits when I get back to Sweden. Burgers, fries, pizza, kebab, take outs, chips and chocolates is slowly turning me into a pimple covered bag of dough. With loads of bruises, but that’s not from the food.

My grandmother is already horrified by the fact that I train Krav. I really hope no one shows her any pictures from here. I’m sure as hell not going to go see her for a week or two. Or three..

Thursday in pics

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We’ve turned from football in the mornings to something between volleyball and handball – trying to keep the ball in the air as long as we can. This morning they got to 129 – and, enter Emma..

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Dima’s getting a bit of a helping hand with his high side kicks.

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Nico and Iris!

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Dima and Bernis!

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Emma and Markus!

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Another fun way of doing pushups.

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Guns, guns, guns!

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Are you in the mood for a really horny guy? (rough translation)

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Markus telling a real funny fork story. Yep, they’ve got fork stories in Germany.

Friday in pics:

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I’m not a morning person. Dima’s definitely NOT a morning person.

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Today’s lunch – döner kebab.

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The school where we’re residing.

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Mainz on a beautiful autumn evening.

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Didn’t know what looked best – with or without flash.

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It’s pretty awful anyway…

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Unt the legs..

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Peace out suckers!

 

Thursday’s word/s: Normal weiter laufen (run normally)

Todays word/s: es muss nicht schnell gehen (it doesn’t have to go fast) (note: not in correlation with Thurday’s words)

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GIC2 Day 5: Überraschtung! http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-5-uberraschtung/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-5-uberraschtung/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2015 21:21:48 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3287 Okey, day five is in the books – and this will go to history as The Day of The Many Punches.

Somewhere in the beginning of the day, I attacked Matthias with a knife – you know, as you normally do a Wednesday morning – and let’s just say his defense really worked, and now my lip is one bump and bruise richer. Yesterday he kneed me you-know-where real good too, so he was feeling a little bit ashamed. I was thinking ”Finally! They’re learning that I’m not made of glass!”

Later on I don’t really know what happened, but I managed to punch Dima in the face not once, not twice, and not three times – but every effing time I did a counter..! He commented that my lip would look very nice together with a black eye, and as we switched he asked:

Where do you want it? Left or right?

I better get my limbs in control…

I also held my first lecture today – on inside forearm defense against low punches. It was fun stepping up and taking on the role of the instructor. It’s a really nice and easygoing gang, and I mean, you can’t hold the fact that they’re German over their heads too long. They were born this way.

The afternoon was mostly spent on working with knifes, as a continuation of the session in the morning. The evening has been spent planning tomorrows warm up – and eating kinder eggs, that apparently are super dangerous in Germany, since they need the word ”Überraschtung” written on them. Aschtung = Danger. Überraschtung = Über danger, right?

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Planning my lesson.

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Instructing.

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Tevini doing his judgement thing while I’m doing my lesson thing.

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Here’s a summary drill for Matthias lesson – working on headlocks from the side.

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Markus don’t want to try and headlock me…

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He’ll just end up on the floor.

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Going on with knife attacks and threats.

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Don’t you just love the flag on Jan’s t-shirt?

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Dima’s goofing around again. I’m thankful he didn’t take a picture down his pants..

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Uhm. Okey. Crazy russian.

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Two Swedes and a Swedish shirt in the middle!

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Looking good, jawohl!

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Our home, in case someone’s wondering.

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Dima’s weird. He eats lard.

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On second thought, maybe überraschtung means ”surprise”..

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I was promised a minion. I got a fucking.. I don’t even know what it is..

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Dima got a minion. Of course. His new buddy Stuart.

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I think you might need a sturdier groin protection than that, but sure, you take your chances – I’ll take mine..!

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Dima doesn’t think we do enough primal moves during the days, he needs to crawl on the hotel floor at night too.

Today’s word/s: andere Richtung (other direction)

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GIC2 Day 3 & Day 4: Sometimes you need to pick yourself up and carry on http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/sometimes-you-need-to-pick-yourself-up-and-carry-on/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/sometimes-you-need-to-pick-yourself-up-and-carry-on/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2015 20:39:03 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3254 Day 3: The worst day ever

Day 4: The best day ever

My fellow GIC’ers, and the peeps that as of Sunday can call themselves instructors (way to go guys, you’re fucking awesome!), I think we all can vouch for that the highs and lows really come and go during this course.

It’s physically and mentally a challenge. You’re putting your body through a lot, and your brain through even more.

If you’ve read my previous posts about GIC1 you know it took me exactly half of part one to break down. Four and a half day.

This time it only took me a little over two days.

Monday morning – and it was time for rolls and break falls. Normally I don’t like them because I’m not good at them, but now with sore shoulders I’m against them even more. And I don’t know, I guess I didn’t sleep that well and I was feeling low in general. So when we started rolling on the floor (super hard floor I might add), my brain said ”No. No way. Forget it. I can’t do this.” And that was all it took. I had to leave and just let the river flow for a while.

I get this mental block when it comes to rolls.

You can’t do this. You suck. You’re weak and lousy and it’s gonna hurt.

Not really nice thoughts to give to myself.

The good thing about breaking down in part one, is that now I know that it doesn’t matter. I can break down, and then pick myself up again. And I don’t give a f*** if I’m red as a tomato and swollen like an addict on cortisol. It’s just how it is. Solve the situation, as my instructors would say.

Well, I admit it’s not a very constructive way of solving the problem by hiding in the bathroom for 10 minutes and then go and do three rolls (half decent rolls, not bad, not perfect) while the rest have done like 50 rolls. It’s a real waste of practice time, I get that. I could play the female card, but hey, why would I? Females don’t have monopoly on break downs, just as guys don’t have monopoly on burping – yeah, you know what I mean, german Markus.

The rest of the day was better, but also worst. My head hurt like crazy, and I went to bed at 9.30 pm last night. Yeah, me! In bed before ten! (hence the double post tonight)

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A fun new way of doing situps

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An even more fun way to do situps – let’s see if Markus knows what he’s supposed to do..

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Ahh, there we go!

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Come on Markus, work that German beard!

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Focus, focus!

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Come on Markus, don’t quit on Jan!

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You can do it!

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A little more…

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Nice! Good job!

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Jan teaching backward roll

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Benny getting a nice leg stretch… or…?

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After getting a real nice kick to the thigh, Dima is pleased to finally get his hands around Jan’s throat.

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Yours truly getting head slammed by Tevini.

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Switched roles.

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And this is what you get from trying to choke the head instructor.

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My enormous head ache allowed me to eat half of a double cheese burger and half of the fries. Yes Jarmo, the food quality has sunk.. Into a funk…

Tuesday

Man oh man! Nine hours sleep!

I woke up rested – without any headache – and the entire day I’ve been on top of the world!!!

I’ve had energy, getting back my appetite, singing out loud, hitting Dima a bit too hard – you know, the way that it should be. They say day 5 is the breaking point for many – I hope I had my breaking point yesterday, so that tomorrow will be just as awesome as today!

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We do a small unofficial warm up by ourselves in the morning – playing some football before we start. There’s a lot of ”Aah nein!” and ”Scheiße!”

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Stick attacks!

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Asian food for lunch – Dima and Bernis are digging in.

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Matthias is getting Jan with a hook punch.

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But not this time!

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Aaaand, Jan attacks to the groin – no groin, no Krav Maga!

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Dima’s normal facial expression.

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We found a word we now at Lidl.

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We had a ”smörgåsbord” of delicacies for dinner!

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Sandwiches, coke, salami, cheese and a groin.

Monday’s word: Kreis (circle)

Today’s word: Drücken (push)

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GIC2 Day 2: Spin me, choke me, stab me, hug me http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-2-spin-me-choke-me-stab-me-hug-me/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-2-spin-me-choke-me-stab-me-hug-me/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2015 19:28:12 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3202 I’m exhausted.

We start at 9 am in the mornings. I mean, it’s a sleep in for crying out loud. But still, I was so tired today I didn’t know where to turn.

And there were a lot of turns this morning. Part of the warm up consisted of a great deal of spinning and running in circles. Dima got dizzy right away and had to sit out. Two minutes later I wished I’d joined him..

We went on to chokes from all directions, with pushing and pulling. Then we worked on kick defenses against knife attacks and in the arvo we finished with bearhugs from all directions.

Our lunch was a bit of a fiasko though.

We have an hour for lunch (hence the sleep in), and let’s just say it took 55 minutes to get our food at the one restaurant that was open (what’s up Germany, don’t people have to eat in this country?). We gulped down the food in ten minutes, and arrived 13 minutes late. When Tobias started his warm up and teaching lesson with running, I thought it would all come up again.

He felt more comfortable doing his teaching in german, and it was interesting having a whole lesson in a language you don’t know. It shows how easy things are to teach if you follow the steps and have a good routine (and look at the others from time to time)! It was a fun experience!

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Dimas state for most of the day

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Dima getting his balls kicked in the same place over and over again – no one can complain about the accuracy of Jan’s kicks.

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You know you’re in Germany..

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Lunch! Ate it all in 8 minutes!

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We love each other here at GIC – we hug each other a lot!

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Tobias getting feedback after his teaching – well done!

Todays word: Jawhol (sir, yes sir!)

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GIC2 Day 1: Kick me please http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-1-kick-me-please/ http://www.heartcore.me/2015/10/gic2-day-1-kick-me-please/#comments Sat, 17 Oct 2015 20:54:20 +0000 http://www.heartcore.me/?p=3190 So, here we are, and here we go again.

GIC 2. Nine days of training, teaching, learning, fighting, bruising, stiff limbs, sore muscles, brain collapse and information overload. Good God how I’ve missed this!

Dima and I started our journey Friday morning at 8 am, driving from Karlstad to Gothenburg. After parking the car at a friends house, we took a bus, a tram and another bus to the airport. One short flight later we landed in Frankfurt. The train from Frankfurt to Mainz was supposed to take 20 minutes, but it turned out that german trains are not as punctual as one would’ve thought. It was late and had to stop for meeting trains and something else we couldn’t understand, but it made the other passengers sigh and roll their eyes. So we rolled into Mainz sixty-seven minutes post ETA.

And one quick, but rather long, bus ride later – we entered the doors at Günnewig Hotel!

First day

We are 13 people doing the GIC2 here in Mainz. 10 Germans, 1 Polish/English guy, and us. It looks like it’s gonna be a fun group. At least no one protested when I said I’ll be blogging so if anyone doesn’t want to appear in pictures they should let me know. ‘Til then, I’m snapping away!

And snap kicking away.

We’ve done regular kicks (snap kicks), stopp kicks, side kicks, back kicks, combinations of kicks and knife threat from the front + repetition of the teaching system. And that was just the morning.

But I’ve gotta tell you, my legs were a bit worn out from the start. Don’t know why, maybe because I haven’t used them for three weeks… (stupid, stupid, stupid) And the warm up Jan did with us (great warm up, I got a lot of new ideas) mainly focused on the legs, obviously, and I got shaky straight away and couldn’t really get any power into my kicks.

Jan is Jan Tevini, who’s leading the course, and man oh man, this is gonna be awesome! If you ever get the chance to train with this guy – do it. Skilled, packed with knowledge, good teacher, easy going and funny as hell.

Yes Jan, I know you might find this blog. No, I’m not sucking up. I’m telling it as it is.

Afternoon

After lunch we got on to the teaching.

One person started to teach the entire class (warm up + a specific technique), and after feedback and comments we broke into smaller groups and each taught one technique each, but for a shorter period of time (12 minutes each, compared to 35-40 minutes for the entire group teaching).

I got the regular kick and 12 minutes to teach it.

The easy techniques really are the most difficult do teach. Not that it was extremely hard, but I’ve never taught this one before, and you really need to think every step through carefully and not do anything halfhearted.

The last part of the day was spent hitting each other, more or less.

Less using focus mits. More using gloves.

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On the road again!

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Our training centre for the next nine days.

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”I’m not flexible enough to do a side kick.”
”Can you stand like this?”
”Yeah..”
”Then you’re flexible enough.”

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”Stealing” a photo opportunity

We had hamburgers delivered to the hotel after a brisk walk around the area, searching for food, with a more and more sulky Dima trailing along (apparently no restaurants are open on Saturday nights in Germany.. I know! what a strange country..), but we skipped the swimming this evening. Yes, the hotel has a pool. And a breakfast buffé. And the nicest staff I’ve yet to meet.

But it also has the strangest elevator.

When we arrived last night, the portier said it was not that far to the first floor, like four steps – but looking at our bags he added ”You can also use the elevator”. So we did. When we stepped out of the elevator, we noticed that it was in fact exactly four steps from the foyer to our floor. Not four parts of steps or however I pictured it, but just four, small steps. Feeling silly? No, not us. Never..

To improve my German, here comes the word/s of the day:

Fridays words: Große (big), klein (small).

Todays word: Knoblauch (garlic).

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A demo of the elevator:

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