Martial arts

It hardly takes much convincing to conclude that having blinding speed of punches or bone-cracking power in kicks are the most desireable assets for Martial Artists to posess. Remember Miyamoto Musashi stated in his famous text “A Book of Five Rings” that one ultimate goal of the warrior is to learn to end the fight with a single blow! That’s exactly where speed & power come in! The idea is to make them as specific as possible so as to achieve the most applicable results. In this article we will attempt to explore some of the best methods available to get those results.

Economy of Motion. Basically the more you practice your peticular techniques, the more your nervous system becomes familiar & you naturally get faster. Its a really good idea to use mirrors because you can self-coach so to say & strip away wasted movements as well as learn to utilize power centers (like the hips & legs). For example you can immediately make your punch will be twice as powerful by springing off the slightly bent legs when you execute it. Think of your body akin to a coiled up snake about to strike!

Think SPEED! Sounds simple but when you start thinking you are fast you will actually start moving faster. Get over any preconceived mental limitations you may have. The other aspect of this notion is to keep the thought of speed on the forefront of your mind. As you train to do those skills you wish to be faster & stronger at make a conscious effort to do them with your best speed & power efforts! Time yourself. Count down how many strikes or roundhouses you can land on a target or heavy bag in a 10 second period. Seek to improve your numbers every session.

Overspeed methods A.K.A. Forcing faster muscle memory! The abridged version goes like this:You have an innate speed at which muscles can fire off & move any given limb. Factors like motor unit recruitment, neural efficiency/capacity, & strength ratios effect this. What we are going to do is teach the nervous system to coordinate movement & build muscle memory at faster speeds! To speed up punches wrap a tubular resistance band or even bungee cord around your wrists and anchor the other end or have a partner stretch it out. Now release & throw the arm into motion with the added speed. Relax the opposing muscles to avoid any “braking” effects. The same proceedure can be performed on kicks by binding the band to the foot.10-20 reps 2 times aweek will be enough to develop noticeable results.

Specific drills to build power. Much can be done with a simple medicineball & even bodyweight outside of what you are already familiar with. Here are some to get started on:

Power absorbtion exercises:How the theory works is that you can’t create more power than you can absorb. So it only makes sense to start here before we start “jumping” into plyometrics! For upperbody power, drop push-ups are king! Assume a position upright but on your knees with both arms at chest level slightly more than shoulder width apart bend aprox 90

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So what exactly are basics? To most karateka basics means standing in line performing simple techniques (punches, kicks and blocks).

There’s more to it than that. Basics are your fundamental skills. They provide the foundation for all your studies - how to stand, how to move, how to generate power, what targets to hit, what weapons (hand and foot positions) you can use, how to read an opponent’s intentions, how to breathe, stay healthy, relaxed and of course learn the fundamental techniques of striking, locking, throwing, kicking and stance work.

Line work isn’t basics. Line work is drilling techniques. There’s a problem with line work in that you cannot learn your basics in an efficient and natural way. The origins of line work are in the Japanese military where large groups of people were learning how to react to orders.

I found that beginners have difficulty with line work. They are expected to get into a stance and hold their arms in a certain position then move in a particular way. Why does it take 3 months to learn a handful of basics and a couple of kata for your next belt. You can learn a kata in a couple of hours. The reason is simple - inefficiency.

It takes a while to become accustomed to traditional karate movement which isn’t the same movement you perform when out walking, dancing or working. So why do it? Times have to change. Line work is no longer suited to skill development especially with advances in sports science and biomechanics.

At our dojo we learn basics working with a partner in a freestyle environment so students can clearly see what is happening. We make use of focus mitts and other equipment so new students begin with actually hitting things. Progress is much better than the old way and when they come to learn their traditional karate movements and kata they already understand the applications and the mechanics of the techique. The approach means they learn the best angles for working each technique. They get the body movement, entry points through the opponent’s guard and control of timing and distance.

We then progress to kata, applications, 2-person drilling and push hands, then onto freestyle practice and attack/defence sparring. We will shortly be introducing scenario sparring where one partner is, say, limited to grappling and another is limited to striking, or we start from on the ground with the aim of one partner being to stand up while the other prevents him.

You can chop and change your partner work and sparring formats to suit different environments. There aren’t really advanced skills, just fundamental skills with different levels of understanding - which, to newer students appear to be “advanced” in the sense that they are moving towards greater understanding.

“That’s not traditional karate!” I hear you cry. Well, if traditional karate is nothing more than marching about in lines that’s fine you can keep it. The only traditions worth maintaining are the ones that evolve and grow with the times.

But it begins at Day 1. No more “stand at the back and follow as best as you can.” Invest in some good focus mitts (I’ve just discovered the joys of training with Thai pads too!), hang a kick bag and get on with it.

Stephen Irwin

http://www.totalgoalsetting.com

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One great thing about street-fighting self defense and martial arts is that the single most effective training “tool” you can get is also the cheapest and easiest to find.

Now, I am not talking about sparring gloves, punching bags, training knives or anything like that.

No, what I am talking about is, quite simply, a training partner.

Why do I say this?

Because if you are training yourself to deal with “real life” altercations, then you should always train how you would fight. And using boxing bags and training dummies just doesn’t cut it. They don’t think and they don’t move like a regular human being does.

In fact, you should not only find a training partner right away to practice your skills with…but you should also try to find a variety of training partners that are all different — big, small, strong, unskilled, savvy — get them all in there.

You should also find people who train in karate, boxing, wrestling, and other fighting arts. And you should especially train with people who don’t have any training at all — and won’t know about or care about any of the “rules” that people are forced to observe in a formal training situation.

And finally, you should also train in different terrains.

Like small rooms, tight hallways, parking lots, in the snow and even in enclosed areas like bathrooms and closets. Reason why is because you just never know if, when and where you are going to be attacked. And since most violent crimes occur at night by people who don’t want to be seen or heard, you will probably not be attacked in a wide open space with lots of room and good visibility. Instead, if you ever are attacked on the street some day, there’s a good chance it could be in a dark alley, a public restroom, inside your car or even in something as cramped as a phone booth.

Bottom line:

If you start to train with all different kinds of people in all different kinds of environments over the next several months…you’ll start to gain an almost “sixth sense” type of awareness that’ll make you way more prepared for a fight than just about anyone dumb enough to attack you.

Sifu Matt Numrich is one of only a few instructors in the world with Full Certification in Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, and also the Filipino Martial Arts. His students include everyone from Federal Air Marshals and military elites to small children and 65-year old ladies. Matt also offers free weekly street-fighting lessons by email at http://jkdondvd.com

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