Wednesday 11 April 2012

SLOWING IT DOWN AND MAKING IT COUNT

Classes are split into sections for a reason. You have the warm up at the beginning to prepare the body for the training ahead. This will normally work explosive power and have strength components to make the body safe for training. From there we work on the pads to develop speed, power, accuracy, rhythm and timing. Then it's time to look at the theme for the night and whatever defence that may be.

All too often during training we see multiple strikes to the same area. For example, constant striking to the head. This is good as it's often demonstrated with constant forward pressure and it may have the desired result. However, more than likely most of the strikes will be impacting on arms which are acting defensively. This may be where the hammer strikes you are using are there to remove the hands to give you a clearer shot at the target.

What we want to do is look at striking all over the body. So if we attack high and the hands go up we go low where the body is open and vice versa. In the early stages its worth just slowing the movements down and getting a flow going. None of the stop start just a smoothness of action. In that way it can only get faster. It's the same principle used in slow fighting which encourages flow and allows you to develop freely without the fear of injury. Couple this with some rounds of sparring and you get a good balance. Just keep in mind sparring isn't fighting or self defence but serves a good purpose for our training nonetheless.

So the lesson is smooth is fast. Take some time to develop combinations and look for openings rather than being the bull in the china shop which only gets you so far.

Marcus

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