If anyone actually reads this stuff and thinks a photo or two might help you out, let me know. I'll see what I can do. Not sure if anyone is getting benefits out of
this information or not.
Exercise variations
Added 6/7/2004
Getting tired of the same old same old? Here's an idea: take your static exercises and make them dynamic. If you have a set of exercises that emphasizes
hand movement with no stepping to it, add some stepping. Make the stepping coincide with the hand motions -- think about the timing of the foot in relation to
the hand, where the hands are in relation to the foot. "Am I striking/blocking/whatever as the foot plants, or while it is still in motion?" Try different
stepping variations. Karate examples would be front stance movement, cat stance movement, horse stance movement, mae-yoko dachi movement. Change directions --
sometimes going forward, sometimes going back. Make the motions make sense to you
Now, turn it around, if you
are doing movements that emphasize your feet, think about where your hands are. If the motion is, for example, a forward motion what kinds of hand movements can you
do? Same thing with timing. If you think of something as simple as doing a punch with the movement, is the punch happening when the foot plants? Or is it happening
when it is in the air? How about multiple punches? Punch #1 is while the foot is in the air, punch #2 happens when the foot plants. Main idea here is to let
your imagination run wild and to change your training up a bit so that it isn't a boring, thoughtless, monotonous activity.
Punching ideas
Added 6/2/2004
This should be a quickie. When you are doing your punches, consider the "angle of attack" as you punch. In Ryukyu Kempo, our middle punches are about
as high as the xyphoid process (middle of the chest, just below the sternum.) When punching, arrive at that same point, but do it three different ways:
straight out
rising up fist (maybe think about a knuckle strike, with the Metacarpophalangeal Joint)
dropping down fist (think about another knuckle strike, with the Proximal Interphalangeal Joint)
Flow exercise idea
Added 5/26/2004
See the flow exercise below. Couple of specific ideas I worked on tonight:
Do the exercise from a cat stance. Every time the left block comes up, take a step forward. When you reach the end of your
workout space, start taking a step back until you hit the back wall and then move forward again. The trick is to have the step and the block land at the
same time, without "cheating" by doing the step on the previous block. Play with it and you'll get a feel for it. Admittedly it stills feel awkward
for me.
Do the flow exercise from a horse stance. The out hand is open the tuck hand is close. Two tricky spots are on the right block -> right block
transition and the double blocks. For the right block -> right block transition, I close the right hand and open the left on the transition and
then open the right and close the left as the left hand tucks and the right hand blocks. For the double block, the hand that "goes inside" closes
and the outside hand stays open. As the inside hand goes down, it opens up again. The feeling I started to get here was continuous pull/grabbing. I
personally don't have it completely down, but it did feel very cool as I got into the swing of things. The motion for me is choppy and a bit
on the slow side, but, once again, it certainly has a good "feel" to it.
Variation exercise idea
Added 5/24/2004
In Ryukyu kempo, we have a basic exercise called simply "Exercise One". This exercise consists of basic hand motions. It goes something like this:
outside blocks, vertical outside blocks, double (or scissor) blocks, vertical double blocks, upward blocks, vertical upward blocks, downward blocks,
vertical downward blocks and so on. Anyway, the idea behind this variation is to take a pair of weapons and do your standard motions. Using "Exercise
One" as an example, you would execute each motion (outside block, vertical outside block, etc.) as you normally would, you just have a weapon in each hand.
There are several benefits to this:
First, you are getting repetition on the motion and enhancing your muscle memory.
Second, you might use a weapon in a manner that is different from the motions in your kata. This could potentially lead to more ideas for different techniques.
Third, the weapon acts as a weight to help strengthen your body.
Fourth, throwing in this variation helps prevent the motion from becoming stale. Sometimes you have to rethink how exactly you have to do the motion in order
for it to "work" with the weapon. With the tonfa, for example, the double block motion needs to be modified because of the part that extends past the fist.
Turn this around and consider if this "makes sense" if you didn't have the weapon.
Fifth, you could take some of these basic motions and throw them into your kobudo kata. There might be a motion that is similar
enough or even feels similar but might look a little different. This could in effect enhance your kobudo kata.
Sixth, some weapons, such as the nunchaku, really can strain the brain for you to figure out how to have them make sense. Think about some of the motions
that are in the kata. How could they relate to these basic motions or vice versa?
Seventh, in the long run, it will make you more proficient and at ease with the particular weapon you are using. The net effect is that it eventually
just becomes an extension of your body.
As a general rule of thumb, I like to do a set of 100 or so of each basic motion when I incorporate a weapon. Why? Well, it takes about so many motions before
the weapon starts to feel "comfortable" being used in such a manner. After that, my thoughts go to: How exactly am I using the weapon here? Does it make
sense? Which portions of the weapon am I striking with? Is it the far end that is striking out or the near end that's striking down? Is the weapon moving
around an opponent's limb? Is it trapping? Is it moving around or making an opening? Okay, the weapon is striking "this" way... if I remove the weapon,
can I do something similar using my forearms? ...hands? ...elbows? etc.
The biggest point here is that you simply need to let your imagination run free. Change things up. Look at them in a new way. It's one of the keys to
making yourself grow as a martial artist.
Flow exercise
Added 5/10/2004
This exercise comes straight out of Jim Logue's book, Ryukyu Kempo:History and Basics. The object of this exercise is not to
execute each block perfectly, but to develop a flow. I'm using it to try and come up with a rhythm. The way I practice is by listening to medium
to high tempo music and then performing each motion with that tempo -- never trying to stop the motion and just letting each one go into the next. If
I screw up, I just attempt to get back into where I left off WITHOUT STOPPING THE MOTION. The thing I have in mind is that I'm trying to achieve flow, not to
be an automotan that can simply do the motions. When you are fighting you are not going to be able to say to your opponent -- "hold on one sec, I screwed
that up". You gotta go with whatever you end up doing. Brian always says "there is no bad motion." Make the best of it. Anyways, here's the exercise:
- Left single block
- Right single block
- Right single block
- Left double block
- Left single block
- Right double block
- repeat
Here are some variables to this exercise:
Switch left and right around in the list above.
Do the exercise with both hands closed
Do the exercise with both hands open
Do the exercise with one hand open and the other closed. Then switch which is open / closed in the next set.
Do the exercise with the hand that is out open and the hand that is tucked closed (double blocks == both hands open.) Reverse that.
Do the exercise while in a cat stance with forward and backward movement.
Back to the Main Page
Current document was last updated: Sat Oct 2 08:19:43 2004
© 1999-2007 Tim Scott. All rights reserved.
|
