Heavy Bag Training

How do you develop powerful punches, build strength, endurance and technique? The good old heavy bag. The benefits of bag training are tremendous. The bag is your best friend in training. It allows you to develop the necessary attributes you need to hit and gets you in great shape. When hitting the bag you and to snap your techniques creating a jolt to the bag. You don't want pushing power. The long bag allows low kicks and doesn't move a lot. The short bag will move. This allows you to time when your strikes. You want to move around the bag, working your foot work as you hit and use defensive maneuvers. You must imagine someone in front of you instead of just a bag. When working rounds on the bag, devote each round to a particular skill (i.e. stick and move, body shots, etc.). Sometimes work 10 or 15 straight and just flow. The bag provides resistance and overtime you hit your muscles contract and then relax. You are developing power and leverage as your body will learn the most efficient way to move in your execution of techniques. Lastly, regular bag work will destress you, invigorate you, and keep you peaceful (no road rage for you.

Getting Ready To For Competition

How should you prepare for an event? What should you do? Well, if you are getting ready for a fight, you need cardio, technical work and sparring (doing what you are going to compete in). Cardio is king because once it's gone, noting works. You can see things coming and your body won't react to save you if you've denied it endurance training. Cardio comes in several ways. First, is doing the sport that are competing in. Supplemental cardio training is running, jump rope, biking, etc. You can mix them up. You can add in intervals. You can go long one day, short the next, sprints the next, etc. Secondly is the technical work. You emphasize your basics and work your best moves. You improve your weakness and you study how to fight different opponents. Third, you have to do the most important part of training, the actual activity you are going to do. Some will look for various workouts (pushing tires, crossfit, yoga, etc.) and that's OK as you long as you understand that they are supplemental to three I mentioned. Most of your time should be doing the activity you are going to do. After those 3 things, eat well, rest and focus your mind on the task at hand and you will be on your way to success.

What Works In Combat?

In looking at techniques that are effective, what works best? Is it a cool move that you've seen on TV or learned in class? Most likely not. I am not saying that the new moves you learn won't work. But if you haven't perfected a move and pulled if under stress, then chances are that it won't. When discussing martial arts, there are many opinions as to what will work in a giving situation. What might work for you might not work for me and vice versa. What one uses time and time again against a variety of opponents is what will work for them. Only through self exploration will you determine that. So, don't get caught up in theories and concepts. Look to practical experience. That means you have to get in the lab for the experiment to work.

Are The Martial Arts Effective?

Is it effective for you to learn a martial art? Do they really work? I heard this great statement by a well martial artist and he said that martial arts don't work. It is the individual who makes martial arts work. What that means is that you can learn something but that doesn't mean you can apply it. When you see fighters competing at a high level, you things work that you might not think would. Making something work under stress is what they have learned to do. They are in shape and train against non compliant training partners making their techniques work against other trained athletes who know those techniques. Once you get your basics down and gain some experience you learn to impose your will to pull of your moves. Your opponents that you train with and compete against have a foundation and know what you know. So, it becomes a matter of confidence and believing in your skills that make them work. You simply have to go for it and believe in it. That is what makes martial arts effective.

Afraid To Challenge Yourself?

Why do we compete? Do we take on challenges that will be difficult or do we take the ones where the odds are in our favor. Do you want to be the best you can be? For me, I have always challenge myself by taking on the best opponents available. I have never sought out an easy fight. I've have never turned down a challenge either. A lot of people are afraid to lose. But how can you win if you don't play the game? Sometimes you have to play a lot to get the chance to win. I have won accolades in several different combat sports, but I have something to tell you. I have lost! I lost my first kickboxing fight. I've lost in Taekwondo, Judo, Boxing, and Kickboxing. In sports where athletes compete a lot (several matches in one day) in tournaments, I couldn't tell you how many times I've lost. So, don't be afraid to jump in the deep in.

Does Your Heart Pump Blood Or Koolaid

When it comes to competition, school, work, etc., one will be faced with adversity, stress, and many other difficulties. You train, practice, study, and prepare and when put to the test you find out what your are made of. Living in the world of combat, I see that the way people conduct themselves in sport is the same what they do in other facets of their lives. When challenged, they will either give up or rise up. On the highest levels all athletes are strong, fast and durable. In tournaments, athletes will often look the same during the first part of a match. When fatigue sets in, then you see the separation of winner and loser. You can look in the eyes and see into the soul. That's when you know who is truly the victor. Even in defeat, a true winner will stand proud and give his or her all till the end. Heart, courage, spirit, or whatever you want to call it is something that you can give a fighter. Those things come from within. Make sure you heart pumps blood not Koolaid.

Sparring Is Key To Your Development

In order to pull of that new move you just learned, it is going to take PRACTICE. A lot of time you show someone something and they get frustrated when it does not work for them right of the bat. It is because they have PRACTICED it enough. You have drill a new technique so your body remembers it and then you have to spar with it to make it work under pressure. For those of you who get the opportunity to compete, you get to apply it against a fully resisting, adrenalized, opponent. Sparring is the most important training for you because you are doing it for real. It is the most important aspect of PRACTICE.