Makiwara Work

How many of you have a Makiwara at home?

 

How much time do you use on it?

 

What techniques do you practise on it?

 

 

Unfortunatly since i live in an aporatment i do not have one at home but i use the one at the dojo all the time i love it . the techniques I use on it most of the time are gyaku zuki and uraken. I can spend an hour just hitting the makiwara.

 

 

i have one at my house, and my dojo has one. I dont recomend using it. its bad for you! wear a glove and hit a heavy bag

On 2002-03-07 11:07, ZakariRu wrote:

 

i have one at my house, and my dojo has one. I dont recomend using it. its bad for you! wear a glove and hit a heavy bag

 

Not good for you? Weli I agree using a bag is worthwhile but I love the power my makiwara has helped me develop.

 

Why do you feel it is no good?

 

 

Well I would just assume that hitting the makiwara, although it has definitely proven useful and practical in the past, just isn't as practical, efficient, and 'safe' as hitting a heavy bag simply for the fact that there is less risk of injury (bare hands to hard surface). It is not that the makiwara has no value. Obviously it does, something made people keep coming back to it. But there are just newer and better and safer ways to do it. I am also not saying that the makiwara is dangerous, I don't think it is really. It's just not the best idea. Just like how traditional kung fu practitioners (and probably people from other styles as well) used to condition their knuckles by hitting hard surfaces until the skin broke open and they bled profusely. This we now know is detrimental and actually harmful. It is best actually IMHO to hit the surfaces until the knuckles whiten but the skin has not broken yet. There are some out there who even say that doing this is bad b/c it leads to arthritis later on in life. Go figure, who knows

 

I have conditioned my hands in the past and I have bled once in a while but have been careful not to push it. So far my hands are doing just fine but perhaps when I am 50 I may see the arthritis although I don't anticipate it. The negative eventual side-effects may happen to u and they may not, but to many it is an issue of 'why take the risk' or why do it a certain way if there is another safer and more logical way which also offers you the exact same purpose (i.e. strength, power, speed, etc.) Anyways the fact is that you can still exert effort in order to develop power on a heavy bag just like you can do on a makiwara, but I guess you might just have to deal with the 'wussified' factor of not feeling the pain of your body making contact with another wooden or hardened surface.

 

_________________

 

"Being able to move in and out of styles, movements, and rhythms with ease is the highest skill." - Donnie Yen

 

"If you have to resort to violence, you've already lost" - Rising Sun

 

"The finest steel emerges from the hottest furnace" - a smart guy

 

[ This Message was edited by: spinninggumby on 2002-03-07 13:12 ]

I use one at home (clapper style with a leather pad that I suspect is too soft, but the one I wanted to get was a bit too pricey for the moment) as well as at the dojo. I use it because I want to improve my power and focus. Below is a link to an interesting document I ran across from a guy that used to be a big makiwara fan but has changed his mind, kind of an interesting take on this...

 

http://www.24fightingchickens.com/shotokan/101/28_makiwara.html

the whole shotokan planet site i recommend to anyone doing shotokan, or anyone period.

How do you set up a makiwara?

I prefer the makiwara to the heavy bag it conditions the knuckles better I know most people think that it is bad .

 

I enjoy the feeling from hitting the makiwara till the knuckles do bleed . however if you do this long enought it will take more and more befor the knuckles skin will break this is the poing of the makiwara.

 

Just wondering if any goju ryu people have ever seen Hanshi Higaonna Morio's Knuckles this man is amazing .

 

 

USING A MAKIWARA*

 

*(Makiwara means, literally, "rolled straw." Nowadays, the straw is usually replaced with a cotton pad and is normally placed on a flexible post. Sometimes, instead of placing the pad on a post, it is attached to a spring mechanism mounted directly on a wall.)

 

Many traditional karate practitioners realize the value of using a makiwara. Some modern karate practitioners opt for a heavy bag instead. Regardless of what is being hit, having feedback from devices such as these can be of great value. This feedback can help you figure out how powerful your punch really is and what it feels like to make contact with something.

 

Some mistakenly believe that the prime objective of striking a makiwara is to build up the calluses of the punching knuckles. Do you think a violinist does conditioning practice to create the calluses on his/her fingers? A professional violinist develops "pads" on the fingers of the left hand, as a result of constantly pressing against the strings. From repetitious practice, calluses often develop. But these do little to help the practitioner. They are merely a side effect of practice. The idea of using the makiwara to strengthen the fist is not totally wrong. But it is not the knuckles that are being conditioned; it is the wrist and the rest of the arm that are being conditioned to make a more effective technique.

 

When punching a makiwara (or anything else), several things should be considered that you should always consider while punching the air as well. Check your distance from the target and your stance. Check that you are properly channeling the power of your legs (see March 1998 article for more on the subject). Check that the alignment of your arm during the punch is correct, that you are properly using the hips and that you are properly coordinating the tensing of various muscles involved (see February 1998 article for more on this).

 

When punching a makiwara (or heavy bag, for that matter), a few things should be considered that may make the punch slightly different than that of air-punching. First of all, if you try to rotate your wrist at the very last moment into impact, you may be jeopardizing the health of your wrist and/or hand. You may need to change the timing of the rotation slightly (not much though) or leave out the wrist rotation altogether.

 

There is a tendency while punching an object for the practitioner to "push" the punch. If you want to develop pushing power, do push-ups or weight-lifting. Pushing with brute strength is of little use while punching. Pushing is not the same as power. Keep in mind that power is created through a combination of speed and transfer of mass (Force = Mass x Acceleration). As you learn when punching an object such as a makiwara or bag, speed is not in itself sufficient. But neither is just pushing power. You must reach your target quickly and powerfully. Also, one should realize while practicing with a light punching bag that a would-be attacker would most likely be harder to "push" than that bag. This is one reason why the makiwara may be a more realistic training tool; it doesn't move much (but should move enough to absorb some of the shock so as not to ruin the user's joints