speed fighting

[planter007]

If it helps... I've seen people wear ankle weights through the ENTIRE day... for weeks and weeks. They would take walks at lunch and only take the stairs. Then they would take them off while training. Supossedly it helps. Just an odd thought.

[Shorin Ryuu]

I used to do that for a while in high school. I wore 5 pounds on each leg all day (and night...I was kind of young and overzealous) except for showering and training. I usually wore long pants since they did kind of stick out otherwise...

 

It did help in strengthening my ankles quite a bit as well as overall leg strength. But (pardon the pun), it got to be a drag for several reasons after about 7-8 months.

[jakmak52]

When you step into the ring three things should cross your mind.

 

You want to make sure that you are physically tougher than your opponent. That you can outlast him, out-endure him. So you need to get your body in incredibly good physical shape. When I say in good shape?

 

I don't mean by doing kata, lifting weights, jogging, or that kind of stuff. I'm talking about hard, one-on-one sparring with a partner who is as good as or better than you are.

 

That's how you become better: intense pressure-type sparring with a tremendous amount of attention devoted to stamina training and working on pacing yourself. Try to spar at a much faster pace than you would in competition.

 

Another aspect you want to work on is to make sure your opponent can't hit you. You've got to work on your defensive skills, and not necessarily on blocking.

 

It could be in the area of dealing with a good kicker?being able to move quite a bit on the outside and denying him access to the target. As a last resort if the kick does get close enough to score, you can work some kind of blocking maneuver to make him miss.

 

You need to keep your opponent from getting set in the first place so he can't fire off first or beat you to the draw. So you figure a way to smother speed. Take the momentum out of his attack.

 

These are the most important two factors in fighting: aggressiveness and speed. If you can take aggressiveness and speed away from the other man, it gives you the upper hand.

 

I was taught this from Joe Lewis.

[jarrettmeyer]

I might have missed it, but I don't think that anyone answered what it means to "chamber" your leg. Just like punches, kicks have a chambered position. For a mawashi geri, the chambered position is standing on one leg, leg out to the side, heel beside your butt. When we learn this move, we learn that there are two kicks that take place - top of the foot to the target and heel of the foot to your own butt.

 

As we progress, we learn to kick as long as we can while standing against a wall, fully chambering each kick. We start off at 1 minute, then 2, etc. Your hamstring will burn. I'm up to 1m15s before my hamstring is on fire.

 

As for boucing, we are learning all things in moderation - like the balance in all things Goju. You want to stay mobile, but still able to move. If you're too low, then you're too planted. It will take too long for you to react. If you're too bouncy, then your opponent will strike when you're cresting. That's the point where you have the least control over your body. Don't think "bouncy". Think about trying to always stay in that middle part of "bouncy".

[jakmak52]

I thought the topic was effective ways of improving speed when fighting? My bad

[pers]

Speed in Kicking, or any other technique, is purely related to one's "breathing timing." Now granted you must have a reasonable development of general MA technique and muscle development to carry out the action, but once past that it's all relative to breathing. Breathing is like you body's timer or clock for all body actions. The faster you breathe the faster you move, the slower you breathe the slower you move. "Breathing Timing" is to match your breathing with your body movements.

 

For example, you start off relaxed. You decide to kick, which BTW is not really a thought but a reaction, you rapidly exhale to contract body muscles to kick in the process - the faster you exhale, the faster you kick. Thus improving reaction timing. Are there some with faster reactions, sure. But with developing breathing timing to your highest ability you will be much faster than the general percentages of MA...

 

- Killer -

 

sorry killer miller for the late reply ,but I just read your post and enjoyed it so much to give you credit .this is very true and great point ,I suppose Nishiyama sensie had some thing to do with it !

 

May I add to increase the speed in kicking ,practice correct kicking slowley with tension one one leg a few reps ,then do repetitions as fast as you can with each kick with correct breathing as killer has mentioned.

[Killer Miller]

Yes Nishiyama had a lot to do with it and many others echoed it too - Oishi, Yamaguchi, Matsura, Shirai, etc. all stressed the same thing...

 

- Killer -

sorry killer miller for the late reply ,but I just read your post and enjoyed it so much to give you credit .this is very true and great point ,I suppose Nishiyama sensie had some thing to do with it !

 

May I add to increase the speed in kicking ,practice correct kicking slowley with tension one one leg a few reps ,then do repetitions as fast as you can with each kick with correct breathing as killer has mentioned.

[yamesu]

Speed in fighting is not everything.

 

If your combos/individual blocks-strikes are thrown too fast, youll be parrying yourself, by not connecting as intended.

 

Lee points this out quite well in The Tao of Jeet Kun Do.

 

Thats not to say the opponent shouldnt be hit before hit hits you.

 

Just pick targets before swining, and focus more on distancing and timing than on speed.

 

OSU.

[Skeptic 2004]

Thank you, yamesu, for obliquely validating one of my original points (before the bounce vs. non-bounce tangent): you don't have to move fast to be fast. If you subscribe to the "way of the intercepting fist", interdicting your opponent is being fast without moving fast: minimizing unnecessary movement and hiding your intent - I think Bruce gives an analogy about how the cobra's bite is felt before it is seen...you don't when the cobra is going to bite you because it hides its intent, and when it does, it moves only enough to facilitate the act of biting.

 

If I sound like a broken record, I apologize. I've said it every time I've posted in this particular discussion, so I say it again: minimize unnecessary movement. This is being fast without moving fast.

[Killer Miller]

Nobody's indicating that a "flury" of fast punches are necessary or beneficial... It's all about timing and breathing timing... You breath how ever fast is necessary for the intended action. Basically, relaxing, then tense or contract via breathing and breathing timing. It all comes together.

 

However, if I want fast, my approach "may" be slow or slower, but when I decide to execute the fast punch/kick, they're going down hard and fast... Everyone thinks that when we talk about fast that's all we're talking about is a flury of punches/kicks - wrong. It only means that when we do execute fast, it's with maximum speed, focus, muscle contraction at the focal point converted into maximum force and energy for that split second. Then re relax and re-evaluate (via reactions and sub-concious memory) to determine if another fast action is necessary. You have to pace yourself via breathing or you will not last one minute in a match or fight!

 

A good example of proper breathing is Kata. When you finish your Kata and your are out of breath or gasping for air, it means that your breathing timing is "way off." It generally has nothing to do with how good of shape you are in (with the assumption that you have been training for a while now) but how you match your breathing with the timing and techniques of the Kata... It's the same thing for a sparring match or in a fight - you pace or time yourself, via breathing and breathing timing, to where you apply maximum effectiveness and still last the duration without tbeing exhausted in the process.

 

- Killer -

Speed in fighting is not everything.

 

If your combos/individual blocks-strikes are thrown too fast, youll be parrying yourself, by not connecting as intended.

 

Lee points this out quite well in The Tao of Jeet Kun Do.

 

Thats not to say the opponent shouldnt be hit before hit hits you.

 

Just pick targets before swining, and focus more on distancing and timing than on speed.

 

OSU.