Deceleration

[AnonymousOne]

Deceleration

 

Are you training in such a way that you are causing deceleration as you perform a technique?

 

One often overlooked and yet very important point in Karate training is deceleration.

 

For those that don’t know what I mean let me give you an example.

 

Lets say you are doing a bench press with weights. You push the weight up away from you forcefully. This is good training, but as you push that weight away from you, you have to slow it down and stop it so you can lower it back to your chest again. This slowing down is called deceleration.

 

The muscles get tuned to this action and the fast twitch in your muscle fibres are thinking you want to them decelerate. They react how you tell them to work.

 

So in time, although you are gaining strength and endurance, you are losing out because you are training your muscles to slow down all the time. This has a negative effect on your potential abilities. It’s a good idea to examine the way you are training and performing all your technique to see if this is what you are telling your muscles that you want.

 

Fast, explosive and powerful action is developed by training your muscles to do exactly want you want them to do. This type of important action is rarely taught inside the dojo, but many things in Karate training are done on the basis of deceleration. Perhaps the masters of days gone past did not have the biological and biomechanical research, we have today, on fast and slow twitch muscle fibres.

 

You must train all your technique to accelerate in the fasted possible way. For those that want to explore this facet of training, I would suggest training in Plyometric exercises.

 

This may seem like to be a minor point to some, but you will never reach your full potential until you train your muscles exactly how you need them and in fighting you DO NOT need a muscle the decelerates, except in the few cases you need to decelerate from one stance to another to gain balance and stability.

 

Other than that, you are striking, blocking, punching and kicking at the fullest capable force.

 

One example of developing non-deceleration, say in punching, is to get a medicine ball or even a heavy rock and throw it with one arm, mimicking the exact movement of a karate punch (yes you can). Throw it as far and as fast as you can. Your muscles will only experience acceleration. That’s exactly what your muscle fibre needs to learn. Fast twist with no deceleration! Do this over and over and over a period of time you will see the difference!

 

Weights is a good build up to developing strong technique, but don’t over look plyometric (non deceleration) training, for explosive speed in punching and kicking.

 

Try it, you wont regret it!

[informer]

have you published any papers on this in any of the medical journals? I would like to read them.

 

I have read a lot of the work published by Brian D. Johnston from the International Association Of Resistance Trainers - http://www.i-a-r-t.com/ -

 

Johnston goes the extra mile to prove his theories.

 

Wheather I subscribe to your theory or not I would still like to read your papers.

 

thank you

[Shorinryu Sensei]

You can have the same effect by practicing in a swimming pool.

 

Resistence, low impact, fun...and you get to see that cute green belt in a swim suit!

[smr]

You can have the same effect by practicing in a swimming pool.

 

Resistence, low impact, fun...and you get to see that cute green belt in a swim suit!

 

I like the way your brain works, sensei!

[Meguro]

Deceleration is what you get when you punch air and want to get your dogi to make that "pop." It's the same principle in point fighting, pulling your punches and kicks. Why not just hit a heavy bag, or attach elastic cord to your hands and feet when practicing punches and kicks? AO, I like the medecine ball drill.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

You can have the same effect by practicing in a swimming pool.

 

Resistence, low impact, fun...and you get to see that cute green belt in a swim suit!

 

I like the way your brain works, sensei!

 

What can I say...I'm just an old perv! I just started teaching a new class at a smal lhealth club a friend of mine bought. It has a small therapy pool (94 degrees) that we can use anytime for practice. We've held class in there twice so far working on kicks, punches and blocks...love that resistence and sure can feel it after a bunch of reps

[Radok]

You do not need to decelerate the bench press, because the weight should be so heavy that there is not momentum at the top. It should be heavy enough so that you strain to keep it moving all the way to a lockout.

[AnonymousOne]

You do not need to decelerate the bench press, because the weight should be so heavy that there is not momentum at the top. It should be heavy enough so that you strain to keep it moving all the way to a lockout.

 

That would depend on how you use the weight. Some use weights in a plyometric way.

[Radok]

Plyometrics are not supposed to have a compesatory deceleration phase, meaning you would have to throw the bar up in the air on the bench press. In other words, you can't do a plyometric bench press.

[AnonymousOne]

Plyometrics are not supposed to have a compesatory deceleration phase, meaning you would have to throw the bar up in the air on the bench press. In other words, you can't do a plyometric bench press.

 

There is no such thing as "can't", its "won't". There are many ways one can use weights for plometric training, one just has to think about it for awhile, add a little creativity and there you have it