Hi there,

I'm 7th Kyu in Wado Ryu and i have a Karate competition coming up and I really feel with my sparring i struggle to move quick enough, my legs especially with foot guards feel like they are in syrup which means I find it hard to blitz forward to close the gap or change the angle.

Does anyone have any good training tips or advice to help me get my weight/balance better and legs more agile or is this something I'm just going to have to learn over time?

Make sure your stance has fairly even weight distribution and keep enough bend in your knees to be mobile. When training solo, drill footwork while imagining an opponent to hold range against. Most of all, spar more if you can. Learning to anticipate where you need to be in the immediate future is more important than actual speed.

Shadow box. (watch yourself move in front of a mirror) Don't fight flat footed. Increase endurance through cardio type exercise. Use music in your training and try to match your "bouncing" to the beat. (please note you are not "bouncing" straight up and down but rather forward and backwards and inch or so and you aren't really getting air under your feet.

Lots and lots of footwork drills. Either shadow boxing or with some sort of target (heavy bag or otherwise). And practice loads.

Good luck for your tournament

All good advise. Also, practice with your gear on when you do, from time to time. The added weight and girth will help you get used to moving with it on.

When you spar the only parts of your feet that should touch the floor is the ball of the foot. It is difficult in the beginning to keep your balance that way but you are actually much faster

Maybe try to do some exercises that increase your leg power and balance. Not sure if it is the correct English term. But the lunge would be a good exercise to do that.

And last but not least spar as often as you can. In the end it's the only way you can get used to sparring. And with the time you get the feeling of how you need to position your body so you can move quick.

Maybe another advice: Look at your body as one piece and not as (like my Sensei says) a bag of bones. What I mean is if you want to move during a spar and you think oh yes let's punch and just move your upper body foreward but your hip actually goes back you lose balance and speed.

Of course it's a bit different in every style but I think this is a basic thing you should keep in mind

Cheers

T3chnopsycho

Thanks guys!

That helped a lot. Managed to get 3rd in the tournament!

Thanks guys!

That helped a lot. Managed to get 3rd in the tournament!

Great nice one Glad I could help

Keep it up

Cheers

T3chnopsycho

Strength and Agility is one factor but balance is the key to most martial arts.