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TRAINING
TIPS
Disclaimer:
The authors, students, instructors, and associates of Cobourg Tae Kwon
Do disclaim any liability suit raising from injuries or otherwise from
attempting any of these exercises or activities. Try them at your own
risk. Always check with a doctor before attempting any new exercise,
activity, or conditioning programs.
March 27, 2006: More tips about over training.
5- Do not take you training to serious all the time, have some fun
with it.
6- Try new methods of training.
7- Change the intensity of your training workouts through the weeks
making some weeks easy and others weeks harder.
8- Make sure you have others hobbies that will help you relax when you
are not training.
March 20, 2006: Avoid over training. You will know if you are over
training because you will probably be more sore and tired than normal
soreness and tiredness from training. You progression may be slowing
down if not working backwards and your skill level and fitness level
are dropping. If you see this happening, try some of the following.
1- Take a few days off to let you mind and body rest.
2- Ask your instructor for new training methods that you could do at
home.
3- If you are training a lot at home, stop training at home for a
while.
4- If you are weight training, stop for a few weeks before starting up
again or change the routine so it is not so physically demanding all
the time.
March 13, 2006: More ideas to make your self defense techniques more
realistic.
10- Practice when you are well rested and than when you are tired to
see if that makes a difference in performance for you.
11- Practice the techniques in front of a mirror by yourself to see if
it looks like what you think the technique should look like.
12- Practice with lots of distractions to see if you can focus on what
you are doing. It can be lots of noise, people being silly, or
physical touching as a distraction.
March 6, 2006: More ideas to make your self defense techniques more
realistic.
7- Practice at various speeds to see how slow and fast you can do them
properly.
8- Practice at various levels of resistance to see if you have
problems with stronger people. Make sure that no one gets hurt.
9- Practice against and not against weapons. Make it random so that
you do not know what the person will attack you with. They might grab
you, throw a punch, or use a weapon on you.
February 27, 2006: More ideas to make your self defense techniques
more realistic.
4- Practice against multiple attackers at once.
5- Practice in environments that are close to where you are on a daily
or weekly basis.
6- Practice teaching the techniques as well because if you can teach
it, you probably know the technique reasonably well.
February 20, 2006: Now that I have improve and remembered by self
defense techniques, how can I improve my performance of the
techniques? Here is a few ideas of how to make your self defense
techniques better and more realistic.
1- Practice with multiple partners of various sizes and strength for a
variety of human anatomy.
2- Practice with your normal clothing on that you would wear everyday.
How does it react to different situations versus for martial arts
uniforms.
3- Practice in the dark or blindfolded to see if you know the
techniques without having to look at everything you are doing.
February 13, 2006: How can I get better at remembering self defense
techniques? That is an easy question to answer. All you have to do is
keep practicing over and over again with someone who knows what they
are doing and can help you get the techniques correct. Repetition,
repetition, and repetition is the key, but only if the repetitions are
done correctly. Always practice with someone who knows what they are
doing at first until you understand what you are doing.
February 6, 2006: How do I toughen up my hands and feet so when I
strike it does not hurt me and I have more power? There are many
methods on how to toughen the striking areas of our body. Here are a
few methods with a general description.
1- Punch and kick a heavy bags for several dozen repetitions at a time
with lots of power. Twist the body part you are hitting with one
impact to toughen the skin.
2- Do various strikes into a bucket of sand as hard and fast as you
can. Perform several dozen repetitions with each technique.
3- Strike or kick a makiwara board with various striking areas for
several dozen repetitions. Start with very light contact and build
your way up to harder contact.
4- After improving your striking techniques and conditioning, you can
start breaking boards and concrete. It will hurt at first but you will
get use to it and then you are ready for advance conditioning.
January 30, 2006: I have soft feet and sometimes my feet get sores or
cuts from kicking shields, heavy bags, paddles, and etc,. what can I
do? Well, there is a few things that you can do and here they are;
- Buy medical tape or sport's tape and tape your feet before kicking
or sparring classes.
- Buy a pair of instep protectors made for Taekwondo.
- Buy ankle supports at a sport store or drug store because they cover
up most of the instep part of your foot.
- Don't kick when your feet are cut or sore.
- Your feet should toughen up after a while. If not, go see a doctor
to see what they can do.
January 23, 2006: What is one way to improve the effectiveness of my
kicking techniques? To improve the effectiveness of your kicking
techniques you need to train them differently each time you train. You
need to train the different factors that affect your kicking such as
speed, flexibility, power, control, accuracy, endurance, strength,
timing, reaction, and the ability to move in various directions while
kicking. Do different drills for different factors on different days
so you can concentrate on the specific goal you want to achieve such
as more power or better accuracy.
January 16, 2006: Be open to all techniques, experiences, different
ideas and theories. Training does not always mean that you have to
train just the body. Winning sparring matches or a fight most of the
time has more to do with your knowledge and how to use it over great
physical strength and technique. One who learns more and learns to use
that knowledge is normally the victor. Wisdom is how you use your
knowledge.
January 9, 2006: I want to improve my overall look of my kicking
techniques, how do I do that? You can improve the overall look and
effectiveness of your kicking techniques by doing the following. Lean
against a wall, door, or railing so you are barely touching it. Lift
your leg up into the chambered position for that particular kick. Hold
in the chambered position for 10 seconds so your body and mind
remember how it should be. Next you will kick the leg out into the
kick you are practicing. Hold the full extension of the kick for 10
seconds. Your body and mind will remember this position as well. Keep
practicing this way until you get your kicks looking and feeling
better.
January 2, 2006: If you want a quick cardio to increase your stamina,
your endurance, and the the strength of your heart, try doing jumping
jacks. Start with doing a couple hundred a day and work your way up.
Keep the time that you are doing these to a minimum and increase the
speed of the jumping jacks after you get your technique down. Jumping
Jacks are excellent for cardio because you are using your legs and
arms at the same time using big movements versus walking, running, or
cycling because you are primarily using the legs with smaller
movements.
December 26, 2005: Even more holiday tips.
13- If you have lots of boxes left over from all though Christmas
gifts you can smash them up with various strikes instead of using a
knife to cut them up.
14- If you know a few people who get real Christmas trees every year.
You can volunteer to go and cut one down for them with an axe.
15- After Christmas or New Year dinner, get everyone to go out for a
20 minute walk around the neighborhood and enjoy the holiday season.
An average turkey dinner is 3000 calories.
16- Take some time everyday for yourself and sit in a quiet place and
relax your mind and body. This is essential for a healthy lifestyle.
December 19, 2005: More holiday tips.
9- When you are shopping, try some of the exercise equipment at the
stores until they kick you out. Just Kidding. They probably will try
to sell you the piece of equipment you are trying.
10-Get some of your fellow Taekwondo students together go to the park
and have a snowball fight. Every time someone gets hit they have to do
some many of whatever exercise or martial arts drill you have chosen.
11- When it is snowing out go outside and try to hit the snowflakes
with various strikes before they hit the ground. Go for speed.
12- Take the leftover wrapping paper and crumble it up into a ball.
Throw it up in the air and to hit it with various kicks before it hits
the ground. Try to kick the ball at least waist level.
December 12, 2005: More holiday training tips.
5- When there is lots of snow on the ground go to a park and do wind
sprints in the snow. It is a lot harder to run full out in snow.
6- You can use light hanging decorations as moving targets for you to
hit with your various hand and foot strikes. Touch them lightly.
7- If you do Christmas cards and the recipients do not live to far
away you can run to each of their homes and deliver the cards in
person. Good cardio workout.
8- For the ones who like or just do the Christmas wrapping, you can do
different exercises between presents. Do small reps of 10 to 15.
December 5, 2005: The holiday season is upon us and that means lots of
trips to the mall to do our holiday shopping and that means less
training time. The following are some tips to help you get some
training in over the holidays.
1- Stretch your body out everyday doing different stretches each day.
2- Take 10 to 15 minutes a day to practice some of your patterns,
blocking drills, kicks, self defense, and etc,.
3- Do some walking, jogging, or running at night time around the
neighborhood and see all the different light displays.
4- Take a walk around the mall a few times during prime shopping time.
That should get you a good workout. Also when you are doing so, look
around and see who is vulnerable to attacks or being robbed. This will
help your self defense skills and mental training out.
November 28, 2005: How should I run to improve my endurance? That is
an easy one. Wind Sprints. The only thing you need endurance for in
Taekwondo is Sparring and Board Breaking. Sparring being the important
one. You are going to run a distance of about 15 to 20 meters, turn
around and walk back to your starting position. You are going to do
this as many times as you can in two minutes. Rest for 5 minutes and
try again. Your goals are to improve your endurance, reduce recovery
time, and improve the numbers of reps you can do in 2 minutes. Do this
as many times as you feel you have to do get what you want.
November 21, 2005: How can I improve my reaction time and speed for
self defense and sparring? This is a simple one. DON'T THINK. What I
mean by this is that most of us are slower than we want to be at self
defense and sparring because we are thinking too much on what we
should be doing. If you practice your techniques and drills enough
your mind and body should know them without you thinking. Try not to
think too much in sparring or self defense and you should find that
certain techniques will just happen without thought. These techniques
will also probably be your favorites techniques and that is why your
mind and body decided without you to do them. Repetition is one of the
key factors in allowing this to happen so keep practicing.
November 14, 2005: Improving Speed Part 2.
5- Take a timer that has a alarm on it and set it for 30 seconds. In
that 30 seconds you are going to practice your specific technique as
many times as you can as fast as you can before the time runs out.
Make sure you count how many. Rest for a minute or two and try again
but only this time you are trying to beat the number of reps from last
time. Your speed should increase over time.
6- Have a partner with a hand held target and a stopwatch. You will
strike the target as fast as you can when you partner puts the target
in the desired position. The partner will time how long it took you
from the time you reacted to the target being put in place until you
make contact with it. Keep track of your progression.
7- Run wind sprints between two lines that are 10 to 20 meters apart.
You will run from one line to the other and back and keep track of how
long you are taking. Try to reduce the time each time. Make sure you
rest between runs. 3 to 4 minutes is a good rest period to make sure
you are fresh for every run.
November 7, 2005: I would like to improve my speed, so what can I do?
There is several different methods of improvement speed. Here are a
few of them.
1- Practicing your techniques over and over again will help improve
your speed. What you should do is start out practicing one technique
slowly to make sure you have proper form then increase the speed so
you can go faster and faster. Overtime practicing every technique like
this will increase your speed.
2- Power training with weights will increase your speed. When lifting
weights heavy enough that you can only do 3-4 reps, contract the
muscles fast, not pushing the weights fast. Heavy weight training
works the fast twitching muscle fibers that directly have an effect on
you power and speed.
3- Have a partner blow bubbles from one of those kids bubble bottles
and you are to hit all the bubbles before they hit the ground. This
should increase your speed and reaction time because you have so
little time to hit as many bubbles as possible. This means you have to
move very fast to keep up.
4- Using a tennis ball or another type of bouncy ball, you are going
to drop the ball to the floor and perform a chosen technique as many
times as possible before the ball hits the floor for the second time.
You will keep repeating this drill and your goal is to increase the
number of repetitions you can do the technique before the ball hits
the floor for the second time.
October 31, 2005: Part Three of how to get more power in my kicks and
punches.
9- Use the martial arts rip cords to get more power in your
techniques. The further away one end of the cord is to the other when
you are in the starting position of your techniques, the more
intensity the workouts have.
10- Use heavy bags of different weights and graduate through the
higher weights. This will allow you to have a measurable idea of how
powerful your techniques were and how powerful they are now.
11- Design or look up a conditioning program on the internet that is
designed to give you power and strength and do it. You have to stick
with it for a while before you will notice any changes in your
strength or power. Nothing will ever happen immediately. If it does,
in the long run it will not be very productive.
12- Get in front of a mirror but not to close because you do not want
to hit it. You will perform your different techniques as fast as you
can trying to increase the speed for every repetition. You must keep
the muscles relaxed in order for them to achieve more power and speed.
The more speed that you develop the more powerful your techniques will
become. Speed is one of the key factors in generating power.
October 24, 2005: Part Two of how to get more power in my kicks and
punches.
5- The more you practice your kicks and punches, the more powerful
they will become over time.
6- Do punching and kicking drills that are the most difficult for you
to do. When they become easier for you to do, more than likely you
have more power in your strikes.
7- Do lots of push ups, squats, sprints, and jumping exercises. The
harder the exercises are on the body the more results you will see.
8- Hitting the heavy bag with more power each strike. Start by hitting
the bag lightly and increase the power over a set amount of strikes.
Overtime you will be able to hit the bag harder plus you worked on
your muscle endurance as well.
October 17, 2005: How do I get more power out of my kicks and punches?
That is a common question that everyone asks at one point or another
in martial arts. There is many different methods of achieving more
power in your striking techniques. Here are a few methods for this
week.
1- Do isometric kicking and punching drills. Isometric exercises
requires slow movements that require the muscles to fight each other
all the way through the movements. i.e. throwing a punch out in front,
the biceps fight against the triceps straightening out the arm. The
triceps get stronger and more powerful.
2- Using ankle or wrists weights that wrap around the arms or legs
will add a little resistance to your kicks or punches. Just be careful
not to over extend your joints.
3- Weight lifting using heavy weights of 3 to 4 reps per set will have
you get stronger and more power. Make sure you workout your legs,
back, abs, arms, shoulders, and chest. You will increase your muscle
strength and put on a little muscle mass.
4- Stretch out your muscles. The more flexible and relaxed your
muscles are, the more power they can generate.
October 10, 2005: Sometimes we do not achieve what we want in the
martial arts or in life because what we want is quite general. In
order to achieve what you want and get better at what you want, you
must clearly define a goal you want to achieve and create a plan on
how to get there. No one can get to point A to Point B without
planning on how to get there and what might arise along the way.
Surely they will fail if they do otherwise. For example, let's say you
want to be able to do a front kick higher. How do you get there? First
of all, how high do you want the kick? You need to know exactly the
end results that you want. Next you need to pick stretches that loosen
the muscles and joints that are associated with the front kick. You
need to practice doing the kick as high as you can at the moment. Try
to kick a little higher every time you practice. You need a partner to
help make suggestions on your performance of the kick. After a while
you should be able to reach your goal. Be very specific and realistic
in your goals and keep telling yourself you can achieve them and never
be afraid of failing. Failing only exists if you choose not to learn
from failure and never try again.
October 3, 2005: I sometimes have problem remembering my patterns,
kicks, punches, sparring combos, or self defense techniques. What can
I do to remember them better? Most martial arts students only train at
their club 2 to 3 times a week. That leaves 4 to 5 days a week that
they are not doing their patterns, kicks, and etc,. If you want to be
able to remember your stuff better, follow the following tips.
- After class when you go home, take a few minutes to practice what
you just covered in class.
- Practice at home on the days you are not attending classes. You only
need to do 10 to 15 minutes tops. It can be very casual as practicing
your punching walking down the hallway or doing self defense
techniques watching television.
- Practice for a few minutes at home before class or if the club is
big enough, practice before the class at the club. Practice what you
think will be covered that class.
- Only practice what you are completely sure you know. You do not what
to practice the wrong techniques.
- Make your practices interesting and different each time so you do
not get bored and stop practicing.
- One last thing. Only practice when you want to practice. Things are
easier to practice when you want to do them.
September 26, 2005: To help yourself achieve you goals faster and more
often, one should turn to meditation for mental focus on what they
want to achieve. Using the mind is a powerful tool in training your
mind, body, and spirit. Those who learn to control their minds have a
huge advantage over everyone else in life. Mind over matter is real as
long as you believe that you can achieve. Here is one method in which
one can meditate and focus on what they want to accomplish. Sit down
on the floor in a relax seating position of your choice and place your
hands on your knees. Make sure your back is fully upright. Close your
eyes and start breathing in and out through the nose not the mouth in
a controlled manner. Every time you breath in, your stomach should
enlarge. Concentrate on your breathing for a minute or two until the
mind is clear. Now start to focus on one specific goal that you would
like to reach and how you will get there. Think about what it would
feel like to reach that goal. Focus on how to get their and what your
goal will look like to others. Only allow positive thoughts into your
mind and make sure your goals are realistic to your abilities. If you
find that your mind starts to wonder after a little bit, start back at
concentrating on your breathing and than carry on. Beginners should
start at about 5 minutes and the longer you practice, the longer the
sessions can be. There are those who can meditate for hours on end.
September 19, 2005: I am at the point where I cannot kick as high as I
use too. What can I do to fix this? Well, first of all you probably
will never be able to kick as high as you use too because of many
factors including age, flexibility, injuries over the years,
conditioning, diet, and so much more. What you need to do is maintain
the flexibility that you have right now by doing your stretching
exercises. You need to keep up some sort of conditioning program. Also
you will need to practice the kicks that you can kick high all the
time and maintain those kicks. For the kicks that are not so high,
practice them at waist or just above waist level and make them the
best waist level kicks that anyone has ever seen. Remember, most high
kicks are designed for flash and flare. In a self defense situation or
in tournament play, you do not see as many high kicks. Middle and low
section kicks are more practical. One should practice every kick that
they have as high as possible because if you can improve height, power
and speed on high kicks, your lower kicks will be much better as well.
September 12, 2005: If you are afraid of falling and landing flat, you
can learn to roll. Rolling does not hurt as much and gets you back up
on your feet a lot quicker. These rolls help if you get thrown or
knocked down or you happen to trip over something. They look cool to
the person who sees you do the rolls and get back up and are ready to
continue what you were doing.
Front Roll- Start by standing straight up, hold your arms straight out
with palms facing straight out in front of you. Now bending your body
over a little to get an arch in your back. Starting leaning forward
and you should fall forward to the ground. Your hands should touch
first. The second they do tuck your chin in and let your body and legs
continue to fall forward over your shoulders like a handstand. At this
point relax one of your arms and you should fall down on your
shoulders in a circular motion. Continue the motion all the way
through until your feet touch the ground in front of you. After some
practice you should be able to roll right back into a standing
position. You have to go fast and commit to the movement or it will
never work out for you.
Back Roll- Start out the same way as the back fall but when you hit
the ground behind you keep your back arched. As you hit with your
hands, throw your feet over one shoulder and you should roll over. The
faster you do it, the easier it is. Commit to it or do not do it at
all. Make sure to keep your head and chin tucked in.
September 5, 2005: How to safely fall if it ever happens. The
following break falls will help you prevent injuries from falling down
in training, sparring, sports, or and other activities you do on a
daily basis. These break falls and be utilize from various heights,
angles, and situations.
Back Fall#1- You will crouch down and cross your arms in front of you
and go up on your toes. Lean back and you should fall back on your
butt and back. As you do this, slap our arms out onto the ground at 45
degree angles from your body and spread your body weight out evenly.
This should reduce impact on your back.
Front Fall#2- Crouch down and put your arms in front of you and go up
on your toes. Now leap forward like a frog and kick your legs out
behind you and push your arms in front of you. When you land, your
forearms should be flat on the ground with hands flat, your legs
should be out straight behind you with toes on the ground, and your
head should be turned to the one side. Your whole body, legs, and head
should have never touched the ground.
August 29, 2005: How can I improve my sparring on my own? Sparring is
something that everyone should know how to do and it does require two
people to do. However, there is a few things that can help your
sparring out a little if you want to practice on your own..
Tip #1- You can shadow box/spar in front of a mirror and try out
different techniques. Also you can watch yourself in the mirror and
spot anything in your techniques that may give the technique away
before you even throw it and fix the problem areas.. You will also be
able to spot these things on other people when you spar because most
people make the same common mistakes when training in the same style.
Tip #2- Meditate on how you want to spar. Imagine what techniques you
can do and how to use them and than meditate on techniques you are
just learning or want to learn and figure out how to use them. You can
also envision that you are another person sparring who is better than
you and try to pick up on things you like. Always meditate on the
positive things and go for personal growth both mentally and
physically.
Tip #3- Practice the basic and advance foot work of sparring and think
of why you use each type of foot work and where does it apply in a
sparring match. Always know the reason for each technique and keep it
in mind when you practice. Remember that footwork is one of the things
that makes sparring championships.
Tip #4- Watch a fight on television or a movie and try to figure out
appropriate counters in your style for all the moves. Being able to
apply sparring techniques to everyday fights and life can help you
relate to the techniques better and improve upon your usage of these
techniques.
August 22, 2005: I want to workout with weights but I do not want to
buy weights or go to the gym, what can I do? You can use things around
the house to help you workout with some weight resistance.
Thing #1- Heavy food cans can be use like dumbbells for various
exercises like bicep curls, triceps extensions, shoulder lateral
raises, shoulder presses, back flys, chest flys, ab crunches, sit ups,
and many more.
Thing #2- A chair or couch can be used to do body weight exercises.
You can do push ups with your feet up, triceps dips with your hands on
the chair or couch, crunches or sit ups with feet up, back hyper
extensions leaning over the edge of a couch, and much more.
Thing #3- The wall can be used to keep your balance during the
following exercises. You can do one leg calf raises while putting your
hand against the wall for extra balance, you can do hand stand push
ups against the wall to keep your up, you can do also lean against the
wall with your back against it and your legs are have bent. This is
really hard on the legs.
August 15, 2005: What if I do not have a partner, how can I improve my
stretching? First of all, you will always have a stretching partner,
their name is gravity. The following stretches use gravity to help
stretch your body out.
Stretch #1- Spread your feet as far apart as they will go with your
toes pointing ahead and keeping feet flat. Keep upright and do not
bend over. Overtime your feet are going to slide a bit out at a time.
Do this for about 15 minutes.
Stretch #2- Do the same as stretch #1 except point your toes up so you
are on your heels.
Stretch #3- Lay on your back with your feet straight up and your butt
against a wall. Now open your legs and let them hang in a v-shape.
Over time your legs will open up more and be closer to the ground. Do
this for at least 30 minutes.
Stretch #4- Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Straighten your arms
at shoulder level out to your sides. Lean back as far as you can and
let your arms hang back. Over time your back and shoulders will become
more flexible. Do this for no more then 5 minutes.
August 8, 2005: I do not seem to be progressing in my flexibility
training as much as I would like, what can I do? The answer is to get
a partner to help stretch you. The bad thing about partner stretches
is they might stretch you a little further than you are use to. The
good thing is they might stretch you a little further than you are use
to. You need someone to push you a little further than you will do
yourself. Some students will stretch but not really get their full
range of motion and stretch. A partner can make sure you go to your
max at a comfort than a little beyond. Here are a few partner
stretches.
Stretch #1: Sit on the floor and spread your feet as far apart as
possible and have your partner push your feet apart further by using
their feet to push. If you seem to be moving back have your partner
hang on to your hands and pull you towards them.
Stretch #2: Lay on your back with one leg straight up in the air and
have your partner try to push your leg and knee into your chest. Do
both legs.
Stretch #3: Stand with your feet as far apart as you can keeping feet
flat. Now try to slide your feel out as far as possible keeping the
feet flat. When you reach your maximum stretch, have your partner push
down on your shoulders for a little extra pressure on this stretch.
Stretch #4: Take both your arms and bring them straight out to the
sides at shoulder level. Gave you partner grab hold of each hand and
try to pull your arms inwards behind your back pinching your shoulder
blades together. If you can, try to cross your arms behind your back.
Keep palms facing out with thumbs pointing up.
August 1, 2005: Here are some more plyometric exercises that can make
your kicks more powerful.
Exercise 4- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Now squat
slightly and jump straight up as high as you can while bringing your
knees to your chest. Do this for 10 reps as fast as you can. Do not do
anymore even if you feel you can do 20. Stay at 10 for a week or so
then increase more reps but only a few at a time.
Exercise 5- You need a chair or something you can step on that is
strong and is not to high to step up on. Start with one foot on the
chair, now push off with the other leg and step onto the box. You
should now have both feet on the box. Now repeat with other leg. Do
about 10 reps per leg and increase reps and height as you get better.
Exercise 6- the 1 2 3 Drill. You are going to take three steps at a
rhythm of quick, quicker, quickest, as you finish the last step you
are going to jump up quickie and high starting with right, left, right
steps.. When you land immediately star the process over starting with
the other foot left, right, left and alternating each jump. Do this
for about 40 meters. Increase height of jump and distance as you get
better.
July 25, 2005: How can I get more power and strength out of my kicks
without weight lifting? The answer is Plyometrics. Plyometrics are
exercises that allow muscles to reach maximum strength and power in as
little time as possible. It creates speed-strength which we call
power. Most plyometric exercises for the legs usually involves
running, fast feet movement drills, and lots of jumping type
exercises. Here are a few exercises that can help you get more power
in your kicks. You do not want to get tired when doing these
exercises. The muscles must be fresh or poor results will occur.
Exercise 1- Put feet together and jumping straight up onto a higher
level surface without bending your legs to much, and jump backwarsd to
the ground. Do 10 reps at first and increase reps and height as you
get better.
Exercise 2- Stand at the bottom of the stairs and hop up to the top.
Make sure you get every step. Do this 4 or 5 times. When you get
better, you can skip steps but make sure you are doing so safely and
with supervision.
Exercise 3- Start by standing with feet shoulder width apart, now
squat down so your knees are about 90 degrees. Now straighten your
legs as fast as you can and jump as high as you can. Do about 10 reps
and increase reps as you get better.
July 18, 2005: Circuit training without weights. Circuit training
involves strength training and cardio all in one workout, but how can
you do circuit training without weights. The answer is easy. All you
have to do is exercises that requires you to use strength and muscle
endurance in between cardio exercises. The following is a mini example
of what you can do. Start with 30-45 seconds of jogging on the spot,
then do 30-45 seconds of push ups, than 30-45 seconds of jumping
jacks, 30-45 seconds of crunches, 30-45 seconds of running on the
spot, 30-45 seconds of squats, 30-45 seconds of hopping on the spot,
30-45 seconds of calf raises, 30-45 seconds of sprints, and so on. You
can add more exercises to increase the length of the workout and the
intensity. In class we sometimes do 20 or 30 station circuits to warm
up.
July 11, 2005: Creativity and Variety. When you are training make sure
you make your training sessions creative and have lots of variety from
session to session. Being creative and adding lots of variety to your
workouts will increase your enjoyment of your training and you will
train harder when you feel you want to do it. I will use weightlifting
for an example. Take one day for strength training then another day
for cardio training, and then another day for endurance. These are
three completely different types of workouts that can add variety to
training. Most people stop training because of a few reasons. One is
that they get bored of the same old stuff all the time, two they just
do not have the time, three they may be lazy, or four they just do not
have the work ethics to carry out a training routine.
July 4, 2005: When you are training hard, make sure you are hydrated.
Drink water, gatorade or powerade so your body has lots of liquids and
does not overheat. However, do not drink too much or too fast because
you can actually drown yourself by drinking too much liquids. If you
over water yourself, you can dilute the salt in your body and that is
not good. Only drink when you feel thirsty, do not drink because you
are hot or feel tired, the body will let you know when it is time for
a drink. It is also recommended that when you are training a lot and
drinking a lot, you should drink one gatorade for every three to four
bottles of water. This will help keep you hydrated and keep your salt
levels in check.
June 27, 2005: When and if I get hurt, should I ice it or heat it?
This is a very common question and you will get all kinds of answers
however there is only one right answer. Ice it! When and if you get an
injury during practice or any other time, put ice on the injury for 15
minutes and take off for 15 minutes and repeat until you receive
medical attention or it feels better. Make sure that you do not put
the direct cold on the injury, wrap ice or ice pack in a cloth before
placing on injury. Never heat an injury. Heat is for therapy purposes.
Ice will help prevent the injury from getting worst. How do I know
this answer is the correct one? This is the correct answer to the heat
vs. cold method because that is what St. John's Ambulance Trainers
recommend and their methods are proven on an daily basis.
June 20, 2005: How often should I train? The answer is as much as
possible. You can never train too much as long as you remember the
following. 1- Never train so much that you are extremely sore
afterwards and it makes it difficult to do anything else. 2- Make sure
you are always mentally and physical fresh when you train. You need
all you got in training so you can continue to improve upon your
skills. 3- If you get tired during training, take a quick break before
training so you can put forth the maximum effort you possibly can. 4-
Have goals that you want to achieve and gear your training towards the
goals. 5- Practice what you know first before practicing new
techniques. This will give you positive reinforcement to learn new
techniques. 6- When training, make sure you are concentrating only on
what you are doing and nothing else. 7-When training with others, do
not be concerned with trying to be better than anyone else, rather try
to be better than your previous self.
June 13, 2005: A quick cardio/strength workout for days when you
cannot make it to the dojang. The pyramids! What you do is pick three
exercises that work various parts of the body. Any three will do but
for the example I will choose squats, sit ups, and push ups. The
squats work the legs, the sit ups work the trunk area and the back,
and the push ups work the arms, shoulders, chest, and the back. What
you do is a 1 set of 10 reps of each exercise, then 1 set of 9 reps of
each, then 1 set of 8 reps of each, and so on and so forth until you
do 1 set of 1 rep of each exercise. We are not done yet, now do one
last set of 10 reps of each exercise. This is good for a quick
workout, and for beginners and intermediates. If you are advance or
want a real hard workout, start at 15 reps and work your way down. I
know one of my student that can do 25 down.
June 6, 2005: What to do if your punch hurts when you hit a heavy bag
or your wrists curl up when doing a form/pattern. This is a common
problem that can easily be fix. Knuckle Push Ups! Instead of doing
regular push ups, try doing knuckle push ups all the time. Knuckle
push ups will help strengthen the wrists and give you good straight
punches. It helps keep the wrists straight when you are punching
because if you cannot keep the wrists straight during the push ups, it
hurts. You will literally force yourself to keep straight wrists and
after awhile the wrists will naturally be straight when you punch.
Also the knuckle push ups move the nerves and tendons in your knuckles
to one side so when you hit something, it will not hurt.
May 30, 2005: Losing a sparring match or grappling match is not the
end of the world, it is only the beginning. Losing matches or fights
is not a bad thing when you first start off or once in a while. You
will learn more from losing than winning in the long run. When you
lose, you should look at why you lost and try to improve upon the
areas that needs work. Next time you will do better if you work on the
areas that you were weak at. If someone starts off winning and wins
for a while, they will be beat eventually because they had slower
progression in their skills because they did not have a specific area
to work on.
May 23, 2005: Try to be well rounded. You should try to be equally
good at all aspects of the martial arts that you are being taught. So
if you are taking traditional Taekwondo. You should be close to equal
in your sparring skills, breaking skills, your forms, and self
defense. A good martial artist is not necessarily a good fighter but
is equally good at all aspects of their martial arts.
May 16, 2005: When training with a partner, train half for yourself
and half for your partner. Never selfishly take a win or learn the new
techniques without letting your partner receive the same advantage you
are. If you are having an easy time with the new technique but your
partner is not, help them out because you will discover new aspects
about the technique you did not know from just practicing it.
May 9, 2005: Never stop training due to injuries unless they are life
threatening or could cause health problems. When you have injuries to
certain parts of your body, just train the parts that are not injured.
If you broke your arm, train your kicking until your arm is better. If
you hurt your leg, work on hand strikes and self defense techniques.
When you get over your injury you can train that part again.
May 2, 2005: When you are training in Taekwondo or anything else,
remember to take your time and take all the little steps required to
achieve you goal. Be consistence with your training and all the little
steps along the way will turn into huge progression. Students of
martial arts should train a minimum of 2 to 3 times a week.
April 25, 2005: Try to stretch everyday of the week with various
stretches that will help you meet your flexibility goals. You should
never feel sore after doing a stretching session. If you do, than you
are stretching to hard and are hurting the muscles and joints. Also,
never do hard partner stretches more than 2 to 3 times a week. The
body needs to rest.
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