ideas on kicks training

[exile]

Try this, it will require a cup of coffee, a book and a dresser. Now, put your foot in a side kick position on the dresser, a little above comfort hight, then open the book, read, drink your coffee and relax. When this gets easy, get a taller dresser and repeat. Do this every day and your side and round kicks will get higher. Guaranteed or you money back. Do both sides for balance, OK?

OK!! I can do that... though I'm gonna have a hell of a time explaining to my wife and son why I'm standing with one leg off to the side resting atop a dresser, a cup in one hand and a book in the other... well actually no, they won't ask me for an explanation. They'll just look at each other, shake their heads very, very slightly, and go about their business as though they didn't see anything odd at all.

Thanks for the practical advice! :asian:

 

[Xue Sheng]

OK!! I can do that... though I'm gonna have a hell of a time explaining to my wife and son why I'm standing with one leg off to the side resting atop a dresser, a cup in one hand and a book in the other... well actually no, they won't ask me for an explanation. They'll just look at each other, shake their heads very, very slightly, and go about their business as though they didn't see anything odd at all.

Thanks for the practical advice! :asian:

My wife would just say I was crazy and walk away and my youngest would try and copy me... but she can't read and doesn't drink coffee so I imagine she would get board quick and take me down and beat on me.

 

[exile]

My wife would just say I was crazy and walk away and my youngest would try and copy me... but she can't read and doesn't drink coffee so I imagine she would get board quick and take me down and beat on me.

Sounds very trying—I imagine it's really hard keeping your leg propped up at a 130º angle under those conditions, eh? Maybe better to wait till she's asleep... when everyone's asleep.... then, while the rest of the household is off in dreamland, we can be standing there with long novel and decaf coffee or herbal tea or whatever in hand and our legs pointing to 2 o'clock for an hour or two... and we won't have to listen to the nervy comments of all these people about us being crazy! What could possibly have given them such a bizarre idea???

 

[Xue Sheng]

Sounds very trying—I imagine it's really hard keeping your leg propped up at a 130º angle under those conditions, eh? Maybe better to wait till she's asleep... when everyone's asleep.... then, while the rest of the household is off in dreamland, we can be standing there with long novel and decaf coffee or herbal tea or whatever in hand and our legs pointing to 2 o'clock for an hour or two... and we won't have to listen to the nervy comments of all these people about us being crazy!

(looks to see if wife is around) I know the nerve of some people.
And that is a good idea, green tea and a book at 2:00 am it is... hmm but I get up between 5:00 and 5:30 for stance training and qigong..... The HECK with it who needs sleep anyway

What could possibly have given them such a bizarre idea???

I know I haven't a clue as to why they would think that.

At least she never saw back when I was actually flexible (before the tree jumped me) and use to stretch using the refrigerator.

 

[exile]

(looks to see if wife is around) I know the nerve of some people.
And that is a good idea, green tea and a book at 2:00 am it is... hmm but I get up between 5:00 and 5:30 for stance training and qigong..... The HECK with it who needs sleep anyway

I agree, 100%! Waste of precious training time, if you ask me...

I know I haven't a clue as to why they would think that.

At least she never saw back when I was actually flexible (before the tree jumped me) and use to stretch using the refrigerator.

The refrigerator??? Whoa, XS, you are way flexible!!!

Hmmm. Maybe I can start with dressers and work my way up to fridges... I've always wished I could do the splits, it would be a novel approach, eh? :EG:

 

[Xue Sheng]

I The refrigerator??? Whoa, XS, you are way flexible!!!

Hmmm. Maybe I can start with dressers and work my way up to fridges... I've always wished I could do the splits, it would be a novel approach, eh? :EG:

I WAS way flexible... before the tree jumped me, why do you think I go around beating trees today...it’s PAY BACK. I am no where near that these days, and to clarify it was a stretch done facing the fridge for an axe kick kind of thing (I use to be a TKD guy) not a side stretch.

oh and then there was that broken ankle before that form a Shaolin Long fist staff form, that didn't help the flexibility much either..... Hey wait a minute... it was a wooden staff..... DAMN THOSE TREES!!!! :cuss:

And your plan may work; I got close to a split back before the injuries but never quite made a full split. And if you can't... then my suggestion is to blame the fridge and kick the living daylights out of it... or at least that is how I would handle it... but then I am a guy beating up trees to get even so I am not sure how sound my advice is on this issue.

 

[exile]

I WAS way flexible... before the tree jumped me, why do you think I go around beating trees today...it’s PAY BACK.

Bloody trees! I know! Look what they did to Macbeth, to the poor hobbits before Tom Bombadil rescued them... mercy is wasted on those deep-roots horrors.

I am no where near that these days, and to clarify it was a stretch done facing the fridge for an axe kick kind of thing (I use to be a TKD guy) not a side stretch.

You used to do TKD... dang, I didn't realize that! Cool...

It's certainly easier to do that kind of way high front stretch, as vs. side stretch. I think Wade's idea is that if you follow the Graduated Dresser Method (the phrase is modeled on the so-called Graduated Length Method a lot of ski schools used to use to teach parallel turns early by having you start on ultra short skis, 130 cm. or less, learn parallel turns on 'em, and then go up to 135s, then 145s, etc. till, in principle, you reached respectable lengths) you can do side stretchs to that kind of height also. Clearly, stretching to train flexibility is involved, but strength in the hip flexors, as zDom was emphasizing, has got to come in there somewhere as well....

oh and then there was that broken ankle before that form a Shaolin Long fist staff form, that didn't help the flexibility much either..... Hey wait a minute... it was a wooden staff..... DAMN THOSE TREES!!!! :cuss:

That's right! All of these wooden objects that people construct to hurt us with. We hates them, Preciousssssss... :EG:

And your plan may work; I got close to a split back before the injuries but never quite made a full split. And if you can't... then my suggestion is to blame the fridge and kick the living daylights out of it... or at least that is how I would handle it... but then I am a guy beating up trees to get even so I am not sure how sound my advice is on this issue.

I can't beat up our fridge these days... our old one was cramped, crowded, had a nonfunctioning icemaker and would literally freeze stuff in the bottom vegetable bins, the temperature was so unbalanced; I hated it... but now we have a new one, and I'd be better off shoving a fist into my own face than laying a finger in anger on this shiny new stainless steel wonder. It's depressing to have an appliance in your house that's worth more than you are....

 

[Xue Sheng]

TKD and before that Jujitsu, it was actually a sever back injury that got me into Tai Chi and CMA styles.

It's certainly easier to do that kind of way high front stretch, as vs. side stretch. I think Wade's idea is that if you follow the Graduated Dresser Method (the phrase is modeled on the so-called Graduated Length Method a lot of ski schools used to use to teach parallel turns early by having you start on ultra short skis, 130 cm. or less, learn parallel turns on 'em, and then go up to 135s, then 145s, etc. till, in principle, you reached respectable lengths) you can do side stretchs to that kind of height also. Clearly, stretching to train flexibility is involved, but strength in the hip flexors, as zDom was emphasizing, has got to come in there somewhere as well....

Agreed, and definitely the hip flexor is very involved. I watched a long time CMA practitioner (from China) just stand there and lift his leg up to almost vertical both front and side without help and I was very impressed. That definitely needed the hip flexor.

Also I use to train with a Drunken style guy and he was the most flexible guy I ever knew (but then he did, no lie, come form a family of South American acrobats) I was once helping him stretch out he was standing with his back flat against the wall and I was pushing his leg up like an axe kick and he was telling me to go further and I had to tell him I couldn't, his leg was against his chest and his toes were against the wall already. And he had rather powerful kicks from these angles that one would think he was about to fall down and yet BANG you were hit…hard. He had very strong legs as well.

That's right! All of these wooden objects that people construct to hurt us with. We hates them, Preciousssssss... :EG:

:lol:

I can't beat up our fridge these days... our old one was cramped, crowded, had a nonfunctioning icemaker and would literally freeze stuff in the bottom vegetable bins, the temperature was so unbalanced; I hated it... but now we have a new one, and I'd be better off shoving a fist into my own face than laying a finger in anger on this shiny new stainless steel wonder. It's depressing to have an appliance in your house that's worth more than you are....

I know what you mean; I am not allowed to use the appliances for CMA training at all anymore.