Pre-competition training

[FearlessFreep]

I have a tournament coming up on March 11th. I'm trying to decide how much conditioning and strength training I should do before then. I'm thinking that the time frame is too short to gain much real strength so I'm better off focusing on conditioning and practicing more technique and tactics, but I'm not sure.

Thanks

 

[terryl965]

I have a tournament coming up on March 11th. I'm trying to decide how much conditioning and strength training I should do before then. I'm thinking that the time frame is too short to gain much real strength so I'm better off focusing on conditioning and practicing more technique and tactics, but I'm not sure.

Thanks

Fearlessfreep I would agree with you about the time frame, conditioning is your best bet and also working on sparring techniques in the last week prior to tournament. shadow sparring against every size of people is a great way to build your endourance against. I mean go from bantamwieght to heaveywieghts if you have all those sizes at your DOJANG.
Terry

 

[Miles]

I agree you don't have time to do an entire training cycle. I suggest that you concentrate on getting lots of sparring practice in so that you will be ready for many different types of opponents (brawlers/dancers/technicians). I agree with Terry that you should spar all sizes and ranks, but remember that in a tournament your division will be limited to those who are your age, size, and rank. Your best pre-comp training should be against higher ranked, younger, and larger opponents.

Good Luck!!!

Miles

 

[Shirt Ripper]

Agreed.

I would say, however, that you've got about two weeks with which you could "strength train", past that your probably taking it away from the competition. That, of course, depends on your training history in that fashion. If you've never resistance trained in the traditional sense it will likely be different, the converse is also true. Remember that strength gains not only come in the muscle fibers but also in neural firing. I would recommend high pulls (lighter...focus on speed), push pressing or jerking and perhaps some low intensity plyometric stuff. Keep the volume lower and moderetely high intensity.

 

[MSUTKD]

Hi Peter,

Hope to see you soon. As always good advice. I like the(brawlers/dancers/technicians). Can I use that? Which one am I?

ron

 

[Kacey]

I'll be refereeing at a tournament on March 11... just out of curiosity, what city is the tournament in?

 

[FearlessFreep]

Um/..not sure of the exact city...I live in Silver Spring MD, so I know it's near here.

Wait...here's the paperwork....Herndon VA

 

[Kacey]

Nope... the one I'm going to is in Denver. Good luck to you!

 

[Miles]

Hi Peter,

Hope to see you soon. As always good advice. I like the(brawlers/dancers/technicians). Can I use that? Which one am I?

ron

You sir, are a technician. I am a brawler who aspires to be a technician. Feel free to use anything I write.

Are we doing MAAST @ State on 3/11?

Miles

 

[Gemini]

I have a tournament coming up on March 11th. I'm trying to decide how much conditioning and strength training I should do before then. I'm thinking that the time frame is too short to gain much real strength so I'm better off focusing on conditioning and practicing more technique and tactics, but I'm not sure.

Thanks

Everybody pretty well covered the what to do in the time you have stuff, which I agree with. What I found best worked for me though, was working out the same year around. I never got "ready" for a tournament, so much as I was always ready for a tournament. I teach my boys the same way. I'm sure there are some that might disagree with it, but it served me well. Just some food for thought. Good luck, Lightning Duck!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist the rhyme.)

 

[karatekid1975]

Dang! I just realised that you are a sparring dude. I thought you meant forms and breaking. I wouldn't be much help then (I'm a forms and breaking geek LOL).

Anyways, my advice for sparring training would be cardio training, sparring a lot, and conditioning. But then again, I hate sparring in tournies (don't ask, long story).

 

[FearlessFreep]

What I found best worked for me though, was working out the same year around. I never got "ready" for a tournament, so much as I was always ready for a tournament.

I'm the same way. To me, a tournament is a snap shot of who I am today, at the point of become, so I do't do a lot of special preperation for one.

However two things are differnt this time around:

1) The GM at the school has amped up the training a bit in preperation for the tournament, both in terms of forms and in terms of sparring. One of the adult BBs in the class is going to be coaching and he's been helping me a lot with adive in forms but also in sparring in talking about drills and such to work on in my own time.

2) I took two weeks off of doing pretty much anything physical to first let a nagging foot bruise heal and then to recover from surgery. Normally after some break like that I would come back strong and intense in the physical strength and conditioning, but I'm ot sure if that's the best plan this time.

My training is probably not the most fine-tuned for an athlete but is pretty good for a guy my age, I guess. In the morning before work, I do 40 knuckle pushups, 40 crunches, 30 more knuckle pushups (different hand position) and then 4 minutes of jumprope (with some one legged jump-roping at various points in the time). This is my bread and butter daily routine and I'm back to doing this and will probably do it up until a day or two before the event. A few nights a week I pull out a resistance tube and do sets of bicep-curls, squats with resistance, and a bunch of other arm, chest, and leg exercises I don't know the names for. Somedays I will double up the tube and do more resistance at slower pace for less reps. Other days I will do more reps and do them faster, with just a single tubes worth of resistance. This is my poor-man's, all-in-the-apartment, workout routine. As of Monday I restarted the morning routine, but I've not restarted my evening routine with the resistance tube. Instead I've ben hitting class every night and before class after work I've been working a lot on kicking drills, punching drills, and forms practice.

So that was kinda the root of my question. Normally take a long term but also day-to-day approach. What I mean is that day-to-day, I am who I am at this point in my training as far as skill and conditioning and what not, but also this is a long term part of my life where I'm slowly climbing a mountain, not just up and down the hills of tournament preperation and performance.

However, since I came off a two week break where normally my emotional inclination would be to hit the conditioning/strentgh work hard, but with a tournament coming up where my instructor and coach are focusing hard on drills and preperation, I'm inclined to let them set my focus to be a bit more of tournament preperation and so my question was mostly, given an extra hour in the evening, am I better suited at doing strength work or drill work for the next few weeks.

Thanks for all the responses

 

[FearlessFreep]

I thought you meant forms and breaking. I wouldn't be much help then (I'm a forms and breaking geek LOL).

I'm also doing forms. I have this thing where I think you should, well I should, always do both. I think forms are so much the art of Taekwondo as a martial art and if a tournament is going to be you're way of measuring your progress in the martial art against your peers, then forms are a big part of it.

Most of my form work though is just lots and lost of repetition with focus on all the little things of consistant hand and foot placement and balance and good dynamics, etc..

 

[karatekid1975]

Cool Sounds like you already have a coach for forms. But what I do is snag a BB that is good at forms, and have them tweek my technique. Then I do what you said, lots of repetition, and work on hand and foot placement and balance, ect.

 

[TigerWoman]

I always liked doing everything. Forms always produced stress, breaking was the de-stresser. Then sparring came and I was relaxed. Besides, breaking was great practice with all those available holders! TW

 

[FearlessFreep]

Sounds like you already have a coach for forms. But what I do is snag a BB that is good at forms, and have them tweek my technique

That's what I've done. The BB helping me with sparring drills is also helping me fine tune my technique in forms. We spent some time after class going over the finer points of angles and helping me be consistant right-side/left side and just doing a lot of little things that will add some punch to it.

 

[karatekid1975]

Coolness. You are on the right track then. I wish you a lot of luck in the next tourny. Let us know how ya did.

 

[Laborn]

My instructer started training us hard on stamina 1 month before our first tournament, we're still training for stamina for upcomming tournaments. In black belt divisions some tournaments now are 3 - 2 minute rounds..that's along time with 1 fighter so if i win i fight my next opponent...that will mean 12 minutes of fighting, u need alot of stamina for that lol .

 

[TX_BB]

I have a tournament coming up on March 11th. I'm trying to decide how much conditioning and strength training I should do before then. I'm thinking that the time frame is too short to gain much real strength so I'm better off focusing on conditioning and practicing more technique and tactics, but I'm not sure.

Thanks

With three weeks you can increase your strength pretty dramatically as long as your eating right and getting enough rest. While this is not the most ideal situation it is achievable. Primarily my suggestion would be to work a negative a rep routine with a speed routine. Your not going to gain alot in speed enhancement, but you'll be able to depend on what you have. The strength routine has worked for me well with 15 to 20 percent gains in a two week period. The only problem with the strength routine is that after 2 weeks you need to go to a more tame routine. PM me if you'd like details

 

[TX_BB]

FF,

How did it go?