speed and power drills

[gatser_83]

Hello everyone, hows it going? I'm new to martial talk and just want to say that i have found the info everyone gives to be very useful and i also love the site. My question is can anybody give me some speed and power drills to help improve my martial art. I would greatly appreciate any advice or drills. Thanks a lot gatser_83.

 

[Bester]

Welcome Aboard! :wavey:

 

[Shirt Ripper]

As I am new to the arts myself I will not try to extend striking techniques or drills but if you are thinking in a general training realm then I may be of assistance as this is my area of interest and "expertise."

Plyometric activities will be what you are looking for. Nothing advanced, but there are several simple things you can do to train the "stretch-shortening cycle" of muscle action. This is obviously key in striking and many other areas of some martial arts.

Bounding and jumping are great (and extremely simple) for developing explosive power in the hips, legs and body as a whole. Do some searches on the net and check out a few books (ie. "High-Powered Plyometrics etc.) and do some research. I would advise you to educate yourself on these matters before engaging in them as there is, as with many other areas, a risk of injury.
Many of the same ideas can be applied to the upper body (think clapping push-ups), but a couple of medicine balls will be you friend in this respect throwing them in many different manners are of great benefit. Things like chest passes and throws against the wall come to mind off hand.

Also, merely practicing the movements of your chosen art will increase your bodies ability to perform the tasks involved.
For example, great high jumpers train very significantly in plyometric type movements and power based weight lifting movements but they do more actual high jumping. Same for basketball players. Sprinters get fast from doing resistance training and plyo's and other things but a HUGE part of what they do is RUN.

The point is that the advice I have tried to give here (although general) is things that will likely be a supplement (even quite minor) to your training in your chosen art.

This post was long, and somewhat theory based and for that I apologize.

Shirt Ripper

 

[shane23ss]

This should help.

Dear Shane,

For the most part Speed and Power are relative to their counter
parts. First you must have proper body alinement to the target,
rotational force and Marriage of Gravity (dropping of the body weight
when making contact).

Their are three types of Speed,ie; Mental Speed, Physical Speed and
Perceptual Speed. Physical Speed comes from being relaxed before
flexing the muscles, then after contact you need to relax again. This
allows the quick flex in the muscles.

Mental Speed is how quick you can determine your response to an
outside stimulus.

Try and allow your opponent to making you move into action. (This is
a good exercise).

Perceptual Speed is the ability to perceive the things happening
about you that foster a response. Learn to recognize what is a real
threat or even if you are just training try to create the feeling of
the threat so it is real to you.

Now on the physical side of Kenpo we round are corners after hitting
our target and we condense are circles (make smaller) and we elongate
our circles to speed up the action. When a straight line ends a
circle begins, this give me continuous motion, hence more speed in
our action.

This is a lot to think about, but the more you bring these concepts
into your training the faster and stronger you will be come.

Yours,

Larry Tatum