The Slow Lie

[Kung Fu Wang]

"slow is smooth". That mindset is flat wrong.

Agree! If you are used to be slow, your body may not be able to feel comfortable when you move fast. Just try to throw 60 punches on your heavy bag non-stop as fast and as powerful as you can, you will soon find out that your "slow" body may not be ready for that. Try to spring as fast as you can for 100 yards will be another good test.

There are some extra requirement for speed such as

- a strong heart,
- fast muscle reaction,
- ...

that you just can't develop through your slow training.

 

[drop bear]

The trouble arises when people believe that speed...training at speed...and training specifically to become faster is somehow bad because... "slow is smooth".

That mindset is flat wrong.

Slow as a form of resistance training?

Especially with kicks.

 

[Transk53]

Well a whole bunch of people on this forum plus whoever those guys were smashing the weights in that thread I linked.

And that was without bothering to find my own links to the benefits of strength training.

No Bear, I mean that you always seem to speak in third person. How you speak No dis.

 

[Transk53]

Ok. And how do you know it doesn't increase speed?

Because as I always bang on about, it is intrinsic. I do believe you can hone to virtual percepted limit.

 

[Danny T]

I doubt curling a dumbbell will help with your punches, but curl away.

Strengthening the proper muscles that one punches and kicks with will help greatly. Curling isn't going to help strengthen the triceps which one uses for punching however curling will help your standing clinch. Triceps presses will help your punching, lap pulls will also. Leg presses and weighted calf presses or raises will help.

 

[Rich Parsons]

I keep seeing people post about how going slow helps your technique. It doesn't. The thing that helps about going slow is that other people can see what you are doing, and correct you. That is it!

T.O.D.,

I have read your post here and some others through this thread.

I have to disagree.

Going slow so others to see you and correct you I agree with.

Going Slow to learn a new technique is also good. I mean if you walked into a FMA school the first day and they pulled out a real sword or a training sword or a rattan cane and handed it to you and grabbed the equivalent for yourself, and then went fast and at your timing with the student not knowing anything, then someone is going to get hurt possible seriously and the student learns nothing.

Now once a person learns it slow, and the proper timing of the situation then slowly increasing the timing and not going ballistic right away is how one gets faster and eventually fast.

Note: being Fast does not make one on Time with their technique. they still could be late or early. Neither gets the desired results.

So as written, I have to disagree with with you.


If you meant (* and maybe you have clarified and I did not browse that message - my apologies if that is true *) that going slow only is bad. Then yes I see that as being true. Yet that is not what you wrote. You said going slow adds no benefit or actually you stated it does not help at all with one exception of being able to be corrected.

 

[Touch Of Death]

T.O.D.,

I have read your post here and some others through this thread.

I have to disagree.

Going slow so others to see you and correct you I agree with.

Going Slow to learn a new technique is also good. I mean if you walked into a FMA school the first day and they pulled out a real sword or a training sword or a rattan cane and handed it to you and grabbed the equivalent for yourself, and then went fast and at your timing with the student not knowing anything, then someone is going to get hurt possible seriously and the student learns nothing.

Now once a person learns it slow, and the proper timing of the situation then slowly increasing the timing and not going ballistic right away is how one gets faster and eventually fast.

Note: being Fast does not make one on Time with their technique. they still could be late or early. Neither gets the desired results.

So as written, I have to disagree with with you.


If you meant (* and maybe you have clarified and I did not browse that message - my apologies if that is true *) that going slow only is bad. Then yes I see that as being true. Yet that is not what you wrote. You said going slow adds no benefit or actually you stated it does not help at all with one exception of being able to be corrected.

I agree it was poorly worded; perhaps, I should have said, "Not as much as you think".

 

[RTKDCMB]

Slow as a form of resistance training?

Especially with kicks.

Try doing a head high front kick slowly (take about 5 seconds).

 

[RTKDCMB]

I keep seeing people post about how going slow helps your technique. It doesn't. The thing that helps about going slow is that other people can see what you are doing, and correct you. That is it!

When never going slow leads to this then you need to go slower:

 

[Touch Of Death]

Try doing a head high front kick slowly (take about 5 seconds).

Why?

 

[Touch Of Death]

When never going slow leads to this then you need to go slower:

This is clearly a case of those people not knowing the material at any speed.

 

[RTKDCMB]

Why?

To see how much resistance there is. Holding out a front kick above waist height for any extended amount of time is extremely difficult.

 

[Balrog]

The person who asked this was obviously a beginner. And my advice to him was the same I would give to any beginner, or anyone learning something new.
And that advice is: "Don't worry about going fast...learn the technique, go slowly, study it, become smooth with it. If you do this, then the movement naturally becomes faster as it becomes more efficient.

Dingdingding, for the win. Well stated.

 

[Zero]

To see how much resistance there is. Holding out a front kick above waist height for any extended amount of time is extremely difficult.

It also takes a lot of effort, I tried it this morning with both 2 high front kicks and then 2 high snap kicks each leg. Those slow kicks took more effort and concentration than, I would say, a couple minutes of normal intensity kicking on the heavy bag. I don't recommend this kind of slow training to anyone!

We used to do this slow training and accuracy work for high kicks way back in goju ryu but it's been years since I did this. It's great for building up stabiliser muscles and balance but it's just a part of a much larger thing. When you have the balance and technique sorted, increase your speed.

Solid technique performed at speed is the goal. That said, just like in sport with a slow pitch, a slow strike can sometimes deceive an opponent. It can also be be nice to do half the movement of a kick slow, make it look like a slow kick to leg or torso, and then whip out the speed for the second half of the movement and connect to the head. Deceptive if not done too often. Messing with speed and tempo is fun.

 

[RTKDCMB]

It also takes a lot of effort, I tried it this morning with both 2 high front kicks and then 2 high snap kicks each leg. Those slow kicks took more effort and concentration than, I would say, a couple minutes of normal intensity kicking on the heavy bag. I don't recommend this kind of slow training to anyone! .

I have never been able to do it with a front kick but used to be able to do it with a side kick easily enough although I have noticed that the height got gradually lower as I got older.

 

[Zero]

I have never been able to do it with a front kick but used to be able to do it with a side kick easily enough although I have noticed that the height got gradually lower as I got older.

Yes(!!), side kick much easier for me too (front kick is a nightmare chambering the knee high slowly and then extending out kick high). But then, I have always used side snap kick or high hook kick much more than high front kick in tournaments and training so there might be a lot of muscle memory playing into that difference.

Funnily enough, while I was trying out Wing Chun for a couple of years, there was this black shirt that had tremendous balance on the front kick, he could do this slowly and fully extend out his kick very high. It used to annoy me (well, not really annoy, maybe frustrate a little...ok, it secretly pissed me off no end!! hehe!) having come from years of TKD and a few years of karate at that stage and seeing myself as a good kicker that this guy who didn't even use high kicks could pull this off well and under control!!