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Punching and kicking speed are a combination of a few things:
1. Muscle flexibility - on joints such as knees and elbows it is almost impossible to increase muscle flexibility as it is difficult to stretch the muscles.
2. Strength of fast-twitch muscles - these muscles are worked by doing explosive reps. For punching and kicking you will want to focus on jumping squats and clapping pushups. These will not add much muscle mass and thereby decrease flexibility but will create small, powerful, explosive muscles.
3. Muscle memory - This is the connections in the brain between synapses and muscles. The only way to work this is... practice, practice, practice. This will increase your reaction time and speed.
WARNING: do not train with weights on your legs for kicking or weights on your wrists/hands for doing backfists as you have a largely increased likelyhood of damaging tendons which are very important and slow to repair (unless your totally tear them, then they won't repair at all).
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1.Stretch, Stretch, Stretch. When you get up, start your day with a hot shower or bath, then stretch while your body is warm and relaxed. Focus on your legs and make sure to stretch your feet, ankles and toes. Spend at least 10 minutes every morning stretching. Don't over-stretch in the morning, just relax and stretch by holding a position where you are just starting to feel a burn. Stretch more aggressively sometime during the day (not when you are cold), and then stretch well before bed.
2.Make a high target using a nail, string, tennis ball and a small plastic sandwich bag. Place the ball in the bag, then use the string to tie the bag closed being sure to leave a few extra feet of string. Drive the nail into a ceiling or, if you can't kick over 5 1/2 feet, a door frame will work. Tie the string from the bag to the nail in the ceiling so that it hangs down about 6 inches lower than you can kick.
3.Kick the tennis ball at least 100 times every day. Don't kick it hard; just relax and touch the ball with your foot as quickly as you can using any kick you want, and spread them out throughout the day as much as you want. Try to raise the target every Saturday by an inch or two.
4.Buy ankle weights from a sporting goods store or department store. If you attend martial arts classes regularly, start with a 10 pound set, 5 pounds for each leg. If you do not, then start with a 5 pound set for 2 1/2 pounds each leg.
5.Don't practice kicking at full speed with weights on; you'll risk serious knee injury if you do. Put on a thick pair of socks. Put on the ankle weights after you are dressed in the morning and wear them constantly throughout the day, even when driving, or working if you can. If they become uncomfortable to the point you can't bear it anymore, take them off for a few minutes then put them back on.
6.While wearing the weights, hold onto a table or wall to keep your balance and practice kicking very slowly. It should take 10 seconds to complete each kick. Just practice each motion for each kick you know at least twice. Do this every day.
7.Notice that when you have been training long enough to have good control, place a Pringles can or other unbreakable object on a table in an open room and practice kicking within 2 inches of the Pringles can without hitting it. Practice not putting your foot down in between kicks, and not letting your foot touch the table or the can. Kick 20 times with each leg as fast as you can without hitting it each day.
8.Watch to see that after 2-3 weeks you'll be so much faster at kicking when not wearing your weights that you'll be able to wait on someone to start to kick you, and you'll be able to kick them first.
tips
*When kicking the ball, try not to kick it hard but try to kick as fast as you can. If you learn to relax, you can kick much faster.
*When you work on power, just practice tightening all your muscles at the moment of impact.
*Learning to trust your control will make you faster because you will not be hesitant out of fear of hurting your sparring partner. That's why you should practice not kicking the Pringles can.
*Moving your leg doesn't matter if it isn't moving accurately and with proper use of muscles, or you lose your balance. That's why the slow kicks are useful.
*By stretching, you reduce your muscles' pull against the kicking motions you are trying to make. This means you can kick faster with less risk of injury and with less resistance.
*When you first take off the weights, your feet will feel very light. This is a good time to kick the ball hanging from the ceiling.
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The ability to kick well is not directly related to muscle strength. Although the leg muscles are involved other muscles are involved. To kick better requires only a few things done exactly this way:
1) learn each kick exactly as it is done(Correct body mechanics).
2) Practice the kick slow enough to be sure that you are doing the body mechanics exactly correct.
3) Continue to practice the kick/s until they become second nature.
4) Slowly, work for more speed.
NOTE: It is much better to do a few kicks at a time(Correctly), than to do a lot of kicks that get sloppy.
If you practice something incorrectly for many years, you get very good at doing it incorrectly. However if you practice something correctly, you get very good at it in less time. More kicks are not better, Correct kicks in low numbers are.
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