Quote Originally Posted by Fu-Pow View Post
There are only so many training hours in the day.

In TCMA we talk about jin which is a certain kind of strength/skill that doesn't have anything to do with strength in the classical sense. It has to do with the correct type and correct use of strength.

IMO, what is more important to martial arts is skill and endurance, not raw strength. Furthermore, if you did want to develop raw strength you'd be better off to use motions that simulate real functional motions that you would use in 3d space, using the whole body....not the working muscles or muscle groups in isolation hoping that some how its all going to "come together."



Well where is the connection between these weight lifting exercises and martial arts performance? How do these exercises in anyway approximate how the body can be used most efficiently in a martial altercation? There's not a "scientific" way to make this connection. Its all opinion as far as I'm concerned for reasons I've already stated.



At what cost?



Weightlifting has its place, especially for injury.



Whole body...with the parts in isolation? Where is the exercise that connects the isolated parts in the many ranges of usable motion available to the human body?



To be quite honest I don't think Sonnon has quite the picture that IMA's have. He's a nice bridge though.




Ford Prefect is big on the rhetoric, so we can either do things the rhetorical, debate style or this can be a dialectic. I have no problem with either.
I am discussing movement in general, whether martial arts or not. Internal martial artists need muscles and nerves and connective tissue too. Externalists do as well. Externalists must understand relaxation, if they’ve ever contemplated speed and mobility and stamina. They must also understand whole body movement, if they’ve contemplated real power. So I still fail to see the distinction.

Now, as far as my baseball example, you didn’t address my point. Does the weight lifting and increased muscle size impact the performance? Sonnon says no. What’s your answer?

As far as the football example, my point wasn’t to say that weightlifting aids in injury recovery. It was to show its role in injury prevention and overall performance. Does his increased bulk and mucles mass have anything to do with his improved playing statistics and reduced injury?

You ask where the exercise is that connects the whole body. It’s in the targeted skill. You never stop training the targeted skill. Weightlifting is supplemental to that. Sonnon’s premise is that weightlifting has no effect on the targeted skill. If you want to improve your 3 point shooting with a basketball, do shoulder presses, and suddenly your range improves, what have you demonstrated? That’s not a made-up example. Do you need a martial arts example? Doesn’t Matt Hughes lift weights? Are you telling me it has nothing to do with his performance?