"The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero projects his fear onto his opponent while the coward runs. 'Fear'. It's the same thing, but it's what you do with it that matters". -Cus D'Amato
The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.
~ Mark Twain
Everyone has a plan until they’ve been hit.
~ Joe Lewis
A warrior may choose pacifism; others are condemned to it.
~ Author unknown
"You don't feel lonely.Because you have a lively monkey"
"Ninja can HURT the Spartan, but the Spartan can KILL the Ninja"
Thats because nobody ever combines things.
Just a simple 1-step reaction to an incoming attack is too robotic, its onyl half the picture. To produce "fighting" skill in a reaction, it has to be a 2-part reaction: Defend-counterattack--one reaction. Once a student can defend-counter reactively at a certain level to any of the standard attacks, then the teacher has to speed it up so the student hasnt enough time to counter attack...like combos. Then the student is performing something like defend-defend-counter, and so on and so forth and the counter is simply part of the trained "reaction". At this point, the student is attacking through the counter...but he is not yet the one "feeding" the attacks.
Just talking about "reacting" doesnt help anyone, it has to be in a well setup drill. As Frost is aware, a good pad holder doesnt just hold up a pad and let you hit and they dont just swipe their pads at your face and make you slip. They give you a swipe or a pop at the side, then put the pad up and allow you to strike it. It has to be mixed up, it has to be random, and it has to be at an intensity commensure with what stresses the student thats being worked with...Thats where skill is created.
Last edited by PlumDragon; 11-19-2010 at 03:46 PM.
@ Frost, (yes, compliment here too....)
Doing short forms, like sprints, going into oxygen debt in a less than 1 minute bursts.
You think that counts as:
"alactic energy system also known as the creatine system or the ATC-PC system,..."
I've always thought of it as anaerobic training, like sprinters. The equivalent of doing windsprints. Is that the same thing?
A lot of people are saying something along the lines of "do a technique with encumberance of as fast as you can" repeatedly. I don't disagree, but I think there is more and better.
You mentioned nervous system as well. Can you train your nervous system in isolation, to focus and improve that skill?
Its interesting because Pak Mei uses sprint training, faat ging training, hyper extension and looseness to generate the same power and very close to the same hand as SPM, which trains with dynamic tension and sort twitchiness, almost the polar opposite.
Guangzhou Pak Mei Kung Fu School, Sydney Australia,
Sifu Leung, Yuk Seng
Established 1989, Glebe Australia
it depends on what method you are talking about: i am not being an ass here but different energy systems respond to different stimulus but for me the basic premise is try to isolate what you are trying to do with your training programme, in this case increase maximum speed/explosiveness, look at the energy systems used and see what protocals work best for that system
For example personally if i was working on the aerobic system i would work on capacity first: long steady state work within a given heart rate extending the time until i reach the goal of the block which in this case would be increased left ventrical size, more blood and oxgyen pumped with each heart beat and a lower resting heart rate, and then i would work on the aerobic systems power using threshold work at or around my aerobic threshold, first build the base and then work on the power component,
With alactic power the actual increase in length of system is not as important as the power you can generate: say you work for three months to improve the capacity of your alactic system and you get a 30% increase, you have only really gone from say 8 seconds to 11 seconds is that really worth the work? for me it makes much better sense because of the limited ability of the alactic system to change to work on its ability to produce power within its existing framework, where as with the aerobic system because of its enormous ability to change it makes sense to work the capacity first and then the power
does that make any sense?
Last edited by Frost; 11-21-2010 at 05:43 AM.
both the alactic and lactic systems are anerobic in nature (ie dont rely on oxgyen to produce energy)
the alactic system only produces power for about 7 to 10 seconds, so any longer and you will be working on the lactic system, using sprints of a minute or so with full recovery would be workig on the lactic systems ability to produce power, working with incomplete rest where you would increase the length of the sprints and decrease the rest time between the sets would be working on its capacity/endurance,
Some great stuff here about explosiveness,
But when it comes to training actual speed, i don't think you can really significantly increase the speed of a punch. I mean, as humans we use our hands in a relaxed fashion all day long, I don't think your hand can move much faster than it does naturally.
But it can certainly move in combination much faster and with more weight behind it.
I always find it is best to find what holds you back and then work on that. For example most peoples hands move well, but their trunk is fairly slow. The Shoulders, Chest, waist and hips can all move seperately, and developing movement and flexibility in all of them i find you can combine powerful moves more quickly.
We would often hold the pads for each other and strike them using our shoulders. Then hold the pads at quite a distance and strike in combination. This way you are focusing on moving the different parts of the trunk of your body which ultimately put the weight into any punches you might do.
This and what YumYum said about breath... Many people exhale like a machine gun, this is not always good. It is scientific fact that the undulation of our breath dramatically effects the brains momentary concentration. Playing with a smooth exhilation during a combo is great. And learning to balance with occasional forceful inhales. Many people try to breath out more air than they breath in, logically it cant work.
One more thing is that many pro athletes will have special programmes for training their eyes. Really. SMoother eye movement and control means you can see the opponant more clearly as he moves. There are plenty of computer programmes available for doing this. Probably even some for your iPhone. Its no joke, it really can be trained, and it really can make a difference.
Renda
so true, when ppl try to pratcie speed drills we subconsciously do the opposite, we move slower. Tah is becuse when we force somethign like we try to move quicker, or we try really hard to punch super fast, we actually tense up which slows our movments. It is said to move fast is to move without tention. however we increase tentio9n when we try to move fast.
I play the drums and the fastest drum roll is the most relaxed the hands, wrists and forearms will ever be, but when we try to drum roll even faster we actually incorporate more muscle fibers which inevidably slows us down.
mantis really relies on speed and we pratcie speed all the time as it is one of the reasons mantis works so well.
my shifu used to say the fastest you will ever move is when you move with instinct. thus you will move before your brain has the opportunity to slow you down.
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yep although all three energy systems are actually in use to differing degrees at differing times with the aerobic system always being used, current research has shown that 400 meter sprints, previously though to be almost wholly anerobic are close to 41% aerobic and 59% anerobic
Energy System Power
The body has three principle systems it uses in an overlapping fashion to produce the energy your body needs to survive, to move around, and to try to punch, kick, or elbow people in the face. These systems are known as the anaerobic -alactic, anaerobic-lactic, and aerobic systems.
The three systems vary both in terms of how fast they are able to produce energy, and how long they are able to sustain that energy production. This means that each energy system has a power component as well as a capacity component. You can think of the power component as the size of the engine, the bigger the engine the more horsepower it can create and the capacity is the size of the gas tank, the larger the gas tank, the longer the system can produce energy.
All three energy systems ultimately produce the body’s energy currency known as ATP, but the alactic system can produce extremely high levels of power because it is requires few very chemical reactions to generate the ATP needed for muscular contractions. Fewer chemical steps means ATP can be generated very quickly, but it also means it is capable of using all its energy producing capacity very quickly and generally only lasts 10-12 seconds at max power.