conditioning

[Guest]

I have been without a training partner for about four months,could use some advice on arm and leg conditioning.

Laird

[Rick Wilson]

You will find the drills we use at my school under the COnditioning Button on my web site:
http://www.wilsonkarate.com

My only advise is take it slow and build. Super hard is not always more effective. Ego should be left at the dojo door. Laugh and enojoy it.

Rick

[Guest]

Sensei Wilson, Thank you for the conditioning information. Great site Btw.

When I find myself with training partners I will revisit this material. I have printed it and stored it in anticipation of that day.

For now I will condition with an arnis stick to the legs and fore arms. I also deliver shin kicks and fore arm strikes to the heavy bag.

Laird

[Allen M.]

Try this too, Laird


http://www.uechi-ryu.ws/class/031/index.htm

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Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera

[Guest]

Thanks Allan Sensei! I've got to spend more time searching your site. Like your book it's packed with great info.

Laird

[Rick Wilson]

Have you read the excellent new article by my good friend David Elkins?
http://people.we.mediaone.net/mjdcgb/

Rick

[Gilbert MacIntyre]

uglyelk, this is an aspect of training I feel many students simply pretend they are doing.

The reason I say this is that many practitioners rely solely on the arm rubbing and pounding preformed at the Dojo. This is not enough if you want a truly conditioned body, more so if like most students you attend no more than three times a week.

What I have done is tried different aids until I settled on the one that I felt fit into my training and gave me the results I was looking for. For me it is a 24" long and 1 1/2" thick round piece of hard wood. After I finish the main body of my daily workout(preformed in the morning, then attend Dojo in the evening) I start with my "club" and I hit my body.

If my workout concentrated on my lower body then my conditioning will concentrate on the upper body. For my arms I start lightly on the forearms and beat the entire surface. After 5 min. I move to the upper arm, traps, and lats. After they have been hit for 5 min. and now the entire arm has been warmed up I go back to the forearm and start again moving back and forth from forearm to upper arm and the intensity is increased. It is increased to the point of hitting with the intent of breaking the stick. This is never going to happen, with the dimensions mentioned of the stick, but that is the intensity I use.

On the next day when my workout focus is on my upper body I do the same type routine on my legs. First the lower legs for 5 min. then the upper leg, and back of leg, for 5, then the whole leg at a much higher intensity. This gives me 1/2 hour of body conditioning a day, aside from what I get in the Dojo.

It should be stated that I have been doing this for some years now. To start you must take it easy. I would suggest just going through the motions, to get the habit down. After about a year(your body will let you know) you may be able to start really banging.

One note, I have found my conditioning has arrived at the point where it's hard to find someone to condition with at the Dojo, they find their legs get beat up from kicking mine. Even with that in mind I have my partner start slowly when we are doing conditioning, hitting too intensely too early in the exercise is the main reason people get injured. Bruises are very rare on my body, but they do happen. They are an indication I've done something wrong.

This process is easily applied to the abdomen as well.
Gilbert.


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Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. proverbs 22:6

[Bill Glasheen]

Gilbert

This is very reminiscent of the Chinese iron shirt training that was the origin of our modern kotekitae and ashikitae. While a bit extreme, it's certainly reasonable when done carefully as espoused by you.

There are many other things that one can do in conjunction with activities like this that can actually enhance the effects of the pounding and limit the amount of pounding necessary. I'm a great fan of mixing these conditioning exercises with PNF stretching and dynamic tension - all in the same session. Weight training of the various regions is also a great compliment. Furthermore, ukemi (practicing of falls) is actually another version of iron shirt training, when you think about it. The big difference is whether you hit the body with an object, or hurl your body at the object. As Einstein would say, it's all relative.

- Bill

[Guest]

Rick ,thanks for the heads up on David & companies article.What an excellent resource! That is a lot of information,and a huge amount of work.We are lucky to have so many excellent individuals who are so willing to share.

Gilbert , I agree we reap what we sow. Your level of commitment to conditioning has produced positive results. You have me exploring my commitment to conditioning,and I find it lacking.

Laird

[Rick Wilson]

Laird:

Thank you for pointing out that, in my excitement over my friend David's article, I neglected to point out that Michael DeDonato and John Morenski were also authors. My apologies to both.

Rick

[This message has been edited by Rick Wilson (edited November 09, 2001).]

[miked]

Rick,

From my prespective there is no need to apologize and thanks to all for the kind comments. I just wanted to give back a little of what I have so generously received from all of the wonderful Uechi-ka and senior instructors that have so generously shared their knowledge with me. I am ever so grateful to Mattson Sensei for allowing us to post the conditioning article on this terrific web site.

This article was over two years in the making and was well worth the effort. Kudos to Dave Elkins and Jon Morenski for their expenditure of effort. They are talented individuals in many ways.

All the best,

Mike

[miked]

I also wish to give to give thanks to Sensei Steve Goss, Sensei Mehran Shahkar and Sensei Dave Sargent all of whom hold rank of Renshi-Rokudan.


Steve and Mehran posed for the pictures that were taken by Dave Sargent. Steve is the one being tested in Sanchin by Mehran in the Sanchine Shime section of the article.

Steve, Mehran and Dave are top notch Uechi-ka and instrructors. If you find yourself in Cal. look them up, they are well worth spending a few hours and they might invite you to have fun with some of those conditioning exercises. After all we practice what we preach :-)


FYI, J.D. Morenski can be seen working with the jars and Dave Elkins and I are the ones hitting Mehran in the abdomen.

Regards,

Mike

[David Elkins]

Yes, Mike, I would second that invite from the perspective of a sometimes guest of the California Uechi contingent.

If you have the opportunity to train with Shahkar sensei, get him to show you the version of arm swinging conditioning that they do in California. It's a dandy.

Thanks folks for the nice words about the article. I hope there may be a little something for each there. Either something new, or a reinforcement of something already learned, perhaps a different slant on things, or just the motivation to get out and do it.

D.

[Van Canna]

David,

The article is great and very useful for training. I think it should be a must read for every student [ a class handout].

Good job.



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Van Canna