Health and Stamina - is it needed?

[MartialArtist]

One thing lacking in most traditional martial artists today in America is condition. Look at the boxers and wrestlers here, most of us would puke and die. Look atht eh traditional martial artists elsewhere, and see how hard they train. Some train 4-5 hours daily, with their instructors using corporal punishment. At least two of those hours is conditioning. Of course, conditioning isn't for you can fight for 20 rounds... Fights are very short. That's not the point. Conditioning is so it makes everything easier on you. Some techniques require balance, power, strength, and speed to execute correctly. If you aren't conditioned, it won't be as effective.

Look at the jab. You don't have to be conditioned to throw a jab. But conditioning makes it so you can throw the jab faster, harder, and with coordination, and a well-conditioned person's jab retracts faster so he can throw another move.

 

[Wmarden]

When the bovine excrement hits the rotary cooling device is not the time to get in shape. If you are serious enough about your martial art, then you should be serious about strength and conditioning type training. As for time, that depends on discipline. You can have the best plan in the world and not follow it for lack of discipline(my problem).


Further in a life or death situation you will be having all kinds of problems. Don't add gasping for breath or being too weak to the list. I sometimes do some of my dry firing pistol practice right after a set or superset of physical exercise. I do this to get the heart racing to make the practice tougher and more like real life shooting situations. Now I can't get all the stress, but at least I can stimulate some of it. Train hard fight easy.

I have heard it said that in a combat situation(life or death) struggle, you don't rise to the ocassion, you default to the level of your training. And you want everything right if you ever find yourself in that situation. You want your training to be as complete as possible. Sheer luck is nothing to rely on.

But I suppose all the above does dodge the question about conditioning in martial arts classes. And my answer would be I guess it depends on the style of art. But in my mind, strength training and skill training are two different things. The neurological demands are different. So I would reccomend doing them in different sessions.

 

[kkbb]

I was under the impression that the "Martial Arts" was the embodyment of three things...Mind ...Body ...Spirit.

Unfortuatley in this "here and now" world we live in, people need to get to the "meat" of the buffet instead of the other wonderful and nutritious parts of the buffet which make up an excellent meal.

To do techniques only does not go far to develope the mind, body & spirit as a whole.

Our classes are 40min long. Upto 3 times per week. 20 mins for warmup (for lower belts this is usually push ups, crunches stretching, etc.. - higher belts this can include forms, drills etc...) 20min review (current and previous belt levels material) then 20mins of new material.

A well structured class should leave you tired and educated. You leave feeling and knowing you got your monies worth and on your way to further developing your mind, body and spirit.

 

[Kope]

There are martial arts classes out there that require students to do particular minimum physical excerizes before they even get their white belt -- such as hold a horse stance for 5 minutes, do so many bodyweight squats, do so many pushups, etc.

Something I've noticed at tourneys -- those schools almost always fair better than the other "we're just here for the martial arts, leave the conditioning to our own time if we want it" crowd.

And I know why too . .. those schools recognize that this stuff requires strength and stamina and flexability and they don't have a "class," they have 'training.' And they 'train' to win and do.

My own school is not that way. I do my own training outside of the class structure. And it shows in the quality of the students we produce (in the aggregate). The students who do conditioning work outside of class stand head adn shoulders above those who don't.

 

[pesilat]

Originally posted by Kope
My own school is not that way. I do my own training outside of the class structure. And it shows in the quality of the students we produce (in the aggregate). The students who do conditioning work outside of class stand head adn shoulders above those who don't.

Personally, that's the way that I prefer it. If I want conditioning, I can (and do) do that on my own. Or I can go to a gym. Or I can hire a personal trainer. Or I can buy some videos and work out at home. I go to martial arts class to learn martial arts. And when I teach, I'm teaching martial arts.

Another side to it is that I'm not a personal trainer. I don't know anything about fitness or fitness training (except from what I've learned for myself which may or may not be applicable to my students). Not only is it not my job to deal with that aspect, it could, potentially, be detrimental to my students.

But that's my own situation. Each to their own.

But you're absolutely right. People who put in the effort outside of class will tend to improve better than those who don't. And I think that's as it should be. People will progress (or not) at their own personal pace.

This ties into my belief that everyone, in the long run, ends up with the instructor/style/art that they deserve. There may be some false starts and dead ends encountered along the way. But, eventually, (IMO) everyone gets out of the arts dividends commensurate with the effort they put into learning the arts.

Mike

Mike

 

[moromoro]

. I go to martial arts class to learn martial arts.

this should be the only reason, some teachers do a lot of stretching some even for half an hour what a waste of training