Speed.........not me :)

[Kris]

Hi all,

Whats the best way you have found of training to make yourself faster, i'm quick enough in my punches, but i'm very aware that me knees and kicks are very slow, this might partially be because i still have poor balance.

Apart from practicing at training, is there anyway you can suggest for me to practice so i can build up some speed into my kicks etc by myself? (I don't have a p/bag)

Cheers

 

[moving target]

You get fast by doing it. But ther are some things you can do, in soccer we used to run up and down the field bringing our knees up to chest level.. that deffinatly helped me with speed getting my knees up in the air, that has translated into kneeing atacks and to a lesser degree into kicks. Another soccer drill we did was to line up 20 balls up infront of the goal and run through them taking a step than a shot, step, shot (so that whatever foot's your shooting foot only lands on the ground after it makes contact with a ball). That last one basicly translates into rappid kicks on a bag. If you don't have a bag I would suggest creating some sort of target for you to hit that will absorb some force. Repeated full speed kicks in the air tend to not be to healthy for your knees (at least you will be forced to pull the kick rather early wich will slow you down.) So maybe get a thai pad and strap it to a tree.. or a bunch of foam rubber and duckt tape it to a post. The knee thing is easy enough though.

 

[ThuNder_FoOt]

If you don't have access to something that you can kick (i.e. heavy bag or similar), I would recommend a good pair of ankle weights. You can do some slow motion, tension excercises with them, and it will really improve your leg strength. If you don't have access to ankle weights, you can always do the excercises without them as well. Front leg raises, side leg raises, squats, lounges, duck walking (squatting as low as possible as walking without raising your body level) the key is to stay low.

I personally like to put on my ankle weights, and go through all my kicks as slow as possible with as much control as possible in addition to everything. It really helps alot. I notice improvements almost immediately.

:asian: