Training Help Needed!!

[zues]

Hey everyone, I'm sure this question has come up at some point in the Tae-Kwon-Do section at some point or another, but without traipsing through the thousands and thousands of threads and posts, here is a question for Tae-Kwon-Do nuts. I have a grading coming up in the near future and feel I want to train even harder in the coming months, I want to focus on my Speed?
I would like to know what most people agree on in turns of training the twitch muscle fibers, and just generally what i can be doing to start moving quicker and kicking faster.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Im sure some guys like Terry, ATC and some others who specialise in the sport side of things will have some great advice for this sort of thing. My only advice is kick, kick and keep on kicking.

 

[Cyriacus]

Plyometrics.

Google it

Worked for Me, anyway.

 

[StudentCarl]

Welcome! Actually, as a new member I strongly suggest you use the search feature to just read and get ideas. You can specify all forums or just search in the Taekwondo forum, but you're right that the topic has come up in many different ways and times. There are different aspects and suggestions for both movement and kicking, and other parts of the game that can make them seem faster. Without knowing more about you, it's hard to give more than generalizations. Your master, who has seen you move, will have the most appropriate advice based on where you are in your learning. Ralph's advice on continued kicking is the best advice as far as I'm concerned. Please share more of what you're learning and working on.

Carl

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Just curious Zues, what rank are you/how long have you been training? It may help others with some advice if they know whether you are a beginner or advanced student. From what Ive read here in the past, you probably want to be throwing a couple of hundred kicks a day each leg (minimum) if serious about increasing speed.

 

[zues]

Oh yeah that would help wouldn't it. Sorry I'm a 3rd dan. Also I have been training for around 12 years if that helps. So i know what I'm doing but there is still room to improve (in my opinion).

 

[ATC]

Nothing beats kicking to develop kicking speed. But you can add resistance with rubber bands. The key is simply to relax when you kick and then recover fast. Proper technique and staying relaxed. Sounds simple and it is, but it takes work. You can add plyometric exercises as well. You need to train to explode from the start of the technique all while relaxed. The last thing is a mental thing and was given to me by a Master of mine some time ago. He said to become fast you need to think fast, and once you thought you were fast think faster.

I know a lot of old school master will have a student kick 1000 times a single kick in one session. That has been proven to be counter productive. You should kick or train as fast as you can, but maybe only 10 reps over 2 or 3 sets. Then move to something else. You should also take a break inbetween sets as to not exhaust or tax the muscles. This will condition the muscles to always fire at their fastes rate. When people train a single kick or technique 100's or even 1000's of time in a single session, they tend to not give 100% on any one kick. This conditions the muscle to fire at that less than 100% effort rate, a slow sloppy kick. If you only do a few set and a few reps at 100% effort, you will see greater gains at a greater rate.

Hope I have helped.

 

[ACJ]

If you've got access to the equipment and instruction: Power Cleans.

If you've got any background in barbell exercises: Depth Jumps.
Otherwise, a whole range of other plyometric exercises.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

If you've got access to the equipment and instruction: Power Cleans.

If you've got any background in barbell exercises: Depth Jumps.
Otherwise, a whole range of other plyometric exercises.

Yes, power cleans would work well Id imagine. Footballers (league and union) use this exercise for explosive speed with power in the legs.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Plyometrics BUT, you sound like the commom\n MA type A personality. Don't overdo it.