What are some stick drills that improve Power, Accuracy, Speed, and Reflexes?

[Guro Harold]

What are some stick drills that improve power, accuracy, speed, and reflexes?

 

[Jimi]

I like to use things that are common to a lot of stick art practitioners as a warm up, such as sumbrado, or hubud. I always like reviewing the escala pattern, most FMA's can relate to it. From that I like to take turns Changing the sequence up. Each person gets a crack at seeing what else is possible. I have seen that a lot of people who are too familiar with say, sumbrado, and can be suckered into the set and all you have to do is start the set, then they go right into their pattern and won't really react to you. Keeps us on our toes. Although the same can be said for some Wing Chun and even JFGF/JKD people that can be suckered into a pak sao. As for power I like hitting a bag just for feeling the level of force I can deliver. For reflexes, there is nothing like putting on the armor and going at it, although you can not as easily work fine motor skill techniques, you get the feel of live stick work. As an after thought, some people in the armor get too used to the padding & helmet and lose respect for the real crack of a stick. Just my opinion.

 

[silatman]

try the basic coordination drills,
Start with downwards figure eights, low backhand, high backhand,5 reps
Upward figure eights, low, high backhand, 5 reps
Horizontal abenenco, low, high backhand 5 reps,
Diagonal abenenco, low, high backhand 5 reps.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.

I wouldn't worry about power that will come eventually, dont force it, remember that when training with a stick velocity is the important factor due to the lack of weight in a rattan stick.

 

[ryangruhn]

Here is a clip of siniwali drills along with sombrada. We ater the sombrada little and add striking with our right hand and blocking with our left. It leads to a cool pattern!

http://www.durattan.com/videos/DURATTANINACTION.wmv

Gruhn

 

[Delta]

For Power, try getting a bunch of old tires 5 or 6 and stacking them on top of each other then simply hit it with your stick. I would recommend getting something a little heavier then normal rattan for this as it will destroy sticks after awhile. You could also just do -hard- 1 and 2 angles with your training partner. This will develop power as well as giving your grip a good work out.

For accuracy, Try target specific sparring. Hands only, Knee's only. Head shots only. (Ofcourse use padded sticks for this) This is good training as it teaches you to keep these targets from getting hit while you focus on getting them. You could also Hang a tennis ball (Or something heavier) and hit it once to let it swing then just keep trying to hit the moving target.

For Speed, Try some clapping push ups or reaching push ups. These make you move your hands fast in order to recover and not hit the floor hard. You could also use the tires as stated above and just hit them as fast as you can for as long as you can. Be warned. This will make your stick fly from your hand as you get tired.

As for reflexes. Sparring and practice, practice, practice. Your looking to burn in muscle memory which takes 3-4000 reps and that is just barley scratching the surface. When you get to 10,000. You should have it.

Good luck and I hope this helps,

 

[green man]

Power comes from proper body mechanics and knowing how to strike, while speed comes from the footwork and from the experience of knowing 'what comes next', because you've been there before. For reflexes, defensive or offensive, you pretty much have to train the drills with another person so that you learn the timing, and also for the 'realism' mentality, which is a lot harder when you're practicing solo. The most you can do to improve those first three (once you have the basics down, of course) is to just keep practicing - they increase over time.

As for accuracy - I have a suggestion:

So, you take a piece of tape and you stick it on a wall at eye level. Then you take one stick and orient yourself so that your weapon side is closest to the wall, and so that when you strike, you can avoid hitting the wall with your stick. Now, from chamber position - [your arm against your body and your stick resting on your shoulder on the same side] - you practice making your strike: flip the stick out horizontally until it just lines up with the tape, (try not to strike past your target), and then let it come back to the chamber position. From there, it's just a matter of repetition.

It's a simple drill but it's very effective, *if* you practice with the right mentality. each time you strike you have to focus on aiming at the piece of tape - that way, with every strike, you're teaching your body to hit exactly where you're aiming. on the other hand, if you zone out and do the physical part of the practice but you don't hook it up to the mental part, you're only teaching your body that one strike, so your overall accuracy doesn't benefit.

(My kali instructor told us about this one time) :asian:

 

[bobbo]

Power and speed are in the forearms, which makes developing the muscle groups in the forearm the most important to focus on. Of course speed and accuracy are more refined through practise. But just use regular muscle building techniques to develop your forearms. Also, there are some traditional drills. The first drill is in tieing a rope around a tree then pull with a single arm as hard as you can. In the first drill, don't through yourself off balance. A second drill is to push the tree as hard as you can; again don't through yourself off balance. A third drill is to take a two foot concrete metal rod, and just using your hands try to bend the rod. A fourth drill is to strike your tree as fast and hard as you can with various parts of your body, try to get as many strikes as you can with one breath. You need a partner for a fifth drill. In the fifth drill you place your fist firmly on the ground, then your partner strikes at it as fast as he can. Your part is to move your hand before it gets hit.

 

[Nemesis]

I don't have any special drills and since i mostly train alone there a lot of exercises that i just can't do. So what i do is train basic blocks and attacks as slowly and accuratly as i can (focasing on a selected target) with the heaviest stick i have. In my case a 1 meter and 5 kg iron bar (about 5'4'', 10 pounds), of course that due to the mommentum factor the bar will became much heavier.

Since i am doing the same movements as with the stick i am working exactely the same muscles but with a much greater resistence, keep in mind the movements are to be done slowly and accuratly otherwise the whole drill would just be silly. This improves your power and stamina.

 

[littlebadboy]

stick drills that improve power, accuracy, speed:
for power and speed, hit the tires.
for accuracy, hit the tires... but mark precision targets for you to hit.


stick drills that improve reflexes:
do partner drills

 

[bobbo]

Power and speed are really found in the forearms, because the best baton techniques are done with the wrist. Also, you need strong forearms to hold onto your baton in a fighting situation. There are also some ways to improve footwork. One way is to play hacky-sac. Another way is to get a couple of other people, and everyone takes two sticks about one foot in length each. Then you try to trip one another, a lot like playing pillow fighting but with sticks (I loved playing this stick game when I was a kid). There are two somewhat painful training techniques arnisadors have done over the centuries. The easier one is to run barefoot over hot or sharp surfaces, such as a road on a hot day. One of the most common choices is running over coral. The other technique is to have people break off branches from a tree, and then hit you with those branches. The reason for these painful techniques is to able to handle pain from being hit.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I really enjoy taking my asp to the heavybag and my sticks to some tire equipment. The ability to hit hard and the rebounding effect really helps to improve your accuracy, power, etc. However, I do not think that my bag or tires appreciate it. :ultracool

Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com