Your Strengths and Weaknesses

[MJS]

We all train hard and put in many hours to improve ourselves. Part of our training, should consist of sitting back and looking at what our strong and weak points are, and working to improve on those. I thought that it would be interesting to hear what your strong and weak points are, so here are a few questions.

What are you strong points?

What are your weak points?

What do you do to improve on trouble areas?

Do you find that you tend to rely on your strong points to compensate for the weak one?

Do you feel that your strong points make up for the weaker areas?

Mike

 

[MJS]

For myself, my strong point has always been kicking. During my sparring sessions, I find myself throwing twice the amount of kicks, than punches.

My weak points, I'd have to say would be punching. Now, this is not to say that I can't punch, but my personal preferance is taking it a step closer, working more from a clinch, where I can work my close range techs.

To compensate for the punching, I do more focus mitt work, heavy bag work, drilling combos, and doing more rounds of sparring with hands only. Doing this, I've noticed some great increases!

 

[Cirdan]

What are you strong points?

Kime, adapting to my opponent and endurance.

What are your weak points?

I find it difficult to take full advantage of my reach and speed. I also need to relax more.

What do you do to improve on trouble areas?

Train, train and train more.

Do you find that you tend to rely on your strong points to compensate for the weak one?

Sometimes.

Do you feel that your strong points make up for the weaker areas?

To a certain extent, but weak points can easily be exploited. Hence getting rid of them is a high priority.

 

[edwardcloud]

My weak point is that i am not following up for "killer move" in my sparring. Such that I always let off when i am having an advantage. I dont wanna hit my own classmate

My vision and anticipation are my strength.

 

[searcher]

What are you strong points? My strengths have always been around my nack for picking up techniques at a fast pace, making me adapt quickly. My flexibility and kicking technique mixed with long legs are a close second.

What are your weak points? I have always had a hard time with some throws. No matter how hard I work on them they just seem to stay where they are. Another close second is pizza:shrug:, it is never good for my dietary.

What do you do to improve on trouble areas? Keep working hard. I may never master soem of the techniques, but I can always keep busting my butt. As for dietary, keep "splurges" to a minimum.

Do you find that you tend to rely on your strong points to compensate for the weak one? Absolutely. I vary a little by the situation, but for the most part I stick to what are my "trademark" techniques.

Do you feel that your strong points make up for the weaker areas? I feel they help mask my weakness to a point. My adaptability allows me to find other ways to work on an opponent if my weak techniques are not working.



Great thread Mike!!

 

[zDom]

What are your strong points?

• Striking. I kick and punch VERY hard, very accurately.

• Sparring. I have great timing combined with well-trained combinations, giving me the illusion of incredible speed.

What are your weak points?

Throwing a resisting partner.

I would also like to improve my groundwork so I am as comfortable there as I am in stand-up situations.

What do you do to improve on trouble areas?

Haven't really addressed that — YET. For the last several years I've been focusing on preparing for my first dan test in hapkido.

Now that I have that behind me, I would like to increase my comfort level and ability in both throwing and groundwork. I imagine I will do that by working on randori.

Do you find that you tend to rely on your strong points to compensate for the weak one?

In class, no, because I work on what my instructor tells me to work on

In a self-defense situation? Yea, I imagine I WOULD rely on my strengths to mitigate my weaknesses.

Do you feel that your strong points make up for the weaker areas?

To some extent, yes. But you never know what can happen — I want to have ALL the bases covered, and well.

With the growing interest in MMA and groundfighting in general, I want to be SURE that I am prepared to deal with someone who manages to take me to the ground.

In the one self defense situation in which I was taken to the ground since I've been training martial arts, it went very well for me (and poorly for him) — but then I don't think the attacker was particularly skilled.

I want to be prepared for the worst case scenario: an excellent grappler.

 

[CuongNhuka]

Strong: hand strikes, kata, weapons, drills

Weak: high kicks, kick combos, and to a lesser extent sparring

To improve high kicks: splits and drill 'em into muscle memory

To improve kick combos: see high kicks

To improve sparring: see my post in the "how do I get aggressive" thread

Yes and no. Mostly (mostly) I use kicks to enter into flurrys of hands strikes, and use a kick to retreat (step back, or sometimes hop back). But I still don't kick as well, or as much, as I could.

Again, yes and no. If I was in a fight/sparring match with someone who has much better skill then me with his/her hands then I would kick. But because my kicking skill isn't as good as I would like to be I'd be S.O.L. otherwise it does.

 

[Carol]

What are you strong points?

A quick-thinking mind, situational awareness, agility, flexibility, and to an extent, quickness.

What are your weak points?

Strength, power, learning anything motion-related, being injury prone

What do you do to improve on trouble areas?

Train anyway, even when its frustrating as all get out.

Do you find that you tend to rely on your strong points to compensate for the weak one?

Of course. Rather than chancing whether I can out-hit an attacker, I would rather out-think an attacker and avoid a physical confrontation altogether.

Do you feel that your strong points make up for the weaker areas?

No, but that's why I have come to respect my weapons training.

What do you do to improve on trouble areas?

I keep a realistic perception of my abilities. I'm easily stronger than the average woman, the trouble is I may not need to defend myself against an average woman.

So, I do what I can do, don't do what I can't do, and strive to improve overall.

 

[jdinca]

Strong points would be the ability to move quickly and smoothly. Also a good understanding of, and ability to apply the "soft hand" concept.

Weakness is definitely kicking, especially in my current belt where all the kicks in involve the words "jumping spinning", or "flying spinning". At 43, my battered body prefers to stay on the ground. I also have a tendency to hunch my shoulders forward a couple of inches, which throws off everything to some extent.

Fixing the problems involves repetition, repetition, repetition! As for kicks, I start with the basic ground version, move on to the spinning version and then try and get far enough off the ground to slip a piece of paper under my feet. As for the upper body, I find that incremental training helps immensely. I don't go on to the next move until the one I just did is exact. Then I'll put the movement together slowly and not speed it up until I can consistently maintain the detail at the slower speed.

Do I compensate? You bet! I would much rather bring the head down to the waist level than bring my foot to the head level. I also find that the ability to anticipate and move quickly, and smoothly helps quite a bit. It doesn't totally make up for the weaknesses but I'm working to correct that, mainly by working on the weaknesses.

 

[Slihn]

What are you strong points?

My kicks,I have always exceled at them,they are my favorite way to attack and I they what I train the most.

What are your weak points?

The Boxing range and the clinch.Clinch,I have never been good at the clinch,something I need to work on.I also have a bad habit of squaring off with my oppoent.

What do you do to improve on trouble areas?

There is not much I can do about the clinch without a parthner but I am going to try and apply some Jujitsu principles to the clinch.For the boxing range I am going to try and do boxing(only) drills with pads.

Do you find that you tend to rely on your strong points to compensate for the weak one?

Sometimes,but I am nowing trainig myself to mix for of my kicks up with setting up kicks with punches and punches with kicks.I also vary my angels of attack to keep my opponet confused.

Do you feel that your strong points make up for the weaker areas?

Yes and no.My kicks diffently make a difference but I dont beileve in favoring only one way of fighting.If I threw only kicks my oppoent whould only have to figure out one way to fighting me.

 

[ares]

As for my strengths: I'm strong and have excellent balance.
weakness: Flexibility.
how to improve: I usually slow down. If I'm having problems with something, I feel it's better to do each movement slow and properly then speed up. For my flexibility I stretch alot.
I never rely on my strengths. I try to work on my weaker points. If I get caught in a triangle choke, then I learn why this happened and find ways out of it. If you rely on strengths, then your weak points will never get better.