Bunny Hop Drills!

[Lynne]

I went to class this morning and am going tonight - must be nuts, lol.

We did bunny hop drills this morning. We held a staff over our heads, squatted down, and hopped forward on the balls of our feet. When we reached the "blue line," we rolled over backwards. After the fifth time, I finally got the roll. I kept getting stuck initially, ha ha. I finally used loads of momentum and rolled on my shoulder to go over (thanks to Master R).

It was a lot of fun. I was wondering why the black belts were groaning, the wimps. Oh...they'd just had a three-hour class before mine where they bunny-hopped forward and backwards for five sets. Yikes.

I'm feeling pretty stiff and class is at 7:00. I'm sure I will live. If we do bunny hops tonight, it might be a tad difficult for me.

Have you done bunny hops before? They were doggone tiring after 5 sets. Horrors of horrors, I imagine we will have to do hop laps around the Dojang sometime soon. Who said Karate isn't aerobic?

 

[crushing]

Not bunny hops like that, but we do have a set of hops that is a warmup for and leads into what we call our evasion sets.

First, imagine a line straight out from your starting point across the gym. As you face forward jump from side to side over that line (like skiing the moguls). Next is to jump back and forth over that line but landing with your back to the line. Now facing down the line again high step over the line with the 'inside' foot then follow with the 'outside' foot before the inside one lands. This is the warmup for the evasion sets, which are:

1. Shuffle in, shuffle back at a 45 degree angle, reverse punch, shuffle back in again and step through to do the other side. Repeat across the gym.
2. Shuffle in, shuffle out at a 90 degree angle, round house kick, shuffle back in again and step through to do the other side. Repeat across the gym.
3. Shuffle in shuffle past at a 135 degree angle, spinning hook kick, shuffle back in again and step through to do the other side. Repeat across the gym.

It's good for endurance/stamina and balance. Gotta watch it, those last kicks could start to get sloppy.

 

[Steel Tiger]

I first encountered hopping drills a long time ago when I was doing athletics. They are great for developing calves but you have to take care of your knees. Good stamina workout too.

 

[donna]

Bunny hops, the duck walk, and the bear crawl. The kids classes used to love them, but the adult classes were a different story. Nothing so elegant as a group of adults with their bums in the air doing the bear crawl!!! not to mention the sore muscles the next day!!:erg:

 

[JT_the_Ninja]

We sometimes do a drill where we squat down, balancing on the balls of our feet, hands clasped behind the back. We then bounce forward down the length of the dojang and back. It's murder on my flat feet.

 

[claireg31]

scottish variation -
bunnies, squat to the floor and leap up with your arms in the air, must have done about 60 of them at training last night, no wonder my legs are so sore today, and yes, they kill the knees

 

[FieldDiscipline]

I used to do things like that. I then decided I wanted to be able to walk in 5 years! Your knees will not forgive you.

 

[RamonRivera33489]

You want to talk about a killer leg exercise class?!

This past Wed. we had a basic techniques class. We started with laps around the dojang. Followed by stretching. Followed by jump squats. Followed by duck walks.

So our legs are already getting tired. We then went into kicking basics. We drilled front kicks up and down the floor but after each front kick we had to go into a lunge and hold it until we were told to come up. We then did the same thing with round kicks, side kicks, etc. We then went into jump kicks!

After that was hand techniques. We did a lot of things in side stance and had to hold a squat after each move. Im not talking about holding a side stance...im talking about a squat.

After that we went into this drill where you had to run up a line, backwards down the same line, then side shuffle to the next line. Once you got to the end you had to duck walk back. We did two laps of this. And while you waited your turn you had to do either push ups, sit ups, or jumping jacks.

And then to finish the class off we ended with 25 squat jumping jacks.

Needless to say my legs are still sore today!

 

[Boomer]

ACK!
There's serious trauma to be had due to bunny hops. I did a paper on injuries a year or so ago, and I cited a journal of medcine that alludes to the differences in Westerner's knees versus Asian knees. I know many of the old school asian martial artists believe in bunny hops all day long, but it is terrible for westerner's knees. When a westerner's knee is fully bent, the amount of impact it can take is FAR less than an Asian persons. This results in tears, strains and sprains, not to mention the long term effects of loss of cartilage, bone density, ans sinovial fluid.
I'll see if I have the rest of the info lying around on a jump drive somewhere.

 

[Lynne]

I'm glad to see there are other people who work out as hard as we do or harder (the conditioning for the black belts if much more intense of course).

I was wondering about the knees. I was trying to figure out how to do the hop correctly but not load up the knees. At first, I was going all the way down and springing up fairly high. The last few sets, I modified by not squatting down so far and not jumping so high.

Before I began taking classes, my current classmates were doing bunny hops over one another. One day, I will do those as well. We have to jump much higher with those which would be more impact on the knees as you strike the floor I suppose.

In the four months I've been taking classes, this is the first time I've done bunny hops. Maybe we won't do them too often.

Oh, and yes, I'm still sore. It was Thursday morning that we did them. I went to class Thursday night and Saturday morning. Today is Sunday and the soreness is much better but still there. Friday was the worse day. I went "Ahhhh!" every time I rose from the couch.