How to be the best

[terryl965]

I'm asking this question for the simple reason of exploring different avenue's for my kid's further training... Not looking for the basic that we all know but specific drills to increase mobility as well as strength, along with speed and power..... I believe this forum has some wonderful instructors as well as students that may have some fresh ideals.... God Bless America

 

[TigerWoman]

Since it is hard to know what your child's strengths and weaknesses are, we have to guess. Is he/she overweight? Weight is a factor in mobility. Does he eat well-vegetables, meat, fruit, milk products, carbos, vitamins–nutrition is a factor for energy and strength-building.

As for speed and power, they come from practice if the before mentioned factors are met. We do drills - like running around objects like cones, jumping from corner to corner (mats), over barriers, sparring drills-slide jumping front, side, combinations -like hop side, spin side to get quicker.

You can also cross train. My son's skateboarding activities, led to some awesome jumping ability. Skateboarding ie broken arm can be counterproductive to TKD, though.

How often does your son/daughter practice? 2 - 3 times/wk is pretty minimal and gain is seen more slowly. 5 times a week would bring much more visible and faster gain in strength and speed from my experience.

:asian:

 

[terryl965]

Since it is hard to know what your child's strengths and weaknesses are, we have to guess. Is he/she overweight? Weight is a factor in mobility. Does he eat well-vegetables, meat, fruit, milk products, carbos, vitamins–nutrition is a factor for energy and strength-building.

As for speed and power, they come from practice if the before mentioned factors are met. We do drills - like running around objects like cones, jumping from corner to corner (mats), over barriers, sparring drills-slide jumping front, side, combinations -like hop side, spin side to get quicker.

You can also cross train. My son's skateboarding activities, led to some awesome jumping ability. Skateboarding ie broken arm can be counterproductive to TKD, though.

How often does your son/daughter practice? 2 - 3 times/wk is pretty minimal and gain is seen more slowly. 5 times a week would bring much more visible and faster gain in strength and speed from my experience.

:asian:

I've been in the Arts for 40 years old school.... My oldest is 10 5'4" 74 lbs. Ist pooms, he his the head hunter very fast like flashy.... 2nd is 7 yrs old 41 lbs. no power likes the sidekick and backkick, 3rd is 5yrs old 48 lbs. he's a fighter.. just looking for new ideas you know old school does not work with todays youths...They come to our dojo 6 day's a week the oldest work out 2 to 4 a day 4 days training conditioning and self defense, 2 day's he spars, my baby come everyday but only work out 4 days a week 2 conditioning and self defense and 2 days sparring.... God Bless America

 

[MA-Caver]

I've been in the Arts for 40 years old school....

No offense, but "40 years in the Arts", old school or not, one would think that you've got the best answer to your own question of "how to be the best".
I wince at the thought of trying to "be the best". Probably because I've developed the view that we're all equal, though better trained at some things than others. But a parent's expectations of their own child is thier own expectations and nobody else's business.
For my two cents worth, kids (that) young shouldn't have to worry about "being the best" ... "doing their best" sure... If another student in their class gets a higher belt than they do...big deal. As long as they're learning at a pace they're comfortable with and without pressure to hurry to advance.
In my own experience it takes time to be the best at whatever you want to do.
:asian:

 

[Ceicei]

I think he meant the school is 40 years old, but I may be wrong. What I can see, however, is his school apparently is very traditional "old school" type.

- Ceicei

 

[terryl965]

No offense, but "40 years in the Arts", old school or not, one would think that you've got the best answer to your own question of "how to be the best".
I wince at the thought of trying to "be the best". Probably because I've developed the view that we're all equal, though better trained at some things than others. But a parent's expectations of their own child is thier own expectations and nobody else's business.
For my two cents worth, kids (that) young shouldn't have to worry about "being the best" ... "doing their best" sure... If another student in their class gets a higher belt than they do...big deal. As long as they're learning at a pace they're comfortable with and without pressure to hurry to advance.
In my own experience it takes time to be the best at whatever you want to do.
:asian:

I've been in the art for 40 years and yes I know what I'm doing but you see everybody have new idea's and I'm always on the search for new ways to train... And being the parent as well as coach teacher subanim, well if you ever been all of these you would know how hard it was, as for my other students I expect then to try there best, but as far for my three, I expect more out of them then anybody else...... SORRY...... God Bless America

 

[Shu2jack]

"How to be the best" really should be changed to "How to be their best". No matter how much we may want it for ourselves in our training or our kids in their training there will always be physical limits for each individual person.

That being said I would have to ask how old your kids is. Children learn by having fun. They have to truly enjoy what they are doing and want what they are training for or else they will burn out. One of the things I would suggest is playing in sports. When I was younger and in the martial arts I played football for a 1 1/2 years. It improved my conditioning, worked on my agressiveness, increased my speed, improved my agility, and toughened me up. While football helped improve me physically I would concentrate on forms and technique drills to help improve my martial art technique. Overall, I felt this greatly improved myself. Not only that, but I also got to interact with kids my own age due to football, learned to cooperate as a team member, and kept me from burning out with the MA while still improveing my body which carried over to the MA.

I only played football, but other sports can help. Track can increase endurance and speed. Basketball can improve hand-eye cordnation and agility. Etc. While playing in sports will probably slow down your child's rank advancement (it did for me), the goal here is to help your child improve and to help them become their best. Part of being your best, in my opinion, is being a well-rounded person and exposeing a child to different physical activities will help them become more well-rounded AND help them with their MA training.

 

[terryl965]

shu2jack, As I said in the post my kids age and what they like and the hours they train, We always have fun no matter what, but they are competitors themself, and YES you are right by saying there best not mine appreciate the correction,thank you, As far as knowing everthing no buddy does he that quits learning never recieves true enlightment int he Arts.... My opion... God Bless America

 

[TigerWoman]

I've been in the art for 40 years and yes I know what I'm doing but you see everybody have new idea's and I'm always on the search for new ways to train... And being the parent as well as coach teacher subanim, well if you ever been all of these you would know how hard it was, as for my other students I expect then to try there best, but as far for my three, I expect more out of them then anybody else...... SORRY...... God Bless America

I took this as trying to be their best. That's all anybody can do, we are all unique and different individuals. Your children are all pretty young. I would think it would be better not to voice any expectations, just encourage, give them opportunities to do their best. Children will do their best for their parents anyway.

I have seen the reverse happen when the instructor/master told the oldest of his three sons, "you can jump higher than that" or held their test off for months so they would perform better than anyone else. The too high expectations of the father made the oldest always feel that he could never please him so he gave up trying. He eventually came back as an adult but the problem is still there for the other two.

Also, I forgot that kids love games. Running contests, crawling contests, monkey runs, crab walk backwards around cones and log rolls. Get a stopwatch and time them. We even do this for adult class although I'm not so crazy about it as kids are.

 

[Shu2jack]

As far as knowing everthing no buddy does he that quits learning never recieves true enlightment int he Arts....

Not sure if that last part was still directed to me...

I never suggested that people know everything, but merely be exposed to a lot of different things. Martial Arts is a very individual activity and focuses on the improvement of one's self. While I would recommend to any parent that their child should take any form of quality MA, I still feel children should be exposed to other activities. Sports like football, basketball, baseball, etc. not only encourage the physical fitness and skill that will benifit your children as Martial Artists, but will also help them socially in dealing and working with others and learning how to suceed as a group. My instructor is very traditional and ran his classes like a boot camp, but that wasn't quite the same as when I was in football and I had 11 guys REALLY trying to take my head off. Different kind of training and it benifited my MA training.

I am also not suggesting that your children quit the MA, but perhaps try their hand at doing both.

 

[Marginal]

http://www.ringside.com/pdf_files/boxing_manual.pdf

Lots of good training advice in there. Dunno if it'd be advisable to put a 9 year old etc through that though.

 

[MichiganTKD]

As stated above, don't really agree that 9 year old kids need to be the best. Why pressure them like that?

However, after black belt, I would recommend taking a set of techniques (kicking, hand techniques, blocking etc) that you feel comfortable with, practicing them relentlessly, getting advice from other BB, and working to improve them.

Be realistic though. Not everyone can jump effectively. Your body will tell you what techniques are right for it-those techniques will feel natural. Watchi ng your child practicing various actions will tell you what techniques are right for him-the balance, coordination, and timing will just be right.
Some people will jump well, some people will have excellent spinning kicks, some people have great power techniques. I happened to be good at everything

Anyway, find those techniques that seem to match your child's body and practice those again and again until they are second nature, constantly improving them. Be creative-think of new drills that might help bring up those techniques. There are some very good traditional drills, but a little creativity (keeping it simple) works too.

Be patient too. You don't want to have him get burned out on TKD by having him think he must succeed to keep his dad happy.

 

[terryl965]

Thanks Michagan TKD I try not to put pressure on any of my kids, now my wife thats a different story HA, HA, HA

 

[MichiganTKD]

Be aware also, little kids should not see TKD as work. While they need to put effort into it to succeed, they don't need to practice with the same mentality as adults. I think if an 8 year old white belt wants to practice jumping or high kicking, go ahead. Again, as they advance, they will find out what techniques work for them and focus more on those techniques. When they get older, and their minds get more serious, is when stronger teaching can be applied.