relaxation

[lonecoyote]

An instructor once told me that two of the keys to speed were repetition and relaxation, because if you're tense when you throw a punch or any technique, all the opposing muscle groups will work against each other, so you have to relax a bit. Repetition makes for speed too because the body knows where to go, what you're doing because you've done it thousands of times. Do you agree or disagree? How do you make yourself relax for speed, especially during sparring? How many reps of a technique, like a kenpo technique or a one step does it take for the body to build memory speed?

 

[Paul Genge]

Relaxation under stress is a key skill, but physical relaxation is only the start. Being mentally relaxed is of far greater use. Often martial arts practicioners get theirselves so worked up about dealing with attacks that they see an attacker around every corner. This psycological presure can place the practioner under stress and one of the symtoms of this is physical tension. Also some sorts of exercises can tense up the practioner. An example of this would be the use of large numbers of pressups carried out very rapidly with little or no thought on breathing.

Exercises that relax the student are useful. Slow exercises that are combined with breathing are good. Also using exercises that put you under both physcial and mental stress are good if used to teach relaxation. One example of this is to lay on the floor and have four partners each get hold of an arm or leg. They slowly apply locks and twist them in all sorts of directions, but do not act as a team. You concentrate on relaxed breathing and move with the directions of the presure on the different joints whilst trying to relax and stay calm. A 5th person may then want to walk on you or cause you pain. With all this stimulus the mind cannot concentrate on everything. It starts to forget about some of the pain and it then relaxes.

Very slow pushups are great to learn punching. They have to be combined with breathing and the thing to do is to concentrate on relaxing all the muscles you do not need for the movement. The reason for this being a good exercise for punching is because the mechanics of a punch and a push up are similar on the arm.

Another part of being relaxed is to not try to hurt your opponent. If they get hurt by the situation they have created so be it, but don't try to cause them harm. If you react with this mind set it does not stop you from reacting effectively, but ensures you react naturally to the situation and this will both speed up your reaction time and stop you from trying to force a technique to work in a situation where it is in not appropriate.

Paul Genge
http://www.russianmartialart.org.uk

 

[lonecoyote]

Thanks, Paul, those are fascinating answers and techniques and I will be trying some of them. These are things I can start putting in my own training right now. Great stuff. Thank you again.

 

[Tydive]

100% agree with Paul.

Another thing that most people mess up on is the relaxed part. It's not relaxed like a wet noodle, it's relaxed with dynamic tension. Your upper body should feel like it is resting into your lower body, your lower body into your feet, your feet into the ground... Use your bones to support you, which requires excellent posture and balance.

Once you can stand still in relaxed but dynamic fashion then you can start to move properly. When moving let the body guide your attacks (yes I am of the formless school) if you stay in balance with a full center and everything driven from the feet you will find that you are much faster and more powerful.

Keep in mind that the shoulder is not part of the punch. The punch starts from the feet, to the center, to the elbow. Another way to say it, the the foot moves the hip, the shoulder moves with the hip, the hip drives the elbow, your foot and fist land at the same time. Make sure that when you punch you are not twisting your body and that your shoulder stays solid.

As for repetition, it takes 25 reps to get something into muscle memory. I like to do a new move several hundered times at various speeds. I start at 1/2 speed to get the basic mechanics, then slow it down to Tai Chi speed. I then get a feel for the movement so that I can stop it at any point and go in another direction. Once I think I know the move, I will try it at faster and faster speeds with a partner calling green light / red light until I have total control at any speed. Then I will add it to sparring, and not have to worry about hurting anybody because of my lack of control.

This all starts and ends with having a centered mind/body/soul. Do those funky breathing and meditation exercises, they are just as important as being able to perform a move.

 

[Han-Mi]

I'm just posting to say I agree with your instructor. And the rest of you guys too.
Oh, and as for how many times you have to do a technique, about 500,000 times.