What do you work on?

[Kacey]

When you're working out alone, with friends, or in class, what do you work on? In another thread, one about stances, I started talking about what I work on in class in addition to stances, and decided to start a separate thread about what people work on when they work out, and how you decide what to work on any given night.

Here's where I'm starting from:

When I am working out - whether alone or in class - I am always working on something. If my sahbum says "work on this", then that's what I work on - but if not, I pick something for the workout or class, and unless I'm given other direction, that's what I work on. It could be stances, it could be preparatory movements, could be doing all my tuls at a certain speed, working on putting all of my kicks at a certain height, making all hand techniques double speed, work on focus... there are all sorts of things, and sometimes, I might pick several and trade off.

 

[jks9199]

It depends. I may practice a form or drill that I'm anticipating teaching. I may select one thing -- maybe as small as a step or pivot, maybe as large as an entire form -- and drill it, or experiment with using a particular technique in different situations...

Or I may dig through my notes, and find something there to practice.

If I'm practicing with someone else, we'll usually decide between us what we're going to work on, in much the same way. But I'll usually take advantage of the opportunity to do things I can't do alone.

 

[Tames D]

When working out alone I like to work the heavy bag and like JKS I like to go over my notes and manuals, especially very old notes and work them. I'll work forms. I also use this time to practice weapons.

When working out with others I just go with the flow and am open to whatever they feel comfortable with.

 

[exile]

I break solo workouts down into a few main types.

(i) bag workouts: I'm after power in my strikes. I do breaking for power practice with hand techs, but bag workouts give another angle on it and I do them for both hand/arm/elbow and kicking strikes.

(ii) balance workouts: slow-motion kicks to mid or higher points, freezing at full extension; slow-motion pivots and maximum force striking, to mid or higher points, freezing at full extension. Front snap kicks, turning kicks, side kicks.

—Slow motion pivots and maintenance of chambering positions (with bent knee 90º down from the vertical) for at least a minute or more.

(iii) hyung/kata workouts: carrying out form performances with deliberate effort to visual the motions as combat movements in combat scenarios, based on my analyses of the application of movement sequences in kata and hyung to actual fighting methods.

 

[Rich Parsons]

I work on balance and weight placement and also visualization and some timing in my mind.

 

[Skip Cooper]

I work on balance and weight placement and also visualization and some timing in my mind.

I do this as well, along with some strength and conditioning exercises. I enjoy doing chin na type wrist and hand exercises that I picked up along the way. The style of Hapkido that I train, we do not have forms so I just go through the curriculum of techniques with an imaginary opponent. Also, I imagine that I am fighting multiple attackers and sometimes I talk to them also

 

[jks9199]

Let me give you an example of a workout I did with someone not too long ago. He's a black belt in my system, but hasn't had the advantage of regular training with another instructor for some time. And, I've been incredibly fortunate in who my instructor is, meaning that I've had some very good training in our system. So, we wanted to review the basics, catch up on the current versions of some of the forms, and just plain bring some pieces and principles to light. We began reviewing together our basic punching and blocking drills, paying special attention to some pieces. We moved into the 5 basic forms of our system; again, we stressed certain pieces, and looked into some of the applications as we went. Finally, we put some of those pieces to work in a fighting stance. All told... about 2 or 3 hours of training. Much of it was "while I do this, I pay attention to..." or "this is an important piece that I've seen a lot of people miss..."

 

[searcher]

Forms and individual technique breakdown. I find it very refreshing to work on refining my technique more and more.

 

[stone_dragone]

I tend to do a lot of form work on my own. Usually I start going through my kata and at some point I stop and go "ok, what is that move all about?" if I come to something that I don't have an application for and I practice it and think about it and practice it some more until I get some kind of reasonable answer for either bunkai or oyo. Then at the next opportunity I try it on someone!

 

[terryl965]

When I am by myself I work on mostly the basics, stances Body wieght when moving and proper footwork.

 

[MJS]

When I'm training alone at home, that is the time that I like to really focus on the fine points. Techniques and kata will be done slow, breaking them down move by move. Make a move, then stop to check..are my hands in the proper position? Are my feet in the proper position? Am I moving on the right angle? Am I executing the move properly?

There are times when I'll do some shadowboxing, but again, slower. How is my movement? When I throw the punches and/or kicks, and I using proper form, etc?

Of course for things like shadowboxing, its always nice to have access to a large mirror. If thats not available, there have been times when I've taped myself and gone back to watch it after. A few weeks ago, my instructor and I taped our sparring session, and then watched it. Nice to be able to stop, rewind and watch again. The tape isn't going to lie, so any mistakes will be caught.

Mike