Kung Fu Training

Flexability

2009-08-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

Why does trying to attain flexibility, have to be so boring. I was out of the game for a few years and not practicing at all and for the past 2 years I've been in retrain mode. I just want to say I've completely gained back my flexibility by using probably the most simple and crude routine.

warm up before practice
include hundreds of leg raises (build up to that, you don't want to injure hips) front and side, which is great for cardio.
move to kicking again as above build up my rep threshold
then do very simple stretches;

splits; single leg and both legs,
toe touches,
runners lunge stretch (takes pressure off the knees),
back bends
back arch push ups.
neck side and front/back.

I only include this because I think like others, I hate stretching my attention span starts floating to cloud nine. When I started over again, I was over weight, and it was hard to stretch because of acid reflux so I focused on loseing the weight and kept stretching simple until I finally lost the pounds. Also when stretching, tense the muscles for 30 sec. then progress the stretch a little further.

Classical Kunf Fu Training

2009-07-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of classical Martial Arts. Through
out my long life of training I've been disappointed in
the cultural misconceptions over the practicality of
classical martial arts. I think the reason for this
is the need to learn everything right off the bat with
the idea that this may help me defend myself ie;
being a black belt, collecting forms, and so on.
the thing with classical martial arts is that it has
an awful lot to comprehend and offer as long as you
master the basics and become coordinated with
mobility between you and another person.
I grew up getting in more fights than I wanted
because I am disabled I was just plain odd there fore being a
sore thumb I got plenty of practice. I comprehended
from an early age that one or two good techniques can
go a long way in self defense. This brings to mind
stories of Bagua Chuan Masters who used to teach a
student a technique then instruct them to master it
in terms of the 8 different directional diagram and
practice it with focus for at least a thousand times.
Now a days when you go to some schools to much focus
is on getting to the next belt (because it makes
great party conversation), like going to a junk food
machine with Gong fu fighting moves you aren't fully able to
implement. This is why people of popular opinion
look at Kung fu and say "That don't work" lets try
and figure out why. When you compare western
boxing with more complex forms of martial
arts is that in boxing they spend
their full career using the same techniques over and
over giving one the advantage to learn and use
intuitively, Kung fu is the exact same, yet one can
spend many years jumping the gun and wasting their
time.

SOME GUIDLINES

EVADE THE SITUATION
1st if you have a chance do not engage in the
fight, we are humans not monkeys, we don't need to put the
one life we have to live on line for something as
malleable and intangible as pride. It is not the aim
of Kung Fu to ask you to be a Martyr for others
entertainment. Keep in mind law getting beat up is
sometimes not the only negative repercussion.

OFFENCE & DEFENSE

Blocking can leave you open and would only suggest doing
so when it is necessary, it is better to learn to
beat the adversary to the punch, if you understand the
pattern or parry and strike simultaneously as with the
Leopard style,, instead of blocking then striking,.
The tiger claw or palm strike is
more practical then your fists unless you've been
conditioning them for years you'll end up like every
other macho dim wit in the clinic with an injured
wrist and or hand. Also as far as punching goes,
I've been using Bruce Lee's fighting method
since I could read and the bottom 3
knuckles have always felt more stable, a wider
surface and most importantly in alignment with
my body weight when using my hips.
There is a lot of variations of parrying in
Kung Fu and it is a key maneuver in the Dragon style, and
Drunken styles were you swivel your body in defense. Yet when
I see people utilizing Kung Fu I see a lot of backing
up and hopping in and out, this only shows they have
not properly understood that many Kung Fu
styles are great for inside fighting.
I personally use a side stance, in more
modern mixed martial arts styles its preached against, but lets
look at lines of defense. The directions you are
moving are side to side up and down, not back and
forth so much (unless you are beginning or it is necessary)
Not only does it look bad in the ring, but if your
in a street fight you may not have any where to back
into, your training needs to reflect this. Once you
move out of range and back in all you are doing is
starting over, learn to stand your ground not play
chasy chasy.

INTEGRATION
This is mainly when learning forms, or learning
from media where you are not in an actual class. Most of
the time there will be some example of how to apply a
Technique, but try to take it a step beyond that,
Think of other ways you could use the maneuver alone what
the name of the maneuver might imply and so on.
In animal styles the melanistic
form or color of an animal (black tiger) usually means a deceptive
movement or golden dragon the “fare colored” more forceful, though it
is not always the case. Like stated above in comparison to boxing, you
can take a technique combine it defense and practice how
to box with that technique if that were all you had. You may find
that many styles are exploiting a lot of the same basic techniques
and with animal styles there is a short list of techniques per animal.
A master would have take the techniques out of order of the form and
integrate them into different situations.

THOUGHTFUL SHADOW BOXING
Shadow boxing is a very
effective form of training and
cardiovascular health. When shadow, boxing if it is
not applied lazily and mindlessly (if your goal is self defense)
you will gain many benefits. You could
replace all forms of aerobic programs if you spent 60
minutes of free style shadow boxing. One thing I do
is shadow box slowly for about 15 minutes then speed it
up. The reason I start off slowly for the fallowing reasons ;

Effective warm up
To a small extent you are utilizing Chi Kung in the same way Tai Chi does minus the actual self defense techniques. This is typically done with other styles as Tai Chi is not the sole practicing art that utilizes chi Kung as a way to augment its style.
If you let your mind go and flow it will cause you imaginary opponent to execute unexpected strikes, you now have a chance to figure if you are about to do makes sense, or are you just throwing you strikes out at random.
Slow practice insures you will do the right thing in practice, real time shadow boxing, and defense situations.

You are more likely to respond to danger with
competence and focus if you practice with competence
and focus.

Interval Training

2009-07-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

Just a little blurb on interval training and calisthenics. Interval training is when you drive your heart rate up to just over its norm to force you body to strengthen and then lower the exertion until you are ready to exert harder again. Jogging can be hard on the joints, and not a lot of stress is put on foot work. There fore in an interval training session I mix foot work drills with calisthenics . Here is an example.

Back and forth footwork
Leg raises front
Side to side parrying
Leg raises side
Run in place
Ducking
Back and forth with increase distance
crunches
Side to side parrying
Push ups
Sprinting in place
Ducking
Back and forth with increased distance
Frog jumps
Sprint in place

This isn’t my exact schedule, but you get the idea. This is obviously nothing new but if you are new to this type of training it can help bring you up to a better state of cardiovascular health with out too much undo strain and 30 minutes of this is all you really need until you decide to add more to your plate.

Gung Fu Training Schedule

2009-05-27T01:46:00.000-07:00

Training schedules aren’t meant to be static. It is important to pay respect to you muscles and figure out how best to compose you training schedule to meet your goals in the most efficient manner. Here is in chronological order how I might arrange my routine.

Be prepared to eat and wait an hour or so before exercise, or fast during your routine. Even though it goes against the grain I prefer to catch my meal so to speak, and wait until I’ve exerted myself. If you exercise in the morning you are more likely to burn fat and give your body more time to detoxify if you prolong the fasting period.
Meditation; Do a meditation that enhances you awareness like a simple breath counting meditation for 5 minutes or so. A Buddhist monk said “For every hour a student meditates he has probably only spent 3 minutes actually in focused meditation.”, therefore it is more important that you focus to get your mind geared toward the task ahead of you.
Qi Gong or insert any metaphysical routine you’d like.
Light Warm up and Stretches (harsh stretching before exercise can injure you, this will mostly be done after you routine.)
Jogging
Weight lifting; Anaerobic slow twitch muscles need to be worked before Aerobic fast twitch Muscles .
Interval Training - this is only my personal decision but I use interval training with techniques. What I mean is I will do calisthenics then cardio, techniques then cardio. (I will expand on this in another blog)
Gung Fu Sets - I do this first to get all my techniques I will be practicing fresh in mind, then pull them apart individually as my next task.
Techniques alone
Shadow Boxing
Stretching and cool down.

For some they would rather lift weights after practice in order to use all their energy toward practice. I want the most from my weight lifting and realize by exhausting my fast twitch muscles by cardio activity it is harder to engage the slow twitch muscles that grow. There is also about a 45-60 minute window to engage your slow twitch growing muscles in anaerobic activity, if you waist this on cardio you are not strengthening or growing your muscles in an optimal manor. As you can see I am a little gung ho, but all this is suggestion and open to customization obviously. Not every one is into Martial Arts to the extent that I am, and may not have time or you just have a life for which you have higher priorities to pay attention to. Based on your needs all these are just examples and basic tenants to keep in mind. Below are some programs dealing with Martial Arts directly and in-directly that may help you reach your goals in a manor more tailored to you life style.

Resources

2009-05-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

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