Supplemental Training for Martial Arts

Kyokushin Karate is known for it's hard training and the fitness of it's members. Below is an excerpt from a post that appeared at The Martial Way on strength and conditioning. It's a quite comprehensive article. Even if you practice a soft martial art for meditation, this will give you some appreciation of the dedication and hard work these individuals put into their martial art. The full post may be read here.

Far too often you hear people saying their techniques are too deadly to need much physical conditioning, when in reality you are showing that you are inexperienced and unprepared.

You may be better off than the average Joe on the street unless he has also taken some classes. Or he may just be simply stronger, in that case you run the risk of getting your ego knocked in. Most people who want to fight are usually big and pretty confident in their abilities; they have something to prove and they don’t usually go out starting fights they think they will lose. The wimps you can beat usually do not want to fight in the first place; your training should protect you against a trained killer. You want to train smart and combine your conditioning to create a strong body ready for war.

How to Hit Harder and Faster

Besides talking from a technical perspective, there are two ways of looking at increasing the power of your strike. These methods are

• Developing the speed of your strike
• Developing the strength of your body behind the strike

Newtonian kinetic energy of rigid bodies states that   Ek=(1/2)mv^2

Or (Mass x Velocity Squared) Divided by two

This basically translates the mass of the object in motion is doubled when it hits with twice the amount of power, thus if you strike twice as fast your output will be four times the amount of force.

A rough example of this can be seen in a little bullet vs a baseball pitch, speed will be the victor.

Having speed can be very beneficial and wise to acknowledge if you are smaller framed or female. I find this formula gives good insight into understanding how legendary Bruce Lee was so powerful in his movements and able to be so fast and able to blow his opponents back with his strikes.

Looking at physics we clearly want to develop more speed to get the most impact; speed definitely has its advantages whether it is being the first to make contact, sneaking in the K.O shot, or simply just getting more shots in. So in order to increase our speed we must add different methods of stress to our body. You are an adaptive organism, and must constantly challenge yourself to produce growth and to gain increased results.

Before we move ahead it is very important that we first talk about technique as you will need a good foundation before pounding in hours of forming new muscle memory. So to go fast you must first go slow. That can sound counterproductive but let me tell you why. In the beginning when you are learning how to punch, you must first learn the proper way to strike and use your body weight before raising the speed. Using that Newtonian formula, being able to put your body weight behind your punch rather than just hitting with the strength of your arm alone will increase the mass behind your projectile.

Double the mass, double the output force, this can all be found within proper form which is what makes it so essential. Learning the proper method you will have to first learn all the little details. For example learning a punch you will first have to dig your foot into the ground, engage your legs, torso, and shoulders before delivering out the arm and clenching your fist upon impact. Of course all depending on which style and tradition you subscribe to, a simple punch can be taught in different ways. With incorrect movement comes unwanted movement which can be inefficient as it can create tells for your opponent, reduce your power, and slow you down with non-essential positioning.

So now let’s say you have been practicing slowly and diligently and have your footwork down. Your upper body form is present and you are consistently hitting your heavy bag or target with the right spot on your knuckles or hand. All while presenting proper penetrating force, not simply just slapping the bag and retracting. You can also add intent into your strike, for example imagining you are going to punch through the spine of the opponent.