The benefits of training solo...

Though martial arts is essentially about learning self-defence, a process which requires at least two people (attacker and defender), it is also an art that can be practiced solo. I think that all martial arts have at least some elements that can be practiced solo. I love doing solo training at home and karate lends itself better than many martial arts to this end.

So what things can you do on your own that will enhance your overall performance of your marital art?

Here's my top ten list of solo training activities:

1.General fitness training. Which ever martial art you do, you don't need a partner to work on your general fitness and all martial arts require a relatively high degree of general fitness and strength to be done well. Fitness training should encompass endurance, strength and flexibility exercises.
                
2.Specific fitness training.  Depending on the art that you do and your objectives within that art you may need to do specific fitness training. If you do competition sparring then a higher than average level of carido fitness may be needed. You may need to strengthen specific muscles to improve kicking height or do flexibility exercises that specifically open up the hips. Or you may need exercises that work on fast twitch fibres to increase punching speed. All martial artist will have specific fitness needs over and above their general fitness needs. The trick is to identify what those needs are for your art and work on them.

3.Kata/Forms training. Not all martial arts include kata but many do and the advantage of training this in your own time is that you can do it at your own pace; choose the kata you want to work on and repeat sections you have particular difficulty with. There are all sorts of ways of practicing kata that you may not do in normal classes e.g. you can do kata as a flow drill with quick but soft flowing movements; you can practice with your eyes closed; facing in different directions; just do the leg work (that's really hard if you haven't tried it) or train it with full power and correct timing. If you are at home or in the gym you are in full control of how you do it.

4.Kihon training. All arts will have a set of fundamental principles or techniques designed to get you moving your body correctly and working on basic body mechanics and alignment. In karate much of this kihon training can be done solo though in other arts I accept that a partner may be required. I spend a lot of my solo training time practising kihon, often in front of a mirror so that I can see if my limbs and trunk are aligned correctly for the various techniques. Again, the advantage of solo training is that you are in control of which techniques you want to work on and how you want to do it.

5.Sparring combinations. Sparring combinations can be worked either against the air or against a heavy bag. Working it solo is a great chance to put together new combinations or practice old favourites. Obviously this is not a substitute for sparring with a partner but it is a useful adjunct that helps lay down a few memory maps for specific combinations.

6.Self defence with an imaginary partner. Yes, you can do some partner work without your partner being there! If you are trying to commit certain self-defence combinations to memory, such as ippon kumite or goshin waza techniques, then you can walk through these with an imaginary partner. You won't know how well  you can get them to work until you try them on a real partner but at least you'll remember what you're supposed to be doing.

7.Mental martial arts. Solo training doesn't all have to be physical. You can spend valuable time just thinking through kata or combination techniques to help fix them in the mind.

8.Reading. Reading about martial arts, whether it be about history, culture, technique or philosophy, should also be thought of as a form of solo training because it all enhances your general understanding of martial arts. Reading makes you think and broadens your martial arts horizons. By understanding your art (and others) in a cultural and historical context you become better able to interpret kata and look at how techniques can be transferred to a more contemporary context.

9.Writing. Writing is not everyone's cup of tea I know but it can be very useful. Writing can just consist of making your own private notes about techniques or keeping a training log. Alternatively writing can include researching and producing articles for a blog, if you are so inclined. For me, writing is very much a part of my solo training and my blogs are the place where I do most of my thinking about martial arts as well as communicating with other like minded people.

10.Meditation. Some will say that learning to meditate is an essential skill for every martial artist. You may or may not agree with this but having some quiet time alone to clear the mind and relax the body or to practice correct breathing can be as valuable to the martial artists training as any physical training. Martial arts is a mind-body thing so training the mind should have some priority in your training schedule.

This is my top ten ways of training solo. You may know other useful ways of training solo for martial arts, so why not leave a comment......

This article was inspired by Michele's article on Solo Karate Training

Training review and update

Where is the time going? When I started this fitness program and my black belt training I had 24 weeks to go - that's nearly 6 months, now I only have 14 weeks left and that doesn't seem very long at all. So much to do, so little time to do it!

One of the problems I'm facing is proportioning my time between general fitness training and specific karate training, particularly the stuff on the black belt syllabus. Over the last couple of weeks I've moved from doing mainly fitness training to doing mainly karate training. This is because there is so much to cover and I need to make quite a lot of progress in certain areas, particularly in some of the kihon (basics) which are very detailed and prescriptive.

A kick can't just be any old kick it has to be a super high-quality 'Marks & Spencer' style kick. Well some of my kicks are only 'Tesco' quality at the moment (some may even be 'Budgens'). No disrespect meant to these supermarkets - they operate in different customer markets but you get my drift. 


So how do you get from Budgens to Marks & Spencer with your kicks? Well it's just a case of checking your technique is correct and then practice, practice, practice. So this is what I have been doing. Lots.

However, spending much of my home training time practising basic kihon has meant that I don't have a lot of time to follow my general fitness program so I have had to prioritise and double up where possible. So instead of shadow boxing for endurance training I now go through all 12 of my kihon combinations several times. Believe me, when you are putting all your power and effort into performing these you really work up a sweat and get your heart going!

I am still doing squat training, balance training and the push up challenge on a regular basis and I try to do the flexibility exercises at least twice a week. The push up challenge has actually become the most constant exercise in my week. I have been following the program with almost religious zeal and I'm making progress. On Saturday (the end of week 5) I managed 120 push ups divided into 8 sets (with 30 done in the last set). However, I didn't do so well with the exhaustion set - I could only get to 35 whereas I needed to get to 45 to move onto the next week of the program. So I am repeating week 5 again this week. But hey, 120 push ups in 15 minutes (with short breaks between sets)? No way I could have done that a few weeks ago!

So, where to go now? I think I will be reviewing my training aims and re-planning my program a bit to reflect the need to spend more time practising specific karate techniques. I need to be thinking about by ippon kumite techniques (1 step sparring) and self defence techniques as well as continuing to practice kata and kihon. However, strength, fitness and flexibility are also important so I still need to fit this in somewhere.....

Keep you posted. Happy training!

This weeks fitness program...

It's a new week so I have a new exercise program to work on (see left side bar). Most of my endurance training is still done through shadow boxing though this time I have five specific sparring combinations to work on instead of just the random mess I did last week! I decided I may as well kill two birds with one stone with this shadow boxing and use the time to build up a core set of sparring combinations that I can actually use when sparring in the club.

The five combinations are taken from suggestions from Loren Christensen's book, Solo training: the martial artist's guide to training alone. The combinations are:

1. Backfist, reverse punch, roundhouse with front leg, reverse punch

2. Leading punch, reverse punch, rear leg front kick

3. Leading punch, reverse punch, outside crescent kick with lead leg

4. Roundhouse kick with lead leg, reverse punch, front kick with rear leg

5. Front kick with lead leg to groin, spinning back kick, backfist, reverse punch

I found some of these a bit tricky. It doesn't come very naturally to me to kick off the front leg, I much prefer to kick off the back leg but in sparring kicking off the front leg is probably better because it is quicker. It's going to take a few sessions to get these combinations imprinted on my brain but I may give some of them a go if we do some sparring in class tonight.

For my weights training this week I'm relying entirely on my body weight. A mixture of squats, tricep dips and press ups (push ups). The squats are essentially a drill of 3 different types of squats. The first set are done in the usual way with legs fairly wide apart, the second set is done with the feet closer together (just shoulder width apart) but the last set are the real killers! These are the same as the first set but you only do the lower half of the squat i.e. once you have sunk down into the squat you only come half way up before going down again. Try it - it hurts!

I've introduced press ups to the program, not because I like them (I don't) but because they are good for me! I can manage about 20 at the moment which is not many compared to some people but at least they are full press ups and not the girly ones with the knees on the floor. However, I'm a bit slow doing them and don't go down as far as I should but I'm working on it. My aim is to eventually be able to do 50 press ups.

This week flexibility training is still focused on legs, hips and back. I have a new set of stretches but this time they are all static stretches. However, I've just read a blog post on Zen to Fitness about improving hip health and mobility and the author suggests a range of exercises that are more dynamic in nature, so I may give them a go next session.

My karate focus this week will be on the side kick (I'm really lousy at this) and the otoshi (hammer fist) strike which I keep getting technically wrong. I'll also be practising Bassai Dai kata. I'm pondering about whether to actually film myself doing this kata and offer it to public scrutiny. It depends on whether I can cope with potential public humiliation! I'll think about it....

Fitness training - how did it go?

The first week of my training programme is over so how did I do? Well, not too bad! I managed to do the endurance, balance and weight training twice and the flexibility training three times. I also did a bit of kata training and some bunkai practice with my husband. This was on top of 5 and a half hours of martial arts classes so all in all I was quite pleased with the weeks training.

That's what I did but HOW did it go? The endurance training consisted mainly of shadow boxing and kicking drills. I wanted it to be context based i.e endurance training that is directly relevant to karate and enables me to get a sweat on as well as practice karate moves. I haven't really done much shadow boxing before and found the endurance part of it wasn't too much of a problem - I managed two rounds of 5 minutes each in a session which wasn't too bad considering I haven't done it before. The problem I had was thinking up different sparring combinations to do while I was bouncing around. Some of the combinations got a bit bizarre in the end!

With the weights exercises I found that I could actually do more reps than I had set out to do so I decided to double them. Or maybe I should increase the weight I am lifting and keep the reps the same? What's better for improving arm strength for punching - heavier weights or more reps? (I'm currently using 3Kg weights).

The stretching exercises I've been leaving until last and I've found these really relaxing and beneficial. I'm concentrating on the areas where I am most inflexible - the hips, back and legs - especially hamstrings. Stiffness in these areas affects the quality of my kicking so I'm determined to improve it. The stretches are a mix of static and dynamic exercises. I'm mainly working on the principle that dynamic flexibility is more important than good static flexibility in martial arts - what do you think about that?

This week I'm repeating the same exercise program but I've also decided to focus on a different kick, punch and kata each week. So this week I will be looking at the hook kick, maeken zuki (leading hand punch) and the kata seienchin. I've also realised that I need to make my training aims a bit more objective with some measurable targets, so I'll be thinking about exactly what I want those to be this week as well.

I'll keep you posted.......any tips, advice about fitness training will be welcomed. I'm no expert on this so I'm very open to suggestion

My training aims

I have just calculated that I have 23 weeks before the black belt grading date (assuming I am invited to grade and that they don't change the provisional date of June 12th that I have been given). I have a feeling those 23 weeks are going to go by pretty quickly!

I have been thinking about how to organise my training schedule and what my training aims should be. It doesn't seem sufficient to just keep working through the syllabus to perfect the various sections that have to be covered - that would be just about training for the test.

I've decided that my aims need to be a bit broader than this and not syllabus based. Overall my aim is to be a better, more skilled martial artist - picking up a black belt along the way is a short term goal but it isn't the be all and end all of my training. So, with that in mind I have set myself some broad aims on which to base my training:

1. To improve general fitness in terms of increased:

• Endurance;      
• Strength and muscle tone;
• Dynamic flexibility.

2. Development of good body alignment and movement:

• Improved posture and balance
• Better stances and stance transitions
• Improved punches, kicks and blocks
• Better use of hips

3. Better understanding and use of body mechanics to generate:

• Greater power
• Greater speed
• Increased reaction times

4. Develop a better sense and understanding of self-defence strategy, specifically better use of:

• Angles and evasion techniques;
• Strikes, counter strikes and blocks;
• Takedowns and throws;
• Locks.    
• Increase understanding of sen no sen, sen sen no sen and go no sen in a fight situation.

These are obviously long term aims that will take me far beyond shodan but hopefully I will improve in these areas sufficiently in 23 weeks to meet the shodan standard along the way.

These aims form the 'What' I want to achieve now I'm working on the 'How' I'm going to do it. Much of what I want to achieve will be done through the karate staples of kata, kihon and various types of kumite practice. However, I also plan to develop a program of specific drills and exercises that will help me improve my control over my own body, particularly in relation to my weaknesses which are kicks, balance, speed and reaction times.

What do you think of my aims? If you notice any gaping holes or have any suggestions then please let me know.