Conditioning

Impact Conditioning Gear A friend of mine brought up an interesting point the other day.  As a forty-something year old martial artist, and an individual who makes his living as a writer, he questioned the wisdom of continuing his daily…

[sc:q5ad] Milestone with Your Training Partner One of the milestones in a relationship with a training partner in karate is the first time you realize you can safely spar with them without the need for pads. In an ideal world,…

Introduction to Conditioning In karate, the word “conditioning” tends to be used in two ways–as it relates to fitness and as it relates to toughness.  Each aspect is more or less important depending on why you train, but both have…

[sc:q5ad] The Problem This morning I was looking around Google and stumbled upon this “question” on Yahoo and thought it was worth talking about. “I am 43 and have been strength training for four straight years, but have never trained…

Juju Undo: The Karateka’s Shadowboxing Shadowboxing is a fantastic tool that boxers use to work technique, timing, speed, movement and cardiovascular fitness.  Karateka have the a similar tool called juju undo, which is literally translated as “give-and-receive exercise” or, more…

The makiwara (literally “wrapped straw”) post is an iconic piece of karate training equipment that has a little bit of mystery behind it.  Most often you will hear people talking about using it to toughen their knuckles, but that is…

“Your fingers and the tips of your toes must be like arrows, your arms must be like iron.” – Chosin Chibana Most karateka these days, though not all, certainly, will not be training their fingers and toes to be like…

In serious martial arts schools we train hard. We punch, kick and block with intensity and purpose. We sweat and we pant by the end of class and often leave with bruises and sore muscles. Every now and then there…

It is a regular trend for me to use topics from my own training for posts on here. Today is no exception. We have recently been looking into purchasing the somewhat standard interlocking mats that you see in many Karate…

I have previously discussed the wearing or not wearing of a traditional karate gi inside of the dojo. Tonight I wanted to throw out my thoughts on Martial Arts shoes. As I was going through the ranks, I was always…

First Experience I remember my first time watching Jean-Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport and thinking that martial arts was about breaking bricks and kicking people off platforms. Then I grew up and learned that it is all a bunch of…