BME/BWE for strikers?

[SiDaiJoey]

Which exericises have people who practice striking arts found to be most helpful? I found that Hindu Squats and other leg drills were good for kicks and balance. Any tips for other kicking or punching training?


Joey

[Robert V]

There is nothing that will help a kicker more that the Four Corner Balance Drill. Also, leg infinities are a must. If you are a serious combative kicker, you must invest in the Leg Fencing Top Tool tape. It gives you almost everything you need.

Also, there are an abundance of hip opening movements in Bodyflow that will do you well. The scorpion, shinbox, swing split, flat foot squat, Cossack squat, leg thread....

Tons of heavy bag kicking causes tension to settle in your hip area. By expanding your the of motion in your hips, your kicks will be faster and harder, while you'll be kicking longer. Your hips will not have to work as harder to generate the power to kick.

"Be Breathe" will teach you how to activate your core muscles correctly. This will give you more power in your kicks and punches. It will also open your lower back up.

As for punching, movements like Quap hops will give you that elastic energy or plyometric strength to unleash your punches. Arm infinities, elbow rotations will keep your joints healthy. Arm screws will increase the range of motion in your shoulders, which will add punching power. Scott's one arm "screw ups" will give you strength through your arm and shoulders full range of motion.

All the neck rotations and slides will help you slip punches more efficiently.

I could go on and on............

[SiDaiJoey]

Sounds like a lot of good ideas. Seems like this will bear further thought.

Observe the following basic outline:

Warm up
Skill Work
Strength or Endurance (or both)
Cool down and loosening, breathing.

The warm up is mostly joint mobility and motion drills. It shouldn't be fatiguing enough to impact the skill or strength work.

As I define it here, skill work is specific to your discipline or sport. I guess you would call it SPP. Note that if anything is a new skill, it can be classified under "skill work" i.e. a new martial arts drill, a new weighted or BWE, or a BME you haven't gotten comfortable with yet. This outline would probably apply less where the strength or endurance activity IS your sport. I.e. if you are doing KBs, CBs, BWE, BME, etc to enhance a martial art or sport, its a little more complex than if you are a runner, cycler, swimmer, etc. That would be your "skill". The issue is how good you are at a particular drill of any type. If it is already learned, it can be in a strength or endurance conditioning segment, if it is new, it can go under "skill".

Strength or Endurance work is weight lifting of any kind, body weight exercises, running, jumping rope, swimming, biking, etc.

Cool down is stretching and BME.

If you had to break it down separately, I think Coach Sonnon said to use BME as active recovery either later in the day or on your days off. I like that idea.