Tweaking exercises to suit your combat art

[SiDaiJoey]

or as I like to call it, training the "fast and hard way"

I call it that because adding weighted drills that mimic or complement empty-hand techniques or moves often force the person training to use correct body structure and technique whether they like it or not.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions like that? I am a Wing Chun practitioner and have done stuff like that in the past, with some success. I'd like to hear what anyone else has similarly tried and done.

Joey

[Scott Sonnon]

Joey,

Take great caution in adding load to mimic martial art technique. You will create a 'new skill' which competes for dominance with your martial (unloaded) technique.

Read CT4CS in order to learn how to train the range and depth, the physiological profile and slightly outside the scope in order to STIMULATE rather than SIMULATE.

[SiDaiJoey]

Coach:

What sort of things does your book describe? Sounds interesting.

Below is a list of some of the things I have done along these lines, or was going to try to do. I was wondering what you thought of my ideas:


Overlying principles:
Extend the range of motion or resistance of movements I already know
Force body to align properly via external loading
Use extensions or new permutations of training methods I know already
Exercise body using both linear and rotational power.
If any dynamic tension exercises or weighted exercises are done, do the unloaded versions in the same session as well, afterwards.

I do not as yet own clubbells, due to the fact that I am a student with no money I use a 1-pood KB I bought 3 years ago, some odds and ends, and my imagination.

Notes for these exercise:

Snatches and swings done with fist in vertical position, not horizontal - to mimic Wing Chun punching
"Punch through" at the end.
Picture energy going from center into KB and moving it.

Angle Swing
Begin in neutral stance, resembling a Wing Chun stance.
Do a KB swing while rotating body 30 to 90 degrees off the center line into a Wing Chun front stance, facing in the new direction.
Rotate back as KB falls.
Power comes from hip snap and rotation.
Picture energy or power generated from center going into KB.

Angle Snatch
Begin as above.
Snatch KB as you angle off, shooting foot out into WC front stance.
As bell settles on your forearm, root yourself well.
Let bell fall and go back to neutral stance.
Idea is to force practitioner to root.

Angle Clean
Clean KB to shoulder or chest while rotating 90 off center.
Keep doing it for subsequent reps and rotate in a circle.

Stepping Snatch
Begin in neutral stance, resembling a Wing Chun stance.
Snatch KB, shooting foot forward into Wing Chun front stance and root as KB settles.
Can either let bell fall and regain to neutral stance, or stay in front stance and keep marching forward.
I felt this helped force me to root properly.

Clean-and-squat-jerk
cleaned KB to shoulder height
dip under it into squat on toes, knees pointed out (the opposite of the Wing Chun stance.)
drive from legs and jerk KB straight up, sometimes jumping a little.
(I noticed when I visiualized the energy shooting from my legs into the KB, the KB would actually rise off my forearm slightly and then reimpact me, whereas if I just "muscled through it, it didnt)
Point here was to balance out the Wing Chun stance by doing an exercise in the opposite type of stance.


Following are some things I wanted to try in the future (I apologize for the sketchy descriptions, as I haven't tried them yet):
1-legged snatch
stand w/ 1 leg extended in back of you off floor
as you snap forward, use hip drive to bring leg forward into a Wing Chun kick when snatch settles

1-legged C&J
similar to snatch, bring knee up and drive to chest when cleaning
kick forward or stomp foot down when jerking overhead

180 clean and jerk
clean bell to shoulder, do 180 degree plum flower turn, jerk bell up

Using CBs , do moves from Wing Chun hand forms, blade form or stickfighting moves, either as ballistics or grinding moves. Another one would involve working up to using an iron pole to do Wing Chun pole exercises.


What do you think, Coach? Am I on the right track? The exercises I did in the past worked well for me, I thought.

[Chuck Kechter]

Joey,

I'm not Coach Sonnon, however I thought I would chime in here for a quick "shot" at this. . .

Scott already gave you the parameter: Stimulate don't simulate.

What that means (to me at least) is if you're training SPP for WC, then you want to train the CHARACTERISTIC of the movement, NOT the movement itself (whether loaded, or unloaded). Using Coach Sonnon's Performance Diagnostic Trinity--WC would comprise your Comptetition and maybe Practice angles of the triangle, while exercise (whether loaded or not) would comprise the Training side.

In your descriptions above, you have a lot of movements directly from WC that you've added a load to. You'll find, over (a short amount of) time that these loaded versions of the "SAME" skills that you use within your martial study, will actually compete within your nervous system with the skill sets that you have already aquired. And these loaded versions will erode your exsisting skill base. Guaranteed.

Hopefully this helps.

V/R,

Chuck

[SiDaiJoey]

Thats an interesting paradigm. Before I decide to order the book(s), are there any articles that give an overview of this?

Joey

[Scott Sonnon]

Siff & Verkhoshansky, Supertraining Read section on "Stimulation not Simulation."

[SiDaiJoey]

Thanks Coach.

By the way, thanks for your quick response the other day when I was feeling down in the dumps. I am feeling better now. I have also decided that I need to focus for a while on locating old injuries and kinks in my performance. I already own the Body-Flow videos, but probably can't make any other major purchases for a bit due to budget constraints (translation: poor student with no job ), although I'd like to get some clubbells and joint mobility materials, as well as your martial arts materials. Is what I have available to me already enough to help me get started on ironing out my movements and find blocks and kinks in my performance?

Don't mean to sound like I am mooching at all. You already give away so much time and energy to us for free, and I am amazed at it. Everytime I see a new product come out here, I feel like a kid watching toy commercials and thinking, I WANT that! I just want to use what I have so far, before I move on.