What things do you give highest priority in solo training? I know sparring is important but I am talking about when nobody is around, just to make it clear so nobody says “training freely against resisting opponents”. Personally I like to give my forms highest priority since they have conditioning built into them and they are very demanding on the cardio side, I do each one 5x and do the San Zhan 10x, This equals a hell of alot of repitions. Other than that I have a set of exercises that I created that are holding postures and stretches from CMA but to the untrained person “looks like yoga”. With bagwork I tend to do whatever I feel like I don’t have a specific routine. Of course when there is someone to train with I free spar(anything goes including using the enviorment with little protective equipment full contact to the body and medium on the face) and do basic take downs and joint locks. What do you guys give prioity in your training, with an emphasis on your solo stuff?
It looks like you’ve developed a pretty good solo routine.
I mostly look at problem areas or developing sports specific muscle groups.
A problem area can be defined as what do you like to do the least in your training. Usually that’s a sure sign that your not comfortable with that aspect of your personal development. To give you an example, when I was in Track, if I hated distance running, that usually meant that I had to develop more endurance by doing more distance running. Difficulty in sprinting was a sign of poor tolerance to lactic acid and poor anerobic conditioning. You get the point. So, if you don’t like strength training, you probably need more and etc.
I also look at what events that I’m training for. If I’m doing forms competition, then I look for more flexibilty, precision in movement, endurance, and building of explosiveness that I need for when I go from being still to motion and big jumps. So I tailor my training around that. I do plyometrics to build up leg strength and explosiveness, advanced stretching routines for flexibility, and I do the forms— practice, practice, practice…
If I’m getting ready for a fight, I develop myself accordingly. In fighting, I need good anerobic conditioning. The way I develop that is to look at the max number of rounds or time that I expect to fight. If it’s 3 two minute rounds, then the max amount of time is 6 minutes. I then go out to the track and set my stopwatch for 6 minutes. I sprint for as long as I can, then I drop to a regular pace to regain my strength, then I sprint for as long as I can, then I pace… I keep doing this for the entire six minutes. I’ll build up a tolerance to lactic acid and that style of running more closely resembles what my body is going through in the match. I also need explosive leg and arm strength and power, and good reaction time to take advantage of an opening when it’s there. The way I do that is through bag work. If I can, I find somebody to give me an irregular “go” call to do my bagwork to. I have them say “go” and I do a combo on the bag. I try to minimize the time between my reaction and their “go” call and I have them call at an irregular pace so that I don’t or can’t anticipate. I also need leg strength so I do the horse stance for a long time or go to the gym, or, better yet, I do both.
You should get the point by now. Look at what you’re training for and tailor your workout for that activity.
Solo training, I think is beneficial for all sports/atheletes. You can’t simply spar all the time, everyday, and not work on the mechanics, methods, details, of your tecniques. I do a lot of solo training when I’m not rolling at dojos, etc. I do warm ups, drills, grappling dummy drills, etc. I work my tecniques, my power, my endurance, speed, etc.
My main focus for solo training is body mechanics, endurance, and position (for grappling)
Ryu
Single palm change and eight palms circlewalking.
5 lb heavy rope 6 rounds, 30 seconds on 30 seconds off.
Work up to 1 minute on 30 seconds off.
Sandbag workout, throwing it, cleaning it, clean and jerk, etc.
Most of my solo training these days consists of weapons forms and ki exercises.
If I had access, I’d also include heavy bag, speed bag, and doublestring bag.
Solo training is great 
I also have a 80 pund heavy bag for upperbody techniques, a 100 pound Muay Thai bag for combinations of upper and lower body strikes and sweeps, a double end bag to work on high snapping kicks mostly and my famous spin kick, and a wooden dummy I use to develop blocking striking combos.
Now for sparring… Do you guys usually do rounds or just go for a determined amount of time or just till you’ve had enough? We usually go for a determined time not like rounds, well maybe like that, me and my friend used to go to the local YMCA and work out from 8am to 12PM every morning. We used to lift wieghts do rills and spar. The sparring would be like 2, 15 min rounds I guess, but the amount of rest wasn’t determend basically we just went again when we felt like it. In class my sifu alwasy used to make us spar until we couldn’t defend ourselves due to endurance running out(somtimes he would throw fresh opponents at me afterwards just to give me a hard time, d@mn him ) We allow most all techniques, usually from our system but we also train for other systems) our system uses punches finger jabs to eyes etc, elbows, kicks high and low, knees, sweeps, headbutting, throwing and joint locking. So what kind of sparring training do you guys do?
I place a high value on forms and heavy bag. I usually do the forms at four different levels.
- Very slowly. I do this to correct any problems I might have at the execution.
2)Slowly but with alot of tension in my arms
3)Softly to relax the muscles. - Regular speed several times to put it all together.
I recomment anybody try it once and feel it.
Along with that and strength building exercises I like to practice various shadow-boxing techniques
When solo training it’s technique, technique, technique.
Tri2bmt- That’s kind of like what I used to do. First I do the form slow, then I do it at a fast pace 3x then with dynamic tension. Now I have the san zhan form so I just do it slow then fast and I practice the san zhan form for the dynamic tension.
Does anybody here try practicing in different enviorments? Like slippery floors, in the dark/blindfolded, or any other ways that aren’t the norm so you can develop the ability to adapt to different situations.
What about weapons. Since weapons aren’t as important these days how do you train yours? Do you just do the form or do you do extra exercises with it? My sifu once told me to train the weapon like it’s a muscle, meaning you need to do extra exercises with it and basics as well as the form and sparring.
I loooooooove training by myself because my training partner never practices, so it’s always the same when we get together.
I work on my forms, shadow boxing, the mook jong, and my martial arm. All in all, it adds up to about 3 hours.
Originally posted by Shaolindynasty
[B]and a wooden dummy I use to develop blocking striking combos.
[/B]
Do you study Wing Chun as well?
Meditation is the highest priority item in my training.
- Nexus
I’ll train movements free-style.
SOmetimes just throwing the same blow over and over again until the optimum path is muscle memory, working in body momentum, both forward and backwards, as well as down, to add energy to the shape of the blow.
Also, freestyle fighting in my mind, checking on the way my body distributes its weight when moving in an improve manner.
I’ll find an interesting part, and then keep working it. Adding power through body mechanics, dropping the weight, and then again forward (attacking) and backward (attacking while retreating).
I do this daily, whether in my office for a few minutes or in my kitched or while walking down the street at night when no one is around – if not doing it, thinking about it.
Hmmm, I tend to cycle train.
In the summer,
Every day I warm up and condition (Pushups, Situps, etc.) for 40 minutes
Monday, Wednesday, Friday I do holding postures, followed by stretching.
On Tuesday and Thyrsday, I do similar warmups and conditoniing, only I add drilling basics. Then, I do forms. I drill them slowly at first, and as I warm into them I build up untill I’m doing them with correct speed and power. If I’m working endurance, I spend time going extra fast. I alternat between my tried and true Shaolin ets, and my newer Tai Tzu sets, depending on what I’ve been ignoring the most recently.
I follow this routine with Taji practice afterwords because it seems to greatly speeed recovery time.
Then, by mid summer I invert the scedual by doing the holding days on Tuesday and Thursday and do the forms on Monday, Wednesday and friday.
Sometimes I do two days in a row, and take a day off for recovery time. Always holding the first day, and moving forms the second. This has been a more recent thing though, just in the last year or so. It seems to work better than going 5-6 days with no breaks and just taking the weekends off.
Royal Dragon
“Do you study Wing Chun as well?”
No I don’t but my style has plenty of similar close range stuff that I like to work on the dummy with. Like most Bruce lee fans, before I started to actually learn another style of Kungfu I was into Wing Chun and I guess this influenced my decision to buy one
I also cemented a railroad tie into my backyard and use it to practice kicks, mainly the side kick. There is a bag with gravel in it that I sometimes practice my hand techniques on if I want some variety. Oh yeah I almost forgot about the hole I dug into the ground to practice my jumps, I don’t get to use it much cause it floods in the rain on the plus side I built wood walls around the inside of the hole so it doesn’t cave in.