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Fitness In Five Minutes A Day?
What is the minimum amount of exercise needed for health and
fitness? While it depends on the person, lifestyle, and goals,
the general wisdom is that 20-60 minutes per day of cardio
pumping, iron lifting, or muscle stretching is necessary.
...
Kick Your Body Into 2nd Gear -- In 3 Easy Steps
When it comes to life in general, 90% of us feel the need to loose weight or change the way we look in some way. Once we’ve undertaken our fitness quest for weight loss or hypertrophy, usually after the first week or two we find that the energy...
Pilates Exercise: More Than Just a Core Workout
It's a common misconception that Pilates method exercise is really only good for strengthening and stretching the core muscles of the body. Many people use it to tone their abs and improve their posture but, in reality, Pilates can do much more than...
The 7 Keys to Martial Arts Speed
Regardless of your martial arts style or method...you cannot apply it unless you can react quickly and respond instantly. Speed is critical for success in competition and self-defense. Razor-sharp reflexes are often the sole difference between...
The Biography of Sensei Derek Eastman - Part 2 of 2
Q-DW: With all the years of hard training and instruction going up through the kyu grades what was the final path to your first dan ?
A-SE: I was always fortunate that not only did I receive personal instruction and guidance directly from...
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8 Technical Aspects of the Martial Arts
In the past Japanese samurai, Mongolian horsemen, Manchu
bannermen, and European knights spent a lifetime learning the
highly complex art of fighting. It took many years of discipline
to master the techniques of unarmed fighting and fighting with
weapons, and training was honed by close-quarters combat that
resulted in real fatalities. Although soldiers continue to be
trained in these arts today, given the advanced technology of
modern warfare they are less likely to engage in unarmed
fighting. Unarmed fighting has become more of a civilian sport,
and the techniques practiced are less lethal. Many practitioners
study only a limited number of fighting techniques within a
single system. Others like to gain diverse skills, and most
martial arts schools include the study of techniques from
different systems. In some systems, advanced study is not
offered until a practitioner has been studying and training for
many years and gained a certain level of skill.
Types and features of fighting include: long- and short-range
unarmed fighting, armed fighting, grappling, the use of pressure
points, self-cultivation, single- and multiple-opponent
fighting, fighting without injuring the opponent, and avoidance
of fighting.
In long-range unarmed fighting, participants have time to react
to visual stimuli, which allows the execution of both powerful
strikes as well as subtle feints. In short-range unarmed
fighting, practitioners must react quickly to tactile stimuli.
Feints are difficult to do, as speed and reflex assume
importance.
When using grappling techniques, leverage and physical strength
are important. Participants wrestle each other to gain
submission of the other or find a weak spot for striking. At
this range, pinching, biting, and spitting may also be used if
not forbidden by the rules.
In armed fighting, the reach of the practitioner is
increased
and strikes are more destructive. Each weapon and range has its
own techniques, and several weapons are generally studied. For
efficiency and simplification, a well-designed teaching system
will emphasize similarities in technique.
Incorporating the knowledge of pressure points can increase the
effective use of traditional techniques and add a new range of
options. When striking the body, for example, the target point
can be chosen to bring about a specific effect.
Self-cultivation techniques enhance moral, emotional, and
physical development. Some martial arts schools have character
development as a main goal. Acquiring skill in a martial art
form takes patience, dedication, and persistence, all of which
benefit the practitioner in developing strength of character. A
school focusing on self-cultivation emphasizes techniques and
training that encourage and support this development.
Traditional duels and modern sparring matches consist of
single-opponent fighting. Expert fighters are pitted against
each other and must follow a definite set of rules in fighting
until one is declared the victor. In this type of fighting,
footwork can be simplified, as quick turns are rarely needed. In
such matches, opponents tend to be equals in skill.
Some martial arts systems, especially those that focus on basic
self-defense, teach avoidance of fighting altogether. Techniques
include instruction on how to become aware of potentially
violent confrontations and situations, defuse them before they
arise, and de-escalate them if they occur. In these systems,
fighting would be engaged in as a last resort when it is
unavoidable.
About the author:
Steven Gregoire has been training in the martial arts since
1986. Currently he operates Tigerstrike.com A martial art equipment and
supply store.
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