Kick | Zyaga - Part 2

Archive Results for ' kick'

5Jan/090

Mixed Martial Arts – Day Eleven and Twelve

It’s been a little while since my last post, and that’s mostly because of so much going on around the holidays. Now that the holidays are over, I’ll start throwing more articles up here on a more regular basis.

I don’t even remember what days we had these past two trainings on, but they were during the holidays at some point. Anyway, we were attempting to try something a bit new from our normal regime. Our normal regime is to stretch, exercise, practice combination’s and movements, and then practice sparring at the very end. The approach varied a lot from each time, even though we did everything in that same pattern, we were always switching up our exercises and combination’s, etc.

Instead, these past two times, we decided to start out with just a bit of stretching before immediately moving into sparring. We’d spar for just a short period of time, before halting and doing some form of exercise. We’d then go back to sparring, then stop and do a different exercise this time. We continued to repeat this exercise over and over. Why is it any different than our old schedule, other than the order of the routine? Well, before we had small breaks in between what we were doing as well as the fact that when you’re just exercising, you’re switching from one exercise to another. So, you’re working out maybe your legs, then your core, then your arms, etc.

This new method of training we did, didn’t have any breaks nor any switch between what areas of our body we were focusing on. Sure, the exercises varied between the sparring, but no break was provided in between so after doing lots of push-ups, mountain climbers, squats, dive bombers, etc you had to immediately get back up and start dishing out kicks, jabs, elbows, knees, etc. And no, we didn’t have the comfort of simply not using our legs if they were tired. Why not? Well, I guess you’d have to know our teacher to understand completely. The moment you stop using some part of your body for a little bit and he picks up on it, is the moment he makes that area his target. So, if you stop kicking, the more times you’re going to be kicked. That’s simply how it goes.

All in all, it was an insane two hour work out. We did get one break, at the hour moment for a couple of minutes to get a drink. How do I know how much more of a work out it was than the previous times? Within the first hour I pulled a charlie horse in my leg. I haven’t had that happen in years. We stretched out before hand, so I don’t believe it has much to do with that, other than the fact that it was a much higher endurance work out than what my body is accustomed to. The good news is that my teacher ended up going on vacation for awhile after those two training sessions, and while he was away, I’ve been working on my endurance as well as specifically on my legs. He just got back, so he’s trying to figure out a new schedule for us to meet. I can’t wait to have another training session to see how well I can hold up.

Tagged as: endurance, kick, punch, spar, Training No Comments

3Dec/080

Mixed Martial Arts – Day Nine and Ten

Last Friday and Saturday we had practice, because a lot of times our schedules all change and so we don’t necessarily always have it on the same day. Plus, everyone had off both Friday and Saturday because it was the Holiday weekend.

On Friday, we all went over to my instructors house, which was the first time any of us had ever been there. He happens to have a decent size basement which he has setup mostly as a training room. He’s got a couple punching bags hanging from the ceiling, a couple of mats, and then a good amount of various work out and training equipment. From what he, and his wife, told us, he has been accumulating all of this equipment over a long period of time.

After everyone finally arrived(I got there a bit early accidentally ), we decided to get started. We worked on the bags quite a lot. Since we normally train out at a park with focus mitts and large pads, it was a bit different. We did rotations where he’d time us and we’d go “all out” on whatever task he gave each of us, for 30 seconds, before we’d stop and rest for just a short moment. Then we’d shift and trade positions with someone else, and do the same thing but with a different task this time. The tasks roughly included things like only using your legs and kicking as fast as you can with various kicks but not thinking about it just “doing”, working on only the speed of your hands by reaction(again, by just doing), and throwing as many various combinations in a row(with hands and legs) as fast as you can with as much power as you can.

On Saturday, one of my friends who can’t normally attend to the normal classes, because he has work, was able to come out and get a feel as to exactly how we work. Because we had just had a rough class the day before, we decided to take it light which allowed my friend to keep up with us a lot easier. Our instructor focused a bit on him to get his form and technique more in order, since he simply has to say “do this…” and we usually know how to do it already and can work on it alone. By the end of the session, my friends kicks on his right leg were starting to get some form to them, but his left still has a ways to go, but so does mine.

The technique of my kicks is getting better and it will only increase with more and more consistent practice. I generally know how my kicks should be, I just need to get them to that point. One step at a time, I suppose..

Tagged as: form, kick, power, speed, Technique No Comments

18Nov/080

Mixed Martial Arts – Days Six and Seven

I’ve been pretty busy with work and some other personal things so I have had time to practice but not enough to post often. Anyways, here is a post that’s combined about last Tuesday(last Thursday was wet so we canceled), and Today(Tuesday).

Both weeks we worked on distancing and power. For distancing, we went with the focus pads. The focus pads are great for working on distancing with both the legs and the hands. There is that obvious sweet spot, for both the hands and the legs, right in between where you’ll be jammed because you’re too close or too far back and not able to apply enough power. We worked quite a lot on finding that spot, as well as going over routines that we can utilize at home to train our bodies in distancing even on the days we don’t have practice. For the legs, we do various kicks where we:

Bring the knee up and hold for a second.
Slowly extend our leg and perform the kick.
Attempt to stop the kick right against whatever we are kicking at(punching bag, etc).
Bring the knee back to it’s original position and hold for a second.
Bring the leg back down to the ground.

This method allows us to be able to train our balance, strengthen our muscles, and enhance our distance judgment. The foot should always simply tap the object you’re kicking at, not rest against it. It highly helps your distancing ability because you can tell whether you’re too far back or not. Again, if you’re too close your leg will be too bent and you’ll be jammed or if you are too far back then if it was a real kick, there would be no power behind it. Make sure to work each leg, while switching up the type of kicks, so that you get the full experience.

To help us develop both our power and stamina, we worked on going all out against a heavy bag that another person can hold. The bag is quite big and sturdy so we don’t need to really hold back on it at all. We usually tend to do this after we’ve been going for quite some time so we are already warmed up, etc, considering our usual “class time” is roughly two hours. It’s a very simple concept though, we simply go all out for roughly 30 seconds or so, then it’s the next person. It goes back and forth from person to person(only usually two or three of us out there to rotate between), until eventually we’re so drained that standing is a task in itself. Even though this work out always kicks my ass, I love it because of how effective it is. Don’t mistake this for a misuse of energy, because this isn’t how we’d really fight. The exercise simply has one purpose, and that’s to raise one’s energy level cap. In a real fight, a lot less energy would be used and the idea would be to let the other person drain down their energy before you do, which doesn’t usually take long if they decided to try to go all out on you, as long as you can avoid the blows well enough.

Tagged as: distance, kick, martial art, Muay Thai, power, stamina, Training No Comments

14Oct/080

Muay Thai – Day Three

Today, there happened to just be three of us out there, the other guy couldn’t make it out for one reason or another. It was quite hot out at first, but by the time we were done which was roughly an hour or so later, it had cooled down substantially because the clouds came out. Overall, it was a nice day to practice though.

At first, we did some basic routines, working out by doing push-ups, etc to get our bodies “going”. After that, my instructor brought out a decently large training bag that is held in front of someone so they can just “bash” on that person rather than the focus mitts which are more for accuracy. Anyway, he had us practicing combination’s of jabs, knee’s, and side kicks. One thing I noticed that was quite funny though, was that the other guy out there with me(who has just started back in training as well), could throw a hell of a lot harder knee to the stomach with his left leg than his right leg. The funny part about that is, he says that he is more comfortable with his right leg and usually is “right sided”. Funny how things work sometimes. For me, I’m the “norm”, I kick a lot better with my right leg and hit a lot better with my right hand. My left leg definitely needs a lot of work. My left hand is quick on blocking but is shit at throwing jabs.

After the bag work, we went over a few simple take down methods, nothing too serious. The idea behind him getting us into knowing a few take down methods was that we could practice “break falling”. Break falling is essentially breaking your fall so that when, not if, you get thrown to the ground or knocked down, you are able to break your fall. By breaking your fall, you limit the amount of damage your body is going to take from the fall which gives you a faster recovery time to getting back to your feet.

We ended with light sparring like we usually do. For a while we just had the rules of “anything goes” pretty much, obviously meaning kicks, sweeps, jabs, elbows, etc. I got a couple good combination’s in on my teacher, with one in particular allowing me to land my kick to the side of his thigh. The worst mistake I made was when he brought a high kick all the way up to my face(I’m a bit taller then him) and I misjudged his leg length and the end of his foot skimmed my cheek. I’m trying to get back into the “dodging by only the thickness of a piece of rice paper” routine again.

Like I said before, my teacher doesn’t just teach Muay Thai, he teaches “What Works”. He’s learned various styles and takes from them and tries to apply them together. Obviously, no one martial art is superior to all others. So, during the very end of the light sparring we practiced over some of the “Wing Chun” methods of blocking, simply using only our hands(we chose to just use only the hands, in no way is Wing Chun limited to this). With Wing Chun, when two people are practicing it, it’s quite easy to tell who’s in control of the situation because of how much one controls the other movements, so to speak.

I’ve got a lot of work to do to progress further, faster. I’ll report again sometime soon.

Tagged as: kick, knee, martial art, Muay Thai, practice No Comments

9Oct/082

Muay Thai – Day Two

Today, we met out at the same field that we did last time, but only this time two other guys showed up. They weren’t there last time because they couldn’t make it out.

One of the guys had been away from working with the teacher for about one month because of work and other things, but now he’s getting back into it. He’s a little bit shorter then me. I’m around 5’11-6’0, but he’s got his body into a lot better shape then mine because of getting back into training 3 months before me. His legs were pretty damn solid compared to mine. At one point, I was bringing up my back right leg, raising the knee for a kick, but he was already bringing his back right leg up towards my left forward foot so I quickly decided to use my kick against his so I didn’t take the blow. Sounds good, right? Only one problem, his legs are condition and mine aren’t…yet. Let’s just say, I felt it.

The other guy is around 6’4 and had been in Martial Arts when he was young, and some boxing, but hasn’t really done training for quite a long while. He’s not in great shape either, but still better than me, because he said he’s been active in other stuff here and there. During some of the light sparing, me and him were practicing grabbing each others leg’s when we went off for a kick and sweep each other down but we brought each other down slow enough so it wasn’t that hard of a slam to the ground. It’s insane though, how big of a difference it is for him to be only that much bigger then me, and when he sweeps me I start off so high and fall so far, that I’d definitely be out of air(if not hurt a lot worse) had he brought me down with real force.

All in all, we worked on nothing but sparing today and it was fun as hell. It’s hard for me to get use to the real close combat with knee’s as part of the combo since I’m not honestly not very use to using my knee’s. A lot of my problems have to deal with not paying enough attention and bringing my hands down too much when I’m going in for a kick or a quick sweep. The problems with my sweeps seem to be that I don’t have the accuracy down of my leg movements and if you’re off just by a little bit, it actually backfires against you and makes YOU have an unstable balance and not them.

I’ll update you next week when we meet again! Everybody seems to be having a lot of fun!

Tagged as: kick, knee, martial art, Muay Thai 2 Comments

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