Have you ever taken a class and after say, “Man, that was one tough class!” or “I cruised through that one”.  Often times, you can have the same workout with both effects.  There are always ways to make a class more difficult and therefore get more from your time in class:

• Increase your focus.  Apply yourself to have a high level of concentration on all your movements and techniques.
• Vary your repetition speed for exercises.  For example, when you are doing push ups, have each push take twice as long.  This will increase the amount of time that your muscle is under contraction and will give you a more difficult workout.
• In your patterns, do all of your stances at least two inches lower.  This will hit your legs and also helps with muscle memory teaching you to have deep stances.
• Wear your mouthpiece- this simple activity will tax you as you will have a restricted airflow.

The key to having a tough workout vs an easy workout is mainly in your attitude and determination.  Focus yourself to improve every day and you will improve.

Orthopedic surgeon Richard Herrick, MD, offers the following guidelines on interpreting some of the aches and pains that typically plague people in sports training.

• If it did not hurt before you started but it really hurts while you’re working out, something is wrong.  Stop what you’re doing immediately.  See a sports medicine professional.
• If it did not hurt while you were training but it hurts hours or days later, chances are it isn’t a significant problem and can be rehabbed using simple home methods.
• If it hurts when you touch it but not when you use it, it is usually nothing serious.
• If it hurts while you are using it but it’s a dull ache rather than an acute pain, it probably isn’t severe.
• If it hurts a little during the day but gets worse at night, you probably need instruction on how to rehab it.
• If it has minor swelling and only feint tenderness, it’s usually something mild.
• If it has significant swelling, assume it’s major until proven otherwise.
• It it snaps, clicks, or pops while you are training but there’s no pain associated with the sound, don’t worry about it.
• If it interferes with your sleep three or four nights in a row, it needs to be investigated.
• If it gets better while you’re working out, its probably nothing serious.

Now we will go into three more ways that will improve your forms for competition or testing:

4.   Sectional Training- Break your form down into sections.  Doing sections of no more than 10 moves will give you the opportunity to work hard on making sure your form looks its best.  This is also a great time to have instructors watch your form as you will be doing the same section more often, giving a greater opportunity for your instructor to find and fix errors or give you improvements.

5.   Understand what you are doing- Forms are pre assigned fight sequences, use them as such.  Dont just think of a simple low block/ reverse punch combo as being just that…instead imaging that you have blocked a low kick and delivered a crushing punch and you are moving on to your next target.  This will improve your focus and make your form look much better to your judges.

6.   Left Hand, Right Hand, No Hand Practice- Begin with your left hand behind your back, in your belt.  Now complete your pattern only concentrating on the movements of the right hand (the free one).  Then switch and perform with your right behind you.  Next, do your form with your feet only, this means you must concentrate just on kicks and stances.  After you have been through this circuit, do your pattern as usual with full intensity…..it will look better.

I will be posting several ways that you can improve your forms.  Forms or Katas are great ways to practice your focus, concentration, and your ability to change direction.

1.   Do your form slowly- Taking your time and going slowly through your form will allow you to examine each step individually to perfect each one.  After you do a move, look at your feet to see if your stances are proper.  I also take each stance about an inch lower to train yourself to have deep stances.  With every technique, have a target in mind; not just putting the punch or kick out there.

2.   Isometric Training-  Take the slow form even farther by adding isometric movements.  Take at least 5 seconds to perform each move.  Do this with full power but very low speed.  This will help with your anaerobic conditioning as well as give you time to perfect each move.

3.   Fast Training-  Go through your form as fast as you possibly can.  This is a test of your muscle memory and can be alot of fun.  If you have stopping points in going quickly, these are the areas you should work on to improve.