Archive for the 'karate drills' Category

Up, Up and away?

Published on February 1, 2012 in karate drills and karate exercises. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

Here’s a super challenging up/down burpee-type martial arts fitness drill that will test even your fittest, strongest students.

Start by having your class jog in place, and then on each of your commands below students must complete each associated action, in this order…

  1. “Knees Up!”

    Students must jog in place but knees must rise to hip height with each step. Have them do this for about 5 seconds before calling…

  2. “Jump Up!”

    Students must jump as high as they can stretching their body and reaching towards the ceiling, and as they land call…

  3. “Push-Up!”

    Students now drop to a squat position, hands in front of their feet, jump their legs back to the push-up position and complete a full push-up, at which time you shout…

  4. “Sit-Up!”

    Students must now transfer weight onto their hands, extend their arms straight as they tuck up their legs returning to the squat position. From here the lay down with knees bent and complete a full sit-up, and hear your final command…

  5. “Stand-Up!”

    Students immediately spring back to their feet and resume jogging.

Do 5-10 sets at the beginning of class as a warm-up depending on the fitness level of your group, or 10-20 sets at the end of class as an endurance test.

Is it a burpee?

Is it an up/down?

No it’s… (I need a name for this drill – post your suggestions!)

Sparring exercise for all ages

Published on September 20, 2011 in 125 Dynamite Drills, karate drills, karate exercises, kumite, sparring and tournament. 0 Comments

So for the last couple of weeks we’ve been talking about the different types of learners and how to reach them so everyone in your class benefits…

But today I want to take a break from that stuff and share with you a quick sparring exercise that I did last night with my students.

In traditional karate kumite, the first to score earns the point, and this exercise below helps develop timing, reaction and commitment to attacking technique.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Students gear up and grab a partner for sparring.

  2. Students begin sparring with each other as per usual and both may attack, defend and do whatever they usually do when sparring.
  3. Several times during the round, your job as their instructor/coach is to shout “kiai!”, at which time students must immediately slide in and make reverse punch (gyaku zuki) regardless of what they might be doing at that time. They might be half way through an attacking combo, not doing anything, or might be defending an attack already in motion.
  4. The objective is for each student is to score the gyaku zuki before their training partner does the same.

This is a great karate drill because it forces students to modify their attacking combo; counter attack at a time they might not have been thinking about it; and if doing nothing at the time of your command it makes them change their timing and forces them to attack.

Remember in tournament point fighting, timing is critical. There might only be a split second between you hitting your opponent and your opponent hitting you, but that is the difference between scoring a point and being scored upon.

The sharpest, fastest, and competitor with the best timing earns the point. This exercise helps your students become that person. And the great thing is that you can do this exercise with students of any age, kids through adult.

Try it in class and let me know how it works for you (post your comments please).

Enjoy!

~ Jason

P.S. You know I’ve got hundreds of drills for all kinds of stuff right? From sparring to kata, self defense to fitness… it’s all in my 125 Dynamite Drills. It’ll help you freshen up your classes, sharpen up your students and give you more ideas than you can imagine. Go here to learn more…

2 New Push-Up Drills…

Published on November 23, 2009 in karate drills, karate exercises and push-ups. 2 Comments

I’m sure you’ve probably seen the TV program The Ultimate Fighter?

Personally I think “ultimate” might be the wrong word, but hey, it’s a UFC reality show so it fits. They weren’t going to call it The most-of-us-have-no-clue-what-we’re-doing Fighter. That would be a bit of a ratings-killer I guess…

Ultimate or not, there’s little denying it is entertaining in parts whether it’s Rampage Jackson acting like a 5 year old and destroying a set door or listening to the verbal diarrhea that comes out of some of the fighter’s mouths. But the main reason I watch it is for the training drills that they do during the show. Sometimes I pick up a couple of new drills or exercises to try out on my students.

If you didn’t catch last week’s episode here are a couple of push-up variations you can use in your classes.

Hop Pushups
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Start by taking the regular push-up position but instead of going all the way down to the floor, lower yourself half way and then push up as fast as you can so your hands leave the floor (your feet stay where they are). Try to get about 1 inch of “air” with each hop. These push-ups are done rapidly and explosively and you’ll feel your deltoids (shoulder muscles) getting a good work out.

Do 20 as a warm-up exercise, or 3 sets of 20 as an endurance exercise.

Hand to Hand Pushups
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Perform a regular push-up with full extension, but as you come up to the up position put your weight on one hand and touch that hand with the other. Then repeat and switch hands so that you are alternating balancing on your left hand then your right hand.

This is a good little variation for balance, control and strength building.

Try these out in your classes this week and let me know your student’s response!

Enjoy,

Jason

P.S. The Ultimate Fighter is on Spike at 10pm Pacific Time on Wednesday nights here in the States. Not sure when it’s on elsewhere but I’m sure you could do a Google search and find out faster than you could throw a 1,2.