More strength and conditioning coaches now are devoting additional training time and emphasis to helping their athletes improve hand eye coordination, proprioception, nervous system response, dynamic mobility, speed-strength, speed-endurance, visual acuity, audible and visual reaction, and functional strength. The method they are using is incorporating martial arts type movements. Unfortunately, many conditioning professionals are not familiar with martial arts techniques.
The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the many martial arts training techniques and their applications for coaches to use in performance enhancement programs. These techniques are a conglomeration of movements, detailing applicable methods from several arts.
In ancient times, general citizens were left unprotected and unarmed when encountering and enemy attack. The attackers would use razor sharp swords, spears and often projectiles. This created a need in the ability to focus and concentrate above the normal in daily training. This tradition of focus and concentration has been passed down from generation to generation in the most traditional sense of the word. This created curiosity among many of the forward thinking coaches. As a result, martial arts training has become a method to incorporate into the athletes scope of practice.
In addition to an athlete increasing his/her focus and concentration by practicing martial arts, other benefits are derived such as visual and audible reaction responses, balance, quickness, agility, hand-eye coordination and proprioception.
Crunches, hip-ups, and sit-ups are great preparatory exercises but do not duplicate specific in-performance movement patterns of many athletes. Medicine balls also help provide the closed-chain, ground based specificity of movement. However, the velocity of contraction due to the resistance weakens the specificity to in-sport requirements. Both crunches and medicine ball workouts are valuable, neither of them duplicates movement patterns and contraction speeds required in the performance of many athletes, specifically those with great rotational demands with little or no load to overcome. When the athlete incorporates the use of martial art core exercises, such as throwing hooks to focus mitts, he/she can specifically condition the core at higher velocities, and at the same time developing balance, proprioception, focus, hand-eye coordination, and metabolic conditioning. The nature of these triplanar, whole kinetic chain movements becomes important for athletes who need development of hitting or throwing a baseball to reacting to a change of direction in their movement.
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PROPOSED BENEFIT |
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DRILL |
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Focus Mitts. |
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Functional core movements at |
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Uppercuts. |
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sport-specific velocities. |
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Crosses. |
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Visual focus/concentration. |
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Jab-cross combo. |
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Hand-eye coordination. |
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Hooks. |
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Upper-body metabolic |
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Uppercuts. |
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conditioning. |
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Hammer fist. |
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Reactionary-visual or |
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Uppercut/hook combo. |
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audio-cue. |
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Body hook/head hook. |
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Power/weight transfer. |
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Crossover punch down. |
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Ground-based proprioception. |
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Any punch combo. |
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Dynamic proprioception. |
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Most athletes will enjoy this style of training. Those with lightly resisted rotational |
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movements can experience a high sport-specificity of rotary contractile speed, such as |
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swimmers, tennis players, baseball players, and softball players. The athletes in heavier |
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resisted sports, such as shot put and wrestling, can use a over speed for competition |
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requirements. |
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Double End Bags. |
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Functional core movements at |
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Right punches. |
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sport-specific velocities. |
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Left punches. |
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Visual focus/concentration. |
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Alternate punches. |
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Hand-eye coordination. |
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Blindfolded punches. |
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Upper-body metabolic |
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Maximum number of |
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conditioning. |
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punches per time |
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Rhythm/coordination. |
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interval. |
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Visual reaction. |
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Any punch combo. |
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Power/weight transfer. |
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Ground-based proprioception. |
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All rotational sports, such as tennis, baseball, softball, swimming, diving, gymnastics, and |
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sports, requiring hand-eye coordination. |
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Speed Bags. |
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Neurological transmission. |
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Right-hand. |
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Visual focus/concentration. |
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Left-hand. |
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Hand-eye coordination. |
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Alternate hands. |
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Metabolic shoulder/arm |
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Two right, two lefts. |
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conditioning. |
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Blindfolded. |
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Rhythm coordination. |
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Figure 8's outside |
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Visual reaction. |
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to inside. |
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Ground-based proprioception. |
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All drills on 1 leg. |
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In addition to sports requiring hand-eye coordination, many track and sprint athletes |
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have used this to train their nervous system. |
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Judo Grip Fighting. |
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Functional upper-body |
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Fight for inside grips |
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movements for some sports. |
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for a designated period |
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Metabolic upper-body |
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of time, 2-3 minutes. |
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conditioning. |
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Hand-eye coordination. |
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Dynamic balance/proprioception. |
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Reaction visual. |
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Kinesthetic feel/reaction. |
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Dynamic/ground based |
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proprioception. |
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Can teach competiveness. |
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Good for football, especially lineman, wrestling, hockey, basketball and other contact sports. |
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Modified Sumo. |
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Functional leg-strengthening |
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Move opponent outside |
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movements. |
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a designated circle. |
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Balance/proprioception. |
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Can be played |
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Kinesthetic awareness, keep hips |
blindfolded. |
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under torso. |
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Specific conditioner for some sports. |
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Competitive drill. |
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Kinesthetic feel/reaction (blindfolded). |
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Metabolic conditioning. |
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Good for football, especially lineman, wrestling, hockey, basketball and other contact sports. |
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Defensive Judo. |
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Functional dynamic balance |
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One player is designated |
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and proprioception. |
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as offensive and tries to |
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High-intensity metabolic conditioning |
throw or move the other |
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directed to both upper and |
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player out of the area. |
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lower body. |
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Can be played blindfolded. |
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Visual reaction. |
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Lateral agility/reaction. |
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Functional strength. |
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Hand-eye coordination. |
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Kinesthetic feel/reaction/blindfolded. |
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