QUOTE
January 27th, 2009
In This Issue
> Setting Your Sights On 2009
> Survival Of The Fittest
> myGKR Training Tip Sample
There is an old saying, “Don’t start your day until its already finished”. In simpler terms, plan your day prior to starting. We all lead busy lives and have plenty on our plate, so planning our day helps us to prioritize our life.
Too many of us let the day go by, we get caught up chasing our tails and as a result, often neglect important things like:
- Drinking plenty of water
- Preparing proper meals
- Making an important phone call
- Paying an important bill
- Getting in exercise
- Spending quality time with the kids
- etc
The same applies to our week, month, year, in fact, our entire life. There is another saying, “Life is what happens while we are busy doing other things”. Have you ever looked back over a period (a week, a month, a year) and seen a road of good intentions unfulfilled? Have you ever asked yourself, where did the time go? I had intended on doing so much more?
It’s likely you have because unless we plan our days to ensure we have control over them, then outside circumstances will always have control over us.
One of the most valuable tools you can ever adopt into your life is planning. We all know how to do it. We plan our holidays, our sport team’s strategies, our grocery lists. We merely need to add our life into our planning repertoire.
What Will 2009 Have Install For You?
Of course you can sit back and let it happen, ultimately getting caught up being busy and before you know it, find yourself saying to someone, “I can’t believe its June already”.
Or you can pick up a pen and paper, or open a word document on your computer and start planning your 2009.
Here are some simple tips to get you started:
KARATE GOALS FOR 2009
Do you want to get fitter this year, to lose weight or gain muscle? How will you achieve this? How often will you train, at home, at the dojo? How will you monitor your progress?
Do you want to get faster this year, making you more dynamic in kata and kumite? How will you achieve this? How often will you train at home, at the dojo? What intensity will you have when you train? How will you monitor your progress?
Do you want to get better stances? Kicks? Flexibility? Control in kumite? Confidence in kata or kumite? How will you achieve this? How often will you get to training or train at home? How will you discipline yourself to get to training even when you don’t feel like it?
Do you want to increase your martial arts knowledge this year? How will you achieve this? Get to senior classes? Read books? Attend seminars? Ask more questions?
It doesn’t have to stop with karate. You can plan out how you will become a better person, a better friend, sibling, partner, parent, child, employee, employer etc. Nothing gets better through hope; it gets better through planning. So please, take a moment to plan your year and make 2009 a productive year to remember.
Do you find that your training suffers because you are unable to keep up? Don’t give up. It doesn’t mean you are not fit in for karate. After all, karate training allows us all to go at our own pace. But I know what you are thinking, “I don’t want to go at my own pace, I want to go at the class pace!”
The good news is that over time you become fitter… just by training in karate!
Right now you may be struggling somewhat to keep up, but by pushing yourself to do what YOU CAN each week, in a month, or two or three from now, you will be working to the class pace.
If you find the results aren’t coming fast enough. There are plenty of things you can try to speed up your rate of cardio improvement.
Getting an extra class in per week will make a huge difference for starters. It gives your body that extra night to work out, promoting faster muscular and cardio conditioning. You could also try to supplement your karate training with some gym work, running, swimming, soccer or any other sport that promotes cardiovascular activity.
Don’t have time to take up an extra night. Try the following:
Here are some steps to achieving higher fitness levels.
Leave The Car At Home
Walk or even run to the shops. Take the stairs instead of using the lift. Where possible try to raise your heart rate for at least 10 minutes a day. Over time increase this as it becomes easier.
Mental Attitude
Always tell yourself you CAN do it. It is amazing how much further you can push with this attitude. Don’t admit defeat to yourself, this only leads to a poor training attitude. Remember – I Can, I Can, I Can.
Diet
There are plenty of good quality articles in the Shimbun Magazine. Read them and digest. It’s easy to say “Don’t eat junk food”, but when you are out and about then it’s not so easy. Make sure you eat well at breakfast and lunch and keep a banana, an apple or a bag of nuts and seeds to hand in the evening. Be inventive and push yourself not to take the easy option of junk food.
Breathe
Always breathe using your diaphragm and not from your chest, increase your lung capacity and be able to train longer and harder. If you smoke, make it your goal to give up.
Rest
The body needs to repair, and rest is just as important as the training. Exercise becomes addictive. The more you do, the more you want to do especially when you see results. Be careful not to over train and have one full day of rest.
Quick Exercise Fixes
You can adopt a 10 minute training program each day. You can create your own. A simple example may be, 25 push ups, 25 crunches and 25 dips.
Most of all, focus on what you enjoy about training, not the things you aren’t achieving as quickly as you like. When you enjoy your training it becomes easier.
If you find it hard to motivate yourself select a training buddy so that you can push and encourage each other. Before you realise it you will be able to train hard in class and will be asking for more!
Basics: Pain Vs Damage
All muscles develop through one means – struggle! This doesn’t just include our exterior muscles (such as our legs, arms etc), it includes our internal muscles (such as our heart and lungs).
This tells us one important point - if you want to get faster, bigger, leaner, stronger etc, you’re going to have to go through some discomfort, even pain.
Karate-ka often hit a snag in their development after an injury. This occurs because coming back from injury; a karate-ka may not be able to differentiate between pain and damage.
For example: Lets say John hurts his knee and takes some time off. During his recovery, his knee is bound to lose strength.
Coming back to training, John feels discomfort in his knee and backs right off because he fears he is causing damage once again.
While it is possible he is causing damage, its 90% likely that it is because his knee has become weak, meaning it is merely muscular pain that he is experiencing. Constantly backing off however wont help his knee regain its strength.
So if you have a history of injury, be sure that its not just muscular pain before you start backing off. Remind yourself that only by pushing through pain (within reason) that you can develop strength and fitness.
Kumite: Pain Vs Injury
While real combat does not follow rules of dojo kumite (it may contain knees, elbows, grappling, groin strikes, gouging etc), dojo kumite is still your best preparation for real life combat. This is because it helps us prepare emotionally with strikes coming our way.
While kumite is non-contact, there may be times where you receive an accidental knock, and our response to a knock can be telling in our preparation for real life combat.
For example: John receives an accidental knock on his cheek bone during kumite and immediately turns away from his opponent and drops his hands. In kumite his opponent will stop and apologise, but in real life…it’s a different story.
During kumite, its essential you learn to differentiate between pain and injury. You may get an accidental knock that hurts….but hurt is not injury. If you receive an immediate injury, sit out straight away. But if you experience pain, keep your wits about you and carry on. Don’t drop the ball because of a bit of pain. Of course you can politely ask your opponent to watch their control.
In This Issue
> Setting Your Sights On 2009
> Survival Of The Fittest
> myGKR Training Tip Sample
There is an old saying, “Don’t start your day until its already finished”. In simpler terms, plan your day prior to starting. We all lead busy lives and have plenty on our plate, so planning our day helps us to prioritize our life.
Too many of us let the day go by, we get caught up chasing our tails and as a result, often neglect important things like:
- Drinking plenty of water
- Preparing proper meals
- Making an important phone call
- Paying an important bill
- Getting in exercise
- Spending quality time with the kids
- etc
The same applies to our week, month, year, in fact, our entire life. There is another saying, “Life is what happens while we are busy doing other things”. Have you ever looked back over a period (a week, a month, a year) and seen a road of good intentions unfulfilled? Have you ever asked yourself, where did the time go? I had intended on doing so much more?
It’s likely you have because unless we plan our days to ensure we have control over them, then outside circumstances will always have control over us.
One of the most valuable tools you can ever adopt into your life is planning. We all know how to do it. We plan our holidays, our sport team’s strategies, our grocery lists. We merely need to add our life into our planning repertoire.
What Will 2009 Have Install For You?
Of course you can sit back and let it happen, ultimately getting caught up being busy and before you know it, find yourself saying to someone, “I can’t believe its June already”.
Or you can pick up a pen and paper, or open a word document on your computer and start planning your 2009.
Here are some simple tips to get you started:
KARATE GOALS FOR 2009
Do you want to get fitter this year, to lose weight or gain muscle? How will you achieve this? How often will you train, at home, at the dojo? How will you monitor your progress?
Do you want to get faster this year, making you more dynamic in kata and kumite? How will you achieve this? How often will you train at home, at the dojo? What intensity will you have when you train? How will you monitor your progress?
Do you want to get better stances? Kicks? Flexibility? Control in kumite? Confidence in kata or kumite? How will you achieve this? How often will you get to training or train at home? How will you discipline yourself to get to training even when you don’t feel like it?
Do you want to increase your martial arts knowledge this year? How will you achieve this? Get to senior classes? Read books? Attend seminars? Ask more questions?
It doesn’t have to stop with karate. You can plan out how you will become a better person, a better friend, sibling, partner, parent, child, employee, employer etc. Nothing gets better through hope; it gets better through planning. So please, take a moment to plan your year and make 2009 a productive year to remember.
Do you find that your training suffers because you are unable to keep up? Don’t give up. It doesn’t mean you are not fit in for karate. After all, karate training allows us all to go at our own pace. But I know what you are thinking, “I don’t want to go at my own pace, I want to go at the class pace!”
The good news is that over time you become fitter… just by training in karate!
Right now you may be struggling somewhat to keep up, but by pushing yourself to do what YOU CAN each week, in a month, or two or three from now, you will be working to the class pace.
If you find the results aren’t coming fast enough. There are plenty of things you can try to speed up your rate of cardio improvement.
Getting an extra class in per week will make a huge difference for starters. It gives your body that extra night to work out, promoting faster muscular and cardio conditioning. You could also try to supplement your karate training with some gym work, running, swimming, soccer or any other sport that promotes cardiovascular activity.
Don’t have time to take up an extra night. Try the following:
Here are some steps to achieving higher fitness levels.
Leave The Car At Home
Walk or even run to the shops. Take the stairs instead of using the lift. Where possible try to raise your heart rate for at least 10 minutes a day. Over time increase this as it becomes easier.
Mental Attitude
Always tell yourself you CAN do it. It is amazing how much further you can push with this attitude. Don’t admit defeat to yourself, this only leads to a poor training attitude. Remember – I Can, I Can, I Can.
Diet
There are plenty of good quality articles in the Shimbun Magazine. Read them and digest. It’s easy to say “Don’t eat junk food”, but when you are out and about then it’s not so easy. Make sure you eat well at breakfast and lunch and keep a banana, an apple or a bag of nuts and seeds to hand in the evening. Be inventive and push yourself not to take the easy option of junk food.
Breathe
Always breathe using your diaphragm and not from your chest, increase your lung capacity and be able to train longer and harder. If you smoke, make it your goal to give up.
Rest
The body needs to repair, and rest is just as important as the training. Exercise becomes addictive. The more you do, the more you want to do especially when you see results. Be careful not to over train and have one full day of rest.
Quick Exercise Fixes
You can adopt a 10 minute training program each day. You can create your own. A simple example may be, 25 push ups, 25 crunches and 25 dips.
Most of all, focus on what you enjoy about training, not the things you aren’t achieving as quickly as you like. When you enjoy your training it becomes easier.
If you find it hard to motivate yourself select a training buddy so that you can push and encourage each other. Before you realise it you will be able to train hard in class and will be asking for more!
Basics: Pain Vs Damage
All muscles develop through one means – struggle! This doesn’t just include our exterior muscles (such as our legs, arms etc), it includes our internal muscles (such as our heart and lungs).
This tells us one important point - if you want to get faster, bigger, leaner, stronger etc, you’re going to have to go through some discomfort, even pain.
Karate-ka often hit a snag in their development after an injury. This occurs because coming back from injury; a karate-ka may not be able to differentiate between pain and damage.
For example: Lets say John hurts his knee and takes some time off. During his recovery, his knee is bound to lose strength.
Coming back to training, John feels discomfort in his knee and backs right off because he fears he is causing damage once again.
While it is possible he is causing damage, its 90% likely that it is because his knee has become weak, meaning it is merely muscular pain that he is experiencing. Constantly backing off however wont help his knee regain its strength.
So if you have a history of injury, be sure that its not just muscular pain before you start backing off. Remind yourself that only by pushing through pain (within reason) that you can develop strength and fitness.
Kumite: Pain Vs Injury
While real combat does not follow rules of dojo kumite (it may contain knees, elbows, grappling, groin strikes, gouging etc), dojo kumite is still your best preparation for real life combat. This is because it helps us prepare emotionally with strikes coming our way.
While kumite is non-contact, there may be times where you receive an accidental knock, and our response to a knock can be telling in our preparation for real life combat.
For example: John receives an accidental knock on his cheek bone during kumite and immediately turns away from his opponent and drops his hands. In kumite his opponent will stop and apologise, but in real life…it’s a different story.
During kumite, its essential you learn to differentiate between pain and injury. You may get an accidental knock that hurts….but hurt is not injury. If you receive an immediate injury, sit out straight away. But if you experience pain, keep your wits about you and carry on. Don’t drop the ball because of a bit of pain. Of course you can politely ask your opponent to watch their control.
(and why doesn't gkr teach these techniques if it does?)