Can any one enlighten me on how they improve their flexability. My side and roundhouse kicks are woeful and have tried doing 30 min of streatching every morning but not making much headway.

lewie

My advice would to be to just keep working on it, as you won't just overnight become good at kicks. How long have you been doing this stretching? Have you spoken to your Sensei about the problems with your kicks?

Also, I'm extremely flexible (and I mean extremely), and kicks aren't my strong point. I know people who aren't flexible at all, yet are excellent at the kicks, so don't think that because you aren't flexible, you can't be good at kicking.

What sort of stretching do you do, dynamic, isometric, ballistic???

each differant type has its own timeframes for improving stretching,

and if you want better icks, practice the kicks slowly to build up the muscles used in kicking, you dont have to do them very high to start with, but make sure as you start kicking higher that you maintain good technique.

my 2 cents

A Guide to Stretching

I also highly recommend...

Thomas Kurz's Stretching Scientifically, A guide to flexibility. One of the best books out there for flexibility.

Happy stretching!

This stretching guide linked to you by ian does work, cos these guys are in our dojo,along with Victoria and Sam,they make stretching look so easy .The kids do these stretches and more every day, there are no shortcuts.
good luck and happy stretching
Nigel

I think the more you practice the better you get like omega said start slow and even if its low keep on doing it because your body will get used to doing it and you will get better i promise.

KIM

Link to Thomas Kurz site free articles about stretching.

http://www.stadion.com/column.html


One of the main problems with karate is that you tighten up overnight and find yourself even less flexible than the day before.If you just did stretching and no karate you would become very supple in a matter of weeks.

As the Kurz articles explain there is far more to high kicking than being supple.Good body mechanics are the key.In my forties I can still do a side kick to head level even though I am not that supple.Its just a matter of getting the feet and hips lined up properly.

... whereas I am fairly flexible and my kicks are lousy anyway!

I have to agree with "Good body mechanics are the key".


Bearette

Well i'm not flexible and have bad kicks aswell what now.

KIM

Read those Kurz articles. If you can pass on that kind of knowledge to students you will make a good instructor.

If you practice everyday you will soon get there.I say everyday but its best to have one rest day every week to allow any injuries to recover.It takes about 6 months to a year to develop reasonable kicks.Its just down to practice.

Tonyk,
Thank's for that will keep it in mind and i do rest on Sunday because that is family day and my husband will kill me if i started doing a kata after sunday dinner.

KIM

Then do it before the sunday dinner. Easy. :thumbwink:

Hi,
I agree, the Thomas Kurz books and articles are very good. My flexibility and power in kicks was dropping for some reason, no matter how hard I training and did streching excersises.

I came across Thomas's book and have been using some of his excerises. Of importance in my case was the order in which I did streching during the warmup. That is dynamic rather than the commom training pattern of static.

My hips and grion muscles are getting looser, thus side and round kicks are flowing smoothly with less effort. In my home training I've totally stopped doing sumo stance as a "flexibility" "strenghtening" execise. NO holding it for longer than 15 seconds. Read Thomas's book and you will find out why.

It is important to note that we have various physical differences, both individually and between sexes and also racial groups. Thus there is no absolute right or wrong way, more a general guide to suit ones physical make up.

I've been reading the articles by Thomas Kurz. In the fifth one, he writes "you can have great dynamic flexibility in a matter of a few weeks", using the dynamic stretches illustrated. I wonder if that is possible (for me at least!)...
Anyone up for a cyber stretching challenge?

Bearette

Guess not? Wusses the lot of you!


Mick

We all can do with so cyber stretching are you leading bearette.


KIM

Cyber stretching?

No leading required. I was just interested to see, if people tried the stretches demonstrated in the articles, how many of those people felt their dynamic flexibility had improved markedly within a few weeks.
And cyber stretching, because it is a little difficult for us all to get together and compare results and techniques personally...

B

Bearette

The kids do those stretches,and i think there was an improvement very quickly, although not a big improvement, like most things in life there are no shortcuts,now the kids have been doing the stretching,more or less every day for about 8 months there is a very very very big improvement.For other people it may take longer or even less time to achieve what they want.In short it works,some achieve quicker than others.