Working on your weaknesses

[Donal Ryan]

It's easy to train your strengths, and fun too, perhaps you're particularly good with your hands, or with blocking, and enjoy a bit too much time working on these, perhaps leaving some other aspects of your game gradually getting weaker in comparison. Training your weaknesses is one of the most demanding and frustrating aspect of training, and it's one that I myself have trouble motivating myself to do. I've started this thread so people can give advice on overcoming the mental block and finding the motivation to train their weaknesses, and also to give advice for improving specific techniques.

I'll start with a question about my own worst weakness; kick height and power in relation to flexibility. Having recently done the purple belt (and having trouble with the kicks) I can see that to move forward and improve in grading I must concentrate on my flexibility. I "cheat" in a way Jamie described well, I turn too far around when kicking (say for a roundhouse kick) which allows me to kick higher but with bad technique and bad recovery. Also, now I'm jumping and spinning, this doesn't work so well.

I've very tight hips, and cannot raise my leg horizontally very high (think side kick). Obviously stretching is the cure, but it's also the worst kind of torture in my opinion So, does anyone have any advice on how to stay motivated for stretching? Also, where do machine gun kicks and the like stack up? I remember I did a class with Kiefer where he made us hold our legs out and just keep them in the air as long as we could, this improves strength yes?

Any advice on improving my kicking height and staying motivated through the pain of stretching tight hips would be welcome. Perhaps you had a plan you followed that worked for you? And of course please post your own weaknesses so people can give you advice on how to improve them and stay motivated.

[philliptwyford]

Hi Donal,

I think you sort of answered your question when you mentioned cheating on technique. Getting the technique right first is a key instead of worrying about height. I can totally understand your frustration. My right leg can do most kicks but the left can only do a round house. Once you get the technique then working on the flexibility is the next step to work. Ironically and I don't know if anyone else gets this but I find by praticing the actual kicks it loosens me up . However when I first started training 20 yrs ago (is it that long ago !!!) I use to watch the TV in the splits position propping myself up on a chair. Tense and relax for 30mins 7 days a week. I am afraid there is no easy fix but I hope this helps.

Cheers
Phillip

[philliptwyford]

Hi All,

As Donal had the courage to share his weakness mine at times is self doubt and fear especially if I am about to spar. At times it has hindered me pushing myself to go into competitions etc for fear of getting hurt or looking stupid. Hard to explain as I feel I can handle myself but I seem to be getting that adrenal dump syndrome more often then not so does anyone have any tips on how they handle self doubt or fear before a fight etc etc

Cheers
Phillip

[Deleted]

Donal: Streching is the solution to your problem, but not alone. You can't just stretch and your kicks get better, and you can't just practice either-you have to do both. The best way is to be strict with yourself and make sure you chamber the kicks right when you practice. The best thing to do is get the technique right at a comfortable heigth by doing loads of reps, then try to get it higher. And make sure you stretch well after every kicking training session- no need to let all that exercise go to waste.

Phil: I know what you mean, I sometimes feel the same way. I think it comes from training almost every day, when the intensity goes up, motivation can get a bit diffiult, and you start to feel like things are going badly.
I find that in training for something, the closer I get, the more times I feel like everything I'm doing is useless. The best way to deal with it is to take each day on its own, and after a bad day in training, just leave it at that. As a wise man once told me, it's better to have the bad days in training than in competition. You have to get the crap bits out of the way so you can move on. (thanks robert, by the way).
If something is demotivating me, and I start to feel that slump, I just say it to someone, and it feels better even to just admit that I feel like I'm not training right. Sometimes you just need a bit of reassurance.

[philliptwyford]

Thanks for that Colm. I think sometimes the fear of failure overides common sense and that if you can just take a step back and say what is the worst that can happen it never is as bad as you think.

Phillip

[Donal Ryan]

Mar 20, 2008 3:07:08 GMT @colmog said:

Donal: Streching is the solution to your problem, but not alone. You can't just stretch and your kicks get better, and you can't just practice either-you have to do both. The best way is to be strict with yourself and make sure you chamber the kicks right when you practice. The best thing to do is get the technique right at a comfortable heigth by doing loads of reps, then try to get it higher. And make sure you stretch well after every kicking training session- no need to let all that exercise go to waste.

Thanks Colm, makes sense. I guess it's a bit of an embarrassment to go from kicking to the head (albeit incorrectly) to barely grazing the waist so it's not something I've wanted to practice in a group class. I'll ave to find a quiet our every now and again to work on it and be sure to go to evey stretching class.

[jlaw]

Hey donal- Great thread.
I think the key to working on your weaknesses is motivation. Motivation is deffo the hard part. Obviously stretching is the solution to your high kick problem, but how do you motivate yourself to do it?

For me, the key to motivation is focusing on the end goal while setting small achievable goals in the mean time. So, you have to visualise yourself doing perfect roundhouse kicks to head height and even higher, and you have to do this regularly. Keep reminding yourself that this is a very achievable goal for you, which it definitely is! Then, you must set small goals that are achievable in the short term. When you achieve these smaller goals (like, kicking to chest hieght with perfect technique, for instance), they will motivate you to go further.
Hope it helps!

[monaghanmauler]

Hey All

I agree with Jlaw there, Motivation is a serious key in it. My problem is my standing foot. It just won't balance. I can reach to head height kicking but finding the power and the balance to rechamber is a huge problem for me.

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[monaghanmauler]

Sorry had to leave there, the boss came in.

My main issue seems to be the auld hip flexors not strong enough. Pain.

Richie Monaghan mauler McCartney

[dkidd]

This really is a very interesting thread good one Donal. There is no easy answer some people find kicking much harder than others and I am one of them . !YES! that's right so called Kickinkidd used to have huge trouble kicking the head until I met Bill'Superfoot ' Wallace at a seminar. Here we had a traditional martial artist who, having damagerd his right knee doing judo found he could not kick with it so what did he do? He developed a series of stretches and kicking drills that made his kicks so fast and sneaky he knocked out numerous capable opponents with them. Flexibility is important bu7t so too is the strength of the corresponding muscle groups (side obliques, gracilis, sartorius etc.) So here's a proposal and I'm gonna make people put their money where their mouth is. How about a one off seminar say three hours on a sunday morning open to a maximum of say twenty people with one goal. Teaching a series of drills and exercises that will improbe your kicks. If their is enough interest we'll come up with the goods.
Deco

[dkidd]

Anyone want to teach me how to spell lol that last message was c*** lol

[louiseod]

i know i'm gonna regret this but you can count me in!

[Donal Ryan]

Mar 23, 2008 14:42:37 GMT dkidd said:

This really is a very interesting thread good one Donal. There is no easy answer some people find kicking much harder than others and I am one of them . !YES! that's right so called Kickinkidd used to have huge trouble kicking the head until I met Bill'Superfoot ' Wallace at a seminar. Here we had a traditional martial artist who, having damagerd his right knee doing judo found he could not kick with it so what did he do? He developed a series of stretches and kicking drills that made his kicks so fast and sneaky he knocked out numerous capable opponents with them. Flexibility is important bu7t so too is the strength of the corresponding muscle groups (side obliques, gracilis, sartorius etc.) So here's a proposal and I'm gonna make people put their money where their mouth is. How about a one off seminar say three hours on a sunday morning open to a maximum of say twenty people with one goal. Teaching a series of drills and exercises that will improbe your kicks. If their is enough interest we'll come up with the goods.
Deco

Declan I would be so up for that! Consider me signed up. Well, I assume that you would put a sign-up sheet on the notice board, hopefully you'd get enough people if you did to make the class worthwhile. A class where you taught a program to improve kicks over a period of time would be so beneficial

[Stephen Kavanagh]

As far as weaknesses go, i think mine is confidence. I love training, learning new skills and developing them, but i seem to have a complete mental block about sparring. It's not so much even the idea of being hurt, i've had my fair share of injuries in various sports, its more the idea i'll just go blank and not be able to put into practice the skills i'm learning and hence end up making a fool outta myself. But sure i suppose no matter when i start i'll still be a beginner so i shouldnt expect too much from myself!


As for the Kicking Seminar, count me in too!