Staying healthy and injury free in martial arts is an ongoing battle due to the very nature of it and the physical requirements, its not like playing tiddly winks or ping pong! There is a requirement to balance training, active rest, rehabilitation, diet and sleep. Here are a few rules to assist you in your quest for injury free training:
n the kicking arts we can sometimes suffer from painful and achy hips that seem to be "tight" however is this always the issue?! Sometimes we just need to assist the hips and the muscles around it to activate correctly instead of going back to our fallback position of more stretching and mobility work.
We get people starting martial arts for all sorts of reasons, general conditioning, fitness, weight loss, learn a new skill, socialisation but we also get people start for psychological reasons - self-confidence, self-esteem, anxiety, to cope with bullying; the martial arts are an excellent tool to assist these people. Due to this sub set of people I have decided to post the below on further supporting these people as every little bit of assistance can help to enable them to cope and improve.
The inventions of apps means we now have mental health tools right in our pockets. Keeping track of your mood, finding ways to cope and monitoring your mental processes are all activities that might sound like a slog, but the majesty of modern technology means they can be fun too.
Here are 5 apps that can really help make a difference when it comes to your mental health:
Hip flexor and adductor issues are common challenges in Taekwon Do due to the dynamic nature of what we do. However this risk of injury is exacerbated with students that try to over extend themselves too soon, getting ambition and ability mixed up, as well as instructors who haven't been keeping up with their conditioning and training on a regular basis and then start to over extend themselves from their current de-conditioned position.
Continuing on the theme of power training, essential for Taekwon do jumping and flying kicks but also generally for kicking and explosive hand attacks when sparring. Here's a video to give you some training ideas to improve this part of your armoury:
A great Youtube clip explaining the virtues of learning an effective martial art. It equips you for confrontation:
- You read situations quicker
- You will be calmer, more assured and have better decision making skills
- You react to situations more effectively
- You're more likely to defuse the situation as you don't need to prove yourself
- If the situation escalates you're more likely to deal with that situation for a better outcome.
Training in an effective martial art gives you necessary skill sets to deal with a confrontation if it arrises. Training at Warwick-TKD will meet these needs, why not give us a go.
I am proud to announce that Alex Cameron won bronze in the patterns at the World Cup in Budapest representing T-UK England, just missing out on getting through to the gold and silver play off. Well done Alex excellent result, our thought are with you for the sparring now.
If you wanted to watch any of the Budapest World Cup please see the below link for live streaming of the event:
In TKD there are a number of kicks that require you to jump or fly. In your black belt gradings you are tested on breaking using these jumping and flying techniques if you do not train specifically to improve this specific skill you will be leaving yourself short when it comes to having to produce this. Below is a video of some volley ball training techniques to help improve their jump height, this has a close relevance to what is required for your TKD.
The 3rd weekend of the month is here again. Get yourself along to Aylesford School, Tipping Road, Warwick 10-11.30am. Sparring drills, competition conditioning in a fun motivational environment amongst nice friendly people motivated to improving their Taekwon Do. If you've not been before, why not give it a go this weekend.