My experience has taught me that many martial arts trainers in Karate, Taekwon-do, Kickboxing, and other "stand-up striking arts" maintain their own style of (competition) training.
Therefore, I believe it is good for an all-round fighter to receive instruction from various teachers and different fighting styles to become skilled in diverse techniques and gain insight and skills in various ways. Let’s be honest, the top MMA fighters do no different.
Which factors are important in a stand-up fighting competition?
- flexibility and mobility
- reaction ability and speed
- strength
- conditioning and endurance
- technique, tactics, and insight
- resilience and recovery ability
- balance, coordination, and stability
In my opinion, a good competition training consists of elements that help improve the above factors, with emphasis in each training session naturally placed on one or more factors.
Of course, you start a training session with a warm-up and it is wise to finish it with a cooling down. The actual training and the aspects you want to train logically take place in the middle of this sequence.
Warm-up
A warm-up prepares fighters both physically and mentally for the upcoming physical effort. This significantly reduces the risk of injuries. The temperature of the facility and the outdoor temperature influence how the warm-up should be started.
We all know that a warm-up is of essential importance. Especially for younger athletes (children), it is important to keep variety in the exercises to maintain attention and interest in the sport. The trainer/instructor must therefore have the necessary creativity and a wide arsenal of exercises to keep the lesson interesting.
Some simple exercises to start the training include: dribbling, arm swings, skipping, hip rotations, butt kicks, knee lifts, lateral grapevine steps, shoulder rotations, and knees-torso-arms movements. Of course, countless variations can be devised, and the trainer’s creativity is actually the limiting factor. These exercises are also called circulation warm-ups.
For martial artists, there are many more ways to vary the warm-up: shadowboxing with and without a partner, jump rope, jumping jacks, burpees, and dozens of other exercise forms.
The warm-up generally takes about 15 to 20 minutes of the training.
The effects of a warm-up in martial arts are:
- Body functions are brought from a resting level to a performance level. This includes redistributing blood from, among other places, the intestines to the muscles.
- The heart function is strengthened, the heart rate increases from 60 beats per minute to 120 - 150 or even above 180 after intense physical exertion. The amount of blood pumped per beat also increases. All this can cause the heart to work 6 to 8 times harder than at rest.
- The lungs must take in more O2 and release more CO2, causing more alveoli to open.
- Heat regulation. Due to the temperature ratio in the muscles,
Metabolic processes proceed faster. Because blood vessels in the skin open up, a proper balance occurs between heat release and heat production. - The nervous system. The impulses must travel faster so that coordination and control improve.
- The muscle-tendon system. These tissues become warmer and better blood-circulated, making them more elastic and stronger.
- Mental preparation for what is to come. Concentration increases.
Warm-up: stretching exercises and stretching
It is advisable to perform some stretching exercises after the warm-up, varying in duration depending on the training to follow. It is always wise to perform stretching exercises for the entire body.
In most martial arts, such as boxing, kickboxing, MMA, and Karate, almost all parts of the body are used during exercises anyway.
Reaction ability and speed for martial artists
Timely reaction is one of the most important elements in free fighting. Scientific tests have shown that executing a technique, whether a kick or a punch, takes just over 0.1 seconds in the case of trained fighters.
The same scientific experiments showed that it is almost impossible to react to this, as the brain needs more time to process this information and generate a response. For these reasons, many martial arts teach that the initiator will always be faster than the defender.
The only way to be prepared for an attack is to learn to anticipate. Unconscious senses can cause a trained fighter to automatically react to techniques used by the opponent. This reaction time can be sharpened by constantly training for it.
For this reason, it is very useful to regularly train with pads to learn to react to imaginary targets. The pad holder is very important because they must keep track of the logic of techniques and also ensure that the attacker constantly learns to move.
A good tip is to train in such a way that there is as little rhythm as possible in the way the pads are held. The result of holding pads according to a fixed pattern is 'static' movement, which should actually be unlearned.
An additional advantage of training with pads is that the attacker learns to take the correct fighting distance. He automatically recognizes the necessary and safe distance, making his techniques increasingly effective. It is also important to remember that the fighting distance in, for example, boxing is different from that in taekwondo, thai boxing, karate, or kickboxing.
During pad training, it is also important to hold the pads in the correct places. Many beginners are used to holding the pads far away from themselves so they don’t feel the impact of the technique. This is understandable, but it does not deserve approval.
Since training focuses on the attacker’s reaction and choosing the right distance, a bad habit arises: unconsciously misjudging distances. It is better to hold the pads where the technique should be placed, as this way the fighter learns exactly when a proper technique can be applied and what the correct distance is.
Flexibility & mobility in martial arts
Dynamic stretching, the most effective for martial artists
Every martial artist knows how important it is to perform stretching exercises during training. Without stretching exercises, you risk injuries and it is unlikely that your flexibility will increase. The result is that without flexibility, your techniques do not improve or cannot be performed with ease.
The big questions for martial artists are therefore:
- “How do I improve my flexibility?”
- “Which techniques give the best results in the shortest amount of time?”
- “Which stretching routine can I follow to achieve these results?”
The following section on dynamic stretching is based on the book “Stretching Scientifically” by Thomas Kurz, the Elastic Steel media channel, and various seminars given by Taekwon-do grandmasters.
Dynamic stretches are simple leg swings in all directions. First, you need to learn to move your limbs at a moderate speed through a full range of motion. You should start with lower movements to prevent injuries caused by overstretched muscles.
“Don’t throw” your legs. On the contrary, guide the legs, maintaining full control over the movement throughout the entire range. When you are near the end of the movement, you can increase the speed so that the last centimeters of the stretch are less controlled, but not unexpected.
Practice leg swings forward, backward, and to the sides. It is advisable to do 12
perform repetitions per set and as many sets as you feel you have reached your current flexibility limit.
In many martial arts, except boxing, (high) kicks are primary offensive weapons, and if you want to be able to perform them at all times, regardless of age and gender, without warming up, you should do short dynamic stretches twice a day.
Research has shown that twice-daily dynamic stretches are particularly effective. The first time in the morning and then later in the day. On training days, it is effective to perform dynamic stretches before kicking.
"8 to 10 weeks is sufficient to develop maximum dynamic flexibility."
According to Matveev (1977), 8 to 10 weeks is sufficient to develop maximum dynamic flexibility. Grandmaster Park Jong Soo also emphasizes the importance of dynamic stretching exercises during taekwondo training, whether in the form of leg swings or kicking techniques.
Is it wise to stretch statically, for example with splits, as so many people do before performing kicking techniques? No, absolutely not! Never do static stretches before dynamic stretches, kicking techniques, or other dynamic movements.
For several seconds or even minutes after performing a static stretch, you cannot reach your maximum flexibility or speed. Rosenbaum and Hennig proved this with a study in which they exposed the calf muscles to 30-second stretches and then measured their strength afterward.
The development of maximal strength is inhibited for several minutes after strenuous static stretching exercises, stated Kokkonen, Nelson, and Cornwell. When you try to perform a fast, dynamic movement immediately after static stretching, it is very likely to injure the stretched muscle.
When determining the stretching exercise, you (the instructor) need to identify the physical requirements of the planned activity. In standing martial arts, which mostly involve kicking techniques, dynamic hip flexibility is of great importance. To increase your range of motion, you should therefore do many dynamic leg swings in all directions.
“It is impossible to learn dynamic skills through the use of static exercises, and vice versa.”
A common exercise seen in gyms where martial arts are practiced is holding the leg up, either sideways or forwards. This type of exercise, which indeed creates static balance and strength, does not contribute to the development of the necessary dynamic flexibility or strength. It develops statically active flexibility needed in sports like gymnastics, but it is not important for kicking techniques and martial arts such as kickboxing, karate, and taekwondo.
This type of exercise requires heavy tension of the muscles on one side of the body, with heavy strain on the lower back being unavoidable. When someone with insufficient lower back strength or other back complaints performs these exercises, it can lead to damage to the spine.
McArdle, Katch, and Katch state very clearly in the textbook "Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance": “It is impossible to learn dynamic skills through the use of static exercises, and vice versa.”
Strength and strength training
Every (martial) athlete who seriously wants to improve their sports performance can do so at any age with strength training. Whether you are ten or seventy or older, male or female, a weekend athlete or a seasoned professional, at some point you have made the decision to further develop yourself. Strength training enables you to achieve this goal.
Every athlete wants to improve their performance. At some point, they decide to train for strength. After all, strength is one of the many components that make up athletic ability.
In a martial art, strength can be developed just like flexibility or endurance. Once developed, it can help improve your existing sports performance in combination with the other components you wanted to improve.
Strength does not have to be the decisive factor, but it is certainly important for every serious fighter.
Although strength does not have to be the decisive factor in most standing martial arts, it is certainly important for every serious fighter. Of course, certain muscle groups are more important than others for martial artists.
Especially the gluteal, abdominal, back, and leg muscles are very important in karate, kickboxing, and taekwondo. The gluteal muscles are necessary for performing kicking techniques and for keeping the leg raised.
The abdominal muscles provide strength in every technique (center of the body) and also help absorb techniques from the opponent.
The back muscles are necessary to perform the many rotations, while also providing counterbalance for the abdominal muscles. The leg muscles are especially important for properly executing powerful kicking techniques and for dodging.
Strength training is training with a certain form of weight resistance and gradually strengthens your skeletal muscles. These muscles move your body, both visibly and invisibly in countless directions. This allows you to assume any body posture and make any movement you need for your sport. When your muscles are stronger, you reinforce such postures and make such movements easier and more efficient.
There are many types of strength training: exercising with weights attached to your ankles, wrists, or waist; fast stair climbing; doing rhythmic gymnastics, etc.
Strength training is one of the many elements that contribute to your sports performance. Other components include personal physical factors such as height, bone length and leverage, endurance, reaction speed, motivation, mobility, and motor skills.
In most martial arts, many exercises are performed without using separate equipment. In many cases, the weight of one’s own body provides the exercise. Examples include simple exercises like jumping, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, leg swings, or performing kicking techniques in various ways (slow, fast, with resistance).
Training combinations
Training combinations is one of the most important forms of competition training in almost all stand-up martial arts. By training combinations, performing techniques becomes an automatic reflex.
One learns to anticipate in a semi-sparring format. Besides the previously mentioned advantage, the fighter learns to judge distance to the target, recognize open/unprotected targets, improves accuracy, and builds some form of anticipation.
Offensive and defensive combinations
There are several forms of combination training: offensive, defensive, or as a counterattack. Each form can be trained in different ways and requires a different approach.
An important aspect of training combinations is that the fighter learns not just to move forward but to seize opportunities and avoid becoming too eager. The defending party or feeder is also important as they keep the other sharp by correcting defensive weaknesses and adopting a good starting and fighting position after each action.
Practicing combinations with pads and shields
Combinations can be trained in various ways: using "pads" (round, square, or rectangular depending on the technique), larger kicking shields (for more powerful execution of techniques), or with boxing gloves and protectors worn. Each method has its advantages.
In practice, one will see that pads are ideal for reaction training, speed, and accuracy, the larger kicking shields are particularly suitable for developing powerful kicks, and training combinations with boxing gloves and protectors on most closely simulates real practice.
Resilience and recovery ability
There is no martial art where resilience is not important. Of course, all martial arts and combat sports differ in this regard, but a basic level of resilience is always necessary.
In some martial arts, the emphasis is more on dodging and blocking techniques, but one cannot avoid hardening the body and the offensive and defensive body parts.
Resilience is built by regularly training these points and maintaining it. It is wise to harden and prepare all parts of the body, except for a few points, for the techniques that can be performed. One must not only be able to take hits but also train the body parts used to perform offensive and defensive techniques.
Important parts to train are: abdominal muscles, chest muscles, wrists, fists, upper and lower arms, thighs, shins, instep, heel, ball of the foot, and parts of the hand.
Vital parts
Especially your vital parts are hardly trainable. You must ensure that these are well protected and defended at all times. Important vital points are: the groin, genitals, head (face, temples, eyes, etc.), sternum, kidneys, and liver.
Breathing when taking hits
Besides hardening the body parts, proper breathing at the moment of taking hits is also very important. This breathing training ensures that one is much better able to absorb blows in such a way that the least discomfort occurs.
Correct breathing ensures exhaling at the moment of impact, which tenses the muscles and helps absorb the blow better. A good exercise to 'teach' the muscles to react is to catch (light) hits with your eyes closed. This builds a natural reaction in the body and makes it stronger.
Partner exercises with taking hits
You can learn to take hits by exchanging strikes with a partner and gradually building up the power of these strikes over several training sessions. You will be amazed that even light strikes greatly increase resilience. With the right motivation and concentration, you can achieve great results in a short training period.
"To Rest Or Not To Rest: A Fighter’s Guilty Conscience"
However, just as quickly as one can build it up, one can also see resilience drastically decrease. This is often the result of missed training sessions or illness. As with many forms of training, a period of rest and recovery is indispensable. If one does not 'listen' to the signals the body gives, one will soon notice negative results.
There are many different training methods to practice resilience and hardening of the body. Many basic exercises also prove to be extremely suitable for this: for example, stronger wrists and a more correct fist can be trained by doing push-up exercises on the fists instead of the open hands.
The abdominal muscles can be doubly trained by, for example, performing scissor exercises while a partner drops their elbows onto the stomach (gradually increasing the distance, of course).
It is certainly also wise to train the upper legs for resilience. The best exercise for this is exchanging 'low kicks' with a partner.
Endurance training for martial artists
Even the fastest car in the world doesn’t run without fuel. It’s a saying to emphasize that no matter how many techniques someone has, they are worthless if he or she doesn’t have the capacity to execute these techniques.
In short, endurance is of essential importance in every stand-up martial art, just like in almost all other sports, to be successful. Kickboxing, MMA, boxing, and karate are extremely explosive sports, often involving short bursts of strength.
"The more you can train, the more you can improve."
Interval training in martial arts
It requires a very different kind of endurance than, for example, running (long distances) or playing football. The type of endurance needed to perform successfully in martial arts or just during training is best built up through interval training, where rest and effort alternate in short periods.
As an example, you can take a running workout where you sprint for 45 seconds and jog for 45 seconds. In the training hall, you can achieve the same result by doing short exercises of about 15 seconds with a rest period of, for example, 5 seconds.
Endurance training with pads
Technique training on "pads" is ideal for this. This type of training is obviously very intense and requires discipline and commitment. Especially in groups where there is a positive motivating pressure from the group, this type of training is more successful.
There are countless forms of endurance training imaginable: sport-specific endurance training, endurance training combined with strength training, circuit training, etc. In principle, every training session partly consists of an endurance component, but of course, sometimes it is wise to focus the entire training on endurance.
Cooling down after training
After exercising, the cooling-down helps the body gradually return to rest. During training or sports, various muscles and muscle groups are intensively stressed. This causes waste products to accumulate in the muscles. These clots cause muscle pain and therefore need to be removed.
A proper blood circulation is needed for that. Therefore, after exercising, you should not immediately go into a phase of complete rest but continue with some cool-down jogging and/or gentle exercises.
Note: stretching is not a cool-down
Stretching should be done before the cool-down (if you want to stretch after training). The cool-down aims to keep the cardiovascular system (heart rate) running at a higher frequency than the resting rate, so lactic acid can be removed faster.
This ensures a faster recovery time. If lactic acid remains longer (making the cellular environment too acidic), vital substances cannot function properly. Another reason to do a cool-down is to improve blood circulation in the 'lower extremities' (fingers and hands, toes and feet).
In conclusion:
The cool-down is essential for a healthy and responsible end to the training.
Why do you stretch before exercising?
Preparing the muscles for strenuous activities. Preventing injuries. Better blood flow to the muscles, which guaranteed leads to better performance.
Why do you stretch after exercising?
Reducing muscle tension. Relaxation of the entire body. Better blood flow to the muscles, which helps remove waste products.
How should you stretch?
Take your time and stretch relaxed. Start with a light stretch and gradually increase it. Build up the stretch slowly; it definitely should not hurt. Especially avoid bouncing, as this causes tension, which you want to avoid.
Equipment for stand-up martial arts
In principle, little equipment is needed to practice martial arts successfully and effectively. The successful fighters from Dagestand are a great example of this. Still, there are advantages to the modern training equipment available for martial artists in general. A fighter basically only needs sportswear and some protective gear.
Floor and/or boxing ring
The choice of flooring in the training hall often depends on the owner and/or instructor. Some clubs train on a hard floor, while others use mats. This generally depends on the purpose of the hall and whether other sports are practiced there. Nowadays, more and more boxing and kickboxing clubs have their own real "competition ring," which is of course extremely useful for preparing for matches.
Punching mitts, thaipads, and kicking shields
Very pleasant and also very good for training are 'pads', small kicking shields with which countless exercises and techniques can be practiced. Also very useful are the larger kicking shields, which will especially benefit children, beginners, or when training powerful techniques.
Punching bags and dummies
Nowadays, besides traditional punching bags, there are also 'dummies' on the market. These are
Punching dummies on a base filled with sand or water. The advantage of these dummies and/or a punching bag is that someone can always train without a partner. Moreover, you can perform techniques as hard as you want without injuring someone else.
Also very modern are the stretch machines. Although they are quite expensive, they are very comfortable to use and allow you to stretch maximally whenever you want without a partner. For cardio training, you can make good use of, for example, a jump rope.
The well-known 'steps' (found in almost every gym) can be used in any martial art for various exercises: strength training (e.g., triceps dips), jumping exercises (distance, height), or as an obstacle when performing a technique.
Boxing gloves and protectors
For sparring training, having Boxing gloves and protectors is essential. The equipment used depends on the sport and fighting style.
Most stand-up martial arts use Boxing gloves, shin guards, a mouthguard, headgear, and a cup. It is common in training that people provide their own Boxing gloves and protectors.
Make creative use of available, simple materials
Sometimes during training I used a hoop where both fighters have to keep one foot inside while boxing around with their hands. By doing this regularly, the fighters learn to keep watching each other. This is important because it is crucial to always maintain eye contact with the opponent, even when an attack is directed at the face.
View in our store:
Collections >> Gear
External sources and more information:
- Sportzorg.nl
- Allesoversport.nl
- Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance (1991) - McArdle, Katch, and Katch
- Lev Matveyev: Sports periodization
- Stretching Scientifically - A Guide to Flexibility Training, Tom Kurz
- The influence of stretching and warm-up exercises on Achilles tendon reflex activity - Rosenbaum and Hennig
- Acute muscle stretching inhibits maximal strength performance - Kokkonen, Nelson, and Cornwell (1998)
- Elastic Steel
- Elastic Steel Youtube - Paul Zaichik, Expert in movement sciences
- Never Gas Out! – Fighter Interval Training - Joel Jamieson
More Fight2Win blogs:
- How do you train on a punching bag?
- Training with a punching bag is the effective workout for strength and endurance
- The importance of (martial arts) training
- Punching mitts are the way to train at home
- Benefits of pads training
- Get fit with this outdoor workout without a gym
- Why do MMA fighters, boxers, and kickboxers jump rope?
