In times of closed gyms and limited activities, we have learned that it can be very enjoyable to schedule an outdoor Training, especially with the nice weather lately.
Of course, we can all walk, cycle, run, and so on, but as a martial artist, sometimes you want to do something different.
Of course, adhere to the rules imposed by the RIVM and train only with your partner, children, or housemates, keeping sufficient distance from each other.
Starting with a running session and some light stretching exercises is fine, but immediately throw some pads, jump rope, a medicine ball, and preferably a large kicking shield in your sports bag and take them with you.
Training with handpads
Pad work is great and can be done together at a safe distance. With children and beginners, you can use the affordable handpads, but for adults, we recommend spending a bit more on more durable hand pads.
You will really enjoy them for much longer. We recommend the Booster BPM2 pads. These are really great! You can have a lot of fun with the small focus pads, so that investment pays off quickly.
And let's be honest... otherwise, we are living quite frugally at the moment.
Very pleasant and also very good for training are ‘focus pads’, small (often round) 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.
Hard kicks on large kicking shields
A large kicking shield is a real treat. Go all out with low kicks, front kicks, side kicks, and roundhouse kicks. And why not, also practice those more difficult backward spinning kicks and 360-degree kicks.
You can also use the kicking shield as an extra training tool during warm-up and training. Place the shield flat on the ground and use it as an obstacle to jump over forwards and sideways.
It also serves perfectly as a bench that we normally have in the gym. These jumps greatly improve your conditioning and jumping power. Your legs will burn nicely.
Besides absorbing (hard) kicks, you can use the kicking shield for many other exercises: hold the shield at chest height (and gradually higher) and jump with both feet simultaneously, pulling your knees up to touch the shield.
As you do this more often, you will notice your leg strength, volume, and jumping power increase significantly.
Want to add some playfulness to your training with children (or big men, it doesn't matter ;) )? Use the shield as a ramming or pushing shield to push dad or that big strong partner away in rugby style. In short, there are plenty of variations to come up with a little creativity for a fun outdoor Training with a large kicking shield.
Technical exercises
If you want to work more specifically on your footwork or evading techniques through body movement (bobbing and weaving), stretch a cord (or long budo band) between two poles, trees, or hold it shoulder height with two people.
Stand at the beginning of the cord in fighting stance and move slowly forward to the other side while continuously moving under the cord in 'bobbing & weaving' style with your eyes looking forward.
And for the martial artists among us, now is also a great time to perfect those breaking techniques with our rebreakable plastic breaking boards of various thicknesses.
For very dedicated martial artists, we also have various kicking cords and fitness bands to make leg and glute training really intense. Use these on your ankles during training and you will come out of your training regime like a real beast!
Dummies and punching bags
Nowadays, besides the 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, techniques can be executed as hard as desired without injuring anyone else. These are of such quality that you can place them in your garden and, if you can afford it, really go all out on them.
Jump rope, abdominal exercises, and the like are of course also perfectly doable, so we don't have to use this crisis as an excuse to get out of shape. Osu, Ush, Taekwon, and train on!