Martial arts tournaments are divided into several divisions. One of my favorite divisions is the self-defense event. Tournaments are a great place to test your knowledge and performance of choreographed defense techniques. Today I want to share some tips to help you win at your next event.

The first tip is to use techniques that you enjoy performing. Some techniques are simply more fun than others, and this will come through in your performance. Picking techniques, you like will help you be more energetic and make the performance more enjoyable to watch. Techniques you are not confident in will leave you feeling unsure of your performance.

Keep in mind that some tournaments will want you to break down the technique and explain it. I personally do this every time, and it generally scores some extra points. Make sure you can go through the technique explaining it step by step, and then follow it up with a full speed demonstration. I have seen students lose in tournament that would have gotten 1st place had the only taken the time to explain the technique.

Your oogy’s performance is just as important, if not more important, than your own. A dummy can make or break your score in a tournament. Remember this is a performance, not a fight. Looking sloppy and uncoordinated will cost you points. You want your opponent to act as realistic as they can while moving in a way that compliments your technique. You will want to make sure your dummy knows what techniques are coming, how to react, which direction to fall, and even where to yell to emphasize pain. If you dummy is just silent the entire time, you are not going to score as high as you would if they played along as if the techniques were actually happening to them.

To help your dummy along, you will want to make good use of your own Kiai. Being loud scores points, being quiet makes your performance boring and easy to ignore. Usually when you Kiai, it is also a good time for your partner to pretend to scream in agony. For example, if you are demonstrating an arm break, yelling will really help define the technique as a power move meant to do massive damage. It is also a technique that would cause your opponent a lot of pain, and you will want your partner to demonstrate that.

Introduction: Kung Fu, a martial art with a rich history rooted in ancient Chinese culture, requires practitioners to possess both skill and endurance. Endurance is a crucial element for any martial artist, as it enables them to perform at their best for an extended period. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced Kung Fu practitioner looking to enhance your endurance, this blog will provide you with valuable tips to help you achieve your goals.

• Develop a Balanced Training Routine: To improve endurance, it’s essential to have a well-rounded training routine. Incorporate various types of exercises that target different aspects of fitness, including cardiovascular exercises, strength training, flexibility training, and skill-specific drills. A balanced routine will help you build endurance while simultaneously enhancing other crucial attributes for Kung Fu practice.

• Focus on Cardiovascular Exercises: Cardiovascular exercises form the foundation for building endurance. Engage in activities such as running, swimming, cycling, or jump rope to improve your cardiovascular fitness. These exercises increase your heart rate, enhance lung capacity, and improve oxygen utilization in your body. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate to high-intensity cardiovascular exercise three to five times a week.

• Interval Training for Explosive Power: Kung Fu requires bursts of explosive power, making interval training an excellent addition to your endurance-building routine. Integrate high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions into your workouts. Alternate between short periods of intense activity, such as sprinting or rapid punches/kicks, with brief recovery periods. This type of training enhances your anaerobic capacity, enabling you to sustain intense efforts for longer periods.

• Incorporate Strength Training: Building strength plays a crucial role in improving endurance. Focus on compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously, such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, push-ups, and pull-ups. Strength training enhances muscular endurance, allowing you to maintain optimal performance during Kung Fu training sessions. Aim for two to three strength training sessions per week, focusing on both upper and lower body exercises.

• Enhance Flexibility: Flexibility is vital in Kung Fu as it allows for fluid movements, reduces the risk of injuries, and improves overall performance. Incorporate stretching exercises into your routine to enhance your flexibility. Dynamic stretching before workouts and static stretching after workouts can help increase your range of motion and reduce muscle tension. Improved flexibility will enable you to move with agility and ease during your Kung Fu practice.

• Practice High-Intensity Kung Fu Drills: To simulate the demands of Kung Fu practice, include high-intensity drills in your training regimen. Focus on specific techniques such as rapid punching, kicking combinations, or shadowboxing. Performing these drills with intensity will improve your endurance while refining your technique and speed. Start with shorter durations and gradually increase the length of your high-intensity training sessions.

• Train with Sparring and Partner Work: Incorporating sparring and partner work into your training will challenge your endurance in a practical and dynamic manner. Engaging in controlled sparring sessions or practicing techniques with a partner will require sustained effort and constant movement. This type of training mimics the intensity of real combat scenarios and helps build endurance while sharpening your reflexes and tactical skills.

• Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle: Endurance training extends beyond the martial arts studio. Adopting a healthy lifestyle is essential for long-term progress. Get enough sleep to allow for proper recovery and muscle repair. Maintain a balanced diet rich in lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, and essential nutrients to fuel your body and support your training. Stay hydrated throughout the day, especially during intense workouts.

Conclusion: Improving endurance is a fundamental aspect of Kung Fu practice. By following these tips and incorporating them into your training routine, you can gradually build your endurance, allowing you to perform at your peak for extended periods. Remember, consistency, discipline, and patience are key when striving to enhance your endurance as a martial artist. Embrace the journey and enjoy the rewards that come with your improved physical and mental capabilities.

Hand speed is a crucial aspect of martial arts that can make a significant difference in combat effectiveness. Whether you practice boxing, karate, taekwondo, or any other martial art that involves striking techniques, improving your hand speed can give you an edge over your opponents. In this blog post, we will explore effective techniques and training methods to help martial artists increase their hand speed and elevate their performance in the ring or on the mat.

• Warm-Up and Stretching: Before diving into intense training, it is crucial to warm up your muscles and stretch properly. Perform dynamic warm-up exercises, such as arm swings, wrist circles, and shoulder rotations, to increase blood flow and loosen up your joints. Follow it up with static stretches targeting your arms, shoulders, and wrists to improve flexibility and prevent injuries.

• Shadow Boxing: Shadow boxing is a fantastic exercise for developing hand speed and coordination. Visualize an opponent in front of you and practice throwing rapid punches with proper technique. Focus on speed and accuracy, ensuring that each punch extends fully and snaps back quickly. Incorporate various punch combinations, footwork, and head movements to simulate real fighting scenarios.

• Speed Bag Training: The speed bag is a classic tool used by boxers to improve hand-eye coordination, timing, and hand speed. Start with basic rhythms and gradually increase the tempo as you become more proficient. Aim for consistent and precise strikes, using both your lead and rear hands. Focus on quick, snappy punches and maintain a relaxed posture to maximize your speed.

• Plyometric Exercises: Plyometric exercises are explosive movements that enhance muscular power and quickness. Incorporate exercises like clap push-ups, medicine ball throws, and plyometric push-ups into your training routine. These exercises engage fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are essential for rapid hand movements. Remember to maintain proper form and gradually increase the intensity as you progress.

• Resistance Training: Utilize resistance training to build strength and speed simultaneously. Resistance bands or weighted gloves can be incorporated into your training sessions. By adding resistance to your punches, you challenge your muscles to work harder, enhancing their speed and power. Start with lighter resistance and gradually increase as your muscles adapt.

• Hand and Forearm Strengthening: Strong hands and forearms are essential for generating quick, powerful punches. Include exercises like grip strengtheners, wrist curls, and finger push-ups to improve your hand and forearm strength. Additionally, using grip tools such as stress balls or hand grippers can help strengthen your grip, which translates into more forceful strikes.

• Speed and Agility Drills: Speed and agility training not only enhances footwork but also improves overall quickness, including hand speed. Incorporate ladder drills, cone drills, and agility ladder exercises into your routine to boost your hand-eye coordination, reaction time, and overall speed. These drills will enhance your ability to quickly evade and counterattack in combat scenarios.

• Shadow Sparring: Shadow sparring is an effective way to simulate real fighting situations and train your reflexes and hand speed simultaneously. Visualize an opponent’s attacks and practice evasive movements while countering with lightning-fast punches. Focus on maintaining proper form and technique while executing swift strikes. Regularly incorporating shadow sparring into your training will help sharpen your reflexes and increase hand speed in a practical setting.

Conclusion: Improving hand speed is a continuous process that requires dedication, consistency, and a well-rounded training regimen. By implementing the techniques discussed above, including shadow boxing, speed bag training, plyometrics, resistance training, and speed and agility drills, martial artists can enhance their hand speed and gain a competitive advantage in their chosen discipline. Remember, practice with proper technique and always prioritize safety to optimize your results and become a faster, more effective martial artist.

Our focus today will be on controlling distance with the cross stance. One of the 5 basic stances in wushu, the cross stance is used in a variety of kung fu styles. This stance has two main variations. There is a standing version. The distance can be controlled using this version. The other version is executed while sitting. The sitting variation is used to change heights. Today we will focus on the standing version.

The cross stance can be used to control distance in a few ways. First, let’s look at closing the distance. When we want to close the distance, we will generally use the rear leg to step behind the front leg moving towards the opponent. This movement is usually a set up for a follow up technique. Good examples would be the elbow, the back fist, and the hammer fist.

The cross stance can also be used to increase distance. This can be accomplished in two different ways. The first way would be to use a long range follow up technique, such as using the walking side thrust or walking rear kick. While the stance temporarily puts you in a closer position, it can make the distance perfect for a long-range attack, allowing you to knock your opponent further away. The other way this can be done is by stepping away from your opponent. This can be used for hidden strikes such as a hammer fist to the kidney, or it can be used as a simple cover to get away. It’s also a great way to recover from an off-balance kick.

Those who wish to train remotely can now take advantage of Arkansas Wushu’s online remote training option. A private one-on-one session is now available to help you with your training. This way, you can get real-time feedback as you practice.

Classes are conducted through Zoom meetings and can be purchased online at arkansaswushu.wordpress.com. Our classes are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis and can be customized to meet your personal training goals.

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Simply click on the tab at the top right to schedule a class now.

In December of last year, Kyle Russell from Arkansas Wushu and Roger Grimes from the YouTube channel Shodan1197 both conducted 30-day kick improvement series. This series focused specifically on 7 different kicks. The kicks included were as follows: front kick, side kick, rear kick, hook kick, axe kick, round kick, and the reverse crescent kick. Here are some lessons learned from that series that may be helpful to you.

Lesson 1: Chamber

The process of kicking correctly generally involves only a few steps. The first step is to position your leg in the proper chamber position for the kick. By being properly chambered, you will be able to kick much faster and with more power. Additionally, chambering correctly will help you maintain your balance by keeping your center of gravity in place. Working just the chamber over and over again makes a great warm up before executing the kick.

Lesson 2: Start low

Try to avoid the temptation to throw your kicks high in the beginning. Starting out this way may hinder your form. You will want to warm up with low kicks in the beginning. This will allow you to focus on proper form for a more perfect technique. You can gradually execute the kick higher throughout your practice. Make sure to pay attention to whether or not you have to lean back. When you reach a height that you do have to lean back excessively, your form may suffer, lower your kick to maintain proper form.

Lesson 3: Build stabilizing muscles

For more power in your kicks, you will want to build strength in your legs. You need to be stable on both your stand leg and have the strength to lift your striking leg. A person who lacks the strength to lift one leg to a certain height must rely on momentum to kick. By slowly raising the striking leg as high as you can, holding kicks in the extended position, or using different weights, you can build strength in the leg you are kicking with. Your standing leg can be strengthened with these drills as well, but you can use supplemental exercises such as squats, lunges, and jumping to further improve the strength of your supporting leg.

Lesson 4: Increase flexibility

To throw high kicks effectively, flexibility is a must. Some martial artists claim that high kicks are impractical, but that does not mean that you should not practice them. Increased flexibility will improve your posture, making your kicks better overall. Being flexible will also increase the speed of your kicks because of the improved range of motion. From a practical perspective, having the ability to kick both low and high will simply give you more options when you choose to strike. You can increase your flexibility by starting with a warm-up. After the warm-up, you will want to move on to dynamic stretching, then practice your desired kick. Finish off with static stretching for the best results.

Lesson 5: Develop control

Once you have developed a good chamber, you can practice executing the second half of the kick. To avoid injury, throw this part of the kick slowly at first to perfect the technique and keep control. You will need to be able to lift the leg to the height you want to strike the desired target. Control the kick when you throw it rather than depending on momentum. This may also allow to switch the type of kick that you are throwing if your opponent’s position changes. Throwing the second half of the kick wildly may lead to loss of power and balance. It will be easier to make a speedy recovery if you have control over the kick. To help with control, you can use exercises such as keeping the chamber up and throwing the kick repetively, throwing low kicks then lifting the leg slow and repeating the kick high, or trying to balance something on your foot as you try to throw the kick slowly.

Hopefully these tips will help you improve your own kicks. Feel free to follow the exercises included earlier in the article to assist you. Thank you for taking the time to read this article.

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In November, Kyle Russell and Roger Grimes participated in a challenge. For every day in November, both teachers created a form. These forms had just a few rules. They needed to consist of five self defense techniques, each technique had to be performed on both sides. It was a really fun and educational experience, so it seems appropriate to discuss some key points to consider when creating forms that were learned along the way.

Creating a visually pleasing form can be difficult, performing them well in a short amount of time creates an even bigger challenge. Roger Grimes was so successful at this, that he was able to use a form he created to get 2nd place in a tournament.

If you want to enter a creative forms competition and need to make a form, the tips below may help for you.

Tip 1: Start and Finish on your dominate side.

When performing any technique, if the beginning and the end look good, the technique will most likely look good. It helps to apply this same principle to your forms. Your techniques will most likely look better on your dominant side. Starting and finishing strong will make the form look better overall.

Tip 2: Separate self-defense techniques with basics

In Chuan Fa/Kenpo, most of the forms are created from self-defense techniques. Occasionally, it can be hard to find a good flow from one technique to another. This can often be solved by simply adding a basic. For example if you end one technique and find you need the other foot forward, rather than just taking a step, you could throw a thrust kick and step down into the next technique. Your basics should be pretty solid and this adds techniques you know you will perform well, which in turn may make the form look more aesthetic.

Tip 3: Hide your weak spots

There will always be parts of your form that you just do not perform as well as other parts of your form. This is well worth considering when choreographing your movements, especially if it is for a tournament or a public performance. One example of doing this would be to design the form so that when you perform a techniques on your non-dominate, you are facing away from your audience. This way your weaker techniques are partial blocked from view, making it harder for your mistakes to be noticed.

Tip 4: Use solid techniques in the design

We all have our favorite techniques, and there is nothing wrong with that! Use them to your advantage. Your favorite techniques are the ones that you are more likely to perform well and have a more in-depth understanding of. When you use techniques that are new to you, you will inevitably spend more time considering the technique during the performance. This leads to a less confident performance as many advance practitioners will notice you having to pause and consider your next move. Using techniques you like will make it more enjoyable, and you will naturally give a better performance.

Tip 5: Show off

If you are creating a form, make sure to show off your more impressive skills! Exaggerate movements when practical. You can do this by using deeper stances, higher kicks, higher jumps, and your KIAI! Yelling to emphasize certain techniques gives an appearance of power, and this can really help you score points in a tournament. Never forget this is a performance, you don’t want to be boring! Pretend your in a fight and move your body with that type of enthusiasm.

Hopefully this article helps you, thank you for reading!

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Kenpo was made popular by Ed Parker. Ed Parker once said “Every black belt is a style unto themselves.” Ed took a system that was taught to him, and mixed it with other instruction he received to make his own unique style, and American Kenpo was born. Although Ed Parker added a lot of Chinese influence, he chose to keep the Japanese pronunciation of Kenpo for his style rather than just using the English translation of the term, “Law of the Fist”.

The Chinese term for Kenpo is Chuan Fa. Many practitioners prefer to use this term when referring to the style as it does have a heavy Chinese influence, incorporating techniques from both Northern Shaolin and Southern Hung Gar.

Within these systems, you will find wide variations in techniques. This happens because the style evolves with each new instructor. One of the things that makes Chuan Fa such a great style is that willingness to change it. With many other arts, even if a technique is proven to be ineffective, it will continue to be taught for the sake of tradition. This ideology can keep a style from evolving.

To celebrate and demonstrate this, Kyle Russell of Arkansas Wushu and Roger Grimes of Tracy Kenpo have decided to have a friendly creative forms competition using their own unique experience. These two will be posting 30 forms within the first 30 days of November.

The competition will consist of the following rules:

1. All forms have to be original and a unique creation from the performer.
2. All techniques must be performed on both the left Side and the right Side
3. Each form must contain a minimum of 5 different self-defense techniques.

We will post these forms up daily and allow public voting. We hope you enjoy this display and test of skill.

If you would like to view some of the previous work, you can a form demonstration from Kyle Russell at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bj-a7IdVKU

You can find a demonstration from Roger Grimes at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONvpD1gUX0g