In searching this site I found many questions on how to increase your balance (not sure if that is the right phrase, but anyway). I came across this article and thought some of you might be interested. http://www.gambetta.com/noticia.php?id=2&SesID=bf4b25a34c1c7b102a7ef9f43fcadb72 I think this is truly relevant in the martial arts as so much of our training is based on balance and as the article says that much of our troubles with power, speed and flexiility can be attributed to poor balance.
Fairly good article. I say balance is probably one of the most important things a MAist should posses. I find not enough practicioners train their balance. I for one, devolped incredible balance from skateboarding.
HeHe...so many fighters with so little balance. Sad fact. I've seen soo many street fights (half my income is via selling underground fighting footage to DVD companies in LA. ie: Bumfights etc...) so I see alot of them. Almost EVERY fight I see is lost either by the fighter simply having NO technique or having poor balance. I can certainly agree balance is a major part of what we do. Nice article Romulus.
As part of our class each of the advanced students is supposed to come up with a class to teach that has different material than normal. One of our students just did a class specializing in different balance training exercises. I have to say, that I thought my balance was improving, but after that class I realized how much better I can get. I'm going to add the exercises from the article Romulus just posted to my routine too. Thanks for posting that!
Nice article well that's boosted my knowledge on balance. I always knew balance was the most important thing but not to that much detail. thanks again
wow , extremely interesting, thank for posting, Gosh, didn't seem to think balancing really matter.. I sure do have a long way to go then ;\
KSW Paul: can you post some of the exercises you did in that class here? I'd be interested. thank you
I think kung fu offers excellent balance, especially Southern Styles, because a large part of our attack relies on rooting and sinking.
Great article, I recently started working heavily on balance training, so that was a real help. Thanks! BTW: KSW Paul, in addition to Ren-shi-shin, I would also love to hear additional excercises, please post them. - Wu Wei
i took a yoga class for my college art credits. my balance has increase 100 fold lol. it helps you balance, know your body alignment, breathe properly and increase flexibility.
I know what class Paul was talking about (I train with him). The excersises are a little hard to explain but i will try to for a few... One leg toe Touch Stand with one knee cocked (a crane stance) for a count of 10 Lean foward and touch your toes with one hand while sitcking the other leg back and hold for another cound of 10 go back to crane stance and hold for a count of ten repeat Balance-Body Weaving Stand Straight, feet together, elbows bent, hands under the chin Bend your torso down to the left, so that it is parallel to the floor rotate the torso to the front and then the right staighten and repeat One Leg balance Stand on one leg knee bent arms out to the sides tilt your body to the left side as far as you can tilt to the right return to standing repeat These are just a few of the things we did. I started doing the one leg toe touch ~three times a week and it has done wonders for my balance. As I understand it all of these drills came for the book Training and Fighting Skills by World Champion Benny "The Jet" Urquidez and i suggest you check it out for a more detailed discription.
There are also good balance articles at http://www.indranet.com/lcds.html I really advise the 'Facing the Mask' essays http://www.indranet.com/arts/lcds/facemask1.html
since we are all martial artists here, i'd like to know if there are balance exercises specific for martial arts or they're something all sports have in common?
