Arm Pounding and Youth Karateka

Arm Pounding.  That's attention grabbing, but it's just another way to say arm conditioning\rubbing, or Kotigitae.  Karate conditioning helps the practitioner "toughen up" muscles and bones.  I posted about partner conditioning, geared more for adults here.  Arm conditioning introduces you to getting hit and building up resistance to bruising.  It also helps develop concentration, core strength, spacing, and balance.  The following is an excellent article on karate conditioning that goes into more detail: Is Body Conditioning Karate's Lost Art? by George Chaplin.  Arm pounding is just the beginning of learning to condition your body, both internally and externally.

Depending on the Uechi dojo, youth\children will probably start learning this at around the 6-4 Kyu rank.  If your child is learning it, seek out their teacher to learn how it is properly and safely practiced.  It is important that they practice correctly and go somewhat easy initially because it is very easy to condition the wrong parts of the arm or hit too hard.  The goal is to build up resistance, not injure and bruise each other.  I wouldn't recommend practicing this exercise with your child, but learn to look for signs that it is being done incorrectly - as a parent safety should be your first concern.

As your child progresses, he will be learning leg and core conditioning, and "Sanchin Testing".  Done properly all of these exercises will buildup a tougher body, which is a great defensive aid if they should ever be attacked.  Conditioning is an integral part of karate with benefits that go beyond avoiding injury.



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Karate in Slow Motion

I don't have much information on where this clip came from other than it is a Uechi-ryu dojo and the clip is from a BBC series called "Hai! Karate". See links for the show here and here. It's a really well done video on what you can do with Uechi conditioning. Enjoy.

Uechi-ryu Partner Conditioning

Last night was a great workout, especially the conditioning drills. I thought I’d be banged up but not one bruise in sight. J Conditioning in Uechi-ryu karate is another facet of training that leads to better protection from attacks and may help keep you in a fight longer to win or to get a chance to run away.

It’s important not to abuse your partner during these drills because you only work on conditioning certain areas of the body, and strike/kick in specific ways. It also keeps the “conditioner” from hurting their wrists, legs or feet. My technique in this drill was good at first (we exchange alternating strikes and kicks with rotating partners) but worsened as we went on. Apparently after my kicks to the thighs I was steadily moving closer to my partner instead of getting back into Sanchin. My Maai (spacing) was way off and I was using the wrong part of my leg to use to condition my partner. Luckily my partner was Master Folta so I got a good lesson out of it.

My issue with Maai was a product of me not having control over the first battle in Sanchin. I was so focused on kicking to the correct part of the body that I lost sight of my overall focus. I’ve still got a lot of work to do on my Mushin. 

I couldn't find a good picture to demonstrate this so here is a picture of Elvis Presley doing some sparring. Is that a shoken? :-)

Picture found at: Keith Matthews Kenpo Karate.