Train smarter by Morné Swanepoel
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Many a times have I heard Martial Arts instructors & schools state the amount of techniques they know etc. and classify themselves at different levels with these achievements. I think we can all agree that there is Unlimited amount of techniques to study in any Martial Art system and that we all have limited time or even lifespan to train these techniques in. This is more the reason why we need to be true to ourselves and identify the reason for training. We live in a time and era where our time is limited. That's why it is so important to prioritize your training methods. Saying this Let's take Sport & Self Defense as an example. There are certain techniques that would score your points in tournaments but would not do the job in the street, and the same applies for the opposite. So if your aim is to learn how to defend yourself against an aggressive opponent it doesn't make sense training techniques that would not work in the street. Learn as much as possible but you must also be able to distinguish between those techniques that are only good for demonstrations, and those which will give you results in an all out street fight. How do you know which techniques will do the job?
Stretching
Sports Injury Avoidance: Like most athletes, you undoubtedly want to lower your chances of incurring an injury while participating in your favorite sport. Injuries decrease the amount of time you can spend in leisure activities, lower your fitness, downgrade competitive performances, and can lead to long-term health problems such as arthritis and/or joint stiffness. Stretching improves your muscles' range of motion and helps keep them long. That's important because they tend to shorten as you get older, making you creaky. It's also important because an injury to a tendon or ligament could leave it permanently stretched, which raises the likelihood of a recurrent injury. Ideally, you should do so for at least five minutes.
Injury rehabilitation
Exercise is a vital part of the rehabilitation process for most sporting injuries. Exercises are included in rehabilitation programs to ensure the injury site returns to a fully functional state and/or to ensure that the original cause of the injury is eliminated. Athletes can continue to train even when they are injured. It means adopting different types of training or training methods that do not stress the injury. When one of our students do obtain an injury i.e. shoulder, Morné always advises the student to continue training and that he will assist the student to train around that injury. The relationship between the students in the class is also very important, they must be willing to assist the person who is injured to the point that the injured party still receives benefit from the training, but not as to strain or worsen the injury. An old golden rule: "Listen to your body" One of the major goals of the rehabilitation process is to maintain aerobic fitness levels. It is vital that athletes believe that even though they are injured, they can stay in shape. In addition to maintaining aerobic fitness, the athlete can use the injury period as an opportunity to strengthen other areas of the body. Remember, it is only the injured part that needs to be rested, not the whole body. For example, the athlete suffering from a knee injury used alternative training methods while she was injured. She performed water-running workouts as her alternative fitness activity while she had to rest from running. In addition, as well as following the physic's prescribed strength exercises for her injury, her coach added some upper-body exercises and some extra, but safe, leg exercises to the workout. She came out of the injury period feeling that she had not lost too much fitness and had gained an all-round strength that she did not have before.
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