Category: Classes

SWKA presents the South West Rope Dojo

If your Looking for Martial Arts Training in the West Devon and East Cornwall area. The SWKA are launching a new class under the name South West Rope Dojo. The class will be a 45 minute class.

The class will be on a Monday night at Tavistock College Sports Centre 7.30-8.15pm. The class will be teaching Hojojutus, which is the Japanese federal Art of rope restraint and use of ropes in daily life.

It is a small class with limited numbers of 10 allowed. We are probably the only Hojojutus club in the whole of the South West. Due to the nature of the techniques practice it is for over 18’s over and you must be willing to be tied up by your partner. We will also be using equipment such as Kaginawa’s for grappling hook work.

 

 

July Student of the Month 2015

Our winner of the July 2015 student of the month is our youngest ever student. Courtney Pollard, won the Student of the Month for July, having only just started Kickboxing at the End of June/early July.

Courtney always trains with a smile on her face, which is great to see, she listens well and follows instructions well. She doesn’t get phased by training with people older and bigger than her. She’s always full of enthusiasm for training. All these reasons are why she won student of the month. Were hoping she carries on like this with the rest of her kickboxing training. She’s progressing well like her older brothers Nathan and Joshua, and at the SWKA were looking forward to seeing how they all progress.

What makes a Black Belt or great Black Belt in Martial Arts

A Black belt in Martial Arts is seen by most people as a pinnacle of their time in Martial Arts and a High achievement. For some it is the top level you can achieve but also the time when you stop learning. However, meet any real black belt and they will tell you they have only just started to learn, just because you have learnt all the moves and show some real skill, and now must learn how to adapt your skills, how best to utilise them but also learning when they will and won’t work.

Patience is something it takes not just too get to get your black belt. It takes many years to get your black belt, but also patient is required to learn and start to master a number of kicks and combinations which you will learn. However, the patient is not just in yourself but also that of having patience with others. For example your training partners holding the pads for you, and with others who struggle to pick up skills when learning or to carry out activities.

Attitude of a black belt is very important, a black belt needs to have patients, but also be willing to help others when they are struggling and offer to help when they see newer students struggling. It’s also about following instructions from their instructor, sensei or master, in classes, rather than doing their own thing, therefore, setting a positive example to others in the club. The attitude is also about how they commit to training, by training regularly but also helping other, by putting them before themselves.

Commitment to the cause is also a key aspect, black belts will train regularly when they can, when you run a club it can be difficult to do train, but when your training for your black belt you should be looking for every opportunity to learn from your instructor, Sensei or master to ensure you will be ready for your black belt grading. Whether this is in class or in private sessions this is important to ensure you get all the input you need and ensure you are properly prepared.

Dedication to the art, which is about making sure you master the basics and not taking on to many arts in one go. When your start learning to many arts in one go without mastering anything, everything gets diluted, and they your performance drops.

Putting others before yourself is important, because by the time you are about to reach your black belt or reached it you should know you’re only as good as your training partner. If you don’t help them improve you will stagnate and head backwards. But also if you don’t look after your partner you won’t have anyone wanting or willing to work with you in class. Theirs’s no point in complaining about the standard of others if you’re not willing to help improve those around you and challenge them to become better.

Seeking perfection is about always analysing what you’re learning and working out when it would be practical and when it would not be. Therefore, being able to work out how to tweak things to improve it and what you could do instead. It’s also about constantly setting yourself little challenges to improve yourself, whether it’s kicking a bit higher, jumping higher or not getting hit as much during sparring or a fight.

Self-learning is about trying to identify for yourself were your weaknesses are, is it fitness, if so do you spend time away from your club working on this? Do you identify where you feel your weak, or ask your instructor, sensei or master how can I be better and then follow up on it.

As you can see there are many things to consider when you want to achieve your black belt or get through of as a great black belt by others. Why not find one or 2 black belts whom you look up to and watch the little things they do, and the way they are with others, which may improve yourself as a martial artist.

Why take up Kickboxing

Kickboxing is in my mind a mix of boxing, muai-thai and karate, which started to become to people’s attention during the 1980’s. It mixes the hand skills of boxers, with kicks of Karate but without the more static positioning and often used point scoring by being based on continuous fighting in bouts. With muai-thai skills, without the use of knees, and elbows as strikes.

There are different formats of kickboxing, and when you look at the sparing or fight components in points, semi contact, and semi heavy or full contact. Different people depending on what they want to get out of their kickboxing or their reasons behind taking up of the martial art. Some people are not worried about getting hurt or being knocked out, but there are also those who don’t want to risk concussion, black eyes and injuries which choose to participate in light contact levels of the martial art.

Kickboxing is a great way to improve flexibility, which can lead onto postural changes. Flexibility training is something that instructors take seriously as it helps prevent injury, but also helps participates to be able to kick higher. As the individual becomes more flexible then tight muscles can be lengthened, which can help correct posture.

It helps to improve fitness and change your body shape. Kickboxing is a high energy activity, utilising all of the body’s muscles. Due to it being high energy it helps increase your energy expenditure will help you lose body fat you may be struggling to lose.

Learning self -confidence and respect, but also for others, due to the team work required to look after your partner in class but also seeing improvements in your kicks, and belt progression.

Make new friends, you will meet many people through martial arts not just in the class that you attend but also at seminars and in competition if you decide to compete. You will work with different people in each class, which will improve your self-confidence.

Learning self-defence, by learning how to protect yourself should someone attack you, but also improve your awareness of what’s going on around you to help you prevent putting yourself in a position where you might be at risk.

So having gone through what kickboxing is and its many benefits why not come down and join us in one of our classes. Were a friendly group and everyone’s welcome, so what have you got to lose?

How to kick higher

We all stand and admire those martial art pictures when people kick high. Kicking high takes time and commitment, but also an understanding of how to position the body, to achieve those high kicks, so I have put some tips to help you start to achieve head height kicks.

Firstly spend time every day working on flexibility, whether it is one or two sessions a day. These sessions only need to be 5-10 minutes in length.  To improve your flexibility, you need to be holding stretches for about 1 minute, whether this stretch is held for 1 minute or in short time periods building up to a 1 minute time period such as 3x 20 seconds, etc.

The muscle groups to work on are hamstrings, the muscles on the back of the thigh. The quads, the muscles on the front of the thigh. Hip flexors, the muscles which work on the front of the hip. Finally the adductor muscles which work on pulling the legs together. The reason behind the hip adductors is the tighter they are the smaller the angle will be between the 2 legs, the more flexible you are here, the more likely you are able to do the splits.

A key issue I see with a lot of kickboxing students is the knee. Your probably thinking why the knee, so I will explain. There the knee points the toes and foot will go. I see a lot of students lifting the leg pointing the knee down and then struggling to kick high. However, when you point the knee upwards then the toes strike where the knee cap is pointing.

The next issue is balance; the better you are on one leg the higher you will be able to kick. When I talk about balance and being on one leg, it is the ability to transfer your weight around when you try and increase the height of the kick. It you can’t transfer your weight but stay on one leg as you lift your leg higher.

The final one is body position, most students when trying to kick high try and keep their body up right or they try and curl up into a small position which affects kick height. So instead when kicking keep the body straight and lean over, this is where balance and your ability to transfer your body weight around without falling over becomes important.

So above is a number of top tips to increase the height of your leg kicks. So when you train try and consider and act out a number of the points above and you will soon be kicking head height if not higher.

The real difference between Martial Arts and Self-defence

We often watch Martial Arts films and they always talk about using their Martial Arts skills for defence and never attack, if you go to a Martial Arts club the instructor will tell you the same thing. However, there are differences between self-defence and Martial Arts, for example most of us would have some ideas on how to try and hit someone if they attacked us, but might not always have the same impact as a Martial Artist. There will be some Martial Artists who would freeze if they were ever attacked outside a class.

The art of using your voice

When you take part in Martial Arts you are not encouraged or usually taught to use your voice when someone is attempting to attack, rob or mug you. By using a forceful tone you can sometime put an attacker of. You could use your vice to attack nearby attention by speaking loud or shouting which might scare of your attacker.

The other way to use your voice is to say things which will confuse your attacker. By saying something that will confuse your attacker it, affect their concentration and take their mind of you which might give you a few vital seconds to strike your attacker or start your get away.

You need to be able to strike an attacker

In Martial arts we teach you strikes and locks to put on an opponent, usually in the style or way you will compete in. However, when you’re on the street there are not rules and in theory anything goes, their maybe guns or knives involved depending on where you live.

The way you approach someone it class in a drill or sparring session is often very different to the way it is out on the streets. Therefore, you need to be adaptable to the situation and this is where you have the sort of anything goes. You can’t go to your attacker please come at me like this.

You need to be able to take being hit

A number of Martial Arts classes work on semi-contact or light training, some do work on full contact training. Yes getting hit can hurt a lot and repetitive hits can also hurt.

Your probably better conditioned being a Martial Artist to taking a hit, but you rarely in Martial arts get his by weapons which can hurt and cause more damage. The other issue is you won’t always be able to avoid getting hit even if you are a Martial Artist.

You need to be aware of your surroundings

When in Martial Arts training you’re not taught to be aware of your surroundings, such as choosing where to walk when, not to walk down dark allies. You don’t always learn to be aware of those around you and it’s common to bump into other class members when in a smaller space during sparring.

So as you can see there are some big differences between self-defence and Martial Arts training. On key issue I didn’t mention was that a Martial Artist could scare an attacker of with a hard fast strike which is pulled just short of contact. The strike would say to an attacker either you want to risk taking a beating or you want to get out of here. Physical Violence isn’t always needed.

 

Reasons why you should enrol your children into a Martial Arts Class

People are often advised to let or get their kids get involved with Martial Arts, and there are many of them and there isn’t a better one. Some people are afraid to let their child get involved because they may go round hitting people but it’s often found not to be the case. But there are many benefits not just those written about below.

Learn self-respect and respect for others
Learning respect for one’s self and for others is very high up on the list. We bow in Martial Arts as a mark of respect, but also to lose the negativity that is currently within us to empty it out so we can learn and become more positive.

The holding of pads for others is also a mark of learning respect, as the kid learn if they don’t hold pads for their partners, who will hold it for them properly. We also teach students to look after each other, as they will only achieve their goals and look good if their partner allows them to by following the rules, holding pads the way they should, and many more.

Motor patterns and co-ordination
Through Martial Arts we develop key motor skills, such as running, jumping, catching. These are often key to Martial Arts drills, balance improves due to kicking, as they have to stand on one leg a lot. Their co-ordination improves as they learn to target and control their kicks and punches to hit specific targets.

Learn how to overcome difficult situations
When a child struggles with a drill they begin to learn in Martial Arts that practice is the thing that makes it happen. Repetition helps kids improve, by doing activities again and again they begin to see improvements, and learn that they will improve and they will see others improve around themselves. With things like jumping higher, kicking higher, not always getting thrown over, or by making an escape when they usually get court.

Improved flexibility
Flexibility and stretching is a key aspect of any Martial Art, but it is something that is often neglected in other sports. So by encouraging your child to participate in Martial Arts you can help them remain flexible and supple. This can help reduce the risk of overuse injuries and growing pains in children in adolescence often brought on my bones growing quicker than muscle lengthen resulting it tightness and pain in areas of the body. However, being very flexible you can help reduce the tightness in muscles that can occur.

Achievement
As Martial Arts coaches/instructors, we always look to praise students; from noting how much higher they are jumping or kicking to awarding a new grade and then setting a new goal. Kids love the achievement of passing their grading’s, and seeing new belts, trying to catch up to their friends levels and that of their instructors.

Self-defence
Often those who take part in Martial Arts are less likely to be bullied. You develop an ora around you which no one’s see’s but for some reason people stay out of your way when they want to pick on someone. Maybe it’s because their afraid of what the Martial Artist could do to them.

Those who learn Martial Arts learn to look after themselves, sometimes their taught the ways how not to get into a situation where they are attacked, but if someone tried to take your child, would you rather they knew some skills on how to escape better, than not knowing what to do at all?

Making friends
The kids and any person who starts Martial Arts, makes friends, most clubs are like a big family, and everyone looks after each other. If you don’t know one will hold pads for you, no one will want to spar with you. In Martial Arts you meet new people outside your club or school or in competitions and you build lifelong friendships.

Concentration
In order to perform tasks in Martial Arts, to kick high, compete in the ring, pass a grading, allow someone to hit pads you need to concentrate. If you’re not concentrating there is a great chance you might fall over, hurt your partner. When you don’t concentrate you miss instructions and could look silly, so gradually the concentration improves because they understand the task you setting has a goal or rewards and if they don’t achieve they don’t achieve their goal or reward, such as passing a grading, or being able to try a new move or play a particular game.

Balance
When kids or any adult to be fair comes to take part in Martial Arts balance is always something that is about poor. However, when you consider performing any non-jumping kick, to spar well you need to and end up spending lots of time on one leg. Also the higher you want to be able to kick; a key aspect is being able to transfer your body weight without falling over.

Courage
Some of the biggest challenges a child will find in Martial Arts is coming through the door and joining in the first few times. Also before grading’s can also get a bit stressful, but through training, seeing improvements and having fun this all disappears very quickly. I don’t think I’ve ever met a Martial Arts student no matte their level who wasn’t nervous walking through the door and joining in not matter whether they are a beginner or a black belt, it’s always that step into the unknown,  but as we all know it I usually no that bad.

Leadership
Leadership is something which develops do to kids bringing their friends and looking after them in class. It comes naturally as they will want to look after their friends or family members and ensure they perform well. So they naturally start teaching and ensuring their friend/family member gets all the help, support and advice they need and ensure they fit in well.

These are not all the benefits but just a few which your child could benefit from if you enrol them into a Martial Arts programme. Your probably thinking now why have we not done it sooner? Also the other question is which are is best for my child, to that there is no answer just one that they enjoy is the only answer anyone can give you.

Up coming seminars

I’d like to let people know about some up coming events. We have been invited on Saturday 14th May 2016, 2-4.30pm a seminar with Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, in Exeter, Cost will be £25.00

We have also been invited on the 26th September to a Hojo-Jutus Seminar near Worcester, if anyone would like to attend?

We have the next MAAS fight day and evening show at the Guilford Spectrum on 14th. Let me know if you’d like to compete.