SW Portland Martial Arts Blog

Kung Fu Conditioning

June 15th, 2015
Kung Fu injury prevention

I’ve had a couple of Kung Fu students ask me questions about back injuries and posture issues lately. This means probably dozens of students are thinking about these things but haven’t asked.
The answer I’d like to give is “do CrossFit”. I love CrossFit for lots of reasons but the primary reason is that it makes me less injury prone when I do martial arts. However, I understand that not everyone has the interest or time to do CrossFit. So, the video contains my second favorite answer: “do 5 sets of 5 deadlifts and shoulder presses twice a week for three months”.
See the video for more details. And if you start doing this, either send me videos so I can check your form or do some reps at the school and have me watch you.
Yes, it is true that doing martial arts will make you stronger and hopefully less injury prone as well. However, a little bit of strength and conditioning work can go a long way toward filling in the gaps.

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Grappling Camp!

June 12th, 2015

Summer Camp Flier.jpg 2015
Next week our kid’s grappling camp is on! Monday through Friday, 1:15-4:15. I know I am excited to see if we can build up the skill sets of all the students who have signed up. Since we normally only have 1 grappling class a week that is but a brief one hour long, I’ve been telling the students that this camp is equivalent to going to grappling class for 3 months in a row.
Spots are still open. Go check the events tab for more details.

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Baby [Hand] Steps

June 11th, 2015
Handstand building

Want to be able to walk on your hands?  Practice challenging your balance against the wall before you start trying to walk freely.

Kick up against the wall.  Hold steady.  Once you can do that, hold your handstand while moving your legs around.  Bring one leg down.  Bring both legs down.  Shift your weight from hand to hand.  These small balance challenges will teach your body how to maintain balance on your hands.

Practice this everyday for 2 minutes for a month and I guarantee your handstand walk will improve.

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Why Do We Do That?

June 10th, 2015

Ever look at the whiteboard or listen to the coach and then wonder “why are we doing THAT movement?”. Is that CrossFit? Is that going to make me more fit? Isn’t that just silliness?
If so, good. Stay engaged. Question the methodology. If not, good. Stay engaged. Do the work.
Let’s take hip touches as an example of a movement that causes many whys to arise. There are several good reasons to do hip touches, swinging and hanging motions. One, as you can see from the video, is that swinging around is just fun. A “fitness” reason is that hanging and swinging will increase the functional range of motion of your shoulders. A “CrossFit” reason is that CrossFit requires competency on the pullup bar and single handed hangs (aka hip touches) will increase your strength and comfort level on the pullup bar.

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Staff Time!

June 3rd, 2015

The time has arrived, once again, for us to swing six foot sticks around in the park.

There are so many things to love about the staff form but my personal favorite is the way it teaches you how to switch your grips to match the ever changing needs of the moving stick. in that way, it reminds me of grip fighting in BJJ. Adapt your grip to swing a stick… or choke someone out.

Posted in Kung Fu, Weapons | Comments Off on Staff Time!

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