Quickness
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Ways to build speed
Traditionally, speed training consists of repeating a movement until it is ingrained in the muscle and becomes automatic. Focusing upon increasing your overall physical speed by doing such things as sprints, or high rep/low weight training. Build strength to increase the explosiveness of your attacks.
Some other ways to build speed are:
- Kiai. Many athletes hold their breath while exerting themselves to magnify their strength, through pneumomuscular reflex of intra-abdominal pressure. For quickness, you must exhale during movements. The optimal performance zone is at the end of exhalation, so your exhale should begin in time to end at the moment of impact. However, you should not visibly inhale before an attack; any experienced fighter will know that you are attacking.
- The kiai has been used in the martial arts for centuries. All warriors use a "spirit shout" when they attack, even modern day warriors such as the Marines. Even street fighters use a spirit shout but their shouts tend to be obscene. When you kiai, you must exhale.
- Practice. Conventional wisdom says that to be quick, you must practice doing techniques as quickly as possible. However, practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. To be quick, you must perform techniques slowly and perfectly. Speed depends on effectiveness and efficiency of movement. To increase your effectiveness and efficiency, you (or others) must be able to see what you are doing wrong. When you only perform techniques quickly, problems cannot be seen and corrected and thus they get practiced until they are imbedded in your movements. Practice techniques slowly, concentrating on making them perfect. Quickness will be the result.
- Move more. The more parts of the body involved in a movement, the more power, the more speed, and the less energy expended. This does not mean using extraneous movements, it means relaxing the body so all the parts move freely to the desired end.
- Balance. If your opponent is slightly off balance, he/she cannot react as quickly, thus giving you the speed advantage. Try to maneuver your opponent so he/she is off balance, and then attack.