personal training 4 all: a contemporary application to sports strength and conditioning

Originally published June 1995

A contemporary application to sports strength and conditioning
Gary Hemba
Strength and Conditioning Consultant, Second Dan Black Belt Moo Duk Kwan, Jackson, Mississippi

THIS ARTICLE IS REPRODUCED WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF THE NATIONAL STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING ASSOCIATION. IT PREVIOUSLY APPEARED IN THE NSCA JOURNAL OF STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING AS "Martial Arts, A contemporary application to sports strength and conditioning", HEMBA, GARY. NSCA JOURNAL (1991) 13(2):31

When it comes to seeking a competitive edge, successful strength and conditioning coaches are not unlike offensive / defensive co-ordinators. Their conditioning curriculums will often reflect variations in standard training philosophies, as well as innovations in training productivity and efficiency. One of the most recent innovations has to do with the incorporation of martial arts training into collegiate and professional conditioning programs.

An increased interest in martial arts is somewhat ironic in that for several thousand year, the various oriental disciplines have provided some of the most advanced physical training known. Their rediscovery and subsequent utilisation is a credit not only to their conditioning validity, but also to those coaches who are willing to expand beyond the norm.

The illusion

Hollywood's depiction of the martial arts has slowed their acceptance into many athletic conditioning circles. A differentiation between the legitimate contributions of the arts and their commercial exploitation must be defined by coaching staffs before such programs can be sold to their athletes. The ninja art of assassination should be left to the movie directors, while valid martial arts conditioning principles are pragmatically assessed and subsequently applied in accordance with a program's conditioning needs.

Bilateral Development

Many athletes tend to favor a dominant side and exhibit unilateral strength. They often possess superior strength, co-ordination, balance, proprioceptive awareness and flexibility on either their right or left side. Anthropometric measurements will sometimes vary from limb to limb, as will goniometer measurements of flexibility. Sometimes examples of dominance may be mixed (eg a baseball player that bats left handed and throws right).

Occasionally, an athlete comes along who exhibits extraordinary bilateral strength and/ or dexterity relative to his or her athletic skills. However, such examples are rare.

Reasons for unilateral development vary from genetic coding to an inordinate amount of usage by one side of the body. Injuries and/or their inadequate rehabilitation can also play a role in undermining bilateral competency. Other occurrences of physiological dominance can, in many instances, be traced to sport-specific biomechanical requirements (eg the take-off leg of a broad jumper, a pitcher's throwing arm), where the sport encourages unequal development because the inherent skills involved dictate that the body be so conditioned for performance purposes.

Martial arts training is an exception. It is a premise of training that all techniques incorporate bilateral emphasis so that equal execution by opposing limbs can occur. Such demands are imperative in order for a student to be capable of executing techniques (hands and/or legs) through 360 degrees and/or at any angle.

Former All-Pro tackle Randy White is a prime example that martial arts training has a practical application in competitive sports. White told this author that until he incorporated martial arts into his conditioning regime, the co-ordination and strength/power on his non-dominant side was inferior to his natural side. These deficiencies were equalised, however, through consistent application of kicking, punching and reaction techniques that were recommended by the Dallas conditioning coach, Dr Bob Ward. Subsequently, White's pass rushing and run protection techniques ceased to reflect any weakness on his non-dominant side.

Agonistic / Antagonistic Development

Martial arts training mandates developmental balance in opposing muscle groups. For example, to prevent injury and to insure the proper technique in a frontal kick, the quadriceps and hamstrings must be developed in accordance with the proper ratio of 60:40 (3). Whereas the quadriceps must extend the knee, the hamstrings must brake extension and subsequently retract or flex the knee joint back to its original position.
An improper ratio of 70:30 or even 80:20 will place the weaker hamstring group in jeopardy or injury and/or will slow the retraction phase of the technique (4). Also developed in such a movement is the opposition relationship of the hip flexors and hip extensors.

This is just one example of an ancient physiological as well as psychological philosophy that emphasizes balances in all things. Two other martial arts techniques that promote antagonistic development are crescent kicks (abductors / adductors tors) and punches (triceps/biceps and pectoralis / latissimus dorsi).

Trunk stabilisation and development

One of the most frequently neglected areas of the body relative to conditioning is the midsection/trunk. The trunk is comprised of the abdominal wall (rectus abdominus, internal and external obliques) and the lower back (erector spinae). Because of its proximity to the external oblique, the serratus anterior should also be emphasised.

The midsection area is crucial because it is essential to the transfer of power from the legs and hips to the upper body and vice versa. Intrinsic to this power relay is the concept of dynamic stabilisation. By definition, dynamic stabilisation of a body segment by surrounding muscles, allowing only movements dictated by the skill being performed (1). In short, any activity that requires torque (rotational force), such as throwing, is subject to and dependent upon this physiological process.

How does this discussion relate to martial arts training? Almost all techniques are predicated on the principle of torque or rotational force.

In keeping with the old adage, "you run with your arms and throw with your legs," punching and kicking are initiated from opposite ends of the body. Logically, a weak trunk will inhibit the transfer of rotational force; conversely, a well-conditioned trunk will increase the efficiency of the transfer while concurrently lending itself to the unwinding process.

Thus stated, the strength and conditioning imparted to an athlete's trunk is a natural by-product of the rotational demands intrinsic to the execution of any number of martial arts techniques.

Explosive training

The proponents of martial arts have long felt that the oriental disciplines provide an optimum medium for translating stored energy into kinetic energy.

The Soviets took the same concept in the 1960s and coined a new methodology for explosive training (plyometrics). An extensive repertoire of depth jumps, hops, skips and leaps became for many conditioning coaches the secret to bridging the gap between strength and power.

However, a review of martial arts techniques (eg Karate, Tae Kwan Do, Moo Duk Kwan and Kung Foo) reveals that for more than 2,000 years, the same biomechanical and physiological demands of plyometrics have been component requirements in the execution of bicycle kicks, jumping front/ side kicks, spinning back kicks, crescent kicks and hand techniques.

Though plyometrics may be a contemporary term, historically the philosophy of plyometries is intrinsic to the foundation of the martial arts.

This author draws the preceding comparisons for the purpose of illustrating the merits of martial arts not often recognised by many conditioning coaches.

Dynamic flexibility

One of the intrinsic by-products of martial arts training is the development of dynamic flexibility. Performance flexibility is synonymous with dynamic flexibility, in that the majority of sports performance tasks require maximum ballistic muscular contractions.

Though static stretching is an important preventive maintenance tool, it falls short in preventing muscle pulls. On the other hand, martial arts training develops a dynamic flexibility, which can transfer into sport-related tasks. For example, the frontal snap kick develops the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals and lower back flexibility in a manner that approaches the biomechanical requirements of a sprint movement.

Such an improvement becomes crucial considering the fact that lack of flexibility in these muscle groups causes athletes to understride, thereby inhibiting their capacity for speed (2).

The abductor and adductor groups are developed by side and crescent kicks, which enhance the potential for lateral movement while conversely decreasing the incidence of groin pulls. Back kicks increase the flexibility of the hip flexors and quadriceps, thereby increasing the fluidity of a runner's stride. Development of flexibility in the shoulder muscles (including the rotator cuff), trapezius, chest, upper back muscles, triceps and biceps is a natural by-product of the battery of punches, open hand strikes and spinning techniques required in martial arts training. For example, the palm heel thrust is used repeatedly by offensive lineman, and is known as the open hand technique in pass blocking.

In short, dynamic flexibility that decreases down time due to pulled muscles and allows an athlete to perform sports tasks at an optimum ballistic level is highly desirable in not only football, but basketball and baseball as well.

Hand-eye/foot-eye co-ordination

Pass blocking, pass rushing, hand-offs, sweep and option-pitches, passing, punting, receiving, field goals, PATS, punt receiving and kick-off returns all require exceptional hand-eye and/or foot-eye coordination. Aside from repetitive practice, all such skills can be enhanced by upgrading an athlete's capacity to focus. In martial arts, the term "focus" is used to denote a body's adjustment to depth of field (distance), velocity and angle. By improving an athlete's proficiency in coping with these three variables, there is a natural crossover benefit in an individual's ability to adjust to the unpredictable.

All of the various martial arts disciplines incorporate focus mitt drills, sound and sight reaction and peripheral vision drills to minimise the time frames between recognition, instinctive computation and subsequent reaction of the eyes and hands or eyes and feet. Improvement in this facet of training would be analogous to using an auto-focus camera as opposed to a manual model.

Metabolic applicability

In relation to football and other power sports, martial arts training offers a viable form of interval training. During an actual workout, upper and lower body techniques are alternated andlor integrated in 30 to 55-second sequences that promote maximal ATP-PC and lactic acid expenditures. Though work/rest ratios are dependent upon the instructor, this author recommends an initial 1:2 worklrest ratio for novices.

The recovery periods or dead time can be utilised more efficiently by incorporating various flexibility exercises. As in weight training and wind springs, improved conditioning will be reflected in decreased recovery time (increased efficiency in glycogen regeneration).

Martial arts training also addresses the development of local muscle endurance. ]his is achieved through the repetitive nature of martial arts, where one technique is performed until muscle failure occurs. For example, multiple outward knife-hand strikes will ultimately tax all muscles responsible for shoulder extension (latissimus dorsi, teres major and posterior deltoids).

Implementation

Who Instructs?

If a coaching staff decides that such supplemental training could be beneficial to a program, where do they get an instructor without dipping too deeply into the athletic budget? Most college and university populations have at least one instructor who offers either on- or off-campus classes. Ibis person may or may not be employed directly by the institution. However, just for the consideration of a resume highlight, many instructors will consent to a couple of hours a week for little or no charge.

Which Discipline

Whereas students of the various disciplines all feel that their recipe for martial arts training is superior, in reality, most forms will address the physiological and biomechanical issues discussed in this article. Though some methods may be dissimilar, the end results will not be if the staff mandates a list of measurable goals such as flexibility measurements and plyometric proficiency.

Frequency: Two days per week minimum, a maximum of three days.

Duration: Forty-five minutes to one hour.

Intensity: As previously stated, a 1:2 work/ rest ratio is recommended. After three weeks, a 1:3 work/rest ratio can be alternated with a 1:2 work/rest ratio. Variables can be manipulated at any time by the staff conditioning coach by monitoring and communicating with the instructor.

When?

Martial arts training should be integrated with the other components in the off-season conditioning program. Since weight training programs can require great expenditures of time, off days designated for cardiovascular conditioning can accommodate a martial arts program that only requires a frequency and duration of 45 minutes, two days per week.

Psychological perspective

Delving into the psychology of sports is reflected in today's graduate and undergraduate curriculums throughout the various universities. Hypnotism has been used frequently by athletes to overcome negative mind sets and/or to tap mental reserves. Task visualisation is now commonly used by athletes to mentally swing a bat or catch a pass with positive results prior to the actual task.

These trends indicate that our sports society is redirecting some of its focus from the physical aspects of training to mental conditioning.

Conversely, as opposed to putting the physical cart before the cerebral horse, centuries of martial arts teachings have prioritised introspection as a prerequisite to physical development.

Conclusion

The purpose of this article is to briefly present an overview of martial arts training as a supplemental conditioning alternative.

Historically, coaches have tried other supplements for the purpose of enhancing on-the-field performances. When this author played college football, ballet was offered. Years later, aerobic dance penetrated the stoic confines of sports conditioning. Even yoga was used and in turn promoted by some professional athletes as a bridge between body and mind.

Maybe the benefits of martial arts conditioning deserve, at the very least, a prolonged second look.

References

1. BIELIK, E. 1984. DIAGONAL-ROTATIONAL STRENGTH TRAINING FOR THE TRUNK. NATIONAL STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 6(1).

2. DINTIMAN, G.B. 1984. How TO RUN FASTER. NEW YORK: LEISURE PRESS.

3. DUN, B., SOUDEX, E. AND J. GIECK, 1983. STRENGTH COACHES SEMINAR - IMPROVING FOOT SPEED, STRENGTH AND HEALTH. 11:2 1.

4. HEMBA, G. 1985. HAMSTRING PARITY. NATIONAL STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 7(3).

5. O'BRYANT, H. AND M. STONE. 1984. WEIGHT TRAINING: A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH. MINNEAPOLIS, MN: BURGESS PUBLISHING Co.