Warmup and drills

At the beginning of each class, we have a block of time that is dedicated to stretching, warmup and drills.

The stretching is the general stuff, and it appears to be little changed from when I took other MA forms back in the 70's.

The warmup is "Shoulders, Knees and Feet" We all get on the mat and in stage one, attempt to touch another students shoulder whilst blocking their attempt at same. The unlucky student must do crunches or pushups of a quantity named by the instructor. In stage two, we attempt to touch anothers knees, whilst blocking same from them, and in stage three, we attempt to touch anothers feet with our toes..which makes for some fancy dance steps.

The drills are varied, but in one type the student runs from one end of the dojo to the other and delivers punches to focus mitts at high speed for a set time..then runs back to the other side and delivers groin kicks for a set time...then races back to the other side and delivers hammer fists to a pad for a set time..and then runs back and delivers roundhouse kicks to a pad for a set time.

Please feel free to share your warmups and drills.

OMG deja vu, same stuff in Australia, varies slightly class to class but round about the same format.

Almost the same in Europe.

Yeah sounds about right for a a KM1 level warm up. I have an instructor that makes us run around the city block three times carry your partner on a sprint up a hill then hit the gym again. Do some light streching and start the KM fun.

Since you've been around MA for a long time, I'll ask you this:

Do all MA's warm-up before drills? I have a friend who studies Ninjitsu and he and his class don't even stretch.

The philosophy is that you won't be able to stretch in a street fight, so why stretch before drills.

Kinda like that old soldier mentality of picking up shells during practive to conserve, then when they got into battle, they were so used to picking up shells, they did, and got shot.

I don't agree with it since I am used to stretching before any excercise, but it soes make sense ina way.

"Excuse me, crazed lunatic, I have to stretch my hammies"

don[t think so.

It depends on the dojo I guess. I have seen intense warm ups, to almost nothing. I know in all the Krav PA dojo's there is a stretching and warm up period. I find it usefull at my age

Hello Everyone! I just started KM at the tender age of 29, and it is great! Our warm-ups in class usually consist of punching and elbow drills on the pad, going right into laying prone on the floor and having your partner try to keep you there while you try to regain a standing position, right into front kicking and knees on the pad, then back on floor for the same stand-up drill, right into attempting to kick a heavy bag while your partner blocks your efforts with the pad, right into push-ups and crunches!!! Holy geez, this is great stuff. When we have an odd number person, he /she works as a roamer, helping out any partners that need help keeping people down on the floor or from the heavy bag. Thanks for the forum and all the inputs, I am learning even while not in class, later!

I think stretching should be done regardless of what may happen in the street. The fact that you won't have time to stretch in the street doesn't mean you should risk injury when you're training. I understand the idea but I wouldn't subscribe to it myself..

anyway at my school we run in circles for a few minutes, sidestep in circles, go to the middle and touch knees, shoulders, backs, heads, etc, then stretch a bit, do some crunches and pushups, perhaps stretch a bit more, then get down to whatever strikes we're going to practice that day. this is level 1

Quote:

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Since you've been around MA for a long time, I'll ask you this:

Do all MA's warm-up before drills? I have a friend who studies Ninjitsu and he and his class don't even stretch.

The philosophy is that you won't be able to stretch in a street fight, so why stretch before drills.

Kinda like that old soldier mentality of picking up shells during practive to conserve, then when they got into battle, they were so used to picking up shells, they did, and got shot.

I don't agree with it since I am used to stretching before any excercise, but it soes make sense ina way.

"Excuse me, crazed lunatic, I have to stretch my hammies"

don[t think so.

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On the stretching issue there are a number of positions and I do agree that you won't have time to stretch before being attacked...

However I'll offer the following for your consideration.

1. In many MA's you'll be practicing high kicks to develop speed power and balance where in "the street" you'll likely use low or mid level kicks. I'm getting older and I'd like a little stretch before I try to work lead leg roudhouses to the head in class. But outside of class I'm keeping my kicks below the waist and I don't really need much stretching for that.

2. You are likely to workout 1,000s of hours for every hour you spend in a street fight. You don't want to lose training time because you didn't stretch.

3. You shouldn't aggressively stretch cold muscles.

4. I stretch every day. From a MA perspective, the fact that you won't be able to stretch before being attacked should be a good reason to develop the best baseline flexibility you can. From an overall health perspective, you should maintain the best overall baseline flexibility you can.