SPEED TRAINING (PART 2)
How can you train your body to move quicker?
In the first speed training article we established that your response time consists of four phases: Perception, Identification, Response-Selection and Action. The first article focused on primarily developing the first three phases. This article looks at employing exercises that specifically develop the final phase – Action!
The action phase can be isolated to fine-tune your body’s movement speed. If we again take a look at our defensive example: we have already perceived an incoming threat, identified it as a front kick and selected a forearm parry followed by a side kick as a response. Your thought processes may have quickly perceived, identified and selected a response, but success now depends on our body’s ability to physically execute the command from the brain.
Getting the Signal to the Muscles
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>Speed - coordinated signals from the brain to muscles
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This command will leave the brain as electrical signals, which travel along the nervous system activating muscle contractions to coordinate the chosen movement. How efficiently this is done depends on many factors. Firstly, the signal from the brain must reach the relevant muscle groups. The level of coordination that you have developed for a specific movement is directly related to the number of quality repetitions of the movement you have rehearsed. A well-practiced technique will simply happen automatically. Muscle contractions will be timed correctly maximising speed and fluidity of movement.
Coordinating unrehearsed movements on ‘manual override’ demands considerably more processing power from your brain, and requires your nervous system to route the signal to the muscles ‘on the fly’. This is much slower than running a pre-rehearsed program with familiar communication pathways to muscle groups. The old maxim ‘repetition is the mother of skill’ rings true, but you should also consider that repetition increases speed.
Making the Muscles Contract Quicker
Once the signal has reached the muscles, the contraction speed will again depend on your training. Fast twitch muscle fibres are predominantly used in speed related activities, which also means that your anaerobic (without oxygen) alactic (without lactic acid) energy system is used at maximum speed. This level of activity can only be maintained for up to 10 seconds continually before lactic acid will form inhibiting movement. Regular round training for durations of two to three minutes will develop your muscles to tolerate the presence of lactic acid, reducing it’s slowing affect.
Muscle Tone
Your muscle tone will also affect the speed of contraction. Muscle tone is simply the amount of natural tension in a muscle – a well-trained muscle remains subtly tensed even when relaxed. This means that any signal from the nervous system telling the muscle to contract (shorten) will result in immediate movement. If the muscle is less toned and has a greater degree of ‘slack’, it will need to ‘take the strain’ before any movement occurs which wastes time!
Flexibility
The specific range of movement of a joint will affect its speed of movement. As a limb reaches its limits of flexibility, signals will be sent automatically to the opposing muscle causing it to contract, effectively putting the brakes on! The less flexible you are, the earlier this happens and the slower you will be. This is particularly obvious during high kicks. So develop your flexibility if you want to increase your limb speed.
Resistance Training
For your muscles to contract quickly they must be capable of generating force. The greater the force they can produce, the quicker they can accelerate your limbs. Resistance training simply utilises higher than normal loads on your muscles to develop improved strength. This resistance can be used in a traditional weight-training format, or as resistance to martial art techniques.
Weight training is better conducted using exercises that target large muscle-groups rather than focusing on isolated movements. For example, rather than specifically carrying out triceps exercises for the back of your upper arm, just work hard at the bench press which not only works the triceps, but also the deltoids (shoulders) and pectorals (chest) which all contribute greatly to any hand techniques. Multi-joint large muscle-group exercises include; Bench Press, Squats, Shoulder (Military) Press and Chins or Lat pulldowns. To develop explosive speed, you should attempt to accelerate the weight quickly during each rep (for a total of 6 to 10 repetitions). Make sure that you are thoroughly warmed up before attempting this kind of workout. Weight training places high demands on the body, and for a martial artist it is advisable for you to avoid using weights on days that you train martial arts. Also avoid weight training one week before a competition to allow your body to fully repair.
Martial arts techniques can be practiced with hand, wrist or ankle weights to help develop quicker muscle contractions. It is true that weights do not provide resistance in the correct direction for all techniques – gravity always acts downwards! But because your limbs will need to overcome the inertia of an increased mass, your muscles will see a higher load. Repeated training will cause the body to increase muscle strength to cope with such demands.
Elastic or bungee cords can be positioned to load directly along the same line as a specific technique. And will also force the muscles to overcome a greater load than normal, making the body to adapt.
Another resistance method used by martial artists is water! I’m sure you’ve all tried a round kick under water when at the swimming pool! The density of air at sea level is approximately 1/800th the density of water, so practicing techniques with your body submerged will obviously make your muscles work much harder – contributing to greater speed when back on dry land!
Plyometric Training
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>Plyometric_clapping_press_up
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Plyometric exercises are invaluable tools for developing strength and speed. And use the body’s stretch shortening cycle and elasticity of the muscle to produce high-force contractions. Pre-stretching a muscle prior to contraction causes the body to invoke a stretch shortening cycle, which serves to protect the muscle from damage. This cycle causes the muscle to contract with a far higher force than you can voluntarily demand, recruiting more muscle cells and using efficient nervous system connections.
Plyometric training simply makes you faster and stronger. Complete instruction of plyometrics is beyond the scope of this article, but the exercises consist of explosive bounding, hopping and jumping movements. Examples are as follows: skipping (jumping rope), tuck jumps, hopping, clapping press ups, medicine ball chest passes etc.
During such exercises ground contact should be kept to a minimum. As soon as your feet hit the floor you should spring back into the air. During upper-body exercises with a medicine ball, you should attempt to return the ball to the air as soon as possible to use the stretch reflex action of the muscles – wait too long and it will be lost. Lower body exercises should be conducted by landing on the balls of your feet.
General Points
- Warm up before speed training to both reduce the likelihood of injury, and prime your body for fast movements and rapid reactions.
- Always conduct your speed training at the start of a session when your body isn’t fatigued.
- Do not sacrifice technique for speed. Make sure that you use correct form, that you accurately hit the target and can control and apply power before turning up the speed. Remember, thousands of quality repetitions will pre-program your nervous system to rapidly reproduce the movements with minimal conscious thought at high-speed.
- Regular training will get results. One-off workouts will not encourage your body to adapt.
- Do not neglect flexibility.
- Use resistance training to develop maximal strength and speed.
- Avoid heavy weight training on martial arts training days.
- Use plyometrics to develop explosive strength and speed.
Structuring your speed training exercises into round timed intervals will both provide an effective timing structure for the drills, and encourage your body to specifically adapt to the demands of competitive martial arts practice.
Next month we will look at how training to compete promotes better training motivation.
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