View this page "IS08 Warm Ups and Stretches"

[Amanda]

Click on http://groups.google.com/group/imsa-karate-club/web/is08-warm-ups-and-stretches
- or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't
work.

[Dean]

A good way to do slow pushups with excellent for is to have people do
them in partners. One person lies on their stomach (or sits in seiza
or ansa) and holds their fist (vertical) under their partner's chest.
The other partner starts in the up position for pushups, and on the
instructor's count (where the slow comes in) they lower their body
until their chest *just* brushes their partner's fist (where the form
comes in) and they hold it until the instructor counts again (where
more slow comes in). We probably wouldn't want to do more than 10 of
these though--they're pretty intense when you count even at a slightly
slower pace than normal.

[Amanda]

another thing to keep in mind with warm ups and stretches:
the warm ups are intended to get blood flowing, not to get us in
shape. although, it should help with that, i don't think that's our
primary goal here. we want to teach karate, and although it is
beneficial to be in shape and one of the byproducts of doing karate
(even our intersession) is that you get in better shape, i'm not sure
that should be our goal when we are doing warm ups and stretches
(which is the only goal i can think of when we run a gazillion laps or
something. i mean, it's great but the focus gets lost and we lose the
interest of students quicker) if students are interested in getting in
shape, we can talk to them individually about what sorts of stuff to
do at the gym that benefits karate or whatnot, and running and
exercises, and how drills and stuff we do can be expanded upon or
repeated in ways that would help them. but we don't need to create
athletes in one week. we just want to have fun and not get hurt. the
variance plays into this a lot, but it's things like, i don't know why
we have to run as many laps as we do or why we have to do 100 crappy
sit ups or jumping jacks or push ups or squats when fewer, better
executed ones would serve us better and we'd get plenty warmed up in
order to stretch and do karate.

[Dean]

<ridiculous>
Nonsense! I want to make excellent athletes out of everyone in one
day!
</ridiculous>

Excellent point.

I agree that it's easy to lose focus, and go for the athlete-producing-
conditiong, particularly as you get into a good workout. I'm sure if
we wanted we could make the exercises impossible for anyone to keep up
with--but as you said, that's not the point. This also goes with the
not doing 80 bajillion squats each day for IS--the kids are there to
learn Karate technique. Squats over months and years of practice
develop strong legs--it's not necessary to get those legs into
fighting shape in one week.

I would be happy to help any students who wanted to get in better/more
competitive shape by giving them exercise ideas, or working with them
on stuff, and I agree that this should be an 'extra credit' item, not
something required for everyone. A basic level of physical endurance,
sure, but you're right--they don't need to be able to keep up with me
or you or Cynthia, especially depending on body type, years of
experience, etc.

[Amanda]

hehe. i wasn't gonna even go into the squats things. but yeah, it's
the same issue.
the numbers i put up there are kind of a compromise, but i'd rather
lower them even more.
i know that it's traditional and it's how cynthia always learned it,
but i think it's more detrimental than anything else.

i also think that to some extent, the amount of warm ups should be
left to the person in charge of the warm ups on that day, cuz you
should take into consideration things like, how tired everyone is from
the day before (like wednesday morning is usually hellish and
bleeaaah) or how cold it is outside- in which case your muscles need
MORE to get warmed up but also it should be taken SLOWER so that you
don't hurt yourself. maybe we each want to take a day... and then the
drills are kind of self-sufficient... i dunno.

[mivil]

like the idea of not killing everyone on the first day, and def agree
that doing less better ones are good.
looking at the list i think we have medium-ish shaped ppl, so not too
bad (dont know about some of the sophs).