A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

Today, the " Shinergy Youngstars[battle] Spring Cup 2011 " took place. From my school, there were 5 competitors, all of whom took home one or more medals. At the end of the day, my 5 students scored a total of 7 medals. The Shinergy Youngstars[battle] is all about speed, agility, precision and coordination. There's no actual fighting there. This is due to pedagogical reasons. We (that is, the Shinergy instructors) don't really believe in kids beating the hell out of each other in front of their cheering parents. I strongly believe that trainers should focus on building a strong athletic base with their younger students before having them fight in a competitive environment. Yesterday's battle was split into three events: Agility Parcours Power Punch Flying High Kick Let's take a short look at the details of those competitions: Agility parcours The agility parcours is just what the name implies. A parcours was set of, consisting of 3 standing bags, a couple of j...

It's been a while since I did a post on the martial arts. Over the last weeks, due to my injury, my main interest was strength training and general physical preparation. Today's topic deals with the martial arts again. Today the Shinergy[young stars] Battle Winter 2009 took place. "Battle" is what we call our Shinergy championships, because in the beginning, those championships were held in music clubs, just like breakdance battles. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there because I had to hold classes at my dojo, but 5 of my kids competed. I have to say, team Stadlau (that's the part of Vienna where my dojo is) did really well: 5 competitors, 4 medals. Now of course, competing isn't all about winning some precious metal, but it does play a part. Especially for kids, I'm convinced that competition and reward are a great way to hold motivation. Also, it provides a great feedback for everyone: the competitor can measure his progress, the instructor can object...