Need something to kick you in the butt and get you going? Watch this.

Just do it.

Yakri~

Amazing Handstands.

I watched this video again, and had to share it here. It just blows me away everytime I see it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Fighting/Sparring part 1

so I’ve been training for the nationals and I just thought I’d drop some sparring tips for those martial artists who’re looking to improve their skillz. (as a note: this is generally for kickers in tournament fights. For you peeps who like to punch, I’ll do a post on that soon)

So first, I’ll discuss your stance. The stance I use is your basic back-stance: feet apart facing forward with one foot behind the other. Your back should be straight and the hands up mid level, with one slightly raised to protect your head (fists can be open or closed depending on your preference). The hands are especially important! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten hit because I let my hands drop. So keep them UP!!

okay, next off: attacks. I’ll start by saying that variety is key. Sure, you can defeat an opponent with the basic kicks: round-house, front, side, and back kicks. But that’s no fun. So I suggest kicking off a fight with the basics, then pumpin’ it up with some spinning stuff, and head shots. Something I’ve noticed is that when people get tired, they have a tendency to use only one attack (it’s generally an ax-kick or roundhouse) throughout their entire match. I’ve seen this happen many times; it’s really pathetic to watch and easy to counter. DON’T DO IT!

Some people have asked me: “How do you get conditioned for a fight?”. Well, here are some ideas. Since you need to be throwing kicks almost continually for about 1 1/2 minutes(give/take), you’ll need endurance. Without it you are dead. Seriously, endurance is one of the key abillities a martial artist needs. You need it in sparring, for forms, and some other things but mainly the first two.

So anyways, here’s a couple of things you can do. Two minute drills (you’ll need someone to time you on this, or have an analog clock handy): It’s pretty basic, you take three exercizes (i use push-ups, sprints, and that kind of stuff) and do each for 10 (I do 20) seconds. You continue this for two minutes, every two min is a set. Do two or three sets. You can also increase the time to three minutes if you feel that my time is too short.

The other drill you can do requires a bag; your average puncing bag will do. You’ll also need a timer. So to start off, you have your timer set for thirty sec. , and proceed to throw any kick you want against the bag. You then increase the time to 40 or 45 sec. Then to 50, then one minute. After each round you’ll want to rest for an equal amount of time. After your last round you’ll probably be winded and/or sore so take a rest. This does several things for you 1) you can work on your kick cambinations, 2) it helps your wind 3) It’s a realy good workout.

-Beveld

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT BY THE END OF THE SUMMER

Alright, there are a million and one kids out there wondering if and how they can slim up by the end of this summer, and i wrote out a really in depth reply on yahoo answers and I wanted to post it here too.

If you have a public pool, start swimming 7 days a week, one hour per day, if you can’t do that, do 3 days a week.

If you don’t, jog for 30 minutes or more(but less then 2 hours) each day. in addition, after you jog, stretch out and do push ups and crunches (not sit ups, there is a difference)

Now for diet. From now until school starts, do not eat any candy junk food or soda. this includes but is not limited to; energy drinks, soda, Gatorade, energy bars, slim fast products, frozen fruit juice and anything that has high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients list.

You also need to drink a gallon (yes 1 full gallon) of water per day. Do not drink anything other then water, unless it is ORGANIC milk, and then, only drink about 1-2 glasses a day, the majority of non organic milks are very unhealthy.

You should also try and eat a lot of food with high protein content, like tofu, eggs, and organic tuna. And foods with good fats in them, all nuts and many fish (like tuna) have these.

Rather then 3 meals a day, you should eat 6 small meals a day, this is more important then you think.

The diet is the most important part, if you don’t do the diet, you are just wasting your time.

If you drop all the junk food, drink only water, eat 6 times a day, and stick to the workout, you should impress your friends significantly when school rolls around.

Remember, if you stop working out and eating healthy, your going to regain weight again, so if you do this and like the way you look at feel, stick to it, it only gets better as you go.

I would be using this and swimming if our god damn public pool was open, but they are staying closed all this summer.

Feel free to email me with questions at yakrii@yahoo.com or you can leave a comment on this blog and i should reply within 24 hours.

Yakri~

Building blocks of tricking and parkour shortened.

Well, I made a post a while back called Building Blocks of Tricking, Parkour, And Martial Arts. Part 1, and Its a lot longer then it ends to be, so I want to summarize it here.

Parkour

1)Parkour is a great form of exercise, but that isn’t going to get you far if you don’t eat right, and sometimes training in a gym to get stronger, or build more endurance, is better then just doing parkour for it, mostly because it won’t be as hard on your body.

2)A lot of great traceur’s have very little in the way of serious injuries related to parkour. This is because they don’t do stupid shit. Basically, remember that the goal of parkour is to get from A to B as fast as you can, not to show off. Breaking bones and what-not also isn’t supposed part of it.

Tricking
1)In tricking, training in the gym and at home is very very important. Its pretty easy to hurt yourself enough to take you out of sports of a notable amount of time in tricking, and conditioning helps reduce the risk of that happening. condition three times as much as you trick, and you will be tricking for a long time.

Condition, diet, then train.

2)Don’t go overboard, working out for two hours a day every day and then spending an hour tricking afterward, it won’t help you. Remember, stop while your ahead, if you land a trick perfectly, do it a few more times, and then stop before you get tired. This way the correct form becomes more firmly implanted in your muscle memory. And don’t condition and trick on the same day if you can help it.

That’s all I’m putting in here, I think this explains the important parts better.