When I started this blog my primary concern was increasing my high intensity endurance. This term, which I just made up as far as I know, means my ability to do high intensity work (like sparring, full speed kata, etc.) for a long (relatively speaking) time. I'm sure there are other better names for this, but you get the idea. I was also interested in increasing strength, power, and skill, but mostly in building an endurance base.

One of the tools I used to do that was Tabata intervals. In case you don't remember what they are, the Tabata protocols involve 20s of high intensity work followed by 10 s of rest, repeated some small number of times (maybe 8 or 9, although I tend to do a few big sets of 8 or 9 intervals each). They're named after a Japanese researcher who was studying cyclists.

I still think Tabatas are a great way to build up strength - endurance, or whatever you call it, certainly much better than long slow distance. I personally like them more than other protocols - 30s on/ 30s off, etc., although I'm not going to argue which type of high intensitiy interval training is better, as I'm really not sure.

I was, at the time I started this blog, using kihon (basic techniques) for my exercise. That is, I'd do 20s of roundhouse kicks, rest 10 s, etc. I was basically mixing skill training with my endurance training.

Lately I've been rethinking that approach.

Why? Well, as I learn more about skill acquisition I keep noticing that practicing a skill (like throwing a kick) when you're fatigued might not only be less productive in terms of furthering your neurological mastery of that skill, it might be counterproductive. That is, compare someone who throws 100 kicks with someone who throws 1000 kicks (assuming the 1000 kick guy would be pretty wiped out by doing all those kicks). The 100 kick guy might actually end up a better kicker, because the 1000 kick guy would have practiced a few kicks, say the first 100, while fresh, but he would have practiced many of them while tired, slow, and probably sloppy. The last 100 kicks in the longer workout are actually "teaching" the kicker to kick slowly and un-explosively. The guy who does the shorter workout doesn't practice anything but kicking while fresh.

The problem is that doing my old workout, which was basically kicking and punching oneself into exhaustion, might be bad for one's technique.

The alternative?

There are two. The first is to practice your kihon separately. Do your techniques just a few times, at full power, stop before getting tired, and repeat frequently (as in even many times a day, time permitting). To build up your stamina do something completely unrelated to karate. Sprint, use a Concept II, one armed snatches, whatever, but nothing where fatigued movements will interfere with skill acquisition.

The second, and I think better option, is to mix the two approaches. I like doing kihon to near-exhaustion for a few reasons. It builds up muscular endurance specific to the techniques. For example, nothing will prepare your upper back for high volume punching better than high volume punching. It's also more efficient - you're killing two birds with one stone.

So how to mix the two without causing skill regression? I was thinking of two methods of preventing problems. The first is to alternate upper and lower body movements (so you do 20s upper body, rest 10s, 20 s kicks, rest 10s, OR 8 sets upper body, 8 sets lower body) so the local muscle fatigue never gets high enough to interfere with skill acquisition. That is, don't do kicks until your legs are rubbery - stop and punch for a while. You might be able to get a great cardio workout (your lungs and heart will be fried) without getting enough local muscular fatigue to be a problem.

Another option is to structure your workout so you "finish off" your cardio system with a more general movement, like sprints, but start off with kihon. Say you're doing (like me) 32 overall intervals (8 sets, rest, 8 sets, rest, 8 sets, rest, 8 sets). Your legs and arms might stay fresh for the first 16 total sets, but you find that you're rubbery and slow by the end no matter what. So do your 16 sets of kihon, then move into snatches or sprints or the rower or bodyweight squats or whatever for the lat 16 (or some combination of several different movements).

What you shouldn't do is punch and kick yourself into exhaustion as a regular training method. I think. I'm not positive - I don't know everything there is to know about this whole skill thing, but guys like Pavel and other trainers seem to be pointing me in this direction.

By the way, punching and kicking yourself into exhaustion on occasion is probably good for you. Just not several times a week.

Let me know what you think.

Osu.

I've read a couple of blog posts recently that made me think about martial arts technique.  Check out this post on koshi - it is about old Okinawan methods of generating power.  It starts out pretty straightforwardly, but by the end, the "advanced techniques," it makes relatively little sense to me.  Just what is meant by "internalized movement?"  What the hell is moving internally?  Your liver?  You're generating power with your appendix, your spleen, what?  I find it relatively easy to ridicule these notions.

Try out this post.  It uses language that is even more nonsensical to me, although it's all coming from a Chinese, rather than an Okinawan, source.  Same nonsensical stuff though - joints moving on their own, with no muscle action?  Opening and closing joints, stuff happening that wouldn't make sense to anybody even remotely familiar with an anatomy book.

When you approach writing like this there is among many of us an urge to dismiss it immediately and often with disdain.  I respect that urge, I really do, and I tend to participate in it.  But it might be useful to keep a few things in mind.

The first is that these people clearly do not know how to explain well what they are doing.  The tendon twisting post in particular makes no sense.  BUT the fact that they cannot explain what they are doing coherently does not mean that they are doing something wrong or that it is ineffective.  It is possible that their words just do not convey the reality of their techniques very well.

For an example of this, take acupuncture.  The qi channels that those needles supposedly open or whatever don't exist, but the fact remains that if you stick the needles in the right spots you can do wonders for people, especially in pain management.  Many doctors and Western trained people dismiss acupuncture because it's "backstory" makes no sense.  The fact is, however, that it works, at least for some things.

I cannot rule out the fact that either Mr. Gooden or Mr. Phillips or both have incredible skills in body mechanics and are tremendous martial artists based on the fact that what they say they are doing (opening and closing joints, twisting tendons, utilizing internal torque) is nonsensical.  I can rule out the fact that they are scientific thinkers, but that doesn't make them bad people or bad martial artists.  It is entirely possible that both these gentlemen can hit harder than me, fight better, and move more quickly. 

The second thing to keep in mind is that you have to maintain skepticism in the face of these kind of descriptions of body mechanics, especially because they make no sense.  Just as there are people who would immediately dismiss these guys as idiots, there are others who would gasp and pant and proclaim how cool they are and go find a tai chi class to attend immediately.  That's equally stupid.

I have a secret weapon here.  A person I trust completely happens to tell me that the theories Mr. Gooden is relating, at least, are potentially very effective.  So I'm convinced - but I don't expect you to be convinced by this story - I mean, come on, "a guy I know believes it..."

The only way we should take these guys at their word is if representatives from either camp came out and participated in some kind of objective testing.  I'd love to see someone Mr. Phillips endorses as a skilled instructor come out and hit one of those pressure sensing makiwara contraptions.  Let's see how hard he can really hit without involving his muscles and so forth.  Let's see Mr. Gooden break something, or hit a heavy bag, using internal torque alone.  

If you can get a 150 lb. tai chi instructor to hit harder than a 150 lb. kyokushinkai sensei then I'll believe there's something to it.  Until then, I have to regard any technique that can't be explained with real anatomical concepts, the way someone like Pavel Tsatsouline can explain things, with the utmost suspicion.

An open mind is a good thing, but if it's too open, all kinds of crap can get into it.

For now I'm just going to have to stick to techniques that I can understand.