Page 53 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 133

www.sportsenergynews.com Issue #133 February 2024 53

Continuing from page 32
KARATE KOMMENTS

By Jim Riddell,

Seaway Karate Club

The Attributes: Speed
ver the eleven plus years that Karate Komments has been appearing
Oin Sports Energy, I have often mentioned the term “attributes” when
referring to things’ karate related. The attributes are the skill-related
components that are required to be proficient at a specified sport. During
the first year or two of karate training a student learns many of the basics
such as kicks, punches, strikes, self-defense, etc., and the improvement will
have been considerable. After that time the student will continue to develop,
learning new katas, more techniques, and expand into specialty training,
but to physically improve, each of the attributes will have to be targeted
separately.
Special Olympics curing team (Ottawa) Photo Submitted
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? There are many drills for each of the individual attributes that will keep
classes challenging and exciting. Of all the attributes that are required
? ? for karate, speed is arguably the most important and definitely the most
? ? complex. Speed goes hand and hand with agility and is the ability to move
quickly, performing techniques as rapidly as possible while also maintaining
? ? balance and muscular control. It is very important to keep the muscles loose
NIGHT
? ? as tight muscles will slow down your reaction time. A few other factors that
? NIGHT ? will slow you down are tight clothing, emotional stress, flexibility, and cold
temperature. To make it even more complicated there are drills to develop
It’s Back!
? ? offensive speed and drills to help with becoming faster defensively. For
? It’s Back! ? offensive training there are various focus pad and paddle drills, mirror and
kicking drills, all designed to increase agility, hand and foot speed.
? ? Now let’s take a look at the defensive side of things, starting with reaction
March 22 @ 7 pm
? Mark your calendar for March 22 @ 7 pm ? time. Reaction time is defined as the length of time from your first perception

?
? of a stimulus until you react to it. A prime example of the stimulus is an
incoming punch during a self-defense situation. Several things have
?
? to happen in a very, very, short period of time to enable you to prevent

? This year’s event returns to the old-fashioned ? being struck. You have to be able to: 1) perceive the threat, 2) analyze it
? pencil and paper method that is more socially ? and narrow your responses down to just one, 3) tell your muscles how to
respond. Here is where the difference between being naturally fast and
? friendly and collaborative…. NO tablets or phones! ? having a trained response comes into play. The naturally fast person will

?

? instinctively jerk their head back from the punch, whereas the individual
with the trained response will slip the punch and counter it. If you want to
? ? get good at reacting to punches and kicks you need to train by looking at

? ? them and learn how to sense the incoming threat ahead of time. Working
various partner drills over a period of time will enable you to pick up subtle
?  ? clues as to what type of kick or punch may be coming your way. The good

? To register online or for information ? news is that even if you weren’t genetically blessed with natural speed, you
can still get faster. If you have the ability to play a video game or send off
? www.cornwallsunriserotary.com ? rapid fire texts on your phone, you have the instinctive ability to react, and

? or email rotaryclubofcornwallsunrise@gmail.com ? your speed will improve with the proper training.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Karate Quote: Stay calm, when emotion goes up, intelligence goes down.