Karate is one of the most well-known combat sports and forms of martial arts found around the world, with many people taking part from a young age.
Because of this, there are a lot of different ways and methods for you to improve on certain areas of your skills, such as speed and stamina. Karate is a combat sport that requires a lot of thinking and patience.
There are a few different ways to increase your speed so you can keep your movement quick and your opponent on their toes.
At the end of the day, it’s all about staying one step ahead of the person standing opposite you, which is easier to do when you have quick speeds in karate. Follow the rest of our guide to find out how to increase your speed in this martial art form.
Benefits Of High Speed In Karate
As we previously mentioned, having high speeds involved in your karate game can be very difficult for your opponent to defend against, which is great for you and frustrating for them.
If you’re too slow then you’re bound to be too predictable and easy to read. Increasing your speed and working on fast transitions will allow you to be a lot more fluid with your skills.
On top of this, increasing your speed is bound to help you improve your stamina and endurance levels in the long run. Karate is an aerobic sport, which means that there is a lot of oxygen involved.
Because of this, you can expect any sort of training revolving around your speed to also look at helping you to last longer when fighting or sparring with a partner or opponent.
If you look at people like Bruce Lee, then you’ll notice that they have a brilliant work ethic and fast speeds to match. If there’s anyone in the world that people know for what they do, Bruce Lee is easily one of the fastest and best martial artists of all time.
How Can I Increase My Speed In Karate?
There are a few different ways that have proved to be effective over the years for those that want to increase their speed through exercising and training.
However, they aren’t specific to just karate and this can help you with a lot of different sports, whether that be something like Muay Thai, or even something completely different, such as soccer.
Plyometric Push-Ups
If you’re looking to use exercises that use your own body weight as a way to improve your muscular strength and your speed, then this is one of the best out there!
You’re bound to have seen the hero in an action film using these in some sort of training montage or compilation where they’re racing against the clock to get fit and improve their strength!
This is great for strengthening the muscles of the body, using a lot of them to support your own body weight. The easiest way to do this is to start in a push-up position on the floor and make sure that your feet are touching each other.
Make sure your hands are beneath you, touching the floor at shoulder lengths apart. This will have you ready to start the exercise.
You’ll want to keep your back as straight as possible and lower your elbows slowly so that you can focus on your technique and form. Do this until your chest touches the floor.
From here, you’ll want to spring yourself up quickly and clap your hands together when at the high point of your spring. Then, place your hands back down and catch yourself to finish the move.
Speed Bag Training
If you’re looking to improve your reaction times and make yourself quicker both physically and mentally, then this is the exercise for you. On top of this, speed bag training also improves your hand-eye coordination, as well as your timing.
This makes you a lot faster and will also keep you accurate.
Stand in front of the speed bag, as if it were an opponent. Keep your feet shoulder length apart so that you have good stability and balance before you start to punch the bag.
Make sure that you’re within arm’s distance of the bag so that you can reach it when you punch. You’ll want to hit the bag with both hands, one after the other, and then get progressively faster to increase your speed and accuracy.
Resistance Band Training
This is an exercise where you will increase your speed and make sure that you have the strength to keep going! Resistance bands help to keep your muscles contracted, which will make them tougher and stronger.
Punching without the bands is the time when you will really notice and feel a difference in your speed and resilience.
You’ll need to tie your resistance band to something behind you at about chest level. From here, you need to hold one end of the band and be facing away from the anchor, in the opposite direction.
Each hand will need to have one end of the band so you can work on both sides at the same time.
From here, you’ll need to close your first and start the exercise. Throw punches as if you were shadowboxing and try your best to keep the exercise going for a good period of time. This ensures that your stamina is improved as well.
Conclusion
That’s the end of our guide. The best way to find out if these work for you is to try them out for yourself! At the end of the day, you’ll know which method works best for you and the way that your body works.
Because these all exploit different areas of the body, they can be good to combine together in training and mix around now and then.
Hopefully, by the end of our guide and a few training sessions, you’ll be able to notice a real difference in your speed and quickness.
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