Lesley Jackson looks into the importance of home improvements.

My poor father. He’s just had to endure an hour of holding a couple of focus pads whilst I kick merry hell out of them. Fortunately, the man is six feel tall and built like a brick out-house so I think he can take it from his 55 kilo daughter. I’m not entirely sure this is what he had in mind when he said he wanted to help me some way with my Taekwondo as I’m approaching my black belt. I’m also sure he hadn’t bargained on putting my stereo back together after I had accidentally kicked it across my living room when doing my dynamic stretching in my bijou apartment. He heroically pieced it back together whilst I was nursing my sore toes but thank God nothing was broken, least of all my ancient stereo!

Why am I putting my toes, stereo and father’s sanity to the test? Because like any other martial artists who have an important event coming up, such as a grading or competition, we want to get the training in to make sure we are in the best shape possible to get that A grade or beat a rival opponent. Depending on where we live and how often our clubs train, it is not always possible to find a class as often as we want and with the outrageous price of petrol these days you can’t always afford to travel that far on a regular basis. So this means that we often need to train at home and I’ve found there are things that work better than others and pitfalls you definitely need to avoid. However, home practise is no replacement to being under the supervision of a good instructor; it is merely a supplement to your core training in class.

When and Where

First of all, when deciding you want to practise at home you need to assign a time to do it and a decent space to work in. First thing in the morning is preferable as your training will liven you up and keep you alert for the rest of the day. Yet for us mere mortals with jobs who have to get up at the crack of dawn to go to work, we are restricted to the weekend and evenings. Try to keep your sessions short though, focus on practising just one thing otherwise you will become tired and frustrated. Knowing when not to train is as important as pushing yourself to your limit and rest must be built into your programme.

A good space is premium as well, depending on where you live and what you are planning on doing. If you live in a flat like me, you may decide to try a public space such as in the courtyard or your local park. Of course, it largely depends on what you are planning on doing; I thought it would be a good idea to practise my patterns down the park not expecting to have a missile thrown at me by some kids and having a variety of dogs bothering me, so check out the space beforehand! The best public space I’ve ever used was hiring a squash court at the local leisure centre; they’re quite cheap and have a surprising amount of space to practise patterns in.

What to Do

You need to keep a clear idea of what your objective is when you are training at home and stick to it. Obviously, there are certain aspects of a martial art you can practise on a regular basis and things you should definitely avoid. Honing an individual technique you feel you are weak on or cementing a newly learnt pattern is a good idea and even doing some pad work is useful if you have someone to practise with. However, sparring with anyone outside of class is a really bad idea as you will not be under any supervision by your instructor and the risk of over heavy contact and injury is far too great.

One of the pitfalls you do want to avoid when practising techniques at home is repeating and ingraining errors that you are not personally aware of as no one is there to correct you. One 5^th Dan Taekwondo instructor warns that, “Once you get yourself into a bad habit, say flailing your arms around when you kick, it is tough to correct.” This is one of the reasons martial arts are not something you can learn alone, you cannot replace the attention of a good instructor and your regular attendance in class is essential. Our 5^th Dan advises that, “Every trip to train should be about quality,” and it is this quality and expert corrections that we can take home to perfect. One tip I heard that was useful was to find a full length mirror to practise various skills in front of, that way you can see for yourself any flaws in your execution of individual techniques.

Increasing your Fitness

One of the easiest and most straightforward activities you can train for is your cardio-fitness. When I was preparing for a competition in Switzerland earlier this year, I supplemented my training with a regular run to build on my endurance as I knew that I was going to have to compete at altitude and needed to ensure that I had enough energy to see myself through to the final. A good friend of mine recently told me that she has started running shorter distances, a couple of miles, on a more regular basis and has really reaped the rewards in the regular bleep tests her instructor subjects her to. Another effective way to increasing your fitness quickly is to find a route that has a series of lampposts to follow. Start with a steady jog in between the first two and then sprint like fury between the next two followed with jogging between the next two and so on. It is really hard work and you may not be able to keep it up for long when you first start but your fitness levels will shoot up and the explosive power you will gain when sparring will surprise and shock your opponent. Once you have this base fitness, you are in a better position to work on your sparring skills as you do not have to worry about running out of puff half way through a sparring session; and you’ll be fitter than your competition opponents and therefore better able to out manoeuvre them and run them out of breath.

Something you must be meticulous at all times when practising at home though is to do a thorough warm up and cool down every time you train, no matter what it is you are doing. I always repeat the one that we do in class by rotating the main joints, raising my heart rate by a quick jog and a comprehensive stretching routine. You really don’t want to work hard for a goal and find you’ve scuppered your chances by a careless muscle strain because you were too eager to get practising on a high kick or sprinting up a hill.

So choose your home training activity with care to ensure you gain the most out of it, and try not to break anything expensive!

- Lesley Jackson

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