This is on behalf of my husband, who has a number of questions. It is his post that he asked me to put here to anyone who might have good input on this.
I know swimming is a great cardio workout and a good all around workout, but is it a good Martial Arts workout for developing the kinda of muscles and conditioning you need for martial arts?
My wife is a swimmer and has gotten me into swimming now and I told her that I would give it a try for a few weeks and then see how to work it into a workout schedule. My wife wants to be a good swimmer, I don't want to be a good swimmer but I want to use swimming to improve my martial arts (if it can).
My fear is that the swimming is very time consuming and that while it will give me good cardio and good a good general workout I will be missing in some areas and need to supplement with other areas.
What I need specifically:
1) More endurance/stamina/cardio - a given for all athletes
2) More upper body explosive power. (I'm not strong in my upper body and need more work on chest and arm strength for power)
3) More leg work. I do Hapkido mixed in with Taekwondo, a lot of kicks and a lot strength needed in the hips/butt/thighs).
This is just targets, I know I need it all in measures. My concern is that a) swimming won't give me the fast twitch explosive power need for strikes and that b) swimming favors more upper body, which I need, but I will need to use other exercises (pushups, weight and resistance, etc...) to develop the explosive power needed and I won't be getting the leg work I need.
Top ranked swimmers have great bodies, but they get those bodies with dry land exercises in order to develop the bodies needed to be great swimmers. Home-run hitters work their timing, coordination, mechanics in the batting cage, but they get those muscles in the gym. I would love to say that swimming could be an all over workout for 5 hours a week, but I don't know if it will be the kind of workout I need, and I also don't know how I could tailor the swimming to get the kinda of workout I need, if possible.
Parents
Former Member
Swimming will not help your husband develop the speed of his individual techniques (kicks, strikes, etc.) Our shortest distance sprinters are still doing sustained activity for around 20 seconds. However, vigorous swimming will improve his overall strength and conditioning in a way that will help him train more effectively when he is doing martial arts.
Hapkido training probably focuses on one clash at a time; which moves, strikes or throws to do for one particular situation. Swimming would not make him better at it, but could help by enabling him to do more repetitions without exhausting himself.
TKD can vary quite a bit. If he is doing official TKD sparring (the kind done in the Olympics), swimming can help quite a bit. At the higher levels, physical conditioning is more important than the technique training. If he is doing traditional Poomsae (forms), swimming won't help that much since those are based on how accurately you match a standard set of movements. If he is doing a more open style of forms or even competing, swimming will help a lot due to the overall body conditioning.
Why do I pretend to be informed about martial arts? Because:
1) I manage this dojo: www.quansbushido-kai.com/
2) I'm not a Black Belt in karate ( I hated katas) but have done lots of Muay Thai kickboxing. Swimming strength and conditioning helps big time for that activity!!
3) My next door neighbor is the coach of the US TDK Poomsae team (Misha Thackrey)
3) His wife, Noreen is the first person from a western nation to medal at the world Poomsae Championships
4) His son, Tim has been the US champion in his class for years and was the 2006 athlete of the year usa-taekwondo.us/.../3176
5) My daughters have extensive competitive experience in martial arts. In fact, here is a nice article from the local paper that features the Fresnoidettes page 1: i32.photobucket.com/.../Clovisfullarticle_1.png page 2: i32.photobucket.com/.../Clovisfullarticle_2.png
6) I have tons more, but this will be all for now - hit the "sparring" gallery on this page to see Fresnoidette #1 mixing it up with 3x world champion Kathryn Doi www.quansbushido-kai.com/.../index.html
Wait, this one cracsk me up. Fresnoidette #1 facing an intimidating boy several years ago:
YouTube - Side Kick
Reply
Former Member
Swimming will not help your husband develop the speed of his individual techniques (kicks, strikes, etc.) Our shortest distance sprinters are still doing sustained activity for around 20 seconds. However, vigorous swimming will improve his overall strength and conditioning in a way that will help him train more effectively when he is doing martial arts.
Hapkido training probably focuses on one clash at a time; which moves, strikes or throws to do for one particular situation. Swimming would not make him better at it, but could help by enabling him to do more repetitions without exhausting himself.
TKD can vary quite a bit. If he is doing official TKD sparring (the kind done in the Olympics), swimming can help quite a bit. At the higher levels, physical conditioning is more important than the technique training. If he is doing traditional Poomsae (forms), swimming won't help that much since those are based on how accurately you match a standard set of movements. If he is doing a more open style of forms or even competing, swimming will help a lot due to the overall body conditioning.
Why do I pretend to be informed about martial arts? Because:
1) I manage this dojo: www.quansbushido-kai.com/
2) I'm not a Black Belt in karate ( I hated katas) but have done lots of Muay Thai kickboxing. Swimming strength and conditioning helps big time for that activity!!
3) My next door neighbor is the coach of the US TDK Poomsae team (Misha Thackrey)
3) His wife, Noreen is the first person from a western nation to medal at the world Poomsae Championships
4) His son, Tim has been the US champion in his class for years and was the 2006 athlete of the year usa-taekwondo.us/.../3176
5) My daughters have extensive competitive experience in martial arts. In fact, here is a nice article from the local paper that features the Fresnoidettes page 1: i32.photobucket.com/.../Clovisfullarticle_1.png page 2: i32.photobucket.com/.../Clovisfullarticle_2.png
6) I have tons more, but this will be all for now - hit the "sparring" gallery on this page to see Fresnoidette #1 mixing it up with 3x world champion Kathryn Doi www.quansbushido-kai.com/.../index.html
Wait, this one cracsk me up. Fresnoidette #1 facing an intimidating boy several years ago:
YouTube - Side Kick
