You're in the Process: Train Hard and Often

Slow, methodical, and then yours

Most people want to go fast too early. In that class I say it plainly: we’re going slow, methodical. He’s where he has to be. We’re taking our time. One student is thumping the pad. Others are kind of slapping.

Going slow isn’t a punishment for beginners. It’s how I give a student “the ability to be perfect, methodical, take his time.” You build the technique tight, and the speed shows up later on its own.

Then, in time, something better happens. A student in advanced training does something “that’s just off. It’s not even part of the drill. It’s something that he brain mapped into his head.” He made it his own. That’s what brain mapping looks like from the outside: enough slow, correct repetition that the technique stops being mine and becomes yours. Thousands of times, working the same move, until it comes out without being called.

That’s also why I don’t want you to stop when something unplanned comes out. I’d rather know you’re firing something than watch you stop and say you messed up.

The bag doesn’t lie

Kancho describes the deeper meaning of Kyokushin as being able to “look in the mirror and not lie to ourselves.” For a striker, the heavy bag is that mirror. I go deeper on what that means in What Is Kyokushin Karate? The Ultimate Truth.

Watch: Kyokushin Karate Heavy Bag Training with Shihan Anthony Codispoti of The Phoenix Way Dojo #karate

On a partner, you can kind of get away with sloppy technique. With gloves on, in theory, you can get away with it. You can’t get away with it on a bag. So use it. Do ten in a row and grade every rep:

1. Did I drop my hips?

2. Were my wrists strong?

3. Did I hit with the front two knuckles, not the pinkies?

4. Did I stick it hard?

5. Did I recoil?

6. Were my hands up?

7. Did I lean?

That’s instant feedback, and you’re giving it to yourself. And if you come up to the bag after a while away and the top of your foot stings or your shin smarts, that’s feedback too. You haven’t been hitting the bag enough.

There’s a progression to it. For years, I’d come to the heavy bag and just think technique and thumping. Once I was in a rhythm and hitting exactly where I wanted, toes wrapping behind the bag on the kick, I’d let the bag start moving and work timing and tempo. Then I’d start playing a game with it. A lot of people are intimidated by the bag and don’t know what to do in front of it. Start with technique. The rest comes. The full breakdown is in Heavy Bag Training: The Bag Doesn’t Lie.

Train hard and often

Like Kancho always says: train hard and often. Notice it isn’t “train hard once in a while.” The process only works if you’re in it consistently. A great week followed by a month off doesn’t add up to much, and the bag will tell you so.

“Often” is also where most adults struggle, and that’s honest. You have a job and a family. Show up as often as your life allows, and make those sessions count. Our Adult Class is built so you can advance at your own pace, with instructors who help you reset your goals along the way.

Hard and smart are not opposites

Being in the process for the long haul means you have to still be training next year. That takes some sense.

Pad up on repetitive drills, especially shin guards. Get enough sleep. Drink enough water. Make healthy choices. If you’re eating burgers and fries and drinking five beers, then expecting to train hard every Saturday morning, that may not be the best decision.

I’ve called bare-knuckle punching to the face in training the law of diminishing returns, and the idea reaches further than that. Past a certain point, taking more damage doesn’t buy you more progress. The students who last are the ones who train hard, train often, and stay smart enough to keep showing up.