Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenchu
You are determined to get me wrong. Arn't you. I would call an increase of 1 metre in height in 2 years okay, esp. given I wasn't even focusing on it.
I am not dissmissing it, more so saying it is way over rated. Wushu masters started at ages always below 8 years old. That counts for a lot. I could never do what they do, regardless of what technique I used. Aside flying kicks, I imagine given the progress I am making training full time, I will be able to do all Tae Kwon Do kicks resonably well at my own head height in about 2 years. But flying kicks might be too late for me, not to mention Super Heavy Weight fighters are slightly less graceful than the Light Weight fighters TKD favors...
Can I ask you, how much time per week do you REALLY spend training in this?
|
Me? I stretch before and after every training session as well as when doing something idle (watching TV etc) The sort of stretching I do before training is different to the sort I do afterwards of course as you can hurt yourself if you don't stretch the proper way.
Rather than stretching being over-rated... I really suspect that you are under-rating it. I simply don't believe that your ability to kick at head height and hold it for 3 seconds today had little to do with stretching. Chances are the little amount of time spent on stretches you did in training combined with maybe a natural predisposition to being flexible were sufficient. Also what usually happens with flexibility is that rapid gains are made initially but you will reach a plateau. That is where I'm at now. My stretching regime is seeing results but slowly. Of course as was mentioned earlier, core strength is important too.
And you could probably do all TKD kicks well now if you can kick at head height... But TKD practitioners goal is not only to execute the technique but eventually to shoot multiple kicks out with the one foot at the same height before the foot hits the ground as well as hold out their kick for a lot longer than 3 seconds or whatever it is you can do (One TKD black belt pattern has you holding your foot out at head height and rotating 180 degrees then without losing height shooting of a side-kick at the end of the 180!). You are kidding yourself if you think you'll reach that level without a flexibility regime that doesn't include stretching.
(In case you're interested here's the black belt pattern I'm talking about)
YouTube - International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) Pattern Ju Che