improving endurance for martial arts kicking routines

Question

I apologize in advance for my english if it may sometimes seem a little unintelligible (it is not my first language).

I am experiencing difficulty improving my endurance for a kicking routine that is part of the belt testing. The kicking routine consists of 3000 kicks (a variety of kicks, 100 kicks per leg. For example, 100 side kicks per leg, etc.) in at most an hour. Kicks are either to pads or a bag.

The best I have done is 2000 kicks in 1:11 and 2700 in around 1:50. I had been training consistently for about 15 months and saw virtually no improvement with my time (for example, the time for the 2000 kicks fluctuates between around 1:21 and 1:15 on average, best time is 1:11). I used to run to help my endurance (best times are 6 miles in 52:04, and 3 miles in 22:46) when I was training more seriously.

Before I started on martial arts I trained as a (sort of) powerlifter for about 7 years, so I suppose my current strength is ok (around 240 bench, 275 squat, 385 deadlift, 135+Bw pull up). I want to get back to training, but most of all I want to improve and stop spinning my wheels. Hopefully half the information here helps provide some background. I can give more details if they are required, thank you for your time.

Answer 1

It is commonly touted on my circuits that being too muscular is bad for kicking martial arts.

Think of it this way - if your leg has an extra 1kg of muscle on it - thats 1kg you have to lift and propel with every kick - that is going to be much more effort even thinking of that weight just as being strapped to your ankle. Extra muscle can be even worse though - if not built in the right way the muscle can actually inhibit your joints ability to move.

If this is the problem - what do you do?

• Practice kicking (in a kicking martial art that is basically always the answer)
• Run/Cycle/Swim - build some leg endurance with an endurance sport, double benefit here 1) you will build fitness/endurance 2) your legs will slim down to suit the exercise - making them lighter for kicking with. Make sure you stretch LOTS after endurance training

Small tip - As you are aiming to hit a target in an hour - try to keep your endurance training to around that length and aim to be fairly tired out at the end maintaining consistent effort throughout.

Unfortunately your powerlifting past is probably battling against you right now - it is a different kind of fitness to the one you are trying to achieve.

Answer 2

Thank you all for giving me some of your time and answering my question. I saw questions, maybe some ("doubts"?), so I'll try to clear them up a bit.

Its not really a karate belt test, however, I suppose it guards some relation, since the teacher used to teach kenpo karate. But for kenpo karate the tests were at least longer (more kicks, not sure if time requirement was the same). That was decades ago, as well.

Kicks shouldn't be sloppy. For the first few belt tests the instructors or the teacher might cut you some slack, but from brown belt onwards kicks have to be good or they don't count. From the brown belt onwards, i've never heard of kicking tests being done on bags, everything is on pads. I suppose its to see if you are slacking at any point during the test.

On sparring its kind of point based. The fight doesn't stop after someone gets hit, but those hits add up to a score. Some count more than others, say you managed to intercept a strike and counter-attack, that would count more than a "simple" strike.

Good point on being too muscular (not that I am, though). But I remember going down from 190 something lbs to ~175 lbs (currently here) a few years ago and saw some improvement. Maybe losing some more weight would help.

Thanks again for all the responses, cheers.