My at home wushu training primarily consists of working on flexibility/mobility and improving my double sword spins. I’ve tried working on stance work at home, but it’s just so boring and I feel like the translation to class isn’t as strong.
*A few (very) important points for anyone trying to do the same:* 1. Your back needs to be straight while stretching the hamstrings, otherwise you are not stretching the entire hamstring or worse put excess load on the ligaments. The same goes for your front split. Try to keep your back as straight as possible and rest your hands on yoga blocks. This way you actually sink down rather than push forward. 2. A wushu split is done differently to a split in ballet or even rythmic gymnastic. Your back knee should be almost to completly on the ground. This shifts the stretch more on the quads rather than the ligaments. Especially beginners think they stretch the hip flexors and perform potentially injuring excersises. 3. Try to not wobble during stretching. Ballistic stretching triggers the myotatic reflex. That reflex contracts as it tries to prevent over-stretching. Only (pre-)professional athlets know how to savely perform that stretch. Be sturdy and hold you stretch. 4. Instead do dynamic stretching like leg swings or high kicks. PNF (done correctly, which I can´t tell for sure in the video), dynamic, static, passiv and assisted stretching work the best. 5. Strengthen the opposing muscles to give you more support during a stretch. For middle splits focus on the gluteus maximus, minimus and medius, the IT band, piriformis and pectineus. Good exercises are pliés, sumo squats, developpés a la second, high kicks, dirty dogs (try to keep the leg straight), the clam and lifting the butt in a butterlfy stretch. Gabriel Varga has some good follow along videos for martial artits. You can also try animal flow exercises for legs. 6. You need to strengthen the muscles you stretch otherwise imbalance will appear over time. It does slow down your progress but prevents long term injuries. 7. Relax! Not only does stretching take time but you should actually feel relaxed during a stretch. A relaxed muscle can stretch further aka using a foamroller or a massage gun shortly beforehand makes stretching easier but be carefull to not over-stretch. 8. If you try to pull your knee towards your hip during a hamstring stretch, the quads tens up and the opposing muscle (the hamsting) will lengthen even further. Like your triceps lengthens then you tens up the biceps. 9. The more tired your muscles are the harderd it is to stretch. Doing some light cardio makes your muscles warm but not too tired. 10. Listen to your body. Havin a split in four weeks sounds cool but isn´t possible for everyone. Take the time you need, the rest will come. Good luck and ask a medical professional if issues should appear. RU-vid is usefull but not the same as an actual counselling.
I’ve always thought the term “martial arts” was too broad. The arts focused on combat can be called “fighting sport,” I don’t have a term that feels correct for wushu/form arts … performance martial arts?
I know what you mean, performance based seems appropriate (but people get mad at that apparently?) so I try to just say wushu taolu to separate it from fighting sports
A sport is not a real fight. So a sign of McDojo is not an instructor saying “this martial art is not a competition.” Any martial art instructor who talks like that is teaching you how to defend yourself from an attacker in the middle of the streets. Because you know what they say, there are no rules in a real fight, and in a real life self defence scenario there are no rules, no one has time to put on punching gloves, there is no ring or referee to call out a penalty when your opponent throws out an illegal move on your butt, your opponent could kill you IF they wanted to, therefore the stakes are high enough to consider that as a real fight. So whenever a martial arts instructor says “our martial isn’t for competition,” that means your instructor is going to teach you how to fight FOR REAL. Now am I saying the content creator should return to that Dojo? Idk, tbh, I don’t believe in martial art purity, so I personally wouldn’t attend that class. It might be a McDojo, but not because they prefer to not be associated with sports. Martial Art purity is a good way to train your students how to never adapt to a situation that is newer to them.
Honestly, you're right about leg power/explosiveness. When I started wushu a couple years ago, it was much more intense than I had expected (coming from other martial arts). If I hadn't already done martial arts for a couple years before starting, I know I would've been way more tired than I actually was
Like you, I train both BJJ and Wushu. My BJJ colleagues laugh when I say that Wushu is the most athletic martial art I’ve ever practiced. BJJ rolls are a way more intense cardio session, but in almost every other (physical) regard, I think wushu is more intense. Just my experience, not wanting to offend anyone :)
I started learning TKD in college from fellow students who were black belts. A few years later I found an 8th degree Korean teacher. What a difference! This man’s power and techniques were off the charts. You have to be selective
Great video and you are telling the truth about these sorry McDojo martial arts schools and instructors. I have a first degree black belt in Tang Soo Do and my ex-karate McDojo instructor in Augusta, Georgia where I live only care about money and he didn't take martial arts teaching seriously that is why I quit and my ex-martial arts McDojo instructor is out of business. The martial arts schools and instructors in the Augusta, Georgia area are just McDojos they only care about money and not teaching martial arts. It is just sad that you are better off carrying a hand gun for protection then learning martial arts because these martial arts instructors don't take teaching martial arts seriously they only care about money and when you pay these martial arts instructors they still want to BS your time and not teach you martial arts when you as a martial arts student is serious in wanting to learn martial arts. Martial arts of today have become a joke it is all about money and not teach martial arts for self-defense.
I got black belt karate when I was 12 and I certainly didn’t go to a McDojo cause I actually had to work for it since I was 4 and it was pretty prestigious
I want to learn karate/taekwondo but living in America (Texas specifically) is like walking in a room full of minefields because none of these dojos in google maps look legit at all.
McDojo is a term invented by old school students that noticed schools don't teach the old ways and not as much "watered down from what they learned". We live in a society of less discipline (to put it nicely). Schools who teach the old way have few students or is like an exclusive club. Almost all schools are family schools, but any that try to make you feel like you are learning secret deadly arts without being old school is lying! If there are kids classes then it should be a family school or a 24 hr fitness + watered down martial arts.
I was once in a Korean style Kung Fu school where we never sparred, never gotten into competitions. Had a yearly contract that renewed which I tried quitting a year in a half prior leaving since I didn’t have money to pay for it. Luckily I mange to quit before my contract renewed, and paid what I owed. He would often raise prices on belt testing, and special events he would create only within our school. And would always be vacationing, buying a new house, buying all sorts of new stuff for his house. I’ve only seen the grandmaster like 20 times out of the 5 years I was there. He owned the school in my town, and the main one downtown where he mostly was (though students from there barely train with the grandmaster except for the black belts). He did have 2-3 sister schools that were opened by instructors he trained around downtown which he rarely visited. Now the style did seem legit. Even the grandmasters former grandmaster who was very active during his time, and was the original owner of the main school downtown never visited the current grandmaster. (I have a feeling he knew how the current grandmaster is like) The former grandmaster actually was in Kang Duk Kwon which was one of the original 9 kwans (they eventually renamed kang duk Kwon to Taekwondo) that opened in Korea after the Japanese occupation in WW2. He came to the United States in the 1960s dropping the name Taekwondo and keeping its Kang Duk Kwon style (Thus our Korean style Kung Fu). So the style has some rich history, and seems pretty legit. It was just the current grandmaster who made it more about himself and the money. I feel bad for the former grandmaster who passed away about 10 years ago. He didn’t come all the way from Korea just to have his style become someone’s personal bank account.
In my old taekwondo dojang, there were 12 year olds with black belts because they had already been training for 5+ years by that time. The difference was that their black belts were different than the black belt for adults. The adult black belts had a different name to the kid’s ones. Although I can’t remember the names exactly Edit: I have since searched it up online and the official term for a junior black belt is a “poom” rather than a “dan”. You can only receive your 1st dan belt once you’re 15
im so glad i found a good dojo😭 im paying for tkd and kickboxing and both of them together are about 120somthing a month. and my teacher is a good guy, he teaches correctly and treats us right and doesnt do unnecessary fees for test like that. its so weird hearing all of your stories
Ok I’ll bash it for you: TKD is a joke and a game where you earn points like pinball. People get Olympic gold medals by jumping on one foot and tapping your opponent’s chest plate or helmet with your foot.
Took Viet Vo Dao when I was younger and I say it was worth it because my Sufu(Master/Instructor) put more emphasis on the effective techniques for self defense. I remember during the middle of the class, Sufu taught the basic applications such as punches, kicks, blocks, parries, locks, grapples, throws etc. and he really elaborated the relevance for self defense in the street. Before the end of the class, we had free sparring where we had to apply the techniques we’ve learned in class and it was mesmerizing and yet memorable.
As a TKD instructor myself, I have seen and visited many McDojo’s. The, not watching BB class is dead give away. Also, the forbidden technique. As someone who has studied Combat Hapkido and used it in my Security and LE days, I learned that many of those cool bone breaking or dislocating techniques are actually useless. You cannot break someone’s arm, just to get them out of the bar. Dislocating a suspects arm, while placing them in handcuffs will get you sued and fired. Too many Martial Arts school like to teach complicated and pretty techniques. I teach people what I know works. I prefer the KISS method, Keep It Simple Stupid.
Totally agree - I’ve noticed that fake or bad instructors like to make it seem complicated to SHOW that it is effective. no need to complicate things, just help me reach my goals!
@@sifudough I have found that many instructors are 2nd and 3rd generation instructors, meaning, they themselves have never tested the techniques they teach. I remember reading an article in Black Belt Magazine, if you want to see how good you are, go out and fight. Sounds harsh, but there is a lot of truth to that statement. Being able to test the techniques in real world situations changed my mindset. I am not the best fighter, heck I would get my clock cleaned in the octagon, but I am not a UFC fighter, I am just a decent fighter. I tell my students, my black belt means I got my butt kicked a lot!
All this mcdojo info has been really eye-opening for me. When first going into Martial Arts, I knew nothing about mcdojos or how to tell what was a good one or a bad one. My first experience with Martial Arts was joining a PMA school. (Which I know has a reputation for being pretty bad in mcdojo wise.) Luckily, the teachers were actually pretty legit, and one of them used to train Muay Thai in Thailand, which was like the real deal. Or at least all the instructors were competent enough that my technique wasn't complete trash, and then I switched to Shotokan Karate through JKA, which most of those dojos are pretty legit, some better than others. The one I joined is really good and I'm really lucky that it is run through my university, so I'm able to pay student fees which are actually really cheap. The Senseis don't get paid to teach necessarily, so they're purely doing this for the love of the sport, and it definitely shows when they teach, which makes learning even better.
