Monday, June 1, 2020

Adding Variety to Practicing Hyung -- Chief Instructor's Blog June 2020


In this current environment, is your solo training getting stagnant? Are you looking for some variety to mix it up and stay motivated? Adding variety to your Hyung may be the answer.

As I mentioned last month, practicing Hyung outdoors or on different terrain, in regular clothes, in natural environments might be a good place to start if you have not already, especially with the weather turning nice to be outside. And maybe you have been doing that already and you are also looking for some other ideas to mix it up.

So, here are some other suggestion for you (some I have mentioned in other blogs, class notes, or in class itself), but sometimes it helps if all ideas are in one place.

1. Practice the Hyung mirroring all the techniques. For example, start to the left, versus the right. This has several benefits. (1) If you have not noticed, in most Hyung we do more techniques on the right then the left. So, by mirroring you are physically balancing yourself out. (2) If exercises are performed to increase muscle strength on one side of the body, voluntary strength can increase on the contralateral side [Ref. 1]. (3) It also helps train the mind. Sometimes we get stuck mentally and by doing things similar but different it helps create new neuropathways.

2. Practice the Hyung Backwards. Start with the last move and end with the first move – this is similar to the mirrored version (especially for the Kibon series) but can be more challenging.

3. Practice with your eyes closed or blindfolded. We have done this in class from time to time. In doing so, you will learn if you are using mostly visual ques to stay square then ensuring your physical movements are perfectly square. This will also force you to use and enhance your other senses.

4. Practice starting at a different orientation, like starting at a 45-degree angle to a wall. We have also done this in class from time to time. And similar to the above, by doing so, you will learn if you are using mostly visual ques to stay square then ensuring your physical movements are perfectly square.

5. Practice each technique very slowly. This will help you focus on making the techniques very precise, challenges your mental focus, and it will help improve your balance tremendously.

6. Practice each technique as fast as you can. This will help you work on speed, breathing and cardiovascular endurance.

7. Practice each technique with devasting power and force with an intent to do damage. This will help you work on breathing and cardiovascular endurance and aligns with the Han Moo Kwan philosophy.

8. Practice using only a single stance. For example, practice Pyung Ahn 1 all in Cat Stance. This will give more practice in each particular stance and challenge your mind to do something different.

9. Practice with only one arm. We have done something similar in class during sparring, but not necessarily Hyung. This will challenge your mind.

10. Practice with no reciprocals. This will force you not to rely on the reciprocal for force or power.

11. Practicing just visually going through each technique imaging you preforming each technique precisely. Visual practice has shown to be very effective in sustaining and improving techniques.

12. Practice with a book on your head. This practice will definitely tell you if you are working from the center and staying level throughout the Hyung.

13. Practice the Hyung with loud noises (music, tv, etc.) in the background. This will help work on your focus and mental strength. This is similar to having someone in class trying to distract you.

14. Practice the Hyung by starting in the middle or the third move or the tenth move. This will help you really break down and learn the Hyung versus a body movement from start to finish.

15. Practice the Hyung with ankle and or/ wrist weights. This will help build muscular endurance.

16. Perform some explosive moves then perform the Hyung. For example, doing 25 pushups then go through the Hyung. Or perform 25 burpees and then go through a Hyung. This will help work on your cardiovascular endurance as well as your mental strength.

17. Practice sections of a form until you can perform it precisely. This will also help you really break down and learn the Hyung versus a body movement from start to finish.

18. Finishing at Starting Spot. This is usually more for advanced students, but you have probably noticed that the Hyung do not start and finish at the same spot. By practicing such that you do, you are discovering what adjustments need to be made to finish at the starting spot. The ability to adjust stances to be able to move to an exact spot is a vital skill in self-defense and sparring.

19. Practice the Hyung with more expansive moves (but never lock out elbows). This is also usually more for advanced students. By being more expansive, it improves your range of motion, but will also challenge you to stay grounded and connected with your center.

20. Practice Hyung with short strikes. This will challenge you to improve you power and aligns with the Han Moo Kwan philosophy.

21. Create your own Hyung (one of my favorites). I like to use the Kibon patterns and replace the techniques. For example, instead of low block and attack punch (Kibon Hyung), maybe you try Medium Block and Extended Spear Hand as the pattern. Or maybe you try High Block followed by Knife Hand. You can mix up the techniques and the stances. With all the various techniques and stances, we practice, you can end up with creating hundreds of Hyung to practice. This is a good way to practice techniques and challenge you mentally. In self-defense you have to be ready to use all your techniques starting from different places and in different stances. This is a great way to get more comfortable to use any technique, in any stance, from any angle.

22. Perform Hyung studying your energy. This is also for more advanced students. The concept is to ensure each technique, move, or transition direction of focus and movement, technique or transition to the next technique matches the direction of the energy.
    • Go through Hyung with open hands extending energy; watching where energy is directed
    • Go through Hyung with open hands extending energy; viewing if leading, dragging energy
    • Go through Hyung just moving from one technique to the next flowing energy and not pausing between techniques
    • Go through Hyung, noticing where your energy is retreating and adjust
Have you discovered a way to practice the Hyung in a way to add variety to your practice? And in doing so, maybe learning something new about the Hyung or art form? If so, would love to hear about it. And if you created your own Hyung, video tape it and send it to me – would love to see it. I hope some of these suggestions adds variety to your solo training and keeps you motivated to continue to practice.

Stay safe, stay heathy and look forward to the time we get to practice together again.

Regards,
Kelly


References
1. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00531.2006, Retrieved 29 May 2020


“Like textbooks to a student or tactical exercises to a solider, kata are the most important element of karate” ~ Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957), founder of Shotokan Karate