Hi, I was wondering what typical FMA-Warmup Exercises you do. - Not just generell warmup like rope skipping, shadow boxing, ... but warmups with a stick.
The simplest is holding the stick in the centre and turning your hand as far to the left and as far to the right fast and repeatedly causing a fan......I do this to the front with arm fully extended, across the body (to the left when in the right hand) and out to the side (to the right if in right hand) then up above the head and change hands doing it all again with the other hand. I have a footwork drill that I do on a regular basis, which gets you very warm, very quickly.....move to left into closed stance, move to the right in open stance, move to left in cat stance performing an upward figure of eight motion with the stick, move to the right perfoming the upward figure of eight, move to the left into a hook stance while applying a vertical arko twice and to the right into hook stance applying a hubud arko to medio snapping strike, into left forward deep stance (male triangle) applying a big forehand and back hand strike....feet back to centre to reset and move to the right male triangle with a forehand and back hand strike (No.1&2) back to centre to retreat into low left backstance female triangle with a big forehand and backhand strike back to centre and into low right female triangle with forehand and backhand striking....then we start again and repeat about 10 times. Obviously you have your basic 1-12 striking patterns that are always good to start with for a warm up, which equally helps beginners too. Arma-ra's (basic striking combinations) are a good warm up tool and very important to develop individual sparring style.....as GM Danny Guba says "if you do not have your arma-ra's then you are just spaghetti......you have no fighting style" Doce Pares in paticular have many of these from 4 counts to 46 counts, but I have trained in many styles that have short solo sequences which would fit into this criteria. Within Rapid Arnis we have a few too. And sometimes I finish with a short form/sayaw or part of one if I am emphasizing on a paticular area dependant on what I intend to teach after, because from here on some occasions I may show the applications of a form or the arma-ra's, if there are beginners in the class, so they can see everything has an application or translation, we are not just twirling sticks for the sake of twirling and wielding a stick for no purpose intended. Double stick is always a good method of warm up as you are using both arms from the start. Lots of love :love: Lucy
Pekiti tirsia kali has a series of 12 double stick drills called the "dirty dozen". These drills include the abaniko/fan movements Lucy was talking about, as well as wrist circling (think multiple arkos) and a whole bunch of others. As a whole PTK isn't widely documented, so you may not find too much on these drills on the net. A good place to look is Tuhon Bill McGrath's website, as he has the drills on a tape, along with a lot of very interesting double stick material. Another tape with some nice warmups is Bob Breen's first tape on stickfighting (His own series, as I haven't seen the Abanico productions ones). A good exercise I do is to step left and right in a female triangle kind of arrangement and strike forehand/backhand with each hand for each step. You can go quite fast and build up a sweat, as well as working your co-ordination.
Great suggestion. We always started every class with the dirty dozen. What's nice about them is that they typically intergrate footwork as well. - Matt
Hi all, Fairly new to this board, thought I would mention what I do for warm up and training. Stretching, working the arms and legs in the largo mano style big circle and wide movement. Lots of sinawali drills on a bag or just easy with striking the air. Doing the triangle and octagon drills is very important with your legs and at the same time using two sticks and striking the air in any fashion not to be confused with working the strikes of various styles and systems. At the school I work out and at home. Bags, speed bag, various sizes from the biggest to the smallest makes you work at different speeds with your arms just because of the bag, it dictates the speed and the power to move it. Heavy bag with your sticks and your fists, just like in boxing hit hit hit hit. I like the two ended bag it moves good and I use my hands and fist on that one most of the time. But I do like to take soft sticks and hit it, because it bounces that stick back and then you recover and go at it from a different angle and foot work always moving. Angel Cabalas style his thought was/is keep moving the feet never stop. I work out alone 80% of the time. Just me and my shadow. I am into leg exercises like they do in some of the Karate arts. I am using karate as a general term not to be specific. At the school I am involved with we call it "Kosho"... Running in place like they do in the service and the types of body movement of working with a kata or just going "amok" on something to keep up the cardio. Kicks and knees like in Muay Thai about 100 or so.. I try to and do minimum of 3 times a week go to the school in the morning not many students. So I have an hour and a half or more on those days TU-TH-SAT... Move, move, move, hands, arms, and of course you can do Arnis striking doing the move of the ocho drills or the Escrima arts or the Kali way of striking or defending. Kabaroan has some good stuff and so do many other systems or styles. I try to combine as many as I know..But they are all chicken, but different flavor... Size of stick for training is several basic 28" or 24" some bigger some smaller the size in your hand dictates the way your wrist will allow it to move along with your elbow and shoulder. Grip is important when using the stick for as long as I do time wise, tiring so if you change the grip and the size of the stick and the length some times the 36" or the 40" makes you, forces you, to do it different so you are working a different way and it helps warming up and training... Sorry a little long but at least you know my thoughts on warming and working out with the sticks or with the fists with a light glove or bare handed all based on what you are doing. Above all know your limits and push them all the time. You should in my opinion wear something warm and loose and long sleeved shirt so you can wipe the wetness from your face with out stopping and of course a towel and plenty of good water and juice to keep you from getting dried out. I like to use a combination of water and juce diluted with the water. 32/64 ounce for the water and juice combo some times I even have some protein powder in it... Regards, Gary __________________
