Hitting the Wall With Partner Training

How do you get the most of your partner training? Some train for fun, others train seriously, others train in preparation of realistic self-defense, others purely for the social aspect of being in a club.

With that comes with a variety of intensity from various partners - some punch hard, some punch fast, some punch really weak, some have bad form, some don't give you the right stimulus for the drill, others are too protective of their ego that training with them is practically a waste of time.

So with such a variety of personalities, how do you get the most out of each person? Because wing chun is so partnered oriented in its training, my level of intensity may not match my partners and with that comes differing level of results..some good, some not so good. Some days I feel like my partner managed to take me past my comfort level and I'm totally exhausted after. Other times, the partner doesn't seem to be challenging me at all, as I feel we're moving at a snails pace.

So what should I do? What do you do?

Until then.

Train Slow, Grasshopper...

there is a very strong lesson here expressed in my Si-Fu's latest's blog post - it really comes down the importance of training slowly. When trained in this fashion, you're programming your body to feel every twitch, every muscle fibre, every tweak in all joints, etc. involved in performing a punch, a defense, a step, and on it goes.

If you've ever trained this way, it's REALLY exhausting physically, but more so, MENTALLY. It's like it's training your entire nervous system - an area of which more typical rigorous, and "grotesque" training movements just cannot train as efficiently.

It's all about training slowly.

Most of the time, we just don't have the patience to train this way, and if we do, not train long enough to reap its rewards. I'm guilty of this too myself. But only beginning to realize the importance of training slowly.

On a side note, the boxing trainer I was working with also mentioned the same to me. Train slow and repeat often. He is all about doing one combination over and again..like 300 times per side and then moving to the next combination. Hardly anyone in the gym even attempts this. They just hit the bag as hard and as fast as they can for the round, rinse and repeat. But always, hitting the bag hard and as fast - incorrectly (what footwork? hurt the wrist again?).

No need to hit the bag hard, just take your time, get your positions right and keep at it. This is his advice. Also reflects my Si-Fu's advice - it's not about hitting with power now. If you can't do it slowly, no way you can do it at full speed.

Although, different from wing chun, the idea is the same. Train slowly, grasshopper..

Until then.