Training power by training slowly

Moving slowly is often associated with Taiji, however many fighting styles including boxing and kick-boxing also do some slow training. In this article we will look at the benefits of slow training.

Do a punch, and hold your punch at the end. Take a breath out, still holding your punch out and relax your muscles. Make sure that you relax as many muscles as possible: your neck-muscles, your upper shoulders, the muscles in your torso, your legs. Do you feel the difference. What you just relaxed, was all the tension involved in your punch. This tension has three effects: (1) It makes your punch slower; (2) it makes your punch weaker; (3) it makes you more committed and less able to change the direction of your punch. It makes your punch slower becaus the motion is uneconomical using more muscles than necessary. It makes your punch weaker because the power of a punch comes both from using the body as a stong structure and the explosivenes of the muscles. Tension dissasociates one part of your body from another and therefore makes the structure and also the power of the punch weaker. Explosiveness has to be focused on the tiny moment of actual impact between your fist and whatever it is you are punching. It being either before or after will seriously weaken the power of your punch. Indeed this is why experts like Zambidis speak of their energy, because they release this explosiveness at such a precise moment that it feels like a ball of energy going from them to the other person. Any tension will severely impact your ability to release this explosive force at the precise moment needed. The more tension you have the more you are committed. Try changing movement with your hands without power and now try when you put power in them. You will notice that without power it is much easier to change direction. Having tension in your muscles means you usse force for a longer time period than you would if you were relaxed, meaning that muscular tension in a movement severely deteriorates your ability to change movements should you notice your opponent has already changed.

Training slowly is all about removing muscular tension to make a better movement. Famous people like the celebrated boxer Ali or the most famed ever Judoka, Masahiko Kimura were famous for training both statically (holding the punch at the end) and training slowly. Ofcourse they did not train only slowly, they also trained fast. In boxing and kick-boxing clubs they tend to do one shot slowly and one fast, while in chinese kungfu they do two slowly and one fast. In chinese Qigong it is also believed that slw movements help circulate the Qi and improve health. If you have any disbelief about this, talk to someone who has practised Taiji for the last ten years and see whay they think.

The first benefit was purely physical, the second is a bit deeper. Lets first establish a time in training devoted to practising slowely. It can be one slow and one fast, two slow and one fast, or all slow. For the purpose of demonstration we will use the example of a punch. Move your arm slowly and feel the movement, feel your body. You have to discover how your body works not how your instructors body worked. Therefore you need to move slowly and you need to pay attention to your body. The next thing is your intention, visualise a series of opponents you are punching. Try and visualise the moment of impact of the punch and combine this with the intention to release your power. This will gradually unite your intention and your punch, and as many people say in boxing and kungfu, the power of the punch comes from the intention behind the punch.

Do this consistently over a long-time period and you will notice big improvements in your movements. A boxing instructor told me that it took five years to learn how to give a proper punch. Now you can probably see why.

As for breathing, some recommend breathing out when doing the punch as exhaling helps release tension. What I recommend however is just to stay relaxed and let your body develop its own breathing rythm. Whatever you do do not force breathing as if you force your breathing you will break rather than fortify the natural link that exist beween your breathing and your body. After all there is a natural mecahnism which relates your breathing to satisfy your bodies needs. You only need to let this mechanism work with the least interference, the most naturally possible.

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