Do you work your weakness?

Do you know where you are weak, and do you train to overcome that?

pugpaws22013-03-02T16:59:15Z

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Yes, with one exception. I grew up being taught as most other martial artists are, that we should always train some that we can do every technique equally well on left and right side. While that would be ideal, I believe it to be impractical and unnecessary. I do not care if I do some things better on one side only. There are just to many different ways to deal with an attack to worry about being able to do every thing well on both sides. Instead I simply respond to an attack with what ever my body does. I Do not have to think about it or worry about it. so far that has worked for me.

Caution: I am not recommending my way to those that are not highly skilled. Until you are you need everything you can obtain to keep yourself safe. but for me at the point I'm at, it works just fine.


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samuraiwarrior_982013-03-02T16:18:50Z

Most definitely and you can't get better at something by avoiding it and/or not working on it which is what some fighters try and do. A good coach though will not allow or accept this in a fighter that he trains and works with and think about it for a second. If you could take your weaknesses and work on them and develop them so that they were now your strengths then how much better would you be than you are now?

The other thing about your question and what you are asking is of course knowing what those weaknesses are and this is where a good coach can be critical and why most fighters should not just train themselves. A good coach will see or recognize things that his fighter might not and in doing that modify his fighter's training and approach to shore up those weaknesses.

The other thing about your question that I learned about early on as an athlete and later sometimes would use in fighting was that sometimes you don't beat or dominate another by just relying on your strengths. Sometimes those will not be enough and instead you also have to capitalize on your opponent's weaknesses and I rely on that as much as or more now since I am older and not the athlete that I was when I was younger.

Bon2013-03-02T22:46:22Z

Yes, I had to work at everything in regard to my health because I was a very sickly child. In fact, I almost died at age 4 from pneumonia. Over the years, I've also suffered some pretty bad injuries to my knees, broken a bone in my right hand and compression damage to my spine in the cortical vertebrae and lower back. Each time, I got ding'ed I had to start all over because the recovery period were very long and in some cases I could not use my dominant side so I worked on the other.

Because of this I developed this weird ambidextrous ability to write in mirror image with my left hand because I somehow learned to use the left side but in a reverse/mirrored way from doing forms and techniques with the other hand and leg.

firstmanever2013-03-02T15:45:01Z

Yes, I work on my weaknesses all the time. I am not a natural at the martial arts so, I am constantly working on kata bunkai and new techniques. I can take a whole class just to work on one technique to get it to where it's effective and practical. I have to learn by doing (and having it done on me) so, just watching some one do a technique is not very practical for me. That is part of the reason I love karate is because it is such a challenge and very rewarding when I finally "get it".

Jay2013-03-03T10:45:42Z

That's the entire basis of my day to day training. I'm always trying to assess where my weak areas are and do what I can to either fix it or help it. I'm always expressing the need to work weak areas to students in our school. Some people brush it off, make excuses, or totally ignore me, but eventually these are the students who end up falling behind. Go figure.

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