Over the coming months at IGK Victoria, we are going to introduce a small series of mobility and bodyweight exercises designed to complement our karate training.
Karate asks a great deal of the body. We need mobile ankles and hips to move effectively through our stances, a thoracic spine that can rotate, shoulders that move freely, and enough strength and control to maintain our positions as we change direction and level.
Yet these qualities should not be taken for granted.
We often see students struggling with movements not simply because they have misunderstood the technique, but because a joint does not comfortably have the range of movement being asked of it. A heel lifts, a foot turns out, a stance shortens, or movement is borrowed from somewhere else.
Our aim is not extreme flexibility. It is usable mobility — movement that we can control.
Each month we will introduce a few simple exercises and gradually build upon the previous month’s work. You may recognise bear crawls, crab movements, frog movements, bridges and other ground-based exercises. These compound movements can develop mobility, strength, balance and coordination at the same time.
Most importantly, there is a longer-term purpose.
We train karate not only for what our bodies can do today, but so that we can continue training tomorrow. Maintaining ankle movement, hip mobility, spinal rotation, balance and strength becomes increasingly important as the years pass.
The program will start from the ground up.
Month One: The Ankles — where every stance begins.
A few minutes. A few movements. Practised regularly.
Then next month, we build on them.