Also be careful not to overstretch if you are stocky. I did. It sucks. More specifically don’t strain so hard to stretch you end up stretching the wrong thing.
Also if you want to improve your reaction time i’ve found that video games as well as just plain old reaction time tests help (as will sparring). My reaction time has improved a lot with practice.
As a response to the grandparent comment, weight class limits just remove “size” from the pool of stuff you can have a natural aptitude for. The pool of stuff is still very large. I also tend to think of natural obsessiveness/liking for something as a type of talent that aids training rather than directly effecting performance.
Funny story… We were having a discussion of our goals at a LW meetup and I said I wanted to start doing martial arts. There was a guy (his username is Cyan, I think) who had done a lot of different martial arts, so he started talking about the particular benefits and downsides of each. I said I wanted to work on balance and flexibility (these are areas where I’m pretty bad, swimming didn’t do a lot for either), and he recommended TKD. I signed up within a week. Overall I’ve liked it.
Also if you want to improve your reaction time i’ve found that video games as well as just plain old reaction time tests help (as will sparring).
This is literally what my instructor told me to do. Unfortunately, I find video games pretty tedious. I grew up reading books instead… On the bright side, I love sparring, and that along with my good cardio fitness seems to outweigh the disadvantage of reaction times–especially if we do multiple rounds, I’ve actually beaten black belts in training before because after a while they get too exhausted to resist.
I also tend to think of natural obsessiveness/liking for something as a type of talent that aids training rather than directly effecting performance.
I definitely had that for swimming! Probably the reason I went a lot further than anyone suspected I would.
why tae-kwon-do?
Also be careful not to overstretch if you are stocky. I did. It sucks. More specifically don’t strain so hard to stretch you end up stretching the wrong thing.
Also if you want to improve your reaction time i’ve found that video games as well as just plain old reaction time tests help (as will sparring). My reaction time has improved a lot with practice.
As a response to the grandparent comment, weight class limits just remove “size” from the pool of stuff you can have a natural aptitude for. The pool of stuff is still very large. I also tend to think of natural obsessiveness/liking for something as a type of talent that aids training rather than directly effecting performance.
Funny story… We were having a discussion of our goals at a LW meetup and I said I wanted to start doing martial arts. There was a guy (his username is Cyan, I think) who had done a lot of different martial arts, so he started talking about the particular benefits and downsides of each. I said I wanted to work on balance and flexibility (these are areas where I’m pretty bad, swimming didn’t do a lot for either), and he recommended TKD. I signed up within a week. Overall I’ve liked it.
This is literally what my instructor told me to do. Unfortunately, I find video games pretty tedious. I grew up reading books instead… On the bright side, I love sparring, and that along with my good cardio fitness seems to outweigh the disadvantage of reaction times–especially if we do multiple rounds, I’ve actually beaten black belts in training before because after a while they get too exhausted to resist.
I definitely had that for swimming! Probably the reason I went a lot further than anyone suspected I would.