Change Your Training Ground

If you're in a training rut, or just want a nice change of pace, here's a tip that can make a huge difference in your training experience: train outside.

When I was in China for the 1st World Tai Chi Conference, that's the only place I saw people training. It didn't matter if it was office workers doing Tai Chi in the park before work, or teens doing Kung Fu (by the hundreds, in unison) in the afternoon heat on hard packed dirt.

And don't just train in your back yard on a sunny day. Train in a park. Train on cement. Train when it's raining. Train at night. Train at night in the rain. Train in the snow. Train at night in the snow . . . you get the idea.

Changing up your routine to include different times, places, and weather conditions will get you out of a rut fast, will teach you some things you wouldn't learn otherwise, and will wake up your senses. It will also toughen your body and prepare you to move in a way that anticipate an incosistent surface. After all, if you were jogging on iced over cement (not recommended - just an example!) you'd certainly place your feet differently that if you were running on a college running track. By the same token, try sparring on grass in tennis shoes, after years of only sparring on a matted floor in barefeet.

If you don't have a partner, do form, shadow boxing, kick/punch drills, and yoga. If you've got a partner do all that and some controlled sparring. Just remember to try a different venue from time to time.

Have fun.

Train like you mean it.

Rob LaPointe

Sparring and Pushing Hands Gold Medalist Rob LaPointe has been practicing martial arts since 1973. He holds black belts in Kenpo Karate and Tien Shan Pai Kung Fu.

In addition to teaching martial arts and presenting workshops to members of all the Armed Services, including special forces members, as well as CIA, DEA, FBI, Department of State Foreign Service Officers, U.S. Customs Officers, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Exxon-Mobile Corporation, Rob has presented demonstrations and workshops to Washington, D.C. area businesses and agencies, including Georgetown University Hospital, Northern Virginia Hospital Center, Alexandria Hospital, Arlington Public Schools, USA Today, and Intelsat.

In 1999 he received an invitation from the American Physical Therapy Association, and was a featured speaker at their Annual Convention, which took place that year in Washington, D.C.

Rob's main websites are kungfufightingtips.com kungfufightingtips.com/ and indyinstructor.com indyinstructor.com/