{"id":4832,"date":"2017-08-23T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T14:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fightfast.com\/blog\/?p=4832"},"modified":"2021-03-31T15:30:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T15:30:36","slug":"balance-power-training-throughout-history-by-mark-hatmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/23\/balance-power-training-throughout-history-by-mark-hatmaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Balance & Power Training Throughout History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Footwork Is Key<\/h4>\nFootwork is a mainstay of combat sports and martial reality. The feet are the deuce-and-a-half's that get your munitions to the field of battle. The feet are your mode of retreat to get out of harm's way. Your feet are the two pegs you use to cut angles to better deflect, diminish, evade an attacker's gambit and apply your own meanness.\n\nFootwork is, was, and will always be vital to matters martial. But... Just as important is what you can do on your feet while basically standing stock still. How much heft can you generate from this on-point position?\n

A Historical Approach<\/h4>\nThere is a huge archive of material from the historical record showing how much emphasis was placed on stationary power, but this static base was seemingly not the primary focus of static-stance drills.\n\nIt seems that static balance in-the-midst-of-power was the treasured attribute. The ability to deliver \u201cOomph!\u201d<\/em> while retaining poise. The historical record presents us with more than a few drills that seek to develop this. We also find a handful of \u201csporting matches\u201d or complete combat arts based around the attribute of balance and power.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Eastern Martial Arts<\/h4>\nOn the Eastern Martial arts side of things, we can find practically entire systems dedicated to balance work, Mei Hu<\/strong> (or Plum Blossom Kung Fu<\/em>) and its pole training comes to mind. To those unfamiliar with it, picture a series of shortened telephone posts driven into the ground.\n\nThe practitioner is then expected to drill and even spar while maneuvering perched atop these precarious fiends. Any of us who have tackled pole-leaping obstacles in obstacle course racing can appreciate the added difficulty of fighting while treacherously aloft.\n\nI also call your attention to a sport I absolutely love out of Thailand, Muay Tale<\/strong>, (sometimes Muay Talay<\/strong><\/em>) or, \"sea-boxing.\"<\/em>\n\nEssentially two combatants straddle themselves atop of a naval boom (horizontal post) approximately 5 feet above water or a matted surface and go to town with standard boxing rules until one (often both) plunge into the water. Keep in mind you can still keep firing punches if you lose your balance and spin underneath the boom keeping out of the water with a stout leg-scissors.\n\nHistorian and novelist Paul Wellman<\/strong> creates a similar battle in the form of an apocryphal knife-duel for Jim Bowie on the pirate island of Galvez<\/em> in his entertaining novel \"The Iron Mistress.\"<\/em><\/strong>\n\nAgain, I looooove this sport! It\u2019s well worth an addition to your training if for nothing else the fun-factor.\n
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Western Martial Arts<\/h4>\nBringing balance and power training closer to the Western martial arts side of things, we have accounts of \u201crail\u201d and \u201ctrestle\u201d matches of boxing, wrestling, often both (that is, Frontier Rough and Tumble) being conducted atop logs, suspended railroad ties, on the sides of trestle bridges. In short, anywhere odd that you could place two combatants to \u201cgo to town.\u201d\n\nBalance and power were coveted attributes in America\u2019s frontier, if anyone has witnessed lumberjacks competing in the springboard chop event you\u2019ll know what I mean. Standing on a 12\u2033 wide board, precariously notched into the side of a tree while chopping with full-power. I mean, come on that is POWER & BALANCE!<\/em>\n\nThere are more than a few accounts of American Indians engaging in competitive brawling atop logs in a variation of the legend-tale of the Robin Hood and Little John quarterstaff fight on a log-bridge. FYI: If you dig Robin Hood narratives, Angus Donald has delivered a gorgeous series of novels called \u201cThe Outlaw Chronicles\u201d<\/em> that gives us a down and gritty version of the Robin Hood story.\n\nWe find many accounts of old-school boxing coaches tying their fighters\u2019 shoelaces together to get them to find balance and power in their footwork and to reduce over-committed lunges.\n\nWe find similar ideas in \u201ctea-tray\u201d training in which 18th-century London fencing masters would have pupils work call and response with foil or epee while perched on a tea-tray to limit their footwork.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Get Ready For Some Drills<\/h4>\nIt is with all of these historical traditions in mind that I offer the below variations of Combat Balance & Power Exercises culled from Frontier Rough and Tumble accounts.\n
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