by Tony Terranova Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:29 pm
Hi Rick,
I often get asked this question and have never thought about a book or a DVD. Here are some of the things I do which you may be of interest to you.
1. Take a bag of rice from a supermarket about 8” x 10” by 4” inches and put it in 2 x plastic bags then wrap it all up with a whole roll of duck tape. You then use this to develop your palm heel, ridge hand and punching striking power. You can put it on the floor, kneel down and drive palm heel strikes into it – use all your weight breath out and transfer the mass of your entire body to the bag of rice as you strike – you can also put it flat on a 3ft wall and strike it – and your partner can put it against their stomach and you can practice full impact gut shots – the rice bag I find is better than focus pads as it reacts closer to like the muscles on the human body when you impact it – I have doubled students palm heel strike power in one session using the rice bag and certain drills – you can use bigger rice bags as I also do that -
2. Take a small ball about 5” diameter (you get them at JJB and other places) and hold in the palm of one hand while driving in all types of elbow strikes with the other arm – bring the ball and elbow in together at the moment of impact – you can also do knee and other strikes – it is a bit like a mobile mini punch bag that you can take with you anywhere you go – I used to practice with a rugby ball then Mark Collett joined our club and I saw him using the smaller ball so now I use both – but the small one is better if you travel as I do – you can put together nice combinations, right hooking elbow. Fro example: right upward elbow and right diagonal elbow all done smooth and fast as a 3 hit combo -
3. Take a good heavy kick shield and put it on the floor face down with the straps that you hold facing you. Then get in the push up position with your hands gripping the straps so that you are now in a push up position with your knuckles facing down onto the kick shield gripping the straps. Set a timer for 30 second rounds for 3 minutes (6 rounds with no rest); then do plyometric push ups with the kick shields for 30 seconds; as you come up explode and lift the kick shield off the floor and slam it down as you come down of your push up punching into to it; what you are doing is building real core strength whilst learning to hang onto something and slamming it while in motion; as soon as the 30 seconds is up then go onto a high resistance band that is attached to a hook on the wall and blast out left and right straight punches with speed and power for 30 secods; you continue alternating until you have done 3 minutes.
4. Get a very highly pumped up basket ball and stand 3 feet away from a wall with you being side onto the wall. Then twist your hip fast as you would with a right cross (but stay side onto to the wall at all times) and slam the ball at the wall and catch it as it comes back; this is continuous and very fast as you are aiming to build fast twitch muscle with specific nerves, joints, and muscles coming into play that effect a good punch; do 30 seconds on the left then the right and continue for minutes. Boxers do this with a medicine ball but I find the basketball really requires you to be fast and you get a lot more reps done per 3 minute blow out.
5. I make my own dip and special vertical pull up bars; I simply use 2” diameter stainless pipe 2ft long and weld a square flat plate on the end. The flat plate then simply slips into a sleeve which is made of 2 x steel plates that are bolted to the wall. There are 4 sleeve plates, 2 at 4ft level and 2 at 6ft level with the plates at each level being 22 inches apart. I then use this for combined dips and training grip thump pull ups to develop my core – and when it I am finished with the exercise I simply pull out the 2” bars and clip them on the wall onto to conventional tool clips which saves space.
6. I also modify floor to ceiling balls by getting Alan (he is a cobbler) to stitch another 2 layers of leather on the hook on the top of the ball and I replace the hook with one 4 times thicker. I then use a thick rope to hold the top and real tight bungee rope on the bottom so that the ball moves far faster than conventional balls – this builds reaction speed when you are training on it.
7. I take a tennis ball, slit it, fit a rope through it and fill it with heavy silicone and then tape it up with a roll of insulation tape. I then hang this on a hook on the ceiling and swing it and use it to practice my slips for boxing.
8. I made my own 1” diameter chin up bar and 6mm plates that slip through the plaster board and clip over the ceiling rafters that are behind the plaster board. I combine this with thick ship type rope that I throw over the bar to do pull ups as the rope improves my grip and conditions my hands. I also position the bar for specific exercises as the bar itself is welded to 2 plates which bolt and slide onto the plate that comes through the plaster board. This also allows you to remove it whenever you want to. One of my favorite exercises is to set the bar about 12” away for the ceiling, pull myself up so that my whole body is parallel to the ceiling and then I do pull ups which both work the biceps in very isolated fashion but also build core strength as holding the high parallel position is very hard to do. I also throw a towel wrapped as rope over the bar and cross my arms (like you do when you front choke someone who is wearing a Gi) and do pull ups as that develops the grip
9. We also use tennis balls in the class for warm ups. You have the whole class moving round throwing and chin tennis balls as it improves coordination and the action of throwing a ball is the same as a right cross; you move hip, then shoulder then arm.
10. I also like to take a fit ball 65cm diameter and a crash mat, then lean against the ball which presses on the crash mat, with me in horse stance, then I try to do 50 to 100 reps of low squats back up to horse stance and try for 3 sets; if you get good at it add some dumbbells to your hands.
11. Another favorite exercise I use for the lower back and overall core is with the hyper extension bench together with a 6kg medicine ball which has handles on it. Come up from your hyper extension and as you come up throw the medicine ball high with a straight arm and catch it with the other arm as it comes down and as you move down in the hyper extension bench start with 10 reps and built up to 50 and build up to getting your back and the ball as high as you can.
12. I have also modified conventional resistance bands by attaching them to thick weight lifting belts that can strap to your waist much better than the thin Velcro they are made from – this makes punching drills very hard work and skillful as the thick belt does not move an inch during the drill.
I do not think I have invented anything new Rick; I just adapted things to make them my own recipe as we all do with our martial arts training. I have other examples using chairs and other stuff - but trust that these few notes will provide you with some insights into my MEA (martial-engineering-approach). Bob recently visited me and took at look at the kit in my garage and he nicknamed it “The Church”…Alan has also seen all the crazy stuff I experiment with in my garage and you are also welcome to visit and train with me.
I may even just do a quick raw unedited DVD just for you and see if you like it as I have never done DVD’s (except for the filming we did with WOMA a while back)
Keep up the good work on the forum mate
Tony. T
