People choose to participate in martial arts for many different reasons. Some are looking to learn self-defense; others are looking for a fun and new way to get in a great workout and improve fitness.
Athletes from a variety of sports also benefit from martial arts training. Athletes from team sports like football, basketball, baseball, and hockey use martial arts to cross-train for their primary sport.
Here are a few ways that martial arts improve athlete performance in other sports:
1. Build Explosiveness
Explosiveness refers to your ability to generate velocity quickly. In martial arts, you learn to move quickly to defeat your opponent. More explosiveness translates to other sports in being able to jump higher, run faster, and change direction rapidly.
2. Improve Coordination and Timing
Martial arts helps to develop hand-eye coordination, as well as full-body coordination and timing. Developing these skills can not only make you a better athlete, but it can also improve your quality of life. Martial arts helps you develop better body awareness – where you are in space. Moving with better coordination and awareness leads to greater efficiency and reduced risk of injury.
3. Increase Balance and Core Strength
If you’ve been participating in a particular sport for several years, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve developed some muscular imbalances. Martial arts training helps to address these imbalances. If your right side is dominant and stronger than your left, martial arts can strengthen your weaker side. If you train using primarily your lower body, martial arts will get you training using your full-body. The full-body training that happens through martial arts creates better balance throughout your body and also helps you to develop better core strength.
4. Improve Flexibility
The movements you perform in martial arts not only produce full-body balance and strength, but it also helps with improving flexibility. Athletes who have tight hips and shoulders will notice an increase in their range of motion in these joints after training martial arts.
At Karate Families in Tarzana, we will help you develop the martial arts skills to achieve your personal goals. If you’re interested in learning more about the programs and classes we have to offer, contact us today.
