Lockdown and Training - Is Solo Training Practical?
Solo training and drills, do they work?
Author: Steve Hanafi (Silat Sharaf Practitioner, Malaysia)
Having a partner you can train with is a blessing
You’re at home as your government declares Movement Control Order, National Emergency or Lockdown. State borders are closed, shops are also ordered to close (except for essential needs), no public gathering is allowed – and that also means your favorite gym and dojo will be closed too. Sigh. This means you won’t be able to train, pressure test, spar or learn or do anything with a partner (for God knows how long) until it is declared safe again to go out and socialize with other fellow human beings.
For the time being, you have to remain inside your house with minimal gear and equipment that you have. The only option you have: Solo training. But you wonder, is solo training effective? Can it be as effective as training with a live, resisting partner? What good does it bring? How can solo training be even beneficial at all? I mean, what aspects do they build on, how do you measure effectiveness, is it better to train alone and the BIGGEST question:
“DOES IT WORK?”
Before we answer that question, let’s look at the benefits of training on your own;
Muscle memory
Mastering a physical skill requires practice. And practice is nothing but a process of building a good habit. The more you do it, the better you get at doing it. Repetition, after repetition, helps your brain to send signals to your muscle faster – which in easy words means that your body and mind works more efficiently.
Freedom to try and discover
During training sessions with a partner, there’s not much of a room for you to try out a new variation because well, you don’t want to lose or you respect the other person to not try stupid shit with them. But NOW, you have all the time in the world to discover new moves.
Now is also when you have the time to discover your strength and weakness, is it your stance that you need to work on? Or the torque when you twist your hips? Whatever it is, now is the time for you to discover, work things out and improve on your own.
“No pressure bro”. Even when you are pressure testing yourself (using a timer or a dummy), you’re not under the pressure of miserably failing or being looked down upon by fellow mates. Well, we don’t know if your cat will judge you, but still, that’s less pressure than in front of a crowd. It’s the best time and opportunity for you to fine-tune your movements, your skills and your tactics on your own.
Training at my own pace - progressing from slow to fast and simple to more advanced
Now, let us list out what you can do on your own:
1. Solo drills
Empty hand drills, elbow and knee drill, striking drill, solo grappling drill, footwork drill. That’s just emptyhand, weapon drills with knife, tomahawk, stick, karambit, and so much more. Don’t know who or what to drill with? You can use a punching bag, a tire, a wall, a banana tree, a pole, whatever you can find to temporarily “replace” a training partner and train. Don’t forget, intent.
2. Body weight workout
This one is self-explanatory. Push ups, squat, jumping jacks, burpees, lunges, sit ups, crunches, wall sits, mountain climbers. Those are just the basic 100% body weight workout. Add with a pair of dumb bells, and you get a thousand different variations. It’s all up to your imagination and creativity to move your body and get better.
3. Shadowboxing
Ask any successful fighter and they will tell you how important it is in honing your fight skills. Helps improve coordination, footwork, reflex, timing, head movement, hip torque, what else do you need?? Shadowbox, include those deadly knees, elbows, locks and takedowns. Visualize your enemy. Use violence and aggression. Go from slow to fast.
The bottom line, it doesn’t matter much, what matters most is that you train. And you do it daily, consistently. All that matters are you look for ways to keep improving your skills. Of course, it can never replace training with a partner, but we hold on to the principle that “The only bad training is the one that didn’t happen”. To answer the question that we asked earlier,
DOES IT WORK?
Yes, it does, only if you work your ass off and do any type of training that you can. Because nothing works if you don’t.
You thought that was the end of the article. Wait, how do you know what you should work on? If you dont… You can visit our Facebook and Instagram page as we have tonnes of videos solo drills that you can do at home. OR you can register with us at one low-price and access a bigger library of training videos while waiting to be able to go out and train with a partner again.
Until then, keep training, stay safe and stay strong
But for real, nothing beats the satisfaction of throwing your partner to the ground during sparring