Training at Home🏠

So 2020 wasn’t the usual suspect…

ESPECIALLY for the Martial Arts industry!

No one was more shocked than by how much our daily martial artist lives changed.

During this time Taekwondo Instructors and Masters became streamers, youtubers, social media influencers, and had to learn how to use many new digital tools!

So what can we glean from this experience? Especially now that things are looking up? (Fingers crossed🤞)

We can practice at home!

Between YouTube and Facebook groups with links to great videos and content involving training poomsae and more—there is no more excuses not to be honing our skills at home.

While we are training at home, it may be useful to have some tools to train with. Whether it’s used as an obstacle, something to jump over, something to strike or kick, or something to block.

Here are a list of a few common household items that will help you train from the comfort of your own home.

• A Pillow: This is for jumping over, blocking savage attacks, and is very good for kicking to hone your aim! This is the all-around champion of at-home training supplies.
• A Chair🪑: This is for providing an obstacle to kick over! This tool is unforgiving and will help keep you accountable for a good chamber before and after your techniques! The chair is also a good guide rail to help you balance. Sometimes we want to focus on our technique instead of making sure we stay vertical while training, so a little help in the balance department is always welcome. (They also make for great sitting apparatus for your break time as well!)
• A Belt🥋: Your Taekwondo belt can become a hoop for agility training, or a hurdle for you to hop and skip over. Usually we don’t want our belt to be on the ground or to ‘disrespect’ our belt. However if it is for training ourselves at home when there is no alternative—we have to weigh the benefits!

These items will work well in your home setting, and are easily located in everyone’s home! Now, what happens if you wish to upgrade your at-home tools?🤔

Which Training items will bring the most benefits for the money? (The most bang for your buck!)

• Kicking pad: This is the bread and butter of our training regiment when it comes to training in the dojang. We can punch it, kick it, and use it to practice blocking. We can strike it for board breaking practice, we can avoid it for sparring practice, we can even balance it on our heads to practice good posture! The only downside to this tool is that it requires another person to hold it for you! The cost of this tool is low, and it is so versatile! 

• Kicking bags (hung or with a base): The cost for these larger training tools is large both in the space it will take up in your home and also the financial cost! Most bags start in the $200-$300 range and Bob himself can cost upwards of $600! However the benefits are many. You can train without another person to hold anything, you can practice full power techniques as well as specific target practice. These are good for training your fist while punching something that will exert a force back on you. All around they are worth the money, the only reason it may not be practical is if your living arrangements don’t allow for the space; or you have a tenant living below!😡

While training at home, the main thing is THAT YOU’RE TRAINING AT HOME! No matter what you practice, it will show on the mats. It will allow your Instructors to help you achieve even greater growth; together we can go farther!

Train hard, and see you on the mats.👊