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What do you guys do to develop your weak side? I have a very powerful and coordinated right side, but my left side is weak and very uncoordinated. I’m sure this is the case for most people but when faced in a realistic situation I would feel very unconfident with using my left side for anything other than balance or holds.
Any suggestions on how I can balance out left/right as much as possible?
Drills… etc.Thanks
Nixxon,
I think you answered your own question. MOre and more training drills from the weaker side will always shorten the gap between strong side vs. weakside.I’m somewhat lucky in that I am right handed and leftfooted. So when I train I can to do both sides with strong intensity which creates balance in my (weakside vs. strongside)skill level.
The more you train the weakside the better the balance. Just don’t ignor the strongside training, it’s important that you continue to move your strongside skill level to a higher plane which with proper training will also bring your weakside to a higher plane as well. Hope that helps!! 😉
JLWhen at the beginning of summer I dislocated my right shoulder I had to walk around with it in a sling for 8 weeks (I cheated and did 6ish) anyway I was forced to work everything off my left side. It was difficult and really made me need to think more but by slowing things down in my head I could step by step the techniques until I was fluid.
Now back at full strength Iím comfortable on either side. Its also helped me tremendously when working with a left handed student/partner I simply switch stance.
As a side note comment about the princess bride analogy heres a funny story.
While I was nursing my shoulder in the sling I came in to watch an upper level class. They happened to be doing knife techniques that day. The instructor asked if I would mind working with a student who was training for the upcoming dog brother tourney I said sure and we began spirited knife on knife sparring. When the instructor called time my partner says ìwow your pretty goodî the instructor chuckled and said ìheís right handedî
Alright.. so break my right arm. Got it!
Haha, just kidding.
Yeah I figured it would just be to use it as much as possible. I might just buy a sand/water base bag and hit it. I wouldn’t be knocking the crap out of it just doing technique practice. I don’t like shadow boxing, the lack of contact just makes the intensity reduced for me.
This problem can even occur in groundfighting. You might do a move on one side and feel you are doing well, then suddenly you switch sides and get completely lost. In that case, it’s not so much weak or strong side, you have equal strength on both sides, it’s just that you aren’t used to doing it the other way. So, practice, practice, practice. Also for KM defenses later on, you might have to fight a left-handed attacker, so you will need to be able to do the defenses from all angles and to all sides.
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GiantkillerRe:
quote \”JL\:I’m somewhat lucky in that I am right handed and leftfooted. So when I train I can to do both sides with strong intensity which creates balance in my (weakside vs. strongside)skill level.I’m also right handed and left footed. Because of this, I’m a huge fan of the jab cross left round kick combination (usually the kick is to the inside left thigh). It also makes it easier to throw lead leg front and side kicks defensively.
Regarding the original question, I’d recommend looking into some Indian club stuff to gain coordination in both limbs (I think the buzzword for them now is clubbells, but they’re the same thing).
Here are some things that I did –
Get a willing partner and do whatever it is that you wanted (focus mitts, defences, etc.) in your normal stance once, then switch and do it left handed once, then switch again. Repeat.
The idea is to take the positive feeling that you get from the strong side and get the weak side to feel more like it. It is kind of like a positive feedback system. You always reference the strong side (or positive) against the weaker side.Then test out the weak side on drills and do whle classes in your opposite stance. Or one better, take lower belt tests all opposite stance. Lot’s of fun!!
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