Everyone wants to be faster, right? You always want to get in that better point, better sweep, better headshot than the guy across the ring/mat. Even if you are not the fastest person in the dojo, it’s still important to make the best use of your body to be faster than your opponent who may be a similar weight class.
To discuss how to become faster, we must first address the differences between Strength and Power. Strength is the raw amount of force you can produce. Power is the amount of force you can produce while trying to do it quickly. For a visual example, think of trying to lift a boulder, versus trying to throw a heavy ball as far as possible.
While it is important to have strength so that you may outmuscle an opponent in a stalemate, I would argue that power can be more important in many cases. It is key to, “hit without being hit“, or more accurately in real life, “hit before being hit“. When two equally skilled martial artists confront each other, if one is 20% faster than the other then he is theoretically landing significantly more attacks.
Practicing plyometrics is one of the keys to developing power, especially in younger athletes (1). Additionally, if you truly want to develop some lasting power, try picking up some basic weight training to go with your plyometrics. A combination of these two approaches will really improve your overall strength and speed performance in your martial art (2).
(1) Rodríguez-Rosell, D., Franco-Márquez, F., Mora-Custodio, R., & González-Badillo, J. J. (2017). Effect of High-Speed Strength Training on Physical Performance in Young Soccer Players of Different Ages. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 31(9), 2498–2508. doi: 10.1519/jsc.0000000000001706
(2) Pichardo, A. W., Oliver, J. L., Harrison, C. B., Maulder, P. S., Lloyd, R. S., & Kandoi, R. (2019). Effects of Combined Resistance Training and Weightlifting on Motor Skill Performance of Adolescent Male Athletes. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 1. doi: 10.1519/jsc.0000000000003108
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