STRETCHING           

 In any Manual Arts the only thing that holds you back from performing all the different actions is the limits of your own body. It will either be too weak or not flexible enough. You will find out later how to strengthen your body but now let us talk about stretching for flexibility. 

 There is a myth that women are more flexible than men. This is not true. Men and women have the same potential for flexibility. Women just seem to work on it more than men. 

One example is picking something up. Women will bend over and stretch their muscles where as men, who are used to picking up heavy objects, will bend their knees, keep their back straight and lift, making their muscles strong.

 That is just one example of why men are strong and women are flexible. Follow the chart on stretching and make sure you keep increasing your stretch every week. 

Mark on the graph where you are and keep track, as you become more flexible. That way you can see if you are improving at the proper rate or not. When testing for your next belt you will be glad you did.

There are 4 main stretches that you must work on for your legs to be able to kick well. The Toe Touches, Chinese Splits, Standard Splits on both side and Calf Stretches. These should be practiced everyday. 

You should also do other stretches for the other parts of your body, back arches for your spine and stomach, slow head rolls for your neck, arm stretch and deep push ups for your chest. 

 A lot of people will warm up and stretch before class. It is even better to stretch after class. Your muscles are then as warned up as they will ever be and are the least prone to injury from stretching Also since you have fatigued them from training there is less resistance to stretching so you can actually stretch them funkier than any other time. 

All cold stretching should be done slowly and evenly without quick, jerking motions that could cause torn and pulled muscles.

Martial Arts are hard to do and that is why only a few are very good. Only a few realize they are chewing themselves if they do not do exercises properly. These are the few students that will go ahead and do the stretches and practice properly at all time. 

It takes years of practice and stretching to become a Black Belt in Kuk Sul Do. If you do not practice and stretch properly, you could take a year or two more than most. 

If you practice and stretch properly everyday you will achieve a level of excellence far faster than most. So stretch every day and do not cheat yourself.  

         STRENGTH and SPEED 

Most people believe that big muscles have more power than small muscles. This is true in most cases. It does not mean someone is stronger because their muscle is bigger. One of the best known fighters, Bruce Lee, only weighed 130 lb. but could put more force into a kick or punch than men twice his size and weight. This is because of many reasons. 

One of them can be explained in a very simple math equation. The FORCE of a kick or punch is = the MASS of the foot or hand multiplied by the ACCELERATION of the foot or hand. Or F = M x A. This means a small hand that hits something very fast could have a greater force of impact than a bigger hand moving slower. 

The whole idea is to make your hand or foot or whatever you are using moves as fast as possible. This can only be done by making the muscle you use as strong and quick as possible. To do that you have to repeat the same movement as fast and as powerful as you can many times. 

This is why it is not necessary to lift weights for bulk‑mass when you are trying to become a Martial Artist. If you do lift weights, you should do many sets with high repetitions at faster than normal speed using lighter weights. 

This will make your muscles very strong, dense and give them stamina It will also keep the mass down so the speed of your actions increase. 

You will also increase your speed as you lose more and more of your fat. Fat is just extra weight that your muscle has to accelerate, so lose that extra weight and increase your speed that will mean more force in your punches and kicks.