Author: Dr Greg Story
ELITE ATHLETES require elite preparation for a World Championship, and that is what the Australian Women’s Karate Team received, thanks to the ANA Hotel at Surfers Paradise on the fabulous Gold Coast. In a special sponsorship arrangement worth over $15 ,000, the ANA Hotel accommodated the Women’s Team for ten days in Five Star surroundings.
The Gold Coast was selected as the premier training venue for the Australian Women’s Team preparing for the Fukuoka Women’s World Championship in Japan, to assist with the team’s acclimatisation for the humid June Japanese summer. As they say about the Gold Coast, “beautiful one day, perfect the next” – just the training venue everyone would prefer!
Utili sing a split training routine of two days training, one day rest, National Senior Kumite Coach Alan Murdoch was able to strike the correct balance required between intensity and recovery. The recovery factor is particularly important for a World Championship event, as overworked athletes can quickly become underperformers.
Returning from the morning rigours of training and being able to choose between a few relaxing laps of the hotel’s heated pool, the spa bath, the sauna and a few rounds with the hotel masseuse, enabled these elite athletes to rest tired muscles sufficiently, to be able to maintain the intense workout rate required for the afternoon session.
A training environment where your non-training time can be divided between calmly staring out the window at the blue Pacific, relaxing in a beautiful Five Star hotel room, with courteous staff to tidy up after you, or shopping and taking in the sights of Surfers Paradise, made a world of difference to Team Captain Christine Ferguson, Gold Medalist from the Open Division last year and Bronze Medalist in the Middleweight division this year.
Christine recalled: “The cooperation of the ANA staff was just fantastic; we were really spoiled. Being able to use the facilities of the hotel made such a difference to our preparation. I used the spa and the masseuse to balance the demands of the training and with everything else fully catered for, I only had to concentrate on my training”.
Given the demanding regimen CC’Ilducted by coach Alan Murdoch. The Women’s Team were certainly pushing themselves to the limit.
The week focused on three key aspects: (I) explosive acceleration of the technique, (2) fluidity of the combinations, and (3) individual technique and match tactics. Interspersed between combination drill work and focus pad impact work, were free-sparring sessions. Some of the drills are outlined hereunder.
Concentration Drills: Specific concentration training was introduced in the first day’s work to sharpen the mental focus of these elite athletes.
A typical concentration drill would split the athletes into groups of three, with “A” to do combination attacks with the eyes focussed on the same single point on the partner throughout. That partner, “B”, would just defend and absorb the attacking technique. “C” would carefully monitor “A’s” concentration and any change in the focus of vision was the signal for a free attack by “C” on “A”.
The RED System: Explosion of technique used the RED system, or Repetitive Explosion Drills. A drill in the RED system takes a simple combination such as a front hand backfist to the temple, step-up front leg roundhouse to the other side of the head, and then increases the work rate. This is achieved by adding in an additional backfist to the head as the athlete steps back out after the roundhouse kick. This sets up a “bounceback” rhythm that substantially improvcs initial acceleration.
The CAR System: Focus pad training featured the CAR system or Commitment and Reaction drill work. Using this methodology, two focus pads are held at different heights by a training partner. For example, one pad may be for reverse punch to the body and the other a secondary target for a roundhouse kick to the head. After building up a solid impact level on the pad. with absolute 100 percent commitment to the first technique, the body area focus pad is then randomly removed just before impact. so that the athlete must immediately react and switch focus to the secondary target.
Pressure Line Drills: Line drills are a common form of work to place pressure on the defender, but for an elite squad of athletes, the intensity is that much more again. With one out front facing a line of attackers in single file, the attack techniques are nominated by the coach, building gradually to a full single attack combination comprising seven techniques! For the defender, they must block and counter EACH of the seven techniques, and at full speed ~ now that is pressure!
Tactics Work: Tactics sessions were based on the simple principle of “score without being scored upon”. Practical work involved changing the line of attack before launching the main attack, or breaking the line while defending, thus upsetting the opponent’s momentum.
Wave Action Counters: “Wave” counter-attacks work used the taperingoff of the fully extended opponent’s attack, as the signal to launch a rapid fire series of counter-attack combinations to consume and overwhelm the attacker.
The focus and intensity of the week’s work honed the athletes’ skills to a fine point and coach Alan Murdoch was highly impressed by their recuperative power, allowing everyone to maintain a total commitment at every session. He pointed out that, “Compared to last year’s preparation, there has definitely been a lift in their ability to come back after a hard session in the morning and produce 100 percent quality work in the afternoon. I am sure the restful environment back at the ANA Hotel with the spas, sauna, massage etc has been a strong benefit. It is quite obvious that everyone’s overall efficiency has been maintained to a high level and, as a result, we have been able to refine the quality of the work even further”.
The final result of a Gold Medal to Charlene Machin in the Lightweight Division, and Bronze Medals to Christine Ferguson and Angela Hemming in the Middleweight Division, is sufficient indication of the high standard of the Australian Women’s Team. Quite clearly the whole team’s performance in Fukuoka leaves no doubt that our Women’s Team are the equal of the world’s best in top level international competition.
Anyone fortunate to witness their professionalism, commitment and intensity in training could not be anything but highly impressed. Incidentally, forget all that nonsense about ‘Sport Karate’ lacking impact. At the top level these athletes can hit very hard!
Australia can be proud of their achievement and the Australian Karate Federation, and particularly the National Women’s Team, wishes to express special thanks to David Tsugoshi and his excellent team at the AN A Hotel for their much appreciated sponsorship. If you are coming up to the Gold Coast, support our sponsor, stay at the ANA and experience some Five Star magIc.
