Another simple method for improving hand-to-eye co-ordination in an useful way...

[einzelwesen...]

Get a cardboard cut-out of a person (or a paper-backed cut-out on plywood), and stick it on the wall at about head height. Don't just stand it there, because you want to be able to actually hit it: you'll invariably knock it over, unless you put it on a bigger board which is stuck/glued/welded to an anchored pole, or something.

Put red spots on certain vital parts of the cut-out; usually, these will be places where lots of blood vessels congregate (especially if they are only protected by skin or muscle), or places where lots of nerves congregate. Things like that.

For the anatomically-challenged, here's a suitable reference:

http://www.bartleby.com/107/

Start with sets of three: that is, you pick three spots at random, and then try to hit those three spots with three quick thrusts/punches/kicks/whatever takes your fancy. As quickly as possible, but so the thrust (if you're using a knife or sword) or punch lands squarely, and doesn't skid off over the surface of the cut-out.

(The best kind for this is a laminated wooden one.)

Then, when you can do three at a time (and don't cheat- if you miss a spot, even by a bit, re-do it until you do hit it), start to increase the sets, and increase the speed at which you do it. Nice fluid motions, keep to whatever tempo you do pick.

To be really as effective as it can be, though, it's a good idea to try to randomise where you're hitting as much as possible. That way, you invariably have to incorporate footwork into the exercise too.

As someone who's always been pretty big and ungainly, my co-ordination has never been the best- and that can be a painful disadvantage, especially when more or less everyone you fight is the same size, or smaller, and therefore inherently harder to hit. (Now I've kicked in the bouncing, I can think about these things were some hindsight!)

This has made my co-ordination a lot better in a pretty short time.

[ngrh8r]

Sounds like a damn good one. I was thinking it'd be even better if you used 9 or 10 layers of cardboard, though. Especially if your walls are sheetrock.

A couple months back I bought an over-under striking ball, and that thing rocks! At first I had trouble landing 2 or 3 strikes in a row, but now I can land a volley of 50 or 60 punches and kicks. For 30 bucks, it was the best piece of MA gear I own. Kinda makes me wish I hadn't pissed away $300 on that Body Opponent Bag form Century. Now THAT is a piece of shit. After a week or two, the head got so soft that it didn't offer any resistance at all.

[einzelwesen...]

What exactly is a over-under ball? Is that one of those balls with two ropes stuck to it, one connecting to the ground and one to the ceiling? Also, I don't know what a Body Opponent bag is.

Heh. My attitude has always been, "Why don't I go punch that paper-bark tree, it's relatively soft on the hands", or, "Sod it. There's a big cycad palm in the park across the road, why not use that as a practice dummy?"

Even now that I've got lots of money from working lots, it just seems silly to blow money on exercise equipment when it's not actually necessary to do so. Old, heavy iron weight rings, older and heavier dumb-bell bar (and bench-press bar for more serious weights sessions). Besides, there's something a lot more fun about using ridiculously old and ungainly equipment; I really hate all that plastic-covered crap.

(Of course, this preference would have seen me end up dead of lock-jaw, back in the old days before widely-available tetanus injections!)

[ngrh8r]

[QUOTE=einzelwesen]What exactly is a over-under ball? Is that one of those balls with two ropes stuck to it, one connecting to the ground and one to the ceiling? Also, I don't know what a Body Opponent bag is.

Heh. My attitude has always been, "Why don't I go punch that paper-bark tree, it's relatively soft on the hands", or, "Sod it. There's a big cycad palm in the park across the road, why not use that as a practice dummy?"

Even now that I've got lots of money from working lots, it just seems silly to blow money on exercise equipment when it's not actually necessary to do so. Old, heavy iron weight rings, older and heavier dumb-bell bar (and bench-press bar for more serious weights sessions). Besides, there's something a lot more fun about using ridiculously old and ungainly equipment; I really hate all that plastic-covered crap.


Yep, that's the over-under, all right. The B.O.B. is a anatomically correct rubber torso mounted on a sand-filled base. Like I said, a waste of $$.
All my weights are either homemade or from garage sales. Good old-fashioned
rusty iron. Somehow the iron has more character, if that makes any sense.
All that concrete-filled plastic is for yuppy queers. They take up so much space that I can't fit enough on the bar to get a decent bench press.

Be careful
punching trees, though. I broke 2 metacarpals on my good hand last year doing that. All it takes is a little misalignment of your wrist. Your hands are more precious than you can imagine. Take it from someone lost 70% use of his left hand in an accident. I was planning to fight in K-1 someday, and now I can't even make a fist with that hand. I came pretty close to suicide as a result. And PLEASE stay away from factory jobs.