Great resource for training tips and strategies you can use in your Taekwondo training.

The training in Taekwondo is one of the toughest things you can do physically and mentally.  It’s one of the toughest out there. Since the sport in now in the Olympic Games, every country in the world has improved their level of training in the sport so that they can vy for Olympics Medals every four years.

If a gold medal is your goal in life, no matter at what level, then being able to train hard and long, and regularly is one thing you need to be able to do. Use these 5 tips to be able to train tougher, longer and better.

1. Improve Sprinting Endurance
Having great fitness is more than essential for sport, not just Taekwondo. A lot of people believe Taekwondo is all about endurance, when in fact it’s all about sprint and being able to kick fast. Running for hours on end doesn’t help your Taekwondo training as much as if you spent time working on sprint training instead. Sprints like 100m, 200m and 400m will increase your kicking speed and power, not just your overall fitness. As you get more proficient with sprinting, your bodyfat drops, your fitness increases a lot and the speed of your kicks goes up dramatically too. These are definitely an advantage to have when competing in Taekwondo.

2. Increase Protein
Taking protein, either in the form of meat or in a protein shake, is necessary for all Taekwondo athletes. Protein is the building blocks for muscle. Training breaks down our muscles and to train for longer and harder, you have to recuperate and repair your muscles fast. Protein shakes after any training is great for this. Having good Taekwondo nutrition and eating a high protein meal within 2 hours of training also helps the recovery process. You have to make sure you have enough protein in your system so that your body can use it to repair itself. Not having enough protein will mean that you won’t recover properly.

3. Improve Flexiblity
Now this might seem a bit obvious for Taekwondo athletes, but many do not realize the importance that Taekwondo stretching has for recuperation. When stretching, you get blood into the muscles that help get away all the damaged cells, etc.  Not only that, it also helps to get the vital protein and nutrients into your muscles that speed up recovery. Having short muscles that are tight and inflexible take longer to recuperate from training. By lengthening them, you are helping to recover faster.

4. Vsualizing Yourself Fitter
If you haven’t visualized or used meditation, this may seem a bit out there, but it’s actually been proven to increase success in sports. Visualizing at night tells your subconscious mind what it needs to do while you are sleeping. This helps accelerate the recuperation process so that you are ready to train hard and long the following day. Visualizing winning a tournament puts your mind on the path that it know what it has got to do to be able to achieve that and will help your body recover quicker in the process.

5. Sleeping Well
Everyone needs sleep. During sleep we recuperate from training. It’s vital for your success in the sport. We over train if we don’t recover properly, which isn’t great for our performance. With quality sleep, we help our body get what it needs to recover so we can then go and train harder than we have done before. Visualization before sleeping accelerates this. Using these combined increases the effects too. The better your sleep, the less you need. This means you have more time in the day to do more and you are refreshed when you wake in the morning. Having quality sleep makes us happy, which is a great side effect.

Using these 5 simple steps you can improve your training and success a lot. They will help with showing what you can do to help improve your performance.