May 19 2008
What David Beckham taught me about Karate
Last Tuesday night David Beckham was here in Edmonton for an exhibition game between the L.A. Galaxy & the Vancouver Whitecaps (The Galaxy lost 2-1).
37,000 fans turned out to see Beckham play; with the mania in full swing I took time to do a little research online and was pleasantly surprised to have Beckham teach me something about Karate!
It has been written that nobody can ‘bend it like Beckham’ and indeed I wonder if anyone can. He has the ability to ‘bend’ or curve the ball into the net. This is what led me to watch his technique more closely.
Other players kick the ball, that is they kick the ball towards the goal…..just like we in Karate kick our opponent; what makes Beckham different from his teammates is that he can kick to a specific, point or target in the net. Oh what we can learn from that!
Training consists of repetitious kicking, we do this to help build leg strength, and to be able to pull kicks off on the fly. But where are we kicking? How often do we visualize an exact point to strike?
Like Beckham we need to be able to kick from any point in the match (defensive situation) with such precision that we can pick and choose our desired target at will. Not telegraphing this is a definite bonus.
I am sure there are other players who have similar skill; and certainly Karate students should be training more for this type of direct kicking….rather than just kick ‘at’ the opponent we need to train to kick (and nail) a specific target of the opponent’s body.
Thank you David Beckham.
Here is just one of many books about David Beckham: