Why in hour long martial arts classes is half the time spent warming up and strectching?

This is annoying when you pay for an hour, but spend half the time doing push ups and stretches (which you can do yourself anyway before the class), and only spend half an hour practising the martial arts technique.

Why in hour long martial arts classes is half the time spent warming up and strectching?
Same reason why soldiers spend the better half of the day running a mile and going through obstacle courses. To warm them up and condition their bodies for endurance and stamina. I realize that some dojos might use this as a time filler, but not all do. During my Aikido training, we did warm up a full hour during every class without fail, but this was to our benefit, sure it was boring and we hated it at first, but after it became a part of our routine, we realized that we could have our daily lessons then go on randori for another hour and still have some wind left to do more and we were less likely to get muscle cramps too. And we can't say our sensei did it for the money since he only charged what was equivalent to about 6 dollars a month for 6 days a week 6 hrs per session. And if we didn't have the money to pay for a particular month, he'd let us take the classes anyway and just let us pay when we can. And all he asks is that we show sincerity and dedication for our training. He's been teaching for over 30 years now and still does to this day. And one thing I've learned in his class is that no matter how good and proficient you are in your style's techniques, if you don't have the mental discipline and stamina to match it, all your skills are useless. During our beginner years, some of us used to come in late thinking we could skip the warm up and just go right to the lessons. But he still made us warm up on our own and as we discovered, we weren't able to keep up with the other students since we were out of breathe most of the time and our joints weren't as flexible or sturdy enough to withstand the constant repetition of techniques, that by class' end, we could barely stand up. All this changed after one hour warm up became part of our practice routine. Sure you can warm up on your own, but our warm up included two man resistance exercises and sensitivity drills, as well as breakfall drills and endurance exercises. To be able to go thru the rest of the lessons after all that is great training for stamina and mental discipline.
Reply:you stretch before class so that when you are doing martial arts, you don't pull a muscle or get injured.
Reply:First, stretching and strengthening are vital parts of martial arts training. You can seriously injure yourself if not properly warmed up and your instructor can't assume that everyone would be diligent enough to warm up before class.





Second, discipline. You need to have the discipline to listen and respect your sensei in order to learn from them. In my experience, the stretching and warm-up doesn't take as long when you get into the more advanced classes.
Reply:Strectching and warm up is you increase your blood flow in you body. Sudden jerks and hits can injure or even pull a muscle if you do not warm up.


Its not only in martial arts it also happens in swimming, boxing, takewondo, athelatics etc.


It is very important.
Reply:stretching is a vital part of any physically demanding sport or exercise. stretching helps improve your flexibility and prevents injury. be patient it is one of the fundamental principals of any martial art
Reply:You spend that much time warming up to keep you from hurting yourself. One injury from lack of stretching will give you a new perspective.





I had taken a hiatus from martial arts for a while about ten years ago. I was showing off one night at a party and ended up pulling a hamstring. Not fun. When it pulled it sounded like a gunshot. I hobbled around on that for a couple of weeks.





Now I stretch daily.
Reply:That is an American phenomenon which I have always asked myself.





In my classes I just keep it to five minutes of stretching out before diving into Judo.
Reply:It depends on the school you attend. Although basic stretching is a good idea, to avoid injury, some schools include the physical training as part of their class as well. That's because a lot of people lack the discipline to do this by themselves outside the group. If you're one of those people who can stick to an exercise program without having an organized group to motivate you, this may be a waste of time for you and you may consider switching schools. But some people just need that part of the training to be drilled into them as a group activity to get them to do it.
Reply:I agree. Our classes are pure martial arts. We are expected to condition and stretch on our own time.


This time consumption is sometimes a McDojo trick, it is far easier to stand and make people do exercises than it is to teach them a martial art.
Reply:Stretching %26amp; warming up are necessary to prevent injuries. 1/2 hr is excessive.
Reply:because your teacher doesn't have anything to teach you and uses that as "filler" because he is a poor teacher.





this is often why teachers also use "kata" in thier teachings. As they need "filler" to throw in or else you would be taught everything they know very quickly and you wouldn't give them your continued business anymore.





EDIT: yes, conditioning and stretching are important, however conditioning is not something you should have to learn from someone who is supposed to teach you how to fight (you can do pushups and whatever other paltry "warm ups" on your own) and stretching is not something you will have an opportunity to do before a fight. You should stretch each day after you wake up and before you go to bed to help loosen you up.





Even if you wish to stretch it should be done BEFORE class. not during.





we have 3 hr classes and don't even waste time on this crap. You lift, you lift outside of class. you run outside of class, you stretch outside of class.





Ok- admittedly some class time is "wasted" joking around from time to time, but thats just the loose informal atmosphere we have. Truthfully I think that has more of a benefit to you in your actual training session than in class push ups and sit ups as it adds a more "friendly" and less rigid atmosphere that helps people feel comfortable to ask questions and give thier thoughts and opinions on what we are doing or our training in general.





EDIT2: if people lack the discipline to condition or train themselves, then they are not serious about being a good fighter and time should not be wasted on thier non-technique shortcommings.
Reply:because your teacher wants to make $$$$$ off you. Stretching is easier to teach that karate is. what you could do to kombat this is start letting other stidents know about this bad trick and get a petition going, you can have all the students unite. you guys deserve to get your moneys worth. present the petition as a group to your master and tell him no more stretching or all the students will find a different master to teach them karate.
Reply:You've got me!





We were expected to come a half an hour before class and run for 15 minutes before class.





We got to do that for free!


.
Reply:idk
Reply:You cannot stretch a "cold" muscle so you have to warm it up somehow. Stretching decreases the chances of getting hurt and increases your flexiblity over time so you can kick higher and stronger.





We utilize the warmup time to practice kihon so we are practicing technique at the same time.





Personally, I'm jealous of those who have room in their dojos to warm up and stretch before and after class. I wish we had that much room but rent is expensive and we try to keep our costs low for the families who train with us. We also run our classes one right after the other so the last groups can get home by 9 or 10 pm.
Reply:The instructor does not need any injuries. They want to get this students stronger. My former instructors did that. But they did it creativity. Every Friday after class we would play a game where jumped over some obsticles and if we missed it he would make us do push ups. But he was only trying to help get us fit for anything. It depends on the instructor and his or her style is.
Reply:You stretch before class so that when you are doing martial arts, you don't pull a muscle or get injured.That is why I teach class a 2 1/2 hour class three nights a week.My classes run from 5pm-10pm. Kids class are from 5pm-7:30pm %26amp; the Adult class frun from 7:40pm-10pm I spend 10 min on streches/ warm-up, and the rest of the time working/learning technique. For the last 10 min of class is for the students to ask any questions that they may have.
Reply:I don't read many answers before I answer but I'm sure you'll get alot of because it' important for this reason or that. The truth is that it is done for the same reasons that kata and such are taught. To waste your time. They don't want you to relize that they have nothing of real intrest to offer so they "sugercoat" and use "smoke and mirrors" to distract and confuse you. If you can't stretch before class starts your showing up to late anyway. If it takes more than 5min. your wasting valuable time, but the more time that's wasted the less you have to judge your instructor by.
Reply:lol you know you can practice what u learn at class at home also :)
Reply:in our classes you are expected to warm up stretch and clean the dojo before the instructor arrives
Reply:This really sucks, our classes are 1 1/2 long, we spend the first half doing streatchin and basics, but we dont JUST strech and then we sometimes randomly do pushups through out the class, that really sucks man, dont know what to tell you