Hand Speed

Coach,

You once told me on this forum that a very strong deadlift will give you all the explosiveness you need to jerk people around on a judo mat.

I'm curious about hand speed now. Hand speed is crucial in judo to get your hands on your opponent without being blocked and to grab your opponent's sleeve before they grab yours. It is also important to be able to block your opponent from grabbing you. We have drills we do for this because there are sequences that must be done so often they become similar to breathing, i.e., deliberate practice. Doing this many reps certainly increases your speed and ability to catch your opponent's sleeve and block, etc.

But, I was wondering if hand speed be increased more? If it can be increased, what would increase our hand speed?

I've searched but I've been unable to find any scientific study on this.

Thanks.

I did not tell you that the deadlift will increase your explosiveness. Your strength, obviously, but explosiveness is barely trainable, as I have discussed many many many many times. Hand speed is the same way.

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Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe

I did not tell you that the deadlift will increase your explosiveness. Your strength, obviously, but explosiveness is barely trainable, as I have discussed many many many many times. Hand speed is the same way.

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You must be among the world’s most mis-cited people. In ten years, you will probably have people on the board with questions like “Coach, I know you said we should wear a mask when lifting, but I was wondering...”

Semi-related, I was listening to the Michael Bisping podcast the other day and he was saying that when he moved over from more kickboxing to MMA, he had a coach that suggested that whilst he start training his BJJ he also start lifting to become strong as that would help him muscle out of some positions whilst he waited for his technique to improve.


Obviously what the coach prescribed wasn't what we would recognise as strength training but the principle was there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe

I did not tell you that the deadlift will increase your explosiveness. Your strength, obviously, but explosiveness is barely trainable, as I have discussed many many many many times. Hand speed is the same way.

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More importantly, explosion is not trainable to any significant degree, while strength is quite trainable for years. Who cleans more weight, the guy with the 500 deadlift or the guy with the 200 deadlift? Who is more powerful? Who can jerk your ass around harder? And why in hell would anybody except a competitive Olympic lifter waste time doing front squats? And the upshot here is this: what's the fastest way to get stronger? My thoughts on that are detailed here:

Sorry Coach, forgot about the first part but I remembered how important the deadlift was.