Today I will present some Makiwara training.
Makiwara is made of two kanji
Originally a we would use piece of would like this
to roll(maki) a rope made of straw(wara) around it and proceed to strike it.
That's why it is called Maki wara, however
nowadays we can just use a cover like this
or use an object fixed to a wall
to practice hitting. That's what's called a Makiwara.
Makiwara training is of course training to strengthen the fist
and in order to strengthen it you must train to overcome the pain at the moment of the impact
as well as checking the angle with which you are striking,
the use of body twisting.
All of these apsects are trained however
there is an even more important aspect
which is building your stomach muscles.
In short, when you make the impact
you should use your core muscles to tighten the parts of your body that needs to be tighten
which is what creates Kime.
What is more, in between the punches you must keep your mind focused on your target
In short you must empty your mind
to be able to only focus  on the effectiveness of your punch.
What is more, in between punches, you must look inside yourself
and strive to enrich and forge your spirit.
This is what you must look for in Makiwara  training.
In other words
this training is not only about physical strength and reinforcement of your body
but there is also a mental aspect to it
and it is necessary for strengthenning every aspects needed to practice karate.
About the way you punch the Makiwara,
depending on the style you practice or even the person zho punches
there are differences but I will show you the basic way
to punch for the Shotokan style.
According  the karate style, some people will punch in front of their shoulder
but for Shotokan we must absolutely punch in front of our center line
We first punch Gyaku zuki from Zen Kutsu dachi
For the makiwara instead of stiff object, it is better to use a flexible board
and it is better to feel like you would punch through it.
In short, when you touch the board
it will slightly move backwards and then back forwards
which is when you should feel like going through it once more
So you go from focusing on a point to focusing through a line.
In short if Kime is focusing on a precise point, for the strengthening purpose
of makiwara training we must lengthen this Kime (focus)
That's why using a flexible makiwara you should feel like punching through it
About the number of times you strike the makiwara
this depends on the technical level of the practitionner
you should adapt to your physical condition as well
for example 10 times or 20 times, 30 times, 50 times
Make 1 set of this amount and then alternate the left and right side
One more point, it can happen that your skin gets pilled off
If this happens I think it is better to take a break until your skin grows back and then you can start practicing again.
What's more, I'm sometimes asked   when it is appropriate to start hitting the makiwara
I think that as long as the skeleton is properly developped it doesn't matter at what age you begin.
For the young people
rather than strengthening some specific parts
it is preferable to strengthen the muscle power of the body as a whole.
