Budo Toronto

Check out The Shinobi Village Parkour & Martial Arts Centre's Open House this Saturday as well as our updated class schedule. That's right, we're 100% done and ready to open. Come check us out between 10am-8pm on August 8th. Details in the newsletter.

Here are 4 stretches that help with hip flexibility without the need to hold static stretches. These mobilize the hips in 4 different positions freeing the joints in many directions. If you try this sequence, please comment and let me know about your experience!

Check out this short tutorial video for the leg swing exercise. This is a great dynamic exercise for single leg balancing, that helps develop and challenge hip mobility, range or motion, stability. It's really simple and feels good when you get a good rhythm going. This is one that everyone can try, and feel welcome to hold a wall for support if you feel unstable. Let me know if you give it a try!

Jumping to a Square Landing and then transitioning to a Deep Knee Bend, is a good practice in training your reaction to quickly drop your center of gravity when you start to lose balance, instead of flailing your arms around. For this drill we will use flat ground and just use anything to make the "boundaries" of your target landing. Usually with a precision landing we are coming to land in a half squat with the heels touching down, but for this variation we will be transitioning to a deep knee bend before the heels come down. You can do this landing from a Forward Jump, Split Jump, or Leg Swing Jump. Don't worry about making it a jump from as far away as you can, and rather just focus on good technique; getting the knees high before landing, landing softly and quietly, and smoothly transitioning to the deep knee bend.

The tripod transition is a fundamental natural movement in the MovNat system that has broad implications among many movement patterns. As you continue to progress in your practice you will start to see this pattern everywhere. This technique is mainly used to step up onto or over an elevated surface (such as in a vault), to transition between prone to supine quadrupedal positions, and to get up and down between standing and sitting, or before jumping down from an elevated surface.