Stretching Advise?

[TracyKarate]

Hello all! Looking forward to sharing great tips on fighting with you. What type of stretching equipment works the best? I have watched all of the videos of the Ultimate Challenges and I have noticed Royce Gracie in his fights possessing great flexibility. I have very good flexibility I can kick up to mid level without effort, but I really want to accomplish the splits. I know this has no relevance what so ever in the realm of true combat, but it has been a goal for quite some time. I have used many types of aperatus to aide in the art of stretching. This got to be very expensive for me. I would order alot of these products only to discover they do not live up to their claims.Now sadly, much of my equipment are serving as racks for my shirts and ties. [laughing]

[TracyKarate]

Also what variations of stretches better suit groundfighting and what variations better suit striking styles?

[Oberleutnant]

Invest in one of these as your last peice of stretching "equpiment":

Thomas Kurz's 'Stretching Scientifically'

-OR-

Pavel Tsatsouline's "Beyond Stretching'

Both available at amazon.com.

Flexibility is very specific; and training effectively for specific flexibility types and typing out advice and directions for this and additional facets (such as safety, physiology behind application & method etc.) is more than I'm willing to do(no multiple page posts from me fer awhile). These books have the information you're looking for and will probably dispel the many flawed peices of advice you've heard.

(PS-if yer a chick, most guys dig a girl that can twist herself into a pretzel. With the knowlege these books contain, you can achieve this sought-after ability!)

[Qkfx]

Oberleutnat I'm guessing Tracy is not a guy, since I don't know many chicks who hang their shirts and ties on work out equipment. But I do agree on the pretzel thing!!

Tracy I'll admit that as a kid, and into "karate", when I saw Van Dam do those splits I had to learn to do it too.
Is their an icon for embarassed?? Anyway I didn't tie myself to a bamboo table and pull until I was in tears. But I did warm up with jump rope and squats and then go into the stretching. Basically it was a two month process where I would go into the splits as far as I could and then force a little bit more, and just hold it until the pain was too much. Push it a little more every other day, hold a little longer and eventually I could do the full splits. Since then the flexability has stayed with me, even if I take several months off training.

[Oberleutnant]

LOL my bad I didn't catch that. I guess I;'ll change it to

"If yer a guy I bet there are plenty of gay dudes that dig a guy that can twist himself into a pretzel; with the information these books contain you can attain this sought-after ability!"

[aikidoka]

just wondering, are you tracys karate from cincinnati? the owner o the dojos?

[TracyKarate]

Wow everyone these are great posts! Akidoka, I believe you are confusing me with someone else. Although it would be great to own myown dojo!! Hey I am a guy everyone. Qkfx, where did you purchase that bamboo table you described? How much did it cost? Are you willing to sell yours?