In direct answer to your question I have mentioned before in this forum about the paper drill for developing hand eye coordination. Have a workout partner stand in front of you holding a piece of paper that is about four square inches at your head height about three feet in front of you. You should stand with your hands down by your side and when he releases the paper you have to catch it before it hits the ground using only one hand. You can try to catch it more than once before it hits the ground and this will develop your hand eye coordination. As you get better at this decrease the size of the paper as well as have him hold it side ways and then dropping it so that it drops more quickly.
This is a drill I have used in the past with students and fighters to help them develop better hand eye coordination and with some techniques and approaches really good hand-eye coordination is critical. In a martial art like Aikido for instance where they put a lot of emphasis on reaching out and intercepting your opponent's attack something like hand eye coordination is needed in order to be successful.
Well let’s start with the benefits, then problems, then an alternative.
The benefits of such drill is that you’ll relax your arms and learn not to tighten the fist until the last moment. You’ll also use more of a wide view to see the leaves falling to make continuous catches. You'll workout the accuracy while keep that vision. And maybe you’ll work out something of a foot work as well.
Now the problems. Without having been taught a proper jab a person is just going to use their arms in every crazy angles to make the catches faster. This in practice will alienate arm from the body weight and make for really sloppy and weak punches. Also without proper lesson the person is likely to fully extend their arms at every catch probably destroying the elbows and ending a boxing careers even before it began. After having learned proper mechanics of a jab and mastered it to a natural instinctive motion then this exercise has more value. But we still have one last issue with this drill. Where do you get a tree that rains leaves like that? Even in fall you need a quite a windy day to make this happen, or you’ll need to hunt down a cherry blossom tree in spring.
The alternative? Get a tennis ball and attach a string to it, and hang that so that tennis ball is at head height. Now you have a moving target and you’ll be able to see when it’s purely arm strike verses the full body strike.
Yes there is but not in speed. It is more about relaxation, following the motion, seizing without using force and leading into the technique. It is more for joint locks and throws such as in Aikido, Aikijutsu, Shaolin Kung Fu and Taiji. If you get more into advanced Karate it too is beneficial as advanced Karate is not so many strikes anymore and it is much softer. I don't know for sure about other styles, so I'll let others comment on that.
BTW cottonwood seeds work better than leaves. They are the white fluffy things falling from the cottonwood tree in the spring.
Learn how to fight, then spend time improving your attributes. Being faster and more accurate but having bad fighting skills means that you will still have bad fighting skills. I have seen my share of guys get off the path of correct and important training to pursue things that will not fix the fact that their fighting sucks.
Now, lets get something straight...... Cartoon and animation is not realistic. No one should even consider letting it effect the way you think about martial arts.
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It keeps you from asking silly questions like this, and it keeps you out of trouble.
I all seriousness, I guess the reality is that you could use all kinds of silly things like this for exercises in your training. But you have to understand what you're trying to achieve. To me just doing stuff like this without knowing what you're trying to achieve is pointless.
it keeps the yard clean. but what a wonderful idea i think i'll grab some kids from the neighborhood and con them into thinking its beneficial after all it was in a cartoon,
yes, it increases the power of concentration
a cleaner back yard?
Is there any benefits in catching trees leaves when they are falling? I watched that in an anime hajji no ippo I don't want to be silly but is there any benefits? faster and accurate punches?
