Recently, some of the guys I fight with introduced me to an exercise that they called "fat batting". Essentially, it is a routine designed to speed up the reflexes, and build the fine muscles of the arm, for faster, more precise striking, and to teach the fighter to quickly reset, block, and strike. This routine uses the block strike routine, where participants stand a weapon's length away and then strike, block the opponents response, and immediately strike again at an opening they see from their opponents attack. They called it fat batting because were using the larger, and very light, pool-noodle bats that are popular in Amtgard. The lightness of the weapon allowed greater speed, which is the goal of the exercise.
I was only able to keep up with the guy I was practicing with for about 2 minutes on each arm, and then had to take a break; it was surprisingly tiresome.
So, what do you guys think? Any experiences with this routine? Did it help your game? Any other routines that you could recommend that fall along the same line?