For many of the vets this is probably old info but I figured out something today that may benefit those with limited shirt experience. Getting too the point, if your having trouble staying in the groove with the Katana, trying taking it off and putting it back on with a slight (inside to outside) twist in the sleeves. I know in the old Titan shirts a bit of a twist may help but in the Katana even the slightest twist (especially uneven from sleeve to sleeve) will throw me way out of the groove and prevent my elbows from tucking properly. Experiment with it if your having trouble in the shirt, I use the letters as my reference point, a movement of a 1/4 inch either direction seems to have drastic effects.
I'm reading that alot on the forums, its a shame too cause the Katana is the reason for alot of broken records lately. I'm not a shirt expert but as I run into issues I'll try to post what fixes worked for me, so at least you'll have something you can try.
Another off the top of my head is the importance of maintaining your arch in the Katana. A shirt naturally tries to collapse your arch, as your arch collapses in the katana it seems to push the bar out of the groove. The F6 was more forgiving in this area. There could be more there, but I know that the harder I concentrate on keeping a tight arch the less trouble I have with the shirt (and the stronger the bench of course)
I'm reading that alot on the forums, its a shame too cause the Katana is the reason for alot of broken records lately. I'm not a shirt expert but as I run into issues I'll try to post what fixes worked for me, so at least you'll have something you can try.
Another off the top of my head is the importance of maintaining your arch in the Katana. A shirt naturally tries to collapse your arch, as your arch collapses in the katana it seems to push the bar out of the groove. The F6 was more forgiving in this area. There could be more there, but I know that the harder I concentrate on keeping a tight arch the less trouble I have with the shirt (and the stronger the bench of course)
Re the arch and groove; as a rubbish archer this is one of the things that I hate the most. Perhaps I just need more time in it and better technique. Thanks for the tips!
If you don't arch much at all, I'd get the straight sleeve version of the katana. Also, practice, practice, practice in the shirt. Use it weekly if you have to. If you can't touch, don't worry about it right away, use it how you can and then work on touching. Bring it down a little further each week. If you use boards, try this: work down the boards each week, but if you're ever uncomfortable with the board you're working from, stay there for the next week as well. That may or may not be a novel idea....
yeah getting obsessed with touching the first couple of sets really screws me up, so I just go to where its natural and by about the third set it touchs and I'm usually near my working weight at that time.
The thing to remember is that if you're forcing it to touch, you have to look very carefully about whether or not you're pulling the bar out of the groove. I suspect most the time this is the case. Sometimes you can't help but to force it to touch, but 1) do the best you can -- if you can touch naturally, great. 2) if you can't touch and you're not close to a meet, don't worry about it too much. Just work on it and try again next week.
One thing that the guys at my gym try to do is to touch with lighter weights. Keeping the belt off and letting the shirt ride high (into your throat) with lighter weights works best. As the weights get heavier, pull the shirt down progressively until the shirt is pulled down and cinched hard with the belt. Its worked very well for us this way.
