# Olympic Sparring Drills



## Lynne (Nov 24, 2008)

This week we are going to be doing Olympic sparring drills in class.  I suspect that these drills come from Tae Kwon Do.

Does anyone have an idea what we might cover?


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## JoelD (Nov 24, 2008)

having watched some of the competition during the past olymics i would say alot of kicking while holding your arms at your sides will be involved, that and kicking the occasional judge upside the head.

kidding, i would assume drills to increase your kicking speed. Very few hand techniques seem to be involved in Olympic style sparring.


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## Lynne (Nov 24, 2008)

JoelD said:


> having watched some of the competition during the past olymics i would say alot of kicking while holding your arms at your sides will be involved, that and kicking the occasional judge upside the head.
> 
> kidding, i would assume drills to increase your kicking speed.


 I'm sure class will be a challenge.  And that will be no joke, lol.  On the second floor, we have bleachers and that worries me!


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## Lynne (Nov 26, 2008)

Hmmm...I guess we aren't going to get to the Olympic sparring drills this week.

We did work on a jab combination with foot switching and side-stepping.


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## Manny (Nov 26, 2008)

I think (I'm a TKD practicioner) you will be doing kickin combos mostly, roundhose kicks combos to the mid section, some axe kicks to the head, and probably some spining hook kicks to the head, offourse counterkicks will be used like the spining back kick to recive the oponent. All these kicks will be used in continuos motion.

That's what I think.

Manny


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## terryl965 (Nov 26, 2008)

You will be tought the fast kick and the counter back kick, some outside in and inside out kicks.


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## Lynne (Nov 26, 2008)

For some reason, we aren't really getting into it this week.  Last year, Master R taught an Olympic Sparring clinic.  I wasn't able to go.  But if he teaches another clinic, I definitely want to go.

Master R was an international and national sparring champ in TKD, so it should be very worthwhile.


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## wade (Dec 10, 2008)

Sorry for asking but who exactly is "Master R"?


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## Lynne (Dec 11, 2008)

wade said:


> Sorry for asking but who exactly is "Master R"?


 My Sa Ba Nim.


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## JoelD (Dec 11, 2008)

Lynne,

I think he is asking what his actual name is. I only vaguely recall you mentioning his last name once or twice. 

something like Rexler?


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## wade (Dec 16, 2008)

Lynne, are you delibertly being obtuse are do you really not know what I was asking or maybe, do you actually not know your master's name? Not meaning to be disrespectful but I am curious. 

BTW, did you ever get a chance to practice your olympic sparring drills? If so, may I ask what they were and how it went? I am always looking to update my own workouts.


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## Lynne (Dec 17, 2008)

wade said:


> Lynne, are you delibertly being obtuse are do you really not know what I was asking or maybe, do you actually not know your master's name? Not meaning to be disrespectful but I am curious.
> 
> BTW, did you ever get a chance to practice your olympic sparring drills? If so, may I ask what they were and how it went? I am always looking to update my own workouts.


 Hey Wade,

I apologize for the obtuseness.  My Sa Ba Nim is Master David Rexer.  He is now a 6th Dan, so the following is a bit out-of-date:

http://rexerstangsoodokarateacademy.com/images/MasterRexer.jpg
http://rexerstangsoodokarateacademy.com/endicott.html

No, we didn't get to practice much in the way of sparring drills.  I was a little disappointed.  Hopefully, Master Rexer will host another sparring clinic soon.


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## wade (Dec 17, 2008)

Thanks Lynne, I was just wondering if I knew him. I have a friend who is also a 6th Dan and he goes by Master R, not the same one. 

Good luck in your training and let me know how the Olympic drills go when you do them, OK?


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## terryl965 (Dec 17, 2008)

Lynne why did you not get to the training this time?


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## Lynne (Dec 17, 2008)

terryl965 said:


> Lynne why did you not get to the training this time?


 Hi Terry

We were going to work on Olympic sparring drills during black belt club week but just touched on some jab steps.  Then, we worked on Chil-Sung forms.

The Olympic Sparring clinic was held about a year ago on a Saturday, for 6 hours or so I believe.  It would be great to have the opportunity to do that again.


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## Lynne (Dec 17, 2008)

wade said:


> Thanks Lynne, I was just wondering if I knew him. I have a friend who is also a 6th Dan and he goes by Master R, not the same one.
> 
> Good luck in your training and let me know how the Olympic drills go when you do them, OK?


 I'll let you know if and when we get to do them.  I heard the sparring clinic was rather intense.  The class used our bleachers for one part - hopping over the individual bleachers.  Sounds worse than the bunny hops we do!

We had sparring classes for awhile and those were great.  Well, we actually did lots of conditioning work (speed drills - "suicide" runs inside the dojang, kicking the pads as fast as we could with roundhouse kicks, butterfly kicks).  We have hundreds of students but not many are interested in staying for the sparring class after a regular class.  Unfortunately, the Tuesday night sparring classes were cancelled.


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## thesandman (Dec 18, 2008)

I've never liked "Olympic" style sparring.  Not only do the rules seem odd, but the way it's practiced always seems so sloppy and self limiting. 

I've never understood it's obsession with back leg round kicks or it's constant habit of fighting linearly.  The lack of kicking fundamentals and a basic guard has always left me slack jawed.  Always comes out looking like flailing. 

I LOVE point sparring.  It's by far my favorite thing to do in class, both teaching and training.  I love the mind game, the finesse, the positioning and the required control of all aspects of yourself to truly break into excellence.  I've always compared it to a chess game.  A chess game at high speed with pads, but a chess game none the less.  

I'd be curious how you're enjoying the actual teaching of sparring.  Not of the physical conditioning, the exercises, but of HOW to spar.  The tactics and philosophy.


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## Lynne (Dec 19, 2008)

thesandman said:


> I've never liked "Olympic" style sparring. Not only do the rules seem odd, but the way it's practiced always seems so sloppy and self limiting.
> 
> I've never understood it's obsession with back leg round kicks or it's constant habit of fighting linearly. The lack of kicking fundamentals and a basic guard has always left me slack jawed. Always comes out looking like flailing.
> 
> ...


 I want and need more actual sparring instruction.  I love point sparring and was hoping that Olympic sparring drills would help with speed, endurance, and tactic (maybe not? I don't really know anything about Olympic sparring).

Instructors walk around and observe as we are sparring.  They will continually stress basics such as "move out of the way to avoid getting hit; counter immediately; keep yourself covered" until we get it.  They will encourage us to do combinations, tell us when we are doing something correct, something risky, etc.  The best instruction comes when we are paired with a black belt however.  All higher belts are encouraged to teach lower belts during sparring.

Yes, I wish there were classes in tactic.  I'd like to know how to counter this or that kick.  What's the best way to avoid a tornado kick?  When is a back kick effective?  Most of this we are picking up on our own as we go along.


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