3 Punches combo and associated footwork

[Kung Fu Wang]

If you throw 3 punches, depending on your opponent's respond, you may have to use different footwork.

Let's define

S = your opponent step back when you punch,
N = your opponent doesn't step back when you punch.

The possibilities can be:

1. NNN
2. SNN
3. NSN
4. NNS
5. NSS
6, SNS
7. SSN
8. SSS

In other words, you will need to train 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 different footwork to associate with your 3 punches combo.

Is this kind of training

- necessary?
- too complicate and not necessary?

Your thought?

 

[JowGaWolf]

If you throw 3 punches, depending on your opponent's respond, you may have to use different footwork.

Let's define

S = your opponent step back when you punch,
N = your opponent doesn't step back when you punch.

The possibilities can be:

1. NNN
2. SNN
3. NSN
4. NNS
5. NSS
6, SNS
7. SSN
8. SSS

In other words, you will need to train 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 different footwork to associate with your 3 punches combo.

Is this kind of training

- necessary?
- too complicate and not necessary?

Your thought?

Too complicated. I'm down for a good analysis but I think it's not necessary. Certain punches will generally get the same response.. Punch to the left of your opponents head and he'll be encouraged to move right. Punch to the right of your opponent's head and he'll be in encouraged to move left. Kick Throw a big punch and he'll look to counter.

If you understand how your punches affect behavior then you can drive your opponent at will. That way you don't have figure out a bunch of possibilities.

 

[Flying Crane]

If you throw 3 punches, depending on your opponent's respond, you may have to use different footwork.

Let's define

S = your opponent step back when you punch,
N = your opponent doesn't step back when you punch.

The possibilities can be:

1. NNN
2. SNN
3. NSN
4. NNS
5. NSS
6, SNS
7. SSN
8. SSS

In other words, you will need to train 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 different footwork to associate with your 3 punches combo.

Is this kind of training

- necessary?
- too complicate and not necessary?

Your thought?

That is the kind of analysis that I think makes things too complicated. It is trying to have a solution for every possibility, which isn’t possible.

It’s good to look at possibilities, but easy to go overboard.

These possibilities don’t even cover the basic options that the enemy may do. Instead of two choices, he could have many more. He could step to the side, or to the other side, or back on an angle, or forward on an angle as a flanking move, he can do it to one side of the other side. Now youve got six more possibilities in addition to your first two.

I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of analyzing every possibility. I don’t find it helpful.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

That is the kind of analysis that I think makes things too complicated. It is trying to have a solution for every possibility, which isn’t possible.

I believe this is why people coordinate punch with either

1. front foot landing (step in), or
2. back foot landing (not step in).

1 can cover more distance than 2. But sometime you just don't have time to step in your leading foot but only to slide in your back foot.

In sparring, I have seen too many students who can recognize the opening, but since their footwork is not fast enough, their punch can not reach to that opening.

 

[skribs]

If you throw 3 punches, depending on your opponent's respond, you may have to use different footwork.

Let's define

S = your opponent step back when you punch,
N = your opponent doesn't step back when you punch.

The possibilities can be:

1. NNN
2. SNN
3. NSN
4. NNS
5. NSS
6, SNS
7. SSN
8. SSS

In other words, you will need to train 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 different footwork to associate with your 3 punches combo.

Is this kind of training

- necessary?
- too complicate and not necessary?

Your thought?

Except, your opponent has a lot more they can do. They can:

• Step backward (switch stance)
• Slide backward (same stance)
• Move laterally to your open side (i.e. to your right in orthodox stance)
• Move laterally to your closed side (i.e. to your left in orthodox stance)
• Step forward (switch stance)
• Slide forward (same stance)
• Move diagonally in any of these directions
• Move further forward or backward (i.e. past you, or well out of safe range)

This is also discounting slipping, ducking, leaning, etc., all of which can be done. It's also before you get into other factors, such as blocks, parries, grabs, or counters.

I am in the process of designing my own curriculum, and this is the basic idea of how it works:

1. Teach the techniques (without footwork or combination)
2. Teach the concepts of how to move in different ways and how to combine techniques together in different ways
3. Let students create their own footwork+combination ideas based on these principles

The idea is that if I teach you 5 techniques, 5 footwork principles, and 5 combination principles, then I've taught you 125 things. You don't need to have practiced every possible permutation (although you will practice more and more over time).

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Move laterally to your open side (i.e. to your right in orthodox stance)

• Move laterally to your closed side (i.e. to your left in orthodox stance).

If your opponent moves to the

- open side, a back leg roundhouse kick, or back leg side kick,
- close side, a front leg side kick, or a back leg turn kick,

may work better than punch.

 

[skribs]

If your opponent moves to the

- open side, a back leg roundhouse kick, or back leg side kick,
- close side, a front leg side kick, or a back leg turn kick,

may work better than punch.

You're digging into the weeds. The point was that there are so many possibilities, you can't train for them all. So you train concepts that cover them all.