Can hard work make up for lack of talent?

[DocWard]

@Sarah Mc Congratulations on having your thread go into new and exciting directions, including multiple arguments. At least your thread didn't get locked like mine

For the record, I still feel bad about that!

 

[dvcochran]

One of the things you can do is work on your distance. The distance between you and your sparring partners. Try moving around the ring with various partners. Maintain the same distance, whatever distance is good for you. A distance that you can work your fighting techniques from. It will be a little different with each person you partner with, depending on their steps, ability to close distance, size etc.

Watch out for breaking out of a viable stance. You have to keep a good stance to fight from. And be aware that the easiest thing Martial Artists tend to do is go forward and back. Do not get stuck in that game. Having the cones to mark off the area allows you to skeedaddle backwards if you get in distance trouble. Work on your angles, all your angles. Sometimes you're the bull and sometimes you're the matador.

Agree. We call the forward and backwards motion the sparring dance.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

One of the things you can do is work on your distance. The distance between you and your sparring partners. Try moving around the ring with various partners. Maintain the same distance, whatever distance is good for you. A distance that you can work your fighting techniques from. It will be a little different with each person you partner with, depending on their steps, ability to close distance, size etc.

Watch out for breaking out of a viable stance. You have to keep a good stance to fight from. And be aware that the easiest thing Martial Artists tend to do is go forward and back. Do not get stuck in that game. Having the cones to mark off the area allows you to skeedaddle backwards if you get in distance trouble. Work on your angles, all your angles. Sometimes you're the bull and sometimes you're the matador.

Agreed. My students learn angles and distance control before they learn to use attacks in sparring.

 

[dvcochran]

Agreed. My students learn angles and distance control before they learn to use attacks in sparring.

That is something I still struggle teaching some people in TKD. They have a hard time not flinching up and learning that a small move to one side or the other avoids contact and/or sets you we for a strike. As people progress they should learn to anticipate when a pre-emptive side step is a wise move. Any flinch and you are too late most of the time.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

That is something I still struggle teaching some people in TKD. They have a hard time not flinching up and learning that a small move to one side or the other avoids contact and/or sets you we for a strike. As people progress they should learn to anticipate when a pre-emptive side step is a wise move. Any flinch and you are too late most of the time.

We run into the same problem teaching people to enter. They want to side-step first, which leaves them in the power zone too long. Also happens when they're learning to step back, sometimes.

So, apparently, you need to teach your people to step in, so they will mistakenly side-step, instead.

Actually, this is why I teach the defensive strategy and distance control before I teach them to attack in sparring. They have only two jobs: protect themselves and control the distance (really, the latter is part of the former, so just one job). They also get to learn to keep their heads when they can't give a return strike. By the time they have to deliver a punch in sparring, I expect this stuff to start to get a little easy, so they can devote conscious thought to targeting.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

That is something I still struggle teaching some people in TKD. They have a hard time not flinching up and learning that a small move to one side or the other avoids contact and/or sets you we for a strike. As people progress they should learn to anticipate when a pre-emptive side step is a wise move. Any flinch and you are too late most of the time.

Something that worked in fencing, is having new students practice just keeping distance. I would teach them the distance they want to keep, and when they want to invade the other person's distance. Then 'distance sparring' was a regular drill where people would not use the weapon at all, but just use their footwork to trip up the other person. I never tried it with an unarmed art, but I could see it teaching people how to set up strikes and learn footwork against others.