(No Axes Involved) Point Sparring Tournament

[Runs With Fire]

Jordy Buck ,myself, 1st degree black belt, Tang Soo Do
VS.
Nick Betz, 3rd degree black belt, Tang Soo Do

Advice, criticism, critique, or just enjoy. Oh, I am the funny looking lanky guy.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Cool, looks like had fun. Get off line, you fight straight forward and back. I do it too, bad habit. You also wait to be attacked. I like your abilities, and congratulations.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I absolutely loathe tournaments that stop every time a point might have been scored. It's soooo completely disconnected from anything resembling a real application of the skills you're practicing.
I know... it's not something you have any control over. Just voicing my opinion of the format of the event.

Learn to use your front leg. Rear leg kicks are inherently stronger, but slower. Use the front leg to jab. You've got good flexibility and good speed. Front leg kicks will allow you to use them to your advantage.
And, as Bill said, learn to move sideways. You're a counter-puncher, obviously, but your options for a counter attack are limited by the fact that you're moving away from your opponent. Try evading their attack by moving sideways. Doing so will, in many cases, obviate the need to block at all, which means you will have more options for your counters, as well as being able to counter sooner.
But probably most important of all... combinations. You throw one. You stop. You throw one. You stop. Don't. Throw a second. And a third. And a fourth. And a fifth.

 

[Runs With Fire]

When they announced us in the lineup, it immediately took precedence as the main event. Nick is very good and I am quite surprised that I held my own. He made short work of his other contenders.

 

[Runs With Fire]

I absolutely loathe tournaments that stop every time a point might have been scored. It's soooo completely disconnected from anything resembling a real application of the skills you're practicing.

I do understand.

And, as Bill said, learn to move sideways. You're a counter-puncher, obviously, but your options for a counter attack are limited by the fact that you're moving away from your opponent.

Still working on that.

 

[Touch Of Death]

My advice is to keep your guard up. It drifts away from you, once in a while. Something that might help, is to spar, where some guy throws kicks at you, and all you are allowed to do, is counter, guard up. You get to use your legs. Some of those kicks could have been parried off, with a knee, and you can just plain step off the line of attack. What you don't want, is to have moment where you a fighting some guy, and both hands are down. Guard up elbow parries work just as well. I am not just saying this for your protection, I am saying that the more you are ready to strike with your hands, the more you can take advantage of target opportunities.

 

[Buka]

Keep up the good work, Jordy.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

As Dirty Dog mentioned, throw more combinations. Both of you were throwing mostly single shots.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Here's my 2 cents: Keep in mind I come from a self-defense approach with how I spar so some of my comments may not be relevant to Point Sparring

What I like:

• I like that you and your opponent weren't bouncing around
• There was one point in the video where you did a good job an avoiding the front kick and countered with a punch to the guy. That's not an easy thing to do.
• Even though I don't like point sparring because I really believe that it teaches bad habits. I do like that you 2 didn't make it a game of advanced tag. It looks like only the solid hits were being counted as points.

What I think can change

• Learn how to fight off angles. It's not the easiest thing to do
• Utilize combos. I'm assuming that you practice them so use them. Combos can be used to hit as well as distract and move your opponent.
  
• Too much kicking makes you fight one dimensional. You 2 were kicking so much that when you were actually in punching range neither one of you threw a punch. Kicks are good but not all the time, especially because of the natural weak point of a kick being that if I rush you and you miss, then you won't be able to kick again. BJJ exploits this all the time and will often bait their opponent to kick.
• Relax more.
• Learn use punches to set up kicks and kicks to set up punches
• Take some risk an try to use some of your techniques from your forms. This is the perfect time to expand your knowledge of your system. This will allow you to learn the hard way without getting knocked out. This will be the most difficult thing to do but once you do it, then you'll gain a deeper understanding and you'll be able to actually use your techniques beyond just the basic kicks and punches. Your sparring didn't show techniques that look similar to what I see in application demos. So it just made the sparring look like kick boxing.

This isn't a harsh critique as it's common in many fighting systems (except for the grappling systems). Regardless your sparring should be representative of your fighting system, and when you spar, someone else who does Tang Soo Do should be able to recognize the techniques that you are doing. I train in Kung Fu and it's really scary sometimes when trying to learn how to apply a technique in a free sparring session. Sometimes it just looks like I'm going to get hit so I'll bail out of the technique. The best way that works for me, may work for you. Start with a basic technique like a basic block or strike as it's taught in your system. Learn how to deploy it (you'll get hit in the learning process so make sure your sparring partner turns their power down.) This is the fastest way to learn how and when to do certain techniques If you truly want to be good in Tang Soo Do then you have to start using those techniques in your sparring. Don't make sparring about winning make it about learning.


The bad habit that I saw and I think you should get rid of

• One Punch, One Kick habit: Even though you are doing Point Sparring, it doesn't mean that you punch / kick then wait to see if you scored a point. You throw your combos until you hear the command to stop. You should be landing multiple shots before the Ref can complete the command to stop. By the time he says stop, your last punch should either be halfway to it's mark or landing on the mark.
• Stop kicking so much: Kicking all the time is just as bad as punching all the time because your opponent will know exactly what you are likely to do. If you spar against me, then I would take advantage of the fact that you are most likely to kick. I will not only watch the kick I will bait you so that I can use my counters that are designed for kicks. Mixing it up between kicks, punches, and grabs makes it difficult for people to tell what's coming next.

Learn to use your front leg. Rear leg kicks are inherently stronger, but slower. Use the front leg to jab

He is correct about this. This comes from really digging deeper into your strikes and trying to discover the many ways you can use them. Front kicks are powerful enough to break ribs so be careful when you do it. You can also use them in close range as well. You just have to explore it beyond what is taught.

 

[Chester Wright]

Not bad, try to cut some angles a little more to get off your opponents centerline when setting up your kicks. Also try to get off the line a little faster. Most point tourneys I have seen blitz attacks are common. I enjoyed watching this thanks for posting it.