Progress stalling!

[JowGaWolf]

Maybe I just need lots more repetition: I can remember what to do OK, but I don't have time to think through it. I should be doing the right thing quickly and without thinking, almost as fast as a conditioned reflex.

Possibly another thing is that it's not really possible to practice defences on my own as I can practice punches and kicks (to an extent) on my own.

This just means you have to do 2 things.
1. Trust the technique
2. Build habit when means to do the movement over and over while visualizing the kick to the head.

What I would do in your shoes is to find someone who can do the kick to my head without landing the kick.
Tell them that you want to just see the kick a few times without blocking so don't land the kick. Don't kick the head but send the kick in the direction of my head. I just want to get a clearer picture of what is coming at me so I can better visualize for when I train on my own.

Your reaction time and confusion are probably because you don't have a good read on the kick and as a result you aren't reacting as you training. Here's a person experience:

I have Muay Thai sparring partner that I train with and one day he threw an overhand that kept getting in and I couldn't figure out why I was getting hit. So I asked myself "What am I not seeing?" I stopped the sparring session and asked my sparring partner to throw the punch but don't hit me. I just want to watch everything as the punch comes in without having use any brain power on thinking about reacting. He threw the punch 5 times and it helped me get a better understanding of what I was dealing with.

I often tell him when I see a strike and when I don't see it. If I see a strike come in and get hit because I didn't react, then that's fine. It's when I'm looking and I don't see the strike that is an issue. I can't react to something I can't see. You may be having issue. You see that a kick is coming, but you don't really see it as you should. Your body doesn't recognize the kicking movement and as a result your reaction is a confused one. In other words, your eyes see the incoming strike, but your brain doesn't understand it.
Your brain has to understand the incoming strike that your eyes see. For me it works to do what I explained above. It may help you. Just make sure that you get someone who has good control of their kicks and can do the kicks slow enough. You don't want them to do a fast kick because you are trying to see the kick so you can better understand the movement of that kick.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Thanks! Do you mean: change location, then three different punches, then repeat?

Whether you train in a straight line of N-E-S-W can make no difference. You can even jump in the air, throw 3 punches before you land back down.

Here is an example.

 

[JowGaWolf]

So for the O.P. you don't defend striking in the manner you think you do. You mitigate some of the striking with footwork. You don't stand where they can hit you untill you hit them. You move at angles that have the highest percentage chance that they were going to strike.(if they have thrown a left. You move out of the way of their cross)

This is high level, way beyond drills that they OP is doing. Everything you state is correct, but from what he explained it sounds like his teacher wants him to use a specific technique.

It's possible to practice partner counter drills alone by shadowboxing.

Only if you do the following exists.
1. The practitioner has good visualization skills
2. The practitioner has accurate visualization

I've done kung fu shadow boxing with students who lacked one or both of these and just by looking at them, it was a nightmare. The visualization should be good enough where I can look at them and tell what type of strikes they are going against.

 

[Fungus]

10 months is a very short time. If you have the same issue in 2-3 years consider switching to trampolining.

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I would play safe and stick to the kyokushin dojo

 

[Badhabits]

Whether you train in a straight line of N-E-S-W can make no difference. You can even jump in the air, throw 3 punches before you land back down.

Here is an example.

We used to do something similar- take a step and punch. Take step and 2 punches before foot lands. Another step with 3 punches before foot lands. So forth and so on. Good drill

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

We used to do something similar- take a step and punch. Take step and 2 punches before foot lands. Another step with 3 punches before foot lands. So forth and so on. Good drill

There are more training than just "1 step 3 punches".

- 1 step 1 punch.
- 1 step 2 punches.
- 1 steps 3 punches.
- 2 steps 1 punch.
- 3 steps 1 punch.

The punch doesn't have to be straight punch. It can be straight punch, hook, uppercut, overhand, back fist, hammer fist, ...

 

[drop bear]

This is high level, way beyond drills that they OP is doing. Everything you state is correct, but from what he explained it sounds like his teacher wants him to use a specific technique.

Then he will be bad at it. Without all that other back of house being applied. You can't stop a good striker from picking you off.

That is why all that high level stuff exists.

Same as if you do a knife defence drills with random attacks and you get stabbed 50 million times. You don't get good at defending that.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Then he will be bad at it. Without all that other back of house being applied. You can't stop a good striker from picking you off.

That is why all that high level stuff exists.

Same as if you do a knife defence drills with random attacks and you get stabbed 50 million times. You don't get good at defending that.

He won't be bad. He just won't be able jump from level 10 to level 100. Jumping straight to high level stuff without getting through the beginner level stuff will make a person equally bad. He'll be ok so long as he doesn't try to progress too far forward before he's ready.

 

[drop bear]

He won't be bad. He just won't be able jump from level 10 to level 100. Jumping straight to high level stuff without getting through the beginner level stuff will make a person equally bad. He'll be ok so long as he doesn't try to progress too far forward before he's ready.

Nobody succeeds at that drill if the person who is feeding the strikes is any good.

You just don't have time.

 

[Gyakuto]

He won't be bad. He just won't be able jump from level 10 to level 100. Jumping straight to high level stuff without getting through the beginner level stuff will make a person equally bad. He'll be ok so long as he doesn't try to progress too far forward before he's ready.

I don’t like the term ‘beginner level’. I think fundamental or foundation level is better because we practice them throughout our martial arts careers.

 

[Fungus]

Nobody succeeds at that drill if the person who is feeding the strikes is any good.

You just don't have time.

This contains also something about the fighting philosophy.

In a perfect world, you would avoid and block every attack and knock the opponent out before he even can touch you. But that is I think not realistic unless there are orders or magnitudes of different in skill and ability.

If you end up in a knife fight I think the realistic goal is not to avoid beeing cut, it is to survive, even if at the expensve of a cut.

Same in other fights, it will be painful and you may catch some injury, but the goal is just to disable the opponent before you get disabled.

Our shihans always stress the importances for this reson to not "overcomitt" to the defence moves, as then sooner or later your oppoent will land a KO, even if it is only 1:50. This is why we are taught that defense must be balanced by conditioning and counterattacks.

 

[HighKick]

Hi, I've been learning self defence now for about 10 months. I'm 62, fairly fit but with no background in self defence. I train 1-2-1 with a senseri every week and practive every day. To start with I progressed quite well, and now know the basic kicks and punches fairly well. But I just don't seem to be able to join them together in a smooth way - I'm not much good at combinations and when my Sensei throws a punch or kick without telling me first what it will be, I don't seem able to respond properly. Any advice welcome!

Remember, it is a marathon, not a sprint.10-months is not super long in the bigger picture. I am 61. Respectfully, at 62, progression will be slower, especially when you start chaining combinations or pattern recognition when drilling/sparring.

The two issues you describe are the biggest challenges for everyone, regardless of age. I very much commend you for being critical of yourself, but everyone has to learn to manage expectations and effectively work within their means.
Keep working hard and what most often happens is you will walk into class one day and things will just start to click.

You got this.

 

[HighKick]

I don’t like the term ‘beginner level’. I think fundamental or foundation level is better because we practice them throughout our martial arts careers.

Beginner is more akin to the action or verb.

Fundamental or foundation is the adjective to describe action.

Beginner level is a very accurate and apt description.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Nobody succeeds at that drill if the person who is feeding the strikes is any good.

You just don't have time.

They should have time. Drills are supposed to match the capabilities of the person doing the drill. If I were to do a drill with you then I wouldn't strike faster than you could react. I would start with a speed that you can handle and slowly turn up the speed. Eventually I would add fighting movement. But it all has to be done at a pace that you can handle.

The drill is for the person who is defending and not the person who is striking.

I don’t like the term ‘beginner level’. I think fundamental or foundation level is better because we practice them throughout our martial arts careers.

No problem. I'm not familiar with the drill that the OP is having problems with. Since it's a foundation skill then there's no need to worry about something that's going to be a part of his training as long as he's in that system.

 

[Badhabits]

Shouldn't the instructor be feeding the op punches he can successfully deal with to get the feeling for it, and then slowly make it more difficult- setting the op up to succeed so to speak?

 

[Fungus]

Shouldn't the instructor be feeding the op punches he can successfully deal with to get the feeling for it, and then slowly make it more difficult- setting the op up to succeed so to speak?

If the lesson is to learn how to block certain techniques I think so yes.

But if the lesson is about howto handle a pushy opponent, where you are unable to keep up with attack speed - then what do you do? This is perhaps where the "higher level" things, like sabaki work or modulating distance can break the oppents flows. We have done this at times, and the lesson is not to think you block every single attack, the point of the exercise is that at high pressure that breaks down.

 

[Badhabits]

I was under the impression the op is doing the very basic drill where a single random punch is thrown and he's expected to block/counter.
He might need to clarify

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I was under the impression the op is doing the very basic drill where a single random punch is thrown and he's expected to block/counter.
He might need to clarify

This is the impression I got as well. Unfortunately, some clarification would only be had via a video, or the instructors input on the purpose/his thinking behind it.

 

[Mike1962]

10 months is a very short time. If you have the same issue in 2-3 years consider switching to trampolining.

Will do!

 

[drop bear]

They should have time. Drills are supposed to match the capabilities of the person doing the drill. If I were to do a drill with you then I wouldn't strike faster than you could react. I would start with a speed that you can handle and slowly turn up the speed. Eventually I would add fighting movement. But it all has to be done at a pace that you can handle.

The drill is for the person who is defending and not the person who is striking.

Obviously it isn't slow enough though. Because he is not catching the strikes in time.

Hence his issue.

Amd you don't catch the strikes in time Because the drill favours the striker pretty heavily.

You could do the drill at a slow enough pace people can win at it. But nobody does. Because they think one day they will get fast enough.

They won't.