Some Wednesday Night Sparring

[Azulx]

To more important things

@Buka @Danny T @pdg @JowGaWolf

Always appreciate any feedback you may have outside of gear. Thank you.

 

[Azulx]

@gpseymour @JR 137 @Martial D y’all too

 

[Azulx]

Very mature

I'm not going to sue you but if someone gets injured and you haven't done the proper safeguarding procedures then they certainly will

Wow you're showing some serious immaturity right now pal

You know HH, you're right. My apologies, I got a little annoyed. You're here taking the time to watch my video and taking the time to write your opinion. I appreciate that, even though I may disagree. Thank you.

 

[Martial D]

Hmm what did I see.

Her distance control and timing vs the yellow belt was good, but he seemed timid. It was less so vs your aggressive tactics. Keep pressuring her in sparring like that to improve her counter game.

I'm no tkd guy, so I don't know what the theory is behind keeping your hands down( especially the rear hand), but if head punching is allowed you might want to get them up. Vs a good puncher an always on line undefended head is pretty much a BOB.

Other than that good stuff. At least you are sparring.

 

[Headhunter]

You know HH, you're right. My apologies, I got a little annoyed. You're here taking the time to watch my video and taking the time to write your opinion. I appreciate that, even though I may disagree. Thank you.

I've got nothing against you buddy. I'm just stating my opinion based on my experiences. Maybe I'm wrong I ain't got all the answers but I'll always say what I think that's how I do things. No point hiding opinions. I'm not telling you how to run your place just stating opinions no offence intended in anything I say but that's my opinion you can take it on if you want or you can ignore it either way makes no difference to me my life will carry on just the same either way. Peace

 

[CB Jones]

I don’t see the problem with no foot pads...if you compete in the Ozawa Cup you don’t even wear footpads.

 

[Azulx]

I've got nothing against you buddy. I'm just stating my opinion based on my experiences. Maybe I'm wrong I ain't got all the answers but I'll always say what I think that's how I do things. No point hiding opinions. I'm not telling you how to run your place just stating opinions no offence intended in anything I say but that's my opinion you can take it on if you want or you can ignore it either way makes no difference to me my life will carry on just the same either way. Peace

No problem brother, I kind of had a moment where I was like man this guy remind me of myself lol. He must be a cool. Anyway outside of the lack of sparring gear I would love any feedback you may have positive or negative on the actual sparring.

 

[Azulx]

I don’t see the problem with no foot pads...if you compete in the Ozawa Cup you don’t even wear footpads.

JKA tournaments are gloves only as well. It's something that takes getting used too.

 

[wab25]

I was not called out specifically for feed back... but if I may...

All three of you guys really telegraph what your next attack is going to be. If you have your hands in guard, you will not be kicking... only punching. Then when you want to kick, the hands either drop or go to a balance position... kind of like saying "here comes a kick, get ready." Further, as the hands drop, the shoulders start to twist before your leg moves, giving away which leg and what direction the kick is coming. When you have to advance to attack, if the hands stay in guard, its going to be a punch. If the hands either go up or straight drop, its a kick coming with the shoulders telling which side. When combos were thrown, you know the punching part of the combo is done when the hands drop. This was common to all 3 people.

I would work on keeping your hands in guard always. Don't announce your technique before you advance. Looking at the patterns I saw, ending your combo with punches instead of kicks every once in a while, will catch the other guy completely by surprise.

 

[Azulx]

I was not called out specifically for feed back... but if I may...

All three of you guys really telegraph what your next attack is going to be. If you have your hands in guard, you will not be kicking... only punching. Then when you want to kick, the hands either drop or go to a balance position... kind of like saying "here comes a kick, get ready." Further, as the hands drop, the shoulders start to twist before your leg moves, giving away which leg and what direction the kick is coming. When you have to advance to attack, if the hands stay in guard, its going to be a punch. If the hands either go up or straight drop, its a kick coming with the shoulders telling which side. When combos were thrown, you know the punching part of the combo is done when the hands drop. This was common to all 3 people.

I would work on keeping your hands in guard always. Don't announce your technique before you advance. Looking at the patterns I saw, ending your combo with punches instead of kicks every once in a while, will catch the other guy completely by surprise.

\

Sweet thanks for your feedback! Those are just members who regularly comment on my posts. I love hearing from everyone!

 

[pdg]

I'm no tkd guy, so I don't know what the theory is behind keeping your hands down( especially the rear hand), but if head punching is allowed you might want to get them up. Vs a good puncher an always on line undefended head is pretty much a BOB.

My guard depends who I'm against...

I default to rear hand up, front hand down because I'm more "TKD" - while head punches are allowed (for us) they're less common, but the kicks are fast. Maintaining a high guard means you get kicked, a lot. That's the guard I use against another TKDer.

For kickboxing, it's normally a high guard - punches are more common and generally faster (and kicks tend to be a bit slower) so a low guard doesn't work as well against a kickboxer - you can still make it work, but you have to be quick and certainly not in line all the time.


Then there are the few of us who train both, who will take advantage of any gap left by a high or low guard - so sometimes I end up with a neither/nor middling guard...

 

[Gerry Seymour]

What is the protective gear for?
To protect the other person. Not the one wearing it. Other than head gear which protects both, one from cuts the other to prevent injuries to the hand.

With relatively light sparring, I don't see much benefit to me in someone else wearing foot gear (except if it makes them slip). They'll want it, for sure, when I block a kick, but unless they're kicking moderately hard, I'm not likely to care. I've always considered foot/shin gear mostly for the wearer, and hand gear mostly for their opponent.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

@gpseymour @JR 137 @Martial D y’all too

I'm on it. I only watched the first half-ish of the video - my connection is really slow tonight - but I'd expect most of this to continue, so I'll share what I saw.

Good stuff. I like the movement from you and the female student (can't tell what color her belt is). You both use space and change angles. The other guy (yellow belt?) wasn't moving so well, but I assume that's a fairly low rank, so he has time. He's not very aggressive, and paired with his limited footwork, it leaves him doing a lot of backing up. I'd work on getting him to change angles and move forward more. It's easier to build around forward movement bias than to correct backing away bias.

I like her tendency to pressure. She sometimes backs off when she really has the pressure on, but that's probably just her not wanting to overwhelm her partner. She reaches a bit too much with some of her kicks against him, but they tend to score, so (for point competition) that might be a reasonable move.

Your distancing on her seemed a bit off at the beginning - you threw some punches that couldn't reach her. If that was on purpose to test her reaction, no worries. If not, you might want to work on finding distance more quickly - it shouldn't take your first exchange to get that. She follows suit later in the session, but by then I think both of you were more focused on setting up kicks and keeping away from each others' hands. I feel like you might both be missing a chance to close distance and get hands on targets. (I'm less of a kicker than you are, so it might not matter as much for you.)

At one point, you fire off a jab while you're moving away from a strike. This leaves your back very straight and vertical, leaving you exposed if she threw some sort of straight kick, putting you back on your heels. And your guard (other hand) isn't covering in case the strike is followed up. This was shortly before you called a pause, so I'm not sure if there was some other reason for what happened.

 

[Danny T]

With relatively light sparring, I don't see much benefit to me in someone else wearing foot gear (except if it makes them slip). They'll want it, for sure, when I block a kick, but unless they're kicking moderately hard, I'm not likely to care. I've always considered foot/shin gear mostly for the wearer, and hand gear mostly for their opponent.

Take note of most all trainers who are working fighters. The trainer wears the protective gear. We wear shin guards to protect the fighter not our shins. If the fighter gets cut or damaged training time is reduced or stopped. Foot pads to to prevent the other person from getting cut or poked in the eyes. Toes and nail cause damage to the fighters face and eyes. It's about protecting the fighter or the training partner.

 

[Danny T]

Let me state that I'm not a TKD fighter or trainer so take my remarks with a grain of salt. There a few things already presented. Other than those I find there is a lot of blocking or parrying of attacks that would not make contact or if making contact it would not have cause any damage. I am of the opinion that creates a lot chasing of the attacks that would be better served counter attacking. Numerous attacks are being countered by creating distance and that again prevents an immediate counter attack.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Did some sparring at the end of class today. Hope you enjoy.

First I would like to say it's good to see you grow as a practitioner. There will always be room for improvement, but man you have come a long way from being student and becoming an instructor. You have some good students as well.

There were things that I saw that need improvement, but it wasn't anything that I think needs to be pointed out at this time. Based on what I see so far from you and your (female) student, it looks as if you two are ready for applications training. By applications training I mean that you really try to understand the techniques within your system and how to effectively apply your techniques. The only requirement is to have an open mind because you'll need it.

There are things that are taught to us, but that can only take us so far. Then there are things we must learn to understand and that's when our growth as a martial artist will really increase.

With that said lets take a look at your low block that you often try to use against the kicks you are dealing with. I'm familiar with this technique and it's use is the same across different fighting systems. The technique that I'm referring to is the one at 0:10 - 0:11 Shown below

This technique works better against front kicks targeting your mid section (just one of the applications). Think of it as more of a Parry or redirect that is used to counter front kicks. To drill it, have someone do a front kick to your stomach. Similar to this:

Or to your front kick that you use at 2:03 This is the kick will help you gain more understanding for the technique.. Make sure the kick can actually reach your torso. This is important because it won't work any other way. Now onto training and how it works.

Take the following positions. Remember your stance will be a side stance with your left leg forward (in your from, you start from a side stance before doing this technique. In fighting you start from a side stance as well) the side stance invites the front kick.
You can see in the link above how the side stance presents a good target. A neutral stance may work, but for me personally I'm not that good for it because it creates a tight squeeze and I'm not willing to risk that.

So now you are standing in your side stance. Have your sparring partner rest their foot against your stomach after performing the front kick. (Your sparring partner will need to perform the front kick using the rear foot.) While your sparring partner is holding the kick step to the left as you did in the form. At this point you should be able to see that you have moved offed off center from the kick and that the kick isn't actually touching you. This is the footwork of your technique.

Now do the same thing and perform the low block / parry. You want your block/ parry to land on the inside of the kicking leg. There are nerves on the inside of the leg that you will most likely hit and cause pain to your sparring partner. The technique makes it more likely that you'll hit those nerves so don't try to aim for the nerves.

The key to this technique is that the footwork and the parry must be done at the same time. In your form you are doing a 1 and then 2. In application you have to do them at the same time because you only have a small window of time to land the technique. A 1 and then 2 step flow will use time that you don't have. Many of us talk about the importance of total body movement being in sync with the strike. This time it's the block / parry. After the parry, finish with the reverse punch from your form. The movement in the front kick caused by the parry will give you enough time to land your punch while avoiding your sparring partner's attempt to counter.

Hopefully this makes sense. I don't have a time to make a video yet.

The problem that you are having is that you are using the technique against the wrong kick. The way you are using it now puts you in danger for having a kick to loop over your block and kick you in the head, which almost happened in the video.

This is a universal use of this technique which is why you see it in different fighting systems. The front kick is one of the best kicks you can have but unfortunately people underestimates it and as a result, few people use it. Because few people use the front kick in sparring, the application for this technique becomes lost.

Hopefully this will help you in your growth. Keep up the good work.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Did some sparring at the end of class today. Hope you enjoy.

This is a variation to the technique in your system. Hopefully one of these will help you visual better what I was explaining.

similar concept, but this is a scooping technique, the one in your system isn't a scooping one. It's a striking one. Meant to punish the leg while parrying.

Another scooping. The difference is that one parry is closed hand which is safer for your fingers. If you are too early with an open hand parry to a front kick, then you risk having your fingers broken. Also you'll see how he talks about how small that window is to follow up after the parry. I don't like his version. I like the one in your form because, If you strike that nerve that runs in the leg, then your opponent will be less likely to try that type of attack again. You will experience the pain when you drill it in class. It doesn't take long after the first nerve strike to see students actually decide not to drill that technique anymore.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Take note of most all trainers who are working fighters. The trainer wears the protective gear. We wear shin guards to protect the fighter not our shins. If the fighter gets cut or damaged training time is reduced or stopped. Foot pads to to prevent the other person from getting cut or poked in the eyes. Toes and nail cause damage to the fighters face and eyes. It's about protecting the fighter or the training partner.

Okay, I can see that. A couple of differences for my situation. Most people I train with don't kick to the head much - I probably do that more than any of my students or training partners, and anyone doing TKD likely kicks to the head more than I. That removes all the really significant worries about toes and nails to the face. And since none of us are training with folks preparing for a competitive event, that removes the one-sided concern.

So, I'll amend that. For sparring purposes (excepting fighter prep for a competition), there's not much advantage to the training partner unless there's significant kicking to the head. For me, I see the over-foot protection as protection for the toes, rather than from them. I see shin pads as I did in soccer: protection for the shins. Mind you, I have less sparring experience than many here. We didn't do much of it in my primary training, and it's something I've put much more emphasis on than any of my instructors did. So, maybe I just haven't been exposed to the injuries that naturally occur.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Let me state that I'm not a TKD fighter or trainer so take my remarks with a grain of salt. There a few things already presented. Other than those I find there is a lot of blocking or parrying of attacks that would not make contact or if making contact it would not have cause any damage. I am of the opinion that creates a lot chasing of the attacks that would be better served counter attacking. Numerous attacks are being countered by creating distance and that again prevents an immediate counter attack.

I didn't think to mention the reaction to those attacks - I tend to focus more on the attack. But that's a great point. Reading attacks and learning which ones have no hope of connecting is a great way to get an advantage. Conversely, if you find your opponent reacting to those attacks, they can make useful feints.

 

[hoshin1600]

ill be the odd duck on this....
unless im going hard contact i dont like sparring gear.
i dont like them sam i am.
i dont like them on my feet
i dont like them on my seat.
i just dont like them sam i am.

i am probably wrong but almost all of my training was done without sparring gear. no one ever got hurt. sure people would take an elbow to the top of the foot...suck it up buttercup.
through all these years, the 2 major injuries i sustained were both from grappling not from striking.

on the flip side for liability reasons sure make your students wear all the gear. but for myself im not interested in wearing anything but some hand protection. i think people go over board on the "boy in the bubble" martial arts.

but dont mind me...its just my CTE acting up.