Sparing: Float lke a brick.....??

[TheOriginalName]

Well i'm glad to report that last week at training something finally clicked...

We were doing some point sparring work - we normally don't focus on this but there was a tournament on the upcoming weekend - and whilst we were doing a particular drill something just clicked in my brain and i found myself feeling really light on my feet.

I'm under no illusions, i've still plenty of work to do but it was just nice to feel like i was making some progress.

Thanks for all the tips - they have been useful

 

[Auvic]

Be careful of open hands though because it takes time and practice to develop enough strnegth in your open handed strikes and blocks to keep from getting you fingers broken. I saw a BB have that happen to him in a tournement because he didn't have enough energy in his hand and caught a kick and bent his fingers almost to the backof his hand. It dies work but be careful.

Note about this:

Keeping your hands open to spar with works just fine...if you remember that it's much easier to break an open hand than a fist, like White said.
But the other thing to remember is that if you're going to be using an open palm, try and gauge the force of the kick before you move your hand into position:
How hard is it?
Can I block it?
Would it be better to block/deflect/redirect/catch it?

If you keep those things in mind, it takes quite a bit of the danger out of using open hands to spar.