Truthfully,

[Wey]

I'm curious as to how many of you train your hands, and how many of you actually use your hands when you spar, besides blocking.

 

[ATC]

I'm curious as to how many of you train your hands, and how many of you actually use your hands when you spar, besides blocking.

Just worked on hands in class yesterday.

It all depends on what we are doing. If doing WTF sparring then the only thing we work on is what we call a cover punch.

If doing a regular adult class then we work hands almost like boxing. Then we will spar with such as well. Only we will do almost a feather touch as it is really easy to punch to face or head and hard contact would almost always lead to a bloody nose or lip to someone.

 

[Marginal]

We do some in class. Hands are always used in sparring, but working punching drills etc doesn't really get a high priority.

On my own, I work on my heavy bag, and my reflex bag. I always end up way less effective if I slack off. Hands definitely help set up some kicks that otherwise would be fairly easy to avoid etc.

 

[IcemanSK]

I always work my hands when I spar. I teach my students to do the same. I boxed for many years. My hands are very much a part of my TaeKwondo.

 

[dortiz]

Condition my hands and arms and yes train them on makiwara, bag and partners : )

 

[Archtkd]

I am old school and like Iceman I once boxed. I teach all my students how to punch whether they are doing self defense or sparring. Even in WTF sparring, hogu practice or paddle work -- which I try to have in most of my classes, students learn how to move, cut an opponent's rhythm and slow their momentum with heavy duty and correctly timed punches. Well delivered punches might not score points in a WTF tournament, but I know they can do serious damage to an opponent's ribs, wear them down and create openings for kicks.

Some of us will correctly argue about the distance and power issue – that the leg has a much longer reach and strength than the hand -- but there is a sweet spot for short range hand work even in WTF sparring.

As for blocking -- I teach all my students to make solid blocks -- not parries -- to head and body. These are tight blocks, which should be timed and aimed at damaging carelessly thrown legs and hands.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

My instructor (7th dan) has said many times "no matter how good you are with your legs , if you cant throw punches you're screwed". This shows in his training , sometimes during sparring he will say that for the next round or two no kicks are allowed and it has to be all punches. We do a lot of punching drills and punching is heavily encouraged in our sparring. In my own time I do some boxing drills on a punch bag and enjoy working on my hand speed etc. I do , however , prefer kicking and this is why I love tkd so much.

 

[Earl Weiss]

In the Chang Hon System their are approximately 2000 hand / arm techniques and 1200 Leg/foot techniques. The sparring closely resembles kickboxing.

IMNSHO not training (REGULARLY) to attack with the hands and defend against hand techniques (ESPECIALY TO TH HEAD) is a big problem.

 

[dancingalone]

I'm curious as to how many of you train your hands, and how many of you actually use your hands when you spar, besides blocking.

As mentioned by the numerous posters above, many TKD schools give handwork the proper amount of attention. It's not just about punching or striking in sparring either - there are also grabbing, entangling, pushing as other ways of diverting and controlling your opponent prior to an ending strike or take down. These methods should also be part of training in static drills and then in live sparring.

 

[Manny]

In the dojang I go (WTF) we only do some pushups but never do hand conditioning, doing sparring we use the arms most for bloquing and very few for punching maybe and just maybe one punch (reverse punch) for every 10 kicks.

Manny

 

[granfire]

We do some bag work, depending on the instructors mood 2 or 3 minute rounds, like you meant it, jabs, hooks upper cuts, even the spinning back fist goes (I love that technique ) sometimes with kicks thrown in (which is hard actually)

And no sissy jabs either, make the bag pop, and no less than 3 or 4 punches at a time, the more the better: Combinations rule!

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

In the dojang I go (WTF) we only do some pushups but never do hand conditioning, doing sparring we use the arms most for bloquing and very few for punching maybe and just maybe one punch (reverse punch) for every 10 kicks.

Manny

What he said regarding our taekwondo program. Hapkido is a different story.

Daniel

 

[midnight star]

We always use hands (and feet) in the dojang. But then i train ITF style!
After all, isn't TKD the hand and foot art?! Not just foot art! =)
We use hands in every training session whether doing bag work or drills.For offence and defence.

 

[terryl965]

Hands are and will continue to be done at my school, even in Olympic sparring we use the hands to deliver some pretty hard shots to make our opponet think twice before just coming after us. The cover punch is a great example, but also kidney shots while you are clinching is a good weapon.

 

[Archtkd]

Condition my hands and arms and yes train them on makiwara, bag and partners : )

Wow, makiwara? That's cool.

 

[Kingtkd]

did hands on monday.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

I think more time has to be spent on kicking because , from what Ive seen, kicking is harder to learn. When someone walks in off the street and has never done any martial arts they can still usually throw most basic punches but try teaching them crescent kicks , spinning kicks , axe kicks , hook kicks roundhouse kicks etc etc and they usually tie themselves in knots and end up tripping over their own feet. Many students are 18 months in (minimum) before they can really start to throw some fluent kicks with good power and technique , and that is before they even start learning some advanced kicking combinations etc. All in all , I believe the art of kicking takes a lot of time and effort to master and that is why so much time is generally spent on it in my opinion.

 

[Msby]

At my school we are taught drills with the bags and mitts. I was also taught to set up and distract with the hands and kick when the opportunity opens up. Of couse if you have the chance to nail your opponent in the head... by all means dollyo chagi him! :ultracool So when we spar resembles kick boxing more. Sometimes we just spar with no kicks to get practice in.

Once, my master decided to have another student and I go to a tournament with olympic rules... (my first tournament too) that was REALLY awkward for us! I also noticed that my friend and I looked different in the ring. In our stances we were ready to exchange punches. Which basically means that moving in for a jab at the chest put us in a pretty good position for the other guy to throw out a flurry of kicks at us. I also had to fight the urge to punch at the unprotected head the whole time . I lost my match that day (I'm not going to try to use the excuse of me feeling weird, my opponent was GOOD and much faster than me, and when I got a head kick in, he responed with one of his own even before I got my foot down :uhyeah but I was actually glad that I didn't lose my reflex to use my hands and just kick.

Okay now I'm rambling... but I just want to say that I want to find a good balance for myself of hand strikes and fast kicking combinations.

EDIT: after rereading my post, I just want to make it clear that I hold no ill feelings against Olympic style TKD. It's just not my thing and the way I train doesn't really suit it. After going to that tournament, I tell anyone who tells Olympic TKD kicks are weak to let a practitioner kick them in the chest!

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I think more time has to be spent on kicking because , from what Ive seen, kicking is harder to learn. When someone walks in off the street and has never done any martial arts they can still usually throw most basic punches but try teaching them crescent kicks , spinning kicks , axe kicks , hook kicks roundhouse kicks etc etc and they usually tie themselves in knots and end up tripping over their own feet. Many students are 18 months in (minimum) before they can really start to throw some fluent kicks with good power and technique , and that is before they even start learning some advanced kicking combinations etc. All in all , I believe the art of kicking takes a lot of time and effort to master and that is why so much time is generally spent on it in my opinion.

I recently said virtually your entire post verbatim to a student who was complaining about how much we work on kicking in taekwondo.

Daniel

 

[Archtkd]

I think more time has to be spent on kicking because , from what Ive seen, kicking is harder to learn. When someone walks in off the street and has never done any martial arts they can still usually throw most basic punches but try teaching them crescent kicks , spinning kicks , axe kicks , hook kicks roundhouse kicks etc etc and they usually tie themselves in knots and end up tripping over their own feet.

Sir: I beg to differ. Almost equal time for punches, blocks and and kicks is called for. Many people walking off the street -- and some Taekwondo dojangs -- think or look like they know how to throw basic punches, but they don't.

It takes time to learn how to land fast accurate punches, in motion, and at a moving targets. We had a young 1st dan from another school visit our dojang last week, and he had serious problems hitting a moving paddle with straight punches. This happened in a simple drill where I force students to block a paddle swung to the head or belly, and ask them to immediately follow that up with a forward slide, straight reverse punch and a round house kick. The punches and kicks are aimed at another paddle which I hold at rib-cage level, while I am rapidly moving backwards.