Using a thai pad to test structure and stance.

[mook jong man]

The hardest thing I find about teaching deflections to students are (A) To maintain the correct angles in the arms.

And (B) To time the deflection so that it is moving on contact with the blow so as to spread the force over the greater surface area of the forearm rather than absorbing the impact on one spot.

They will either straighten their arms in order to reach for the incoming attack , or just can't seem to grasp the concept of having their limb moving just before contact with the attacking limb .

These days I teach the deflections in two parts , first I will have them hold their arm in a static position of the particular deflection I am teaching , and let them experience the impact on their arm , in essence they are just hard blocking.

I am not concerned with that , what I am concerned with is their ability to keep the angle of their arm from collapsing under heavy impact.
Not a rigid structure but a springy resilient structure that comes from being relaxed.

I used to test this by putting on several layers of armpads and swinging at them very very hard , it didn't do much to my conditioned arms but it would hurt theirs , so typically you would end up dropping the power so as not to hurt their arms and lose the point of the exercise to see whether their angles would stand up to hard impact.

But what I do now is to put a thai pad on my arm , and I must say it works great.
I wind up and swing the thai pad at them with full power with no danger of injuring my arms or theirs.
The weight of the thai pad adds a great deal of force and impetus to the strike and the student can experience trying to maintain structure against a great deal of heavy force.

We typically test this against the Seung Bong (double Bong Sau - forearms parallel at 45 degree angle after pivot) but it can be used for all techniques that counter circular type attacks.

The first few times the students angles will collapse as they get used to this heavy force , and they will be rocked back out of their stance from the force of the blow.
But after telling them to relax the shoulders and the thighs and sink their weight they start to be able to absorb the impact down into their stance .

When the angles and the stance are holding up under this pressure only then will I have them start moving their arms to deflect the incoming blow and spread the force over the forearm.

 

[zepedawingchun]

Mook jong man, I pretty much do the same thing with my students, only using focus gloves instead. They aren't as heavy and cumbersome for the feeder. Great post.

 

[mook jong man]

Mook jong man, I pretty much do the same thing with my students, only using focus gloves instead. They aren't as heavy and cumbersome for the feeder. Great post.

Yeah I tried it with focus mitts but the impact hurts my elbow joints they are ok for fast and light reflex stuff though.

But for this where I am specifically testing angles for one particular deflection and the stance , the weight of the thai pad and the impact force it can generate does all the work and I don't aggravate my elbow joints.

Just ramp up the power gradually so they get used to it , don't go hard straight away , their angles are likely to collapse and you'll take their head off lol.
But instinctively they do start to adapt and sink down to absorb the force where as for the first couple of times they might be getting knocked back 2 foot out of their stance.

 

[zepedawingchun]

I'll have to try it with thai pads. Thanks.