At my Kung-Fu school, every Monday is Sparring day. Classes starts at 7PM but I usually get there by 5:30PM to start warming up and stretching. When I started to take sparring seriously (around the time i was 13), I never needed to warm-up or stretch. All I would do is put my gear on and jump right into it. Now at 25, I've realized like many others have, just how important it is to have a good warm-up and stretch before a sparring session. Not just to prevent injuries such as a cramps or tear in the muscle tissues, but also to increase my performance. After my normal warm-up routine, I can feel such a major difference. I can now kick higher, punch faster, and flow my combinations better. I don't know if it's an age thing or just something that's always been there and didn't know it.
Sparring yesterday went extremely well, also one of my Sidais just passed his 1st level and was now allowed to spar. It was his first ever sparring session in life and it sure seemed like he was having a blast :) That being said I noticed a few things about all of my Sidais when they are sparring. I took them aside and explained it to them quickly, but now that I had more time to think about it, I figured here is the perfect opportunity to be more detailed about what I told them the other night.
You shouldn't concern yourself too much about winning, beating, dominating your sparring partner or focus too much on landing every hit. While you keep using the same techniques you are good with, you leave the rest of your skills raw. This sparring time is the perfect moment for you to go above your comfort level and try new things, refine some techniques. Experiment new combinations, work on your flaws (Perhaps speed and/or accuracy not so much power as you do not want to injure your partner), and fine tune the moves that needs refining. THAT is progression and with different sparring partners you will be able to figure out what works and what doesn't. My Sidais seems to be missing that concept and usually ends up brawling and injuring each other.
The next point I want to bring up is that you have to remember that you are sparring, so getting hit is going to happen. Don't try and block every strike bring thrown at you, learn to dodge some. It's okay to get hit once in awhile, you can't expect never to get hit in a sparring match but make sure if you do take a few hits make yours count more then theirs (obviously for training purposes, watch your power as it is very easy to get caught up in the moment).
Another things that I've mentioned before I end this blog: Learn to read your opponents movements. Each individual fighter have "Instinctual" actions and reactions. For example a consistent parry to a jab, or a twitch in response to your front kick. I guess you can call it "flinching" if you want. Learn to exploit them. Same for movements, each individual fighter kick and punch uniquely to the way they are most comfortable with such as opening your foot, distributing your body weight forward, then lean backwards as they are lifting their knee, before throwing their foot forward with their heel out first. Learn to spot these cues. I've always told my Lei Tai, Sanshou and Advance Sparring Training class that if you react to your opponents movements, you are half a second behind them. But predict their movements and you are half a second in front of them. Half a second is all you really need to take control of any sparring situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment