Pattern practice (repost)

This is a repost of an article that I wrote a few years ago. With many Dojang closed and people finding training difficult I thought it was worth making these points again.

Most schools practice the patterns in the same way. That is putting focus and power into each individual movement. This is an excellent practice in many ways, it builds control of the body, builds technical proficiency, and power. However, the way that we practice patterns also hides a lot of the applications, movements that should flow together or movements that are throws, locks or redirects/parries are obscured by the ‘tick- tock’ way that we move during our practice.  

Of course all of the applications can be practiced with a partner once we have found the meaning for the movements, but then that causes a disconnect between pattern practice and application. i.e. the way we move in each are unrelated. I think it is this disconnect why a lot of people see patterns as just an exercise for creating power rather than a practice of fighting techniques, and even look to other styles for self-defence techniques.

Pattern practice doesn’t have to be like that. If you move away from the competition or grading requirements and practice them as at real training tool and more importantly personalise your pattern practice

Firstly, we should all have a good knowledge of the pattern, the usual way of practicing gives us great muscle memory, power and balance, once you have got to the point that you can practice those patterns almost automatically, by that I mean without thinking about the next movement, you can start making the practice more challenging by increasing the tempo. At this point it is important that you take all the knowledge gained from learning the patterns and apply it at a higher speed. This involves finishing each movement; keeping the same concentration of power, and keeping you balance as well as still being technical in stances and target areas. This shouldn’t be used as an excuse just to blast through the patterns without thinking.

Through this practice you will hopefully notice that some parts of the patterns flow together easier than others. Also moving fast will give you a better idea of how the movements look like when used. We then should try to move them forward one more step to expressive practice.

During this practice the only thing we are thinking about is the application of the forms. The practitioner can ‘play’ with the tempo of the movements. Practicing the pattern in short bursts of speed according to the application that, that individual prefers. For example in the pattern Won Hyo, the practitioner may do the first three movements as a quick blast, then the next three,  the bending ready stance and side kick could be done individually followed by the knife hand guarding blocks all being one ‘group’

Through this practice the student is gaining an understanding of which movements flow in to each other and which are isolated or beginning of a new group. It doesn’t matter if your interpretation is the same as other students’ but for many forms there is a more logical way of dividing them up.

Following this it is up to the student to go and take that information and practice applying it for this a practice partner is needed, however, by the time we get to the partner stage we should be more used to moving faster and in a more natural way with in the form of the patterns so the application of the pattern should be getting clearer.

There are of course many other ways that patterns could be practiced. If we break away from the competition/ grading idea of trying to do them in a set way without considering what the movements are for. Also this helps us get away from dealing with the movements like each of them are meant to be applied in an isolated fashion. Patterns can also be done slow with maximum concentration and intensity or in a very loose way to practice developing power from your body rather than your arms.

These are just a few ideas. Have fun playing with you patterns

Forms are not martial arts

 

In this article, I will be using the general term ‘forms’ to refer to the solo practice of martial arts since I feel that these views apply to all martial arts not just Taekwondo.

 

For those of you who have read other articles on this blog, the title of this article may surprise you. After all, a good deal of the articles I have written are concerned with how to apply the movements from the Taekwondo patterns to self-defence situations. However, I feel that the true practice and meaning of forms in the martial arts has been lost somewhere along the way.

 

When I was younger, I asked the question “how many forms do I need to know to be considered good?” Well, of course, the answer is ‘none’. Many effective styles have little or no form practice within their system. In fact, even the systems with a form based syllabus have changed over the years. Traditionally, students were not required to know the number of forms that schools would have on their curriculum these days. Normally they would specialise in a small handful of forms and work on the techniques contained within them. Knowing a complete system was only for the teachers and masters of a particular style.

 

The practice of learning one form, pattern, or kata per belt level is relatively new. Possibly a product of when traditional martial arts became less about fighting and self-defence and more about tradition and culture.  It no longer mattered if a student really understood the movements within the forms of their style, students just had to be able to perform them in solo practice to a certain standard, usually competition based. Adhering everyone to the competition standard brings its own positives and negatives that is for another article.

 

With this focus on forms, came styles and teachers that specialised forms. The teacher would push the idea that forms make martial artists, that martial artists of old created a  countless number of forms, and of course the existence and importance of ‘secret forms’. In my training, I have come across styles with huge curricula that involve as many as 64 forms with some supplementary forms on top of that! I know of one famous teacher of Chinese styles from America who makes an annual trip to Beijing to learn more forms from his teacher so that he has more material for his students. Within taekwondo, I know of one group whose curriculum contains all of the KKW poomse, the ITF patterns, and some weapons forms. 

 

There are a lot more examples like this and of course, for the most part, after a certain point knowing yet another form becomes pointless for the students and it becomes clear that the teachers don’t have anything else to teach. Here I feel it is less about training students and more about entertaining them. Giving them something new and shiny to practice instead of working to improve what they already know, lest students become bored and leave.

 

The over emphasis on forms has also increased the popularity of sport forms. All tradition or martial effectiveness is forgotten in favour of flashy movements, intense facial expressions, and pointless screaming.

 

So should we abandon solo forms practice? Certainly not, but like all other arts of the martial arts we should approach it with a practical mindset. Not just from a self-defence point of view but from a martial art point of view as well. All traditional forms, no matter what style, should be studied deeply, including body movement, power generation, accurate stances, and of course application of the movements. They should not be used to pad a curriculum and keep students entertained.

Yul Gok

It is has been a while since I took a look at a pattern in full so this month I will be breaking down some of the movement in Yuk Gok. Quite a long post this month due to the number of things covered in the pattern.

 

Similar to Do San, Yul Gok seems to be largely overlooked by TKD practitioners. The main reason for this seems to be the number of ‘soft’ movements contained within the pattern. However, within Yul Gok there are a lot of very interesting movements that are worth deeper study. Studying this pattern in depth also makes us ask some very important questions about pattern practice and pattern application.

Sitting stance punch
The opening movement of the pattern brings up one of the issues of pattern practice. This would be pattern movements changing over time. When I learnt Yul Gok, many years ago I was taught that the foot moves out in a slight arc rather than straight out to the side into a sitting stance.
An example of this can be seen in this instructional video with GM Donato Nardizzi

In other recent videos and speaking to current practitioners It seems that this arc movement has been removed. Such a small detail may not make much of a difference in the competitive arena, especially if everyone is using the updated movement. However, it makes a large different to the application.

If you move the foot out in an arc, I see this movement being applied as a reap. Shifting your left foot (in the case of the first movement) behind the leg of the attacker while grabbing and twisting their shoulders with the slow motion punch movement of the hands. This movement may not be enough to take down the opponent but will hopefully be enough to take their balance. The following double punch is there to continue the counter attack.

Inner forearm block, front kick double punch.

The next movement, although labelled as a block, I like to apply as a collar or clothing grab. Again we see the raised crossed hands preparation, similar to Do San we can see this as a natural defence to an attack. We then work to secure the opponents attacking hand but instead of going for a hair grab, as in Do San, we try to grab the shirt of the attacker. When we have hold of these points we are in a better position to control our opponent and counter. This goes in to the 3 C’s of tactical taekwondo. Our counter in this point is a kick to the groin and a double punch.

Palm hooking Block

Again, this movement brings up a couple of questions. It is seen in mainstream application as grabbing someone’s wrist from a punch. There is a very good reason why it is seen like this. However, if we look at other applications, when we are always grabbing the arms and wrist of the opponent, then why do we need a movement specially for this? Grabbing, holding and hitting is a basic skill of the self defence side of TKD one that is present in many possible applications and never done in the large movements that are presented here.

In my take on this pattern, this is actually an anti-grappling technique. If some one grabs you by the arm or wrist the twisting movement here will help release your opponent’s grip and reverse the situation and grip them. The crossed hands position here is to assist the release and grab with your other hand. This in turn clears the way a punch as seen in the pattern sequence

Bending ready stance

This is by far one of my favourite applications in the pattern and maybe in all patterns. I think the issue here is the name, ‘ready stance’. It gives the impression that is it a stance you adopt in preparation for something. I even heard one 3rd degree putting forward the idea that it is a stance used for intimidation. Clearly it is not an intimidating stance at all, in fact it is a stance that would invite attack from any possible opponent.

In my opinion bending ready stance comes under taekwondo grappling. The hands in in the forearm guarding block position, which I had written about before as being a stand up grappling position. With this we add the leg position and to me it looks like your front leg is attacking the knee of your opponent’s front leg (left on left as in the pattern). The following side kick can be applied low and attack the rear leg of the opponent. These are down in order to unbalance the opponent. You then locate their heads with your forward hand and execute an elbow strike. This is easily on target as all you are doing is aiming for your own palm.

Twin knife hand block

This again falls into the grappling side of taekwondo. I apply this when the opponent has hold of you in the traditional grappling grip, back of the neck/collar and triceps/upper arm. The movement is to separate the arms of the opponent and create space. This allows you to perform the next movement as a unbalance/take down

The Jump
Jumping in the patterns remains one of those topics that people argue about. In the mainstream, it is seem as jumping over something to attack. In self defence, if there is an object in the path of a would-be attacker, you would generally want to keep it there. Not try to remove the obstacle yourself.

Others say that jumps are just for performance basis. In some cases I can see where they are coming from.
In the case of Yul Gok, right now I would say that the movement it there to make the movement (back fist or clothesline) more powerful. I realise that for some of you this will seem a woefully inadequate explanation, but it is where I am in my study for the time being.

Double forearm block

I have written about the double forearm block before, but mainly in the patterns that come after Yul Gok. In this pattern I actually think there is no real application here.
I have a couple of reasons for this.
If it is a defensive movement, whether the mainstream block or the application I promotion this blog, you need a movement after it. You cannot just block and expect that the attacker will give up. In the pattern that is exactly what happens, we block left and right and finish.

The other reason I think that there is no real application to this movement and it is more for performance or a philosophy, is that ending patterns with a left right movement is very common, and of these instances ending with a block left and right is also very common. If something is repeated so much through all pattern practice, then I would suggest there is maybe a reason other than self defence that is it there. The same goes for the crossed hand position, although there are some places where it can be applied, there are other instances where the crossed hands position can make an application more difficult.

So a rather long post this month, but I think the pattern Yul Gok is deserving of a lot more attention that many people give it. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it thought proving at least.

Thoughts on joint locks

As I mentioned in ‘the skill trap” article in many martial arts classes wrist and other small joint locks are very common. I believe this is mainly because of the following reasons:

– They are sometimes difficult to do so give the idea of skill
– They cause pain but not injury, so it gives the feeling of effectiveness
– They look cool
– They are a lot of locks and variations of locks so they can pad out a curriculum

As a purely academic martial arts pursuit joints locks are an interesting area of research. When dealing with self-defence, it is maybe something we should be aware of but maybe not something that should make up a large part of your practice or strategy.

According to Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate where many of the movements in ITF Taekwondo patterns come from:

“One must always keep in mind that since the essence of karate is found in seeking to ed the confrontation in with every single thrust or kick, and one should never be grasped or grapple with an opponent. One must be careful not to be defeated through concern with throwing an opponent or applying a joint punishment hold”

This is a sentiment that is echoed by many of today’s self defence experts.

I myself have hand many conversations with students and teachers of other styles about the effectiveness and use of joint locks. In my earlier years in the martial arts I was keen to learn as much I could about these methods, mainly for the reasons stated above. In my later years however, I have come to a different understanding as my training has developed.

There are a number of things to be taken into account when studying joint locks

They are not as easy as you think
Locks are great fun to practice with each other, when you are training with a compliant partner or with someone who believes in the system. You give each other a bit of pain, don’t go too far and generally have a good time. It is different when they person doesn’t want to be locked and s intent on punching you.

They are not finishers
I once had had a conversation with a person who was convinced that he could put someone in a lock and keep them there till the police arrived. There are a few things wrong with this.
You don’t know how long the police will take
Over time the attacker can sometimes fight out of a lock
The police may not arrive before the attacker’s friends or someone who thinks you are the attacker.
Locks (on their own) don’t facilitate escape
One thing about putting a joint lock on someone is that you have to be there to put it on. If your goal is to escape, then a joint lock actively stops you from being able to do that.

There is of course the option of going to the next stage of a joint lock, which is a break. However, it takes a certain mindset to follow through with a break.

Joint locks are a gift
Constantly searching to grasp your opponent limbs and wrap them up, you are going to miss a lot of opportunities to strike and escape. Of course, grasping and locking is part of martial arts as I stated before, but they are a support to the other skills in the martial arts.

Take the opportunity to grab and twist certain parts of your opponent’s body, but don’t just wait for those opportunities to arise. Work on other things till they become available to you

They are context driven
The above may sound like I am against joint locks, however I am actually still in favour of them in a big way. I am in favour of using them in the correct context and understanding their purpose, they are still in my pyramid of skills, but they take up a smaller amount are laid on the foundational striking and grappling skills.

They can be use to subdue an opponent in certain circumstances, especially one that you don’t want to, or can’t punch and kick. They can be used to open up striking areas or setting up other larger techniques. However, like most things, if you misunderstand their use they will not be as effective as you want them to be.

Overall, joint locks should be a part of what you do, there are after all some movements in the patterns which facilitate joint manipulations. They are fun and worthy of investigation. In my ext article I will be breaking down another one of the ITF patterns

The Problem with Drills

In the world of RBSD and Bunkai etc, the ‘drill’ has become increasing popular. Phrases like ‘pressure testing’ have become part of the every day conversation.

Largely people have taken a step sideways and replaced sparring with drilling. Whereas I can see the reasoning behind this there are a few problems with this approach.

What often happens in self defense classes now is a technique is taught and practiced, the technique is practiced harder against a stronger attack, the technique is then practiced in a bad situation which could be multiple opponents, attacked while exhausted, attacked in poor lighting and so on.

Generally at some point there is an argument about how the partner didn’t do what he or she was meant to. In most cases this involves not letting go of a hold or reacting to the defense in an unscripted way. It is then discussed that the attacker shouldn’t respond to the defense since in ‘the street’ the attacker wouldn’t know what was coming, or something like that (The problem with this, of course, is that attacker generally do react in someway when you try to defend yourself.)

So the drill continues with each partner having an unspoken agreement that the defense will be ultimately successful not matter how hard the initial attack is.

It can also happen that the ‘attacker’ is so bought into the defense that they themselves just won’t let the defense fail. To do so would be to bring into question their own training and even the art which they study. So again we have an internal governor of sorts that will give in to the defense once they feel that they partner has put in enough effort.

These things happen not matter how hard the pressure test is. Only is a small number of schools do they test to failure and then look at what the problems were and where they could be fixed.

Now, this sort of training is good and should be included in someone’s training. However, it falls short of actual sparring. In well planned and thought out sparring each person has a different mindset. They are not doing anything fixed but are using the techniques in a live situation. They learn how the techniques fit into non standard attacks. Students also learn what to do when the techniques fail, something very seldom covered in drills.

I have written about sparring and sparring drills in the past. These remain some of the most popular articles on this blog. I believe that no matter what system you are studying there should be an element of sparring in it. Patterns, pad work, drills, and sparring all have their place. To properly develop ourselves we need to understand the purpose and limitations of each.

The Double Punch

I haven’t posted anything in a while due to being busy. However I do have a few articles in the pipeline. This month I want to look at double punch, and its application

It would be easy to assume that double punch is very common technique in the Taekwondo syllabus. Certainly it is common in both line drills and sparring. However, when we look at the patterns, double punch is not very common at all. In fact up to black belt, I can only count 4 patterns that contain the technique.

My first question when starting to investigate the double punch was, why does it exist at all? Everywhere else through the patterns a single punch in deemed enough to hit an opponent. If it is enough, why have a double punch at all? If is not enough why doesn’t every technique end with a double punch? Also why stop at double punch, why not double knifehand?

There may be an argument that sometimes you need to hit an opponent more than once. This is true but we can’t really build patterns on ‘sometimes’. Trying to account for every possibility in a fight would make patterns unmanageably long and is something best practiced in well constructed sparring. Also the principle of ‘sometimes’ is not reflected in any of the other patterns.

As with other techniques, we have to look at the double punch in context.

Let’s start with Do San. In the pattern we have a wedging block, a front kick, and then the double punch.  I have written before about my own interpretation of this movement. However no matter what interpretation you practice, it is likely that the front kick will disrupt the opponents’ balance thus moving his head about. It would be difficult therefore to catch the head with a single punch as it bobs about. Watch any boxing or mma match and you’ll see this to be true.

If we consider this then we can say that the first movement isn’t a punch at all but a movement to relocate secure the head before punching. This is similar to principles that we can see all the way through the patterns. That of grabbing and hitting. Another application would be to grab the head and use the double punch motion to twist the neck.

As an aside this movement is taken almost directly from the karate kata ‘jion’ but instead on a double punch it is a punch, double punch. To me this strengthens the case that they are not all meant to be punches

If we look at Yul Gok, we can see a similar idea. In the opening movement of Yul Gok the foot slides out to form a sitting stance, when I learnt this pattern I was taught that the foot moves in a semi-circle, rather than moving directly sideways. To me this represents a reaping or unbalancing technique, the hands at this point aiding the unbalancing. Again this technique takes the opponent’s head far off the centerline and we need to relocate it in order to deliver the punch, equally we can also look at this as wrenching or twisting the neck.

Similar ideas can be taken from the opening of Hwa Rang, of unbalancing and the relocating the head.

When looking at alternative application, I think we have to be careful not to be over critical with the mainstream applications. Maybe you feel that the way the applications are presented are not all correct, but I don’t think we should assume they are all wrong either. In saying that, I do feel that double punch is one technique that appears simple but has some extra meaning behind it.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Thank you

My Journey – part two

This is a continuation of the previous article detailing my journey through the martial arts, if you would like to read part one you can find it here

 

Krav Maga

After leaving Aikido I floated for a few months until I was invited to try Krav Maga by one of the Aikido black belts I had trained with. I was a bit reluctant at first, I wasn’t at all sure about going for what could be seen as a modern art after spending so much time in the traditional styles.

After a bit of persuasion I went along to see what it was like. I loved it. Running about hitting pads, sweating, and breathing heavy was like returning home. The simplicity of Krav and the training methods makes for a very effective self-defense system.

The classes had just newly opened were quite small, in fact I was in the first group of 8 people to train Krav in Beijing. Of the 8, every single one of us had a black belt in one style or another, this made the training really hard and a lot of fun. We all knew how to train and whether it was pad work or contact drills we were all pushing each other as hard as we could.

One thing that happened while I was Krav was I realized how much extra power I had from learning to relax in the Chinese styles. I was no longer forcing the punches and feeling tight in my body but letting fly with loose strikes. Due to this, the standing and walking practices I learnt from Zhu Baozhen remain part of my practice to this day.

Krav Maga grew rapidly in Beijing, class numbers rose from 8, to around 20, to over 30 on some evenings. With the increase in students more instructors were needed, I happily put myself forward for the instructor’s course. Different from other martial arts, in Krav you don’t become an instructor after time served. You go through a very demanding course. In my case it was 2, two-week long courses. During the course you train every day from about 8 am – 6 pm, constantly running through the technical aspects of the art and the teaching methodology. Each course ends in a day long exam.

The standard expected from instructors is very high and the course is both mentally and physically demanding. It was a great experience, really pushing yourself to your limits each day.

I passed the course and returned to the gym to face the new challenge of being an instructor. I took my turn running regular classes, women’s self-defense classes, and special seminars. I was very happy to be working in the industry.

Balintawak

From time to time I go online to find out what is happening within the martial arts in my local area. It was through a casual internet search that I found my final teacher Mr. Frank Olea. He had posted an ad on one of the local forums that simply said ‘weapons training’. Being a Krav trainer, which involves a number of different weapons, this sounded something that would suit me.

I contacted him and set up meeting. It turned out he was living very close to me and was a Master level teacher in the Filipino art of Balintawak.

Balintawak is a single stick system of Eskrima, traditionally taught one on one from instructor to student. The instructor teaching the student through giving them increasingly complex and rapid attacks for the student to deal with.

That was how the training was, first defending against simple attacks, then attacks where my weapon hand was held, then defending against disarm attempts and so on. All of this was done training outside, and because of our individual work schedules, in the dark.

Frank would continually push me to understand the weapon movements especially the knife which he specialized in. He was also always pushing himself and trying to develop his art, the benefit of having a younger master as a teacher. He would occasionally come up with a new attack combination or angle that I had to defend against, either with a stick or a training knife. One night he came down from his apartment and announced that for the next few weeks we would be training with live blades.

For me Balintawak brought a number of things together the methods of Balintawak complement the Chinese systems very well due to the close in nature of the style. It also blends quite well with some of the Krav techniques.

Frank granted me permission to teach his style shortly before I left Beijing.

Currently, I live in Jakarta where I teach both Krav Maga and Balintawak with some Tactical Taekwondo thrown in. I choose not to study any additional  styles right now. I use my time in this country to consolidate what I have learnt from all the teachers I have known.

As I said in the about section I try to bring everything I learn back to the original TKD patterns that I learnt. For example, my interpretation of the opening movement of Do San was inspired by the attention paid to natural movements in Krav Maga techniques, and my application of Sonkal Daebi Makgi was taken from the chicken form from Xingyiquan and some of the Bagua entering movements.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey through the martial arts. I don’t know where my path will lead me next, but I know I will be training and studying martial arts for as long as I am able.

San Makgi – The most misunderstood ‘block’ in Taekwondo

I mentioned in a previous article that Do San was the most hated pattern in TKD, but how it contains some very strong applications. The same can be said for san makgi. When teaching Toi Gye, it is difficult for new students and teachers to go through the section of the pattern with 6 san makgi in a row with a straight face. The movement looks so odd and unmartial, I have heard it called may things, cowboy walking, space invaders, this silly move, and many more things.

The mainstream application, to defend a kick or a punch, has a lot of common flaws in it, and generally leads instructors and practitioners to view it as an exercise to work the hips.

In an effort to give it some martial validity, some teachers present this as a forearm strike with a block and even a kick added. I have a few issues with this particular interpretation.

Firstly, you are changing the basis of the movement. When executing san makgi we are driving both arms,  and one leg with the hips at the same time, of you change it in to 3 movements, a kick, block and forearm strike then you are changing the way that the movement is being performed. You can read more about my views on movement variance here.

Also, why a forearm strike, it seems a fairly impractical attacking weapon, when a knife hand would be much more effective and in keeping with the attacking tools that are represented throughout the patterns.

Even the kick seems like a little bit of an afterthought when I have seen this being demonstrated it always seems cramped and uncomfortable for the person demonstrating the kick. Techniques, as a rule, should never looked forced or uncomfortable.

So, my take on san magki is a little different.

Going back to a recent article I wrote on stances and applications, I suggested that sitting stance is mainly used in tripping and throwing movements. This is exactly what I think san makgi is.

What is seen as a kick, is actually stepping over/round the opponents leg. We are aiming to have our ‘kicking leg’ land either in front or behind our opponent lead leg, depending on the orientation of the opponent, either facing towards (leg behind) or away from you (leg in front). This puts us in the position to throw our opponent over our leg.

Our arms are going to be used to pull the opponent over our lead leg. The back hand on the opponents arm and the front hand on the body. Again it depends whether the opponent is facing you or facing away from as t where your hands are.

The hip motion brings the movement of the hands and feet together at one time, planting the foot as we pull our opponent over

Of course to do this we have to gain position, this s the reason for the repeated movements in the Toi Gye pattern., as the opponent moves back to avoid the first attempt then  they open themselves for the second, front to back, or vice versa

 

To complete the sequence we have another misunderstood move, doo palmok miro makgi. If we use the application above, then the purpose of the ending block is easier to understand.

If the trip is done to the front, then there is a danger of it not having much effect, more just unbalancing the opponent. They can easily just get back up and continue their attack. Doo palmok miro makgi helps us to maintain the dominant position by wrapping the arm and helping us locate the head of the opponent.

With this application of the technique I believe that there is less changing of the movement from thr way it is presented in the patterns. Making it a stronger use for the movement rather than changing everything to make it fit the block punch system. As with everything else, the techniques cannot be taken on surface understanding, they have to be trained and adapted to the person and situation only then can it be included into a personal system

I realise that explanations of techniques are sometime difficult reading. I am hoping soon to make some video demonstrating the various application that I have discussed here.

Until then I hope that you enjoy my discussion on the various techniques.

 

Happy Training!!!

 

 

Sparring Drills part 2

Previously I wrote an article on some sparring drills I use with my students. In that article the sparring drills covered a number of different skills and approaches.

In this article I will be looking at drills specifically that deal with altering the tactical mindset of my students, from sport sparring to self defence

As with all sparring drills it is important that you set things up correctly, make sure everyone is aware of the rules of the particular session and proper safety precautions are observed.

These are slightly more advanced drills and time should be taken to introduce the skills needed to deal with the situations that will be presented before going in to the drills. More information on this can be found on the time under pressure post.

 

No gentlemen

A very common point sparring drill set up is to have maybe 4-5 pairs sparring on the floor with the rest of the class waiting in a line. When someone scores a point off their opponent they bow out and join the end of the queue while their partner stays up and spars the next person.

Usually, as the rules of the sport demand, the students bow, touch gloves and then begin. When I am looking for a more reality based version of this drill, I remove the bowing and glove touching. The new student can run in from the queue and attack immediately. The student who is already up has to deal with the initial attack, normal point sparring rules apply

15 seconds

This is one of my favorite drills, and the only one that I don’t necessarily fully explain to the students before they practice.

The drill is just simply introduce 15 seconds, of time before sparring. During this 15 seconds the students are free to do whatever they want. They can find a better position, they can grab a weapon, try to talk the other students down. After 15 seconds there is a signal and the sparring begins.

Often, as I stated before, when I introduce this drill I won’t give much instruction. I will just tell my students that they will wait for 15 seconds before they start sparring. Always they will wait in their ready position, usually with a puzzled expression on their face. Even if I move to multiple attackers or weapon based attackers they will wait and then fight. After we have done this a few times, we discuss what else could be done with the 15 seconds that they have.

The main point of this drill is to open their mind to other options and to get them thinking outside of the ring where you always have to fight.

 

Weapons

Again, this drill is very simple and the main purpose is to open the students’ mind and get them use to having more options and get use to a non-competition sparring format.

After the students are comfortable with weapon defenses, I lay dummy weapons out, these can be rubber knives, padded sticks, or even just pads and kick shields. During sparring if they can the students can pick up any of these and use them to attack.

 

The first few times maybe no one will pick up a weapon, or both with run for different weapons. However, as they students get more use to this format they will develop different tactics for the situation. Those could be be kicking weapons away, fleeing when someone picks up a weapon, preemptive attacks when someone is picking up a weapon and so on.

 

Ok, so a few of my favorite drills to teach mindset and to break students out of a competitive sparring format.

I hope you find these useful, if you try any of them in your sessions please let me know how it goes.

Grappling Revisited

In the previous post on grappling I looked some of of the concepts and training that I believe make up TKD grappling.

In this article would like to go through some specific examples of course it is always difficult to describe a technique in text, however, I hope that you will be able to understand

First the basics

Forearm guarding block

As stated in the previous article in the patterns forearm guarding block represents a basic stand up grappling position. We need to get used to getting into and moving in this position before we can start looking at the techniques

When we are ready we can start looking to see where it appears in our patterns, as always I am referring to ITF patterns here. I have linked to each pattern in the headings so if you are not so familiar with them you can check the movement i am referring to

 

Won Hyo and Yul Gok

So the first pattern that contains forearm guarding block is Won Hyo, but in my mind not where you think. Sure it is the final 2 movements of the pattern but I tend to disregard these as a stylistic. The forearm guarding block in Won Hyo are in the bending ready stances.

For me the top half of bending ready stance is a forearm guarding block, which put the stance in grappling rather than the preparation for a kick or a stance to intimidate your opponent as I heard one black belt claim.

Here as we are grabbing and holding the opponent, we are using our front leg to attack the opponent’s legs either catching behind the knee of their front leg or siding kicking the back knee, obviously for this we are kicking much lower.

We can see an similar expression of this in Yul Gok when we take advantage of the unbalanced opponent, locate his head with our front hand before delivering an elbow with our back hand.

From there we can look at Jhoong Gun.

Jhoong Gun

He we have another very misunderstood movement in the form of pressing block, it is sometimes seen as a double block or as a leg break. My personal interpretation come from using the guarding block as a lead in.

From the grapple position our opponent I burying their head, either to avoid punches and head butts or because the defender is pulling it down. Another possibility is that the opponent is attempting to grab the defenders legs. In either case we are pushing the opponents head down without back hand and lifting their shoulder without front hand sort of like an underhook. We slide into a low stance to give us better grounding for this.

The final move of the sequence shows us moving out form the line of attack while locking the arm and head. Form there we have a number of options.

Choong Moo

Finally we are going to look at Choong Moo, here we have one of the more skilled uses of forearm guarding block. From the block, we are going to turn on our front foot and perform a low knife hand block.

My take on this movement is a hip throw or cross buttocks throw. As we enter the grapple, our front hand slips from the collar to under the arm of our opponent, as we turn we load the opponent on to our hips and throw them over as represented by the hand position of the low knife hand block.

 

Ok so there we have a slightly more in depth look at the grappling application coming specifically from forearms guarding block. I would encourage anyone interested in these to look deeply into the skills and training needed to be comfortable with these techniques, from getting used to being close in and grabbing your training partners, to the necessary break falls.

Of course, if there are grappling application in the patterns, somewhere there is also anti grappling applications. However, I will keep that for another article