My Karate school has an intramural team tournament coming up in a week from Sunday, so Monday night sparring classes for adults have focused on tag-team strategy.
Needless to say, the fighting gets pretty intense, but with some goofy moments as well.
I did extensive taping of our class this past Monday:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F44D11BC0DF6CA18
Check out #5 at 6:25 - the slide kick that was more slide than kick
Check out #6 at 5:30 - Ouch...
The tape of ground work was for the woman in the video. She, along with my instructor, are competing this week at the East-West Open, a "Martial Arts Olympics" held annually in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since some fights at that event include grappling, she's receiving a cram course in basic ground defense. I shot this so she has some study material to review.
Best of luck to both of them!
For Thursday's class we had a guest instructor who was well-versed in one of my favorite torture techniques, the slow-count kick. As a warm-up, we did a lot of stationary work, simply holding stances and fine-tuning them . Then we did slow-count kicks.
While working slow-count kicks, I idly remarked that it'd be interesting to combine stances with slow-count kicks; She took me up on the concept, and we did just that!
So imagine this for a strength exercise:
1. Begin in a fighting stance.
2. Rotate hips forward, squaring yourself up, then bend your rear leg and slowly squat until the rear knee touches the floor.
3. Raise up from the floor slowly and execute a slow-count front kick with the back leg.
4. Lower the kicking leg forward into a fighting stance on the opposite side.
5. Repeat, marching across the floor and back again. Slowly.
I hated it, and loved hating it...
On a side note, big thanks to Black Belt Mama for the free book. Should make for interesting, light reading before bedtime.
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Fighting Fatigue
Good piece of advice: Don't Fight Fatigued!!!
October's tournament was a tough one for me this year. 13 guys in my division doing open hand form, and just as many fighting, too. On top of it all, my band had its CD release party the night before, and I ended up getting about 3 hours sleep. Not exactly a good set-up for competing in the top-ranked national tournament of the year!
I achieved Finalist status in open hand form, which means I was in the top 8, and I'm satisfied with that. At this belt level my school's open hand form is not as complex or difficult as some I've seen. The winner was from a Tang Soo Do school, and had an incredible form; very powerful and clean presentation, and most deserving of a top placing.
Going into fighting, I pretty much knew I'd be out after the first round. New rules extended fighting to 2 minutes or first to 7 points. While I lost 4-7 to the fighter who ended up in 2nd place, I did have one bright moment.
Forgetting that I fight best reactively, the first two clashes went to my opponent as I tried to take off from the line. 3rd clash I began moving around and finally popped in some points. We went back and forth trading punches, and while I landed a solid kick to his chest right in front of the center judge, neither corner judge saw it well enough to award me that particular point.
The last blow I delivered came as a complete surprise, and ended up being the most revealing and valuable lesson of the tournament.
I have this habit of turning away from my opponent. Bad idea, I know, but in this particular case I turned while pulling my head back out of range of his fist. 1/3rd of the way through turning, I thought to deliver a back fist with my left hand, which missed my opponent's head. However, my right hand, seemingly of its own accord, delivered a beautiful follow-through that delivered a solid blow to his chin! That moment is awfully fun to watch on video...
What exactly did that moment reveal??? Simple. I need to return to fighting conventional stance vs. southpaw.
See, my right (operative) leg is really good at delivering repeated, jabbing side kicks. However, when it comes to follow-up with my hands, my left fist is really slow. Sure, my right hand in front is fine for back fist work, but there's just not much else to back it up!
I began fighting southpaw when I returned, mostly because I wanted to guard my operative leg from too much sideways motion. Conventional stance put a lot of pressure on the knee, either taking off forward, or if I was retreating. Since that time, however, my knee has toughened up significantly, so it's now time to reconsider my stance to take advantage of my strong side.
I'm right-handed, and my right leg is the stronger one these days. My first sparring class back I forced myself back to a conventional stance, and it was weird...but very effective! At first it felt like I was exposed, but now I realize the true feeling: freedom. Suddenly I felt like my hands truly did have something to contribute to the party, and it's really liberating.
Two Monday's ago we did something unusual that forced fighters to keep constantly on the move; we fought 2-on-1. This forced me as a defender to constantly try to position myself so one opponent was between me and the other opponent, effectively blocking the second attacker.
It was nuts. It was insane. It was a blur of motion. It was exhausting.
It was...A BLAST!!!
Next opportunity for tournament fighting in 2 weeks. Hope to have better results to report afterwards.
October's tournament was a tough one for me this year. 13 guys in my division doing open hand form, and just as many fighting, too. On top of it all, my band had its CD release party the night before, and I ended up getting about 3 hours sleep. Not exactly a good set-up for competing in the top-ranked national tournament of the year!
I achieved Finalist status in open hand form, which means I was in the top 8, and I'm satisfied with that. At this belt level my school's open hand form is not as complex or difficult as some I've seen. The winner was from a Tang Soo Do school, and had an incredible form; very powerful and clean presentation, and most deserving of a top placing.
Going into fighting, I pretty much knew I'd be out after the first round. New rules extended fighting to 2 minutes or first to 7 points. While I lost 4-7 to the fighter who ended up in 2nd place, I did have one bright moment.
Forgetting that I fight best reactively, the first two clashes went to my opponent as I tried to take off from the line. 3rd clash I began moving around and finally popped in some points. We went back and forth trading punches, and while I landed a solid kick to his chest right in front of the center judge, neither corner judge saw it well enough to award me that particular point.
The last blow I delivered came as a complete surprise, and ended up being the most revealing and valuable lesson of the tournament.
I have this habit of turning away from my opponent. Bad idea, I know, but in this particular case I turned while pulling my head back out of range of his fist. 1/3rd of the way through turning, I thought to deliver a back fist with my left hand, which missed my opponent's head. However, my right hand, seemingly of its own accord, delivered a beautiful follow-through that delivered a solid blow to his chin! That moment is awfully fun to watch on video...
What exactly did that moment reveal??? Simple. I need to return to fighting conventional stance vs. southpaw.
See, my right (operative) leg is really good at delivering repeated, jabbing side kicks. However, when it comes to follow-up with my hands, my left fist is really slow. Sure, my right hand in front is fine for back fist work, but there's just not much else to back it up!
I began fighting southpaw when I returned, mostly because I wanted to guard my operative leg from too much sideways motion. Conventional stance put a lot of pressure on the knee, either taking off forward, or if I was retreating. Since that time, however, my knee has toughened up significantly, so it's now time to reconsider my stance to take advantage of my strong side.
I'm right-handed, and my right leg is the stronger one these days. My first sparring class back I forced myself back to a conventional stance, and it was weird...but very effective! At first it felt like I was exposed, but now I realize the true feeling: freedom. Suddenly I felt like my hands truly did have something to contribute to the party, and it's really liberating.
Two Monday's ago we did something unusual that forced fighters to keep constantly on the move; we fought 2-on-1. This forced me as a defender to constantly try to position myself so one opponent was between me and the other opponent, effectively blocking the second attacker.
It was nuts. It was insane. It was a blur of motion. It was exhausting.
It was...A BLAST!!!
Next opportunity for tournament fighting in 2 weeks. Hope to have better results to report afterwards.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Updates
Hi, there, faithful reader! It's been nearly a month since my last post, time for some quick updates.
I attended my first tournament since my injury in December 2007 and had a blast!
In open hand form I took first in my division by .01 point. Just goes to show that victory can be by the slimmest margins sometimes!
I was also very satisfied with my sparring performance, taking second in my division. We had some great competition, and I have some very useful video provided by one of the parents to study what worked and what didn't work. I can't stress enough how useful it is to study video of yourself, be it during class, rank testing, or tournament. No matter the outcome, you're always way ahead of the game with video documentation!
That being said, G-Shaft accompanied me to an inter-school event this evening and ran the camcorder.
4 schools gathered for a mass sparring class at what is likely the smallest school in the system. Fantastic turnout, we had fighters from yellow/green through multiple black belt degrees, 13 to 40-somethings, about 30 fighters in total.
The purpose was to mix things up between schools, so that each person had an opportunity to work with unknown fighters. This helps to mentally prepare oneself for tournaments where you often meet fighters you've never been in the ring with, and it's an invaluable experience. I highly recommend it!
I came home having met some GREAT fighters, really nice people, and walked away with a nice Charlie Horse in my right thigh. Oh, well, any class you can walk away from...right?
G'night folks, and keep those hands up!!!
I attended my first tournament since my injury in December 2007 and had a blast!
In open hand form I took first in my division by .01 point. Just goes to show that victory can be by the slimmest margins sometimes!
I was also very satisfied with my sparring performance, taking second in my division. We had some great competition, and I have some very useful video provided by one of the parents to study what worked and what didn't work. I can't stress enough how useful it is to study video of yourself, be it during class, rank testing, or tournament. No matter the outcome, you're always way ahead of the game with video documentation!
That being said, G-Shaft accompanied me to an inter-school event this evening and ran the camcorder.
4 schools gathered for a mass sparring class at what is likely the smallest school in the system. Fantastic turnout, we had fighters from yellow/green through multiple black belt degrees, 13 to 40-somethings, about 30 fighters in total.
The purpose was to mix things up between schools, so that each person had an opportunity to work with unknown fighters. This helps to mentally prepare oneself for tournaments where you often meet fighters you've never been in the ring with, and it's an invaluable experience. I highly recommend it!
I came home having met some GREAT fighters, really nice people, and walked away with a nice Charlie Horse in my right thigh.
G'night folks, and keep those hands up!!!
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