Prostar

I was in a tournament back in the 70s when it was radical and new to have long hair. I reached up to sweep the hair away from my face and ate a side kick in the ribs that knocked me across the ring. I made a point of getting a haircut before each tournament thereafter.

My only question, at this point, is what are you taking away from the situation? I'm concerned that you will second guess yourself in the face of danger. Yes, it is a good idea to take a step back if you are ever confronted by the fiance. As an instructor, one of my favorite teaching moments is when I watch a student sparring, opponent's guard comes open a bit and the kick flies faster than the thought. Keep the training.

Punishment? Never. I have found it necessary to reach out and grab everyone's undivided attention. Once in a while a couple of students, or possibly several students, would be chattering away when I was trying to teach something. Now considering that I was just wasting my, and their, time by trying to teach under such circumstances, I found a way to focus their attention on the subject at hand, whilst still applying real technique. I would stand in the center of the room and say these few words in a voice that everyone can hear. THREE, TWO...(Now if they let me get to ONE, it was irrevocably followed by HUNDRED SIDE KICKS...FOR THE ENTIRE ROOM.) You would be amazed at how peer pressure works when the innocent parties shut down idle chatter. It doesn't take too many times before people start paying attention again. Evil? Yes, but effective. Besides, can you ever do too many side kicks?

They taught us to use a chair from my earliest days as a student. The instructor placed a chair close (too close for my thinking) to my foot. I was then supposed to do a side kick over it. I only kicked the chair across the room a few times before I got the hang of bringing my knee up. I also used chairs in a lesson entitled "Stuff". In that class I threw all kinds of stuff out onto the floor and told the sparring students that the world is full of stuff. How do you use it? They had a blast.

I don't know if this is on track or not but here is a chore my senior student(s) occasionally took on. Whenever some idiot walked in and wanted to challenge the instructor (me) to a fight, the seniors would just step between us and escort the "gentleman" to the door. This was one they took upon themselves. Not a question of my getting hurt physically, but more one of liability. I'm not there to pound on itinerant fools.

I really didn't like any of the examples in the original post. In the first video the guy actually lets the kick get to his ribs. I did like that he moved with it to take some of the power off. In the first BB mag example it looks like he caught it with his left hand while sliding the right up behind the leg. You eat a lot of kicks trying to catch like that. Besides, it hurts the fingers often. BB mag examples 2 and 3 looked like they popped the right hand up there to stop a back leg round house kick. Any decent kick is going right through that hand.

On Thursday night, a fellow student stayed after class with me to work on a sparring combo that we'd done last week and was kind of fun. The last part of it was the roundhouse kick, and though in Soo Bahk Do the Muay Thai shin kick isn't in the art, since it was after class, our teacher had no objection to us practicing it. I found that the height difference between my friend and me worked to my advantage, in that, being shorter, when I did the shin kick, it was more natural to me as an infighter, but when he executed it, I was better able to block it by placing my hand against his knee. The "business end" of his roundhouse, whether instep or shin, was blocked by a simple hand motion, not even a leg raise on my part. Exactly the way to work it out joesteph. Grab a trusted partner and work out the various options and bugs without getting your head kicked in. Then you roll it out in class or a tournament.

Nice video. Liked the fighting. It reminded me of lots of tournaments I've seen. On the plus side, they made their points nice and clear. On the other hand, I would have liked to see some more action. I would have to go back and watch it again to be sure, but I think all the points scored were reverse punches. I don't want to watch it again just for that. Does anyone know Riley Hawkins from Baltimore? He made a career winning tournaments like that back in the 70s. His reverse punch was fast and awsome.

He must be so surprised when you're suddenly in his face, wishing him "Trick or Treat" as you crash into him. Moving in and crowding the kick works rather well. Remember, the business end of the kick is at the end. If he never gets to extend the kick, it has no effect. You need to practice this with a trusted partner. Work it through slowly at first and remember to keep the guard up.

The instructor works to create an atmosphere conducive to learning, takes the information and lays it down in front of the student, at which point the student either picks it up and learns it...or not. This saves the instructor from beating him/herself up if the students just aren't getting it. When I first announced that policy in my class, I had a high school principal, a gym teacher and a ballet teacher among the other twenty-five others in the class. The teachers were all nodding as I finished.

Kool deal! I'm glad you had a good time. Are you going to do it again? If you do, here is something to watch for. Watch the other guys sparring. Look for the timing. They will square off, assess each other for a bit until someone makes a move. The trick is to find out how long that takes. Most people make it to about five by my count before the anxiety takes over and they have to do something. Now that you have an idea of when someone will do something, you have an edge since you can be elsewhere when they start to move. As you watch the fighters and start to get their timing, visualize what you could do if you were facing that person. Quite often it doesn't matter what you do at that moment, just do something. The reaction can be priceless.

Three points to think about. 1. Keep it simple. Take two or three techniques and use them. More is not better. 2. Watch what's going on around you. Find a good technique, take it home and make it yours. 3. Enjoy yourself. I always liked tournaments. I'm jealous.

I would suggest that if you are going to use an open handed or closed handed block, fine, do it. Just don't do it by accident. Make a point of training with a specific open handed technique just as you would with a closed hand. Decide consciously how you want to use which. If not, you run the risk of coming up with something in-between and ill defined. One unhappy possible result can be to stop a roundhouse kick with your thumb. It hurts...a lot.

Listen to the chatter in the locker room after class sometime. They really seem pumped up after a tough workout. Compare that to the relative quiet after an easier workout. Lots of chatter after a tough workout, kind of quiet after an easier workout. Hmmmm.

Nobody ever wanted me to get to one because it would always be followed with one hundred side kicks for the whole room. Those people must have developed some solid side-kicks, I wish I got to do that aswell hehe. If I ever get to Sweden I'll tell you to do one hundred side kicks.