Bretty101

Hi all, I stuck this in the general martial arts because i'm a mix of several styles and could do with all the help i can get. I'm predominantly a very side-on kicker (tkd style lead leg kicker, a bit like Bill wallace) and have really been concentrating on my hands/ boxing. I've done Kickboxing, ordinary boxing and Thai boxing. All of which get my hands going and make me fight very square on (all good so far). I'm comfortable going from side-on to square-on, but really struggle to go beyond square to deliver a good cross or reverse punch. I don't know why, i feel really committed and immobile when i throw it, as well as being a bit slow and ffeeling a bit open. I really do feel i'm lacking a good cross and my rear hand very rearly gets 'thrown'. Can anyone offer any advice, drills or good combos for getting my cross going. I'm a big guy and think it would be a great technique to have. Help?!! Thanks! Bretty

I don't know much about Dim Mak but if it's pressure points your interested in Check out the Dragon Society and Rick Moneymaker. Lots of really good pressure point information available form them, charts books and videos. I recommend them, I am not connected to them at all, but found there seminars really enlightening and very good for applying traditional karate moves to pressure point applications. The theory of angle and direction against straight power. I'm not sure if they adhere to the strikes taking effect in 7seconds, 7 minutes, 7 hours, 7 days, 7weeks, 7 months or 7years, which I think Dim Mak does but its all really good stuff. Bretty

....d'oh treble post...soz

..d'oh double post..

Hey aes, Your stretching regime sounds really good to me! I'd agree about stretching 3-4 times a week rather then a day. When you stretch or overstretch a muscle, it will contract and shorten to stop you from injuring yourself. The result of overstretching is you get less flexible! All you want to achieve is, to take a stretch to it's limit, which causes the stretched muscle to contract. Eventually this muscle tires (even quicker with isometric stretching). When the muscle fatigues it will relax allowing you to stretch even further, when you increase your stretch the muscle contracts again and the cycle repeats itself. The length of each cycle can vary. Using Isometric stretches it can be as little as 10 seconds, with static stretching nearer 60 seconds. With practice you can relax your muscles and get this cycle even shorter. The deisired effect is to get your muscles to relax when stretched. The more frequently you achieve this the more flexible you will become. Good luck! and look after your knees!! Bretty

Great advice!! sweet and simple. My main combination at the moment is the big shuffle rearleg axekick...Thats it i'm a big guy! .. just kidding its good on it's own but the crowd like to see it followed with a (reverse) spinning kick off the other leg. Your opponent will generally curl up in a ball with the first kick and get caught with the second kick. some more:- Backfist (to hide the step for...) - lead leg step-through side kick. lead leg turning kick-right reverse punch. Blitz (flying left backfist, right reverse punch, left ridgehand). lead turning kick, (nearly simultaneous) rear leg inward moving axekick. left hook-right uppercut turning kick low-high (or high-low) Front kick-turning kick same leg without touching the floor. big ridgehand- (continue spinning) spinning kick (back or hook) Great crowd pleasers but when the going gets tough, i'd swap the lot for a good backfist, a good reverse punch and a good sidekick!! Bretty

MA, are you a jumprope salesperson? The ONE big differnece i can see... When you jumprope your legs are never locked out and there is little IMPACT. It's really good for your knees especially if your knee joints are loose from doing dangerous stretching exercises. It does use different muscles and works you in a smaller range. Jogging is just all wrong, loads of impact all in your knee joint, I really wouldn't recommend jogging with an extensive leg stretching regime. Your knees will not thank you for it. You may have guessed i have really sensitive knees! Bretty

We have to do all 4 for our 3rd dan to. My favourite pattern by a long way is Moon-moo - slow kicks demonstrating strong legs the essence of TKD. The three patterns for 2nd dan are all great and a real contrast one to the next. All the ones after that i find pretty dull until moon-moo. Bretty

...Interesting enough the groin is located right on your centre of gravity, making it the slowest moving part of your body (my girlfriend never complains! ). Its also one of the most sensitive parts of your body and a strike here is always a show stopper! It's also got to be one of the hardest parts of you body to defend, as not ony (is it a big target, ) it is fairly immobile (being near to you centre of gravity) and requires a big commitment to protect it using your arms or legs. All in all a great target but an unsporting one! Bretty

Good question Shorinryu Sensei! I'm a taekwondo fighter. I think if I was fighting in a tournament which allowed groin kicks I'd revert back to my Thai boxing style and bring my kicks right down. But then in any tournament the more you relax the rules the more it becomes like Thai Boxing and grappling! (look at NHB etc) I think groin kicks have a place in tournaments but not in TKD tournaments. TKD is about impressing the crowd and trying to kick your opponents head off in the most flamboyant (sp?) way possible. Thats cool! I don't think any one would want to see a fight ended with a kick in the joy department. Whenever I've been at a tournament and been kicked in the ..erm. it's serverely ruined my day. Bretty

Sorry Sensei, I seem to have turned this into a disagreement about whether or not groin kicks are part of the sport, which i think we are going to have differing opinions on. I respect you opinion but think any further debate would deviate away from the original topic. If you'd like to start another topic i'll contribute further and this may be of interest to many poeple. Meanwhile... how are we gonna help Superfighter fight big kickers? What rules do you fight to superfighter? Bretty

Are you talking about which part of your forearm should connect against an attacker? Traditionally its the inner or outer forearm ("an" or "batak palmok", for chon-ji all the middle section blocks are inner forearm), either one bone or the other not both. You will bruise and 'injure' yourself at first but nothing serious. If you practice a lot with a partner you will condition your forearms and this will no longer hurt. Go along to your nearest shotokan club, It won't take you long to get used to it. Best thing to do is ask your instructor, we'll probably all say something different, but your instructor will have his own applications and can probably explain and demonstrate them far better then we could describe them on this forum. Bretty

Groin kicks?!!! Your kidding right? Thats down on my list with eye gouging, head butting and knee stomping. Not very competition friendly. Awesome on the street but doesn't have a place in competition. You may aswell give each fighter a loaded gun! I guess thats when it stops becoming a 'sport'. Do you really have no idea why groin strikes aren't usually allowed in competition? Teakwondo Bretty (a sucker for groin strikes)

I'm a big guy and a big kicker, Normally I know if i throw a kick people are going to move a half step back. Even though i fight "semi" contact I make these kicks look big. It makes people tense up and gives me time to put that leg down before they counter. The people who scare me are the people who take a half step forward when ever i throw a technique!!! . Try doing this, it takes some courage, just keep your chin in! Get yourself a nice tight guard, most kickers will only kick at a target they can see. (this is naughty but...) Try and block all kicks to your body with your elbows!!! This will usually limit fighters to trying to kick your head. Not many people will last a 3 minute round throwing head kicks! Also keep a tight guard, most kickers kick low then high or high then low, because a beginner will stretch to block the first kick only to get hit by the second. Keep tight and don't reach out to block the kicks. Keep you arms tight to your body and take them. Spin back kick is always a good counter against any kicker. So is a simple good old fashioned hard and fast side kick. In fact not even as just a counter i throw them all the time! And never forget the power of the body shot!! A kicker will find it hard work picking up their legs after strikes to their kidney and floating ribs. Keep at it! Bretty

Surely a true master is someone who has 'MASTERED' the whole martial art and can do (with great knowlege) EVERY technique to perfection everytime. And a Grandmaster is someone who used to be a master but is now past it and makes up for the lost technique with gained knowlege. I'm yet to meet a 'master' worthy of the title! I've only ever met one Grandmaster (no politics he's not part of my organisation or system) Grandmaster He il Cho. He truely deserves that title, you can just feel the respect radiate form him as he enters the room. Master Bretty Just kidding! Grandmaster Bretty

I do use some plyometrics to improve my jump height and general explosiveness. Typical Plyometric exercises are very strenuous and boring, usually jumping on and off of things. One tip i would give is to scrap that, Instead do short intense sprints and running up flights of steps. Near where i live there is a flight of 50 steps, I run up one step at a time, down, then 2 steps at a time then 3 steps. Then i rest and repeat the whole exercise 2 more times. I find it easier and easier every time, it makes me light on my feet and is less monotonous then jumping on and off blocks. Sprints are also very good too, mark out a 50 yard distance, sprint one end to the other walk back and repeat. a really good exercise which seems to use your entire body and you can do it virtually anywhere. Good luck! B

Ever hear of the guy Tom Platz? Body builder of Arnold Swarzeniggers (sp?) ers. He had the biggest legs i've (or anyone) has ever seen. yet he could do the box splits, touch his toes, everything. Don't froget the thing stopping you from touching your toes is a nerve reflex, causing the stretch muscle to contract. You want to learn to control and relax this reflex! the size of the muscle has nothing to do with it. I do weights (squads, deadlift and quite a bit of cycling) and can do front to back and box splits. Just keep practicing! B

These sound like WTF 45degree kicks, which will feel and look sloppy if your from a different style. like running forwards with straight legs to waist height to the front I don't like these kicks either, as the kick tends to come from the floor, i often just end up kicking peoples elbows (my opponents are generally freestylists). I do often use this kick in pairs, ie left-right. But when i do any more then that i just look daft. I'm guessing the reason your sore is because you are trying to throw this kick properly and really rotating your hips, just keep your hips fairly square and throw the kick from the floor. Good luck! B

I find I punch mostly using my shoulders as i have quite a hunched sparring posture and punch mainly straight (as i'm hunched effectively if i was upright i'd be punching upwards like a shoulder press, if that makes sense?!). The only time i differentiate between incline,flat and decline is when i'm trying to get a particular shape to my chest. If i want to build the lower outside part of my chest i us cables (flyers) to effectively do a decline press, i find it makes my pecs look squarer and not like i have * (hmmm). I also do a lot of decline flyers on a situp bench with dumbells. I think its a great excercise. I do Flat work for general growth and hook punch power and incline if i want more height on my chest, a bit of a clevage if you like (oo-er!) At the moment i'm concentrating a lot on inclined chest work and rear deltoid work just to give me more muscle higher and just look a bit more muscular. Keep at it! Get masssiiivvveee! Bretty

Try putting your thumb inside your fist!! Just kidding! Try getting some gloves where the thumb is stitched to the rest of your mit, try some lightweight boxing gloves. Try and avoid punching peoples elbows, mind you i seem to have the same problem catching peoples cheek bones. Amputation?! Bretty (helpful as ever)

F...orget piviting on your standing leg/knee. Learn to fight like Bill Wallace and you won't have to pivot at all. My Superfoot all off the lead leg, he's proved the front leg is more then powerfull enough. Pivoting on you knee is only gonna make things worse. Hope it gets better! Bretty

Wood is so much easier to break then re-breakable boards You can bit a bit of wood anywhere and it'll break rebreakable you have to hit in the middle. I went to pick up some wood from a timber merchants for a demo we were doing. 1"x1"x10" The guy behind the counter asked what we were doing with the wood and we said we punch and break it for a demonstration. He said i bet you don't break it against the grain "Erm no we don't" He wasn't very impressed. Bretty

Well to give you some idea... It's a way of doing forms. basically you raise up and drop down into every technique using a combination of knee spring and long stances. your centre of gravity (hips) therefore move up and down in an osscilitary motion hence sinewave. The 'theory' is harnessing the power of the hips into the technique which i agree with in a way but i'm not sure bouncing up and down really does that. There is also a theory that each technique should start off slow and accelerate using the theory that force is a result of acceleration (F=ma). However this is nonsense because acceleration is actually the result of a force not the other way round. It's an interesting display of coordination which is required for power, but i can't say i agree with the way you go about it. Hows that? I believe you can see people doing the sinewave patterns (rather well i must say) on the official ITF website. Bretty

A large amount of emphasis has been placed on sinewave over the last 10-15years. This has been done by the 'official' International Taekwondo Federation to distance itself from the rest of the ITF community. It's just more politics to drive taekwondo apart. Taekwondo is a fairly knew martial art (1955) but has it's roots in many other styles. In striving to be recognised as a martial art in it's own right TKD is evolving to be different. I think it's a shame the way TKD is becoming so distanced from arts such as shotokan which i think is so much more powerful without using sinewave. I agree with dropping into techniques but don't think a sinewave correctly discribes the motion. I'd like to watch someone break a brick with the sinewave technique! I do think if done well or 'correctly' it looks good in forms. But 90% of people who do it just look sloppy. Bretty :) 10 years 'unofficial' ITF :wink:

Hamstrings/ Gluteus Hip abductor Hip adductor. Hip flexor Stick those into google and you'll find pictures of where they are. Tell us which one you want to stretch and we can be a lot more helpfull. As there are endless stretches you can do. If your feeling the stretch when kicking, keep kicking. I've found dynamic stretches to be most effective and least boring of all the stretching exercises. Bretty