Beginner: Independant sparring training drills.

[el_guitarrista]

Hi everyone, I've found lots of information from this forum, but I've now got a specific question which I hope someone can help with.

 

The situation I find myself in is:

 

The university karate club I attend does 'some' sparring in the main class, and has a dedicated sparring class which runs on a '10 people per session, once a week, invite only' basis. Which translates as 'if you're not an exceptional fighter or an attractive female fighter, you won't be attending' (the less said about the instructor the better!)

 

This leaves me (as someone who loves sparring, but has only been training a year or so) with a chance to spar once a week ,if that, for perhaps 25 minutes. Not the best basis for improving my sparring. I've been sparring with a friend for the past week, and we intend to continue on a regular basis, but we're not sure exactly what to train.

 

If anyone can suggest drills to improve the following areas it would be greatly appreciated:

 

Our tendancy to step in straight lines, not moving outside/inside attacks (I've heard this is a good thing but the principles escape me!)

 

Our lack of in-fighting skills, any simple takedowns or similar would be appreciated.

 

Our inability to spot gaps in the opponents defence, throwing combinations rather than situation specific techniques.

 

Any other drills that people have found to develop fundamental sparring techniques.

 

Thanks in advance!

[cross]

Some drills you can do include:

 

1. Isolated sparring- meaning you work on a specific area. e.g. just punches, just kicks, just clinching and knees etc etc....

 

2. To help you see openings better you can have one person attack the whole time and one person just defend. Then changes roles, then both attack and defend(normal sparring).

 

3. Another thing you help you see openings is get you friend to put on focus mitts and have him moves them to different positions and you have to hit them where ever he puts them. << this will teach you to keep your eyes looking for openings and help in technique selection.

[G95champ]

One step sparring is a great drill. In one step the attacker will call the target and attack say (lunge punch face) the defender must be ready and shift, block and counter the attack off the attackers frirst movement.

 

We usually do 4 basic attacks.

 

1. lunge punch face

 

2. lunge punch stomach

 

3. front snap kick

 

4. side thrust kick

 

but you can add as needed. Just work the basic blocks and counters.

[1kickKO]

Our tendancy to step in straight lines, not moving outside/inside attacks (I've heard this is a good thing but the principles escape me!)

 

This means there are 3 points. Point a, point b, and a point c. Think of it as a triangle. Point a is your attacker, point b is you, point c is off to the side (whichever side is your opponent's back side). So basically, you're standing at point b, your attacker at point a. When he tries to rush you, his intent is to come straight at you with as many techniques as possible. What is he going to do? He's going to come at you ina straight line...from his point a to your point b. When you see him coming at you, the simplest method of defense is to step off to point c, the side. When you do this make sure you step off to the side that is his back. This is for many reasons. 1. When you step off to the side, he keeps going right past you in a straight line.

 

2. When you step off to his "back" side, you are now at his ack, and he is in front of you, his back is open to techniques, and in order to attack you again he'd have to turn around a full 180 degrees to attack you. That is the "straight line attack/defense" method.

 

Our lack of in-fighting skills, any simple takedowns or similar would be appreciated. Well, a few simple, but great scoring drills.

 

1. Kick low to the shins to draw their attention to their legs then kick at their head (done with a roundhouse kick).

 

2. Say your attacker is in a normal fighting stance with his lef tleg forward. He takes a step forward with his right leg to punch you. as he does this (assuming your'e int he same fighting stance facing him, left leg forward) simple move your left foot back as he moves his right foot forward, so that you are now facing his arm, grab his arm and pull forward while taking yoru left leg and sweeping his right.

 

3. As your opponent throws a front kick, simply blcok as you lean back, then when he drops his foot step in and punch in the gut. I have plenty more techniques if you'd liek to e-mail me..nmoccabee@yahoo.com

 

Our inability to spot gaps in the opponents defence, throwing combinations rather than situation specific techniques.

 

There is a rule of thumb here..for offense and defense. to spot gaps in defense, they may not have one, so create one. Take a big step, or stop your front foot to make them think you are coming at them, when they make their mistake of stepping away use that to your advantage. Another rule of thumb for creating gaps in defense is this...when you fake high, they block high, opening them up low. When you fake low, they block low, opening them up high.

 

Now for gaps in offense. Whenever somebody throws a punch at you, it has to come back at them sometime to rechamber right? For instance, if somebody throws a right punch, their arm will eventually start to come back to their body at the side of their hip...one good way to score is to follow this back with a punch of your own. this means htey only have 1 arm free t hit you with, while you still have both arms and 2 legs.

 

Any other drills that people have found to develop fundamental sparring techniques.

 

Well, one drill is multiple fighting, which causes your awareness to increase dramatically. Get a bunch of people, put one in the middle (possibly yourself) and have everybody attack. Your intent is not to get frustrated as you will get scored on a number of times, but as you progress you will get better and better. What you want to do is not focus on one enemy, as all of the rest ar eout of focus. Always hit the enemy you cannot see, so focus on all of them at once, and never let anybody behind you.

 

Another drill is basically have one person block many punches/kicks as you throw them. Don't move, just have him block them. Now start moving around htat person as they stay there, you go in circles around them..this develops your periphreal vision.

 

If you'd like any more suggestiosn feel free to drop me a line at my e-mail or pm me.

[P.A.L]

1-We have 7 Yakusoku (pre arranged kumite) we use it mostly for timeing and body conditioning it can get pretty rough and you get used to absorbe some punches.

 

2- 3 step kumite, attacker comes in with 3 techniques on his choice like a kick,a punch ,a kick, the defender can slide back one or two steps but gotta accept the last one and fight it back.

 

3- first 2 practice that "Cross" mentioned

 

then there are some tactics we follow you may find them right or wrong,like

 

1-We try not to step back ,we slide back

 

2- We try not step in ,we slide in

 

3- we try to turn opposite to the strong hand of opponent(rear hand)

 

4- we try to block punch with same hand in one move and over their hand

 

5- we kick low

 

some rules for full contact friendly matches

 

use glove and head gear and foot cover.

 

1- no kick to joints/groin

 

2- we let the opponet to recover from kick to the head

 

3- we stop chasing if 2-3 hit landed since in real fight 2-3 landed punch with bare hand is more than enough

 

4- let the fight go to the ground but stand up as quick as you can

 

5- don't apply chockes ,you can do locks.

 

6- try to make it longer and longer every time

 

7- allways have the mentality that a sparr is a lesson try to learn and discuse the tactices with your friend.

 

I think if you have a good friend you can workout with , don't wory about the class sparring.

 

although point karate is fun and you can see the karate techniques in it.but full contact gives you a better idea about real fights and you may find it more like boxing than karate.

[P.A.L]

1-We have 7 Yakusoku (pre arranged kumite) we use it mostly for timeing and body conditioning it can get pretty rough and you get used to absorbe some punches.

 

2- 3 step kumite, attacker comes in with 3 techniques on his choice like a kick,a punch ,a kick, the defender can slide back one or two steps but gotta accept the last one and fight it back.

 

3- first 2 practice that "Cross" mentioned

 

then there are some tactics we follow you may find them right or wrong,like

 

1-We try not to step back ,we slide back

 

2- We try not step in ,we slide in

 

3- we try to turn opposite to the strong hand of opponent(rear hand)

 

4- we try to block punch with same hand in one move and over their hand

 

5- we kick low

 

some rules for full contact friendly matches

 

use glove and head gear and foot cover.

 

1- no kick to joints/groin

 

2- we let the opponet to recover from kick to the head

 

3- we stop chasing if 2-3 hit landed since in real fight 2-3 landed punch with bare hand is more than enough

 

4- let the fight go to the ground but stand up as quick as you can

 

5- don't apply chockes ,you can do locks.

 

6- try to make it longer and longer every time

 

7- allways have the mentality that a sparr is a lesson try to learn and discuse the tactices with your friend.

 

I think if you have a good friend you can workout with , don't wory about the class sparring.

 

although point karate is fun and you can see the karate techniques in it.but full contact gives you a better idea about real fights and you may find it more like boxing than karate.

[buddy]

even though in our style we do have pre arranged pairs, we tend not to use those techniques necessarily but have simple techniques

 

to relly on, such as a gyak on the spot, which are easy to score points on.

 

then we have slightly more effective attacking techniques like

 

tobi, front leg mawash

 

but usually we tend to stick to simple stuff.