A Flurry of Fast Techniques and Counters ... Don't Believe it!
I don't know the classical term for the exercise I am about to describe ...
When I was in both Tae Kwon Do and Shotokan we did one-step sparring, but we also did a more advanced form.
You stood facing your partner. Your partner punched. You responded with a block and then one or two punches. That was the one-step version.
Eventually, this progressed into a more complicated form of the exercise.
You still stood facing each other. Someone punched. The person blocked and then punched -- but then it continued. Block- punch, block-punch, block-punch.
Trading techniques with the opponent in front of you was impressive.
It looked fast.
And I developed confidence. No matter what was thrown at me, I could block -- and I had a response punch that thrust forward without thought.
And I could defend against a series of punches by my attacker.
We would trade -- in my mind.
One of the problems -- the one I am going to discuss today -- was distance.
In this "multi"-step sparring, we stood at a fixed distance from our partners. The punches were 'pulled' in front of the face. The punches didn't actually reach the face.
And this becomes a problem. You learn a false range. You don't have the right sense of distance to reach an opponent in a real fight. You think you can defend against anything, when you are really only learning to defend against 'the familiar.'
The next time you face someone for one-step or multi-response sparring, get a little closer. Face off at your normal distance.
Now, close the distance by a few inches. maybe one step closer.
Ok, time for the multi-step sparring.
If you feel cramped, what are you going to do about it?
You have to do something. In real-life attacks, the fighters do close distance.
Get comfortable at the new, closer distance.
Then ...
get a couple of inches closer and continue practicing.
In fact, challenge the distance ...
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