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This topic is also something that I have asked my instructors a lot. During a sparring match, there are times when you need to conserve your energy especially if you don't have a good stamina to last the whole match. The key is timing as in knowing when to attack and when to get away.
Good timing in attacks and counterattacks can help in conserving energy. To improve your timing, carefully observe your opponent's posture, stance, distance, habitual movements, and feints to gain an understanding of your opponent's attack methods and rhythms. Using variety of feints will create changes for attacks and induce attacks from your opponents. The more you know about your opponents, the better you will be able to time your attacks and counterattacks. So it is very important to develop the ability to read an opponent accurately.
Many new at sparring almost always ask the question - where to fix their sight during a sparring match. I know I have asked my instructors about this a lot when I first started. Should they look at the opponent's lower body in anticipation of a kick attack? Should they watch the eyes to get a sense of their fighting style? These questions show the importance of sight during a match.
Depending on the opponent, watch either the eyes or the attacking part of the lower body. Also, watch the posture and motion of the opponent. Reading movement in this way will help you discover your opponent's reaction. Excellent taekwondo athletes can see opponent's movements that occur in the periphery. They read muscular changes, make instant judgement, and react accordingly.
Today, I will be talking about agility and why it is important in taekwondo sparring. Agility is the ability of a fighter to control the body while maintaining power and speed. Step sparring is used to improve agility and reflexes. Other activities for improving agility are running in place, zigzag running, speed kicks, sideways running in small steps, paddle sparring, and sports such as soccer and basketball. Yes, you heard right, I said basketball. I actually been playing basketball to improve my own agility.
Without agility, effective attack and counterattack skills cannot be performed with speed. Agility is the ability to move quick, shift weights, and move back and forth and side to side as necessary in the ring. When an older athlete decide to compete in a younger age class (local tournaments), they are often surprise to find that their agility and and reaction times are somewhat slower than the agility and reaction time of their younger opponents. Agility and speed changes as athletes get older that is why there are different age divisions in a taekwondo sparring tournament.
The video above are drills to improve agility. It was demonstrated by master Sang H. Kim. For more information check out his video Ultimate Kicking Drills.
Lately we have been talking a lot about kicks that are useful in sparring. Today, we will be talking about warming up and stretching because it is very essential. Taekwondo sparring requires flexible actions of joints that may not be typical movements. An agile athletes can execute taekwondo attacks and counterattacks at a higher level of skill because the muscles and joints move smoothly. This flexibility, connected with explosive power, is vital for success in sparring match. Be careful of overstretching because muscle damage could result. As with aerobic conditioning, flexibility needs to be developed gradually to avoid injury.
Stretching raises body temperature before exercise, increasing the effectiveness of a workout while helping to protect against muscle injury. It is also important to stretch after exercise, when muscles and joints are loose, in order to improve flexibility.
Before stretching, a preparatory aerobic exercise such as jump rope, line drills, or no contact sparring should be performed. After the preparatory exercise, relax the muscles with stretching and then move on to the main practice. The main practice should begin at a simple level and progress to the more strenuous drills. Using gradual scale of exertion will help prevent injury. After finishing the main practice, cool down and stretch in order to return major muscle group to a rest state.
The video above are some stretching drills by Sang H. Kim. If your interested in learning more about taekwondo stretching you can check out the dvd below.
This past couple of weeks, I have been talking about all the kicks that are most often used in sparring. I will now talk about cut kick. The cut kick is very similar to a pushing kick. The cut kick is most often used to stop an opponent's forward motion, but it also can be used as a feint motion or to stop an opponent's attack. It is a good kick to use when initiating a combination kick such as cut-back kick, cut-hook kick, cut double round kick, cut tornado kick, and so on.
The basic technique is the same as for a pushing kick, only the body doesn't have a straightforward orientation. Cut kicks don't score points and generally are not used with striking force. The cut kick is not a true kick; it it could be considered as an air kick. It is mostly used in faking an action, as in raising the leg up in a cut action, or by planting or touching the foot on the opponent before executing a combination kick. The motion of a cut kick mimics other kicks and therefore can be used to fool the opponents about your intentions. It is usually targeted at the hips, trunk ribs or face.
The video above shows how to do a 360 cut-spin hook kick. I know this kick is complex to execute but its definitely beautiful to watch. Enjoy!
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