This thread is aimed at giving a wide range of secrets and tips for very effective point sparring matches. I've started us off with some of my strategies and "what to do if..." situations. Please feel free to give some feedback on my strategies or add your own. The biggest reason I'm making this thread is because I aim at improving all my skills in MA over the course of my summer vacation. I thought I'd start out with sparring, because that is one of the hardest to master, and because everyone can benefit from interacting in the thread. 1)The most effective combos I've seen in TKD/TSD are usually started with 1-3 kicks and end with some follow-up hand techniques. Your views? 2)What if you're faced with an opponent who is considerably bigger than you. Not nessesarily taller. More in terms of a 6 foot tall, 300 pound guy that looks like he'll pound you to dust. The best skill I've noticed for this situation is having a developed spinning back kick. Opponents like this usually tend to try and keep pushing you back into the corner of the ring, or out of it altogether. Another thing I've noticed is that they tend to keep their body faced toward you... perfect opening for a back kick. The two biggest tips I can give you on using a back kick on these behemoths is to make it fast, while still being able to see your target, and to put it into a straight line from the floor to the target. That is one of the biggest mistakes I see with the spinning back kick is most people will spin and bring their leg up into a chamber similar to a side kick, then push it out just like a side kick. With a person's leg swinging around them like that in their spin, you can see it a mile away and almost always take measures to prevent it's point. If you bring your back kick up straight from the ground, they can't even see it. It travels a shorter distance, making it quicker, and will almost always score if you perfect it. Keep this back kick tip in mind for any opponent. Only I found this strategy works best when you're faced with tanks. Any other strategies you guys would like to share? 3)Roundhouse kick, roundhouse kick, roundhouse kick... This is by far the most common kick I'll see thrown alone (no combo). Another thing i noticed is that people who almost exclusively throw this kick never score with it. Roundhouse kick is great when used in spinning kick combinations, but by itself is almost useless. My tip-If you're planning to throw a single roundhouse kick and that's all, forget it. It's a waste of energy and time. A skilled MA can counter and score on you almost instantaneously for 2 reasons: It's easy to block, and because they realize how much this wasteful kick is thrown in singles (usually by lower ranks, but I've seen Dans do this quite often also). 4)Know your opponents. Watch them carefully and notice their patterns and weaknesses. If you're at a tournament and have never seen this person before, and luck has you placed in the first match against each other then improvise. I would try a small variety of different techniques and basic combos for the first 40 seconds. Watch carefully and see how he reacts to them, and if and when he strikes. Look for openings and blind spots. Anything you can notice as a weakness can usually be effectively exploited against him. After this beginning period has ended, use the rest of the time scoring points and blocking the combos you've seen so far, but always be ready for a suprise if you've never seen this person before. And also be very self-aware. If he's experienced, he'll be watching for your weak points too. 5)What to do when faced with a tall opponent, or one with a considerably longer reach than yours'. The best tip I can give is to get in on him. His longer reach is useless if you're too close for it to make any difference. This is where highly developed and fast hands come in handy. If at all possible, don't get out of your own reach, you can think of this as the 'kill zone' for fighters like this. They love it. Some may contradict that this plan gives you no chance to plan if you're always in his face attacking in a flurry. Well, every tournament has a brief period where they tell you to stop fighting while the judges give their call. Don't rest or even pay attention to what they say, just plan your next set of hand combos. Any thoughts about this strategy? 6)Very fast opponents are deadly and can often win entire tournaments based simply on their quickness alone. The only tip I can give you is don't slow down, speed up! Also search for any weaknesses they might have. Speed point scorers often will depend on a single fast move to score a point, if they do this, use your combinations and you should be able to overwhelm him overall. And if he uses combinations and doesn't have any apparent weak points, just move as fast as you can and do your best. Once in a while, you'll come across a fast fighter with no weak points, uses combos, and leaves little open to be scored upon. Fighters like this will seem better than you in many ways, but don't get discouraged. Fight your best, and there's still a chance you'll win. 7)Combinations are your best friend. Learning to use them effectively will win a great number of matches for you. If you throw a flurry of 3-15 techniques at your opponent with no seeming end, you will almost always score with at least one of them. Don't stop when you've gotten a point, keep going until the judge calls break. A good hand combination to follow up some kicks that I use is backfist, punch, ridgehand. You alternate hands every technique and face them the whole time. You can keep this combo going forever with no pauses. For example, you backfist with your right hand, punch to the body with your left, then ridgehand to their head with your right hand again. After your ridge hand you do the exact same combo except backwards. since your right hand is out with the ridgehand, you immediately use your left hand to do a backfist to the same side of their head while pulling your right hand back to the chamber. Visualize it, and you can get it. It's hard to describe in words, but just visualize. I look forward to hearing your sparring combinations. 8evelop good defense. If the opponent can't even score a single point on you due to a lightning-fast defense, you only need to score once! True, it's impossible to develop a 100% perfect way to defend any technique or combo, but you get my point in seeing that a strong defense can make a match much easier to win, because you don't have to score as much yourself. It's like Baseball. If your team has a great offense and you score 10 points every game, but always lose because your pitching is terrible and the opposing team scores 20 points, you can realize the point. 9)Walk away from every match having learned something. If an opponent scored on you 2 or 3 times with the same technique to the same spot, realize why. Think about what you did wrong, and how you can improve it. Well, there you have it. That's about the entire depth of my 7 years of point sparring experience. Are there any beneficial strategies, or personal/secret combos that you have and would like to share? I've givin my knowledge, now add to it with yours'
damn man the only thing i can say is damn!! that was pretty helpful..........but i need a partner.....then i can develop combos and things......i have zero combos............ well that was really helpful thanks alot for typing that!
About what you said in 1). I to think the best techniques start with kicks. Some of my favorites are roundhouse kick to backfist to reverse punch. Techniques like these keep your opponent on defense which in turn keeps them from attacking you.
I am currently working on using my hands more and I haven't found a good technique that uses the ridgehand effectively do you have any heplful info?
the best ridgehand attack I have learned (in 9 months of kenpo) is a rising strike to the groin. that's probably not helpful for point sparring, though. We also do a drill featuring a ridge-hand strike, and althoguht I haven;t tried it sparring, it might be effective : attacker right foot forward throws a rigth roundhouse.you block with a left knife-hand to the forearm or wrist, while stepping in with your right foot, then follow up with a rising right ridge-hand to the heart meridian on the attacking tricep. (I hope I got that meridian right :/ it is heart? ) attacker steps back with right foot, repeat drill with left side, alternating until we cross the floor, then switch attacker. You gotta be careful and not over-stimulate those points in practice tho...
keep on your toes and never have your legs locked out ie dont stand up with ur legs straight bend them a bit, always keeps me ready so i can pounce on them and riddle them with punches and kicks . also when you hit try and get another one in quikley, 2 will hurt more than 1. in compitition punch hard, it will make them more scared to try anything. this is all from my experience in point stop. others may not agree but it certanly works for me
All very valid points, and a very helpful topic Psicop. I'm 6'2" and quite big built from previous years of weight training (NO STEROIDS!!) so although I have powerful techniques, I tend to be a bit slower than smaller guys. Great advice on the hand combos as I tend to slack from that aspect in sparring. Certainly worth trying out against those long legged buggers. Cheers!!
Very good tips! Thanks for those I have a point sparring contest on Saturday, against people who going to be far better than me (brown and black belts .. argh!) so this is pretty useful
awesome tips! I'll be sure to put them to use... I'm gonna suggest this link to some friends. I have difficulty with combos and mostly with any kick in which my back faces my opponent. Just doesn't make me seem comfortable. My favorite combo is just a simple jump front kick followed by 2 quick jabs and possibly a side kick. I'm big enough that anytime I leave the ground people will take notice, usually comes unexpectedly also...
This ones for BlackBeltCookie, I'm about 6'1 and I have found that using my long reach against smaller guys is very effective. i.e. every time a smaller, sometimes faster, guy tries to make a move, I stick that side kick out there. After about two or three times he starts thinking twice about coming in on me leaving me free to attack him by taking away his speed.
I usually don't start out with a kick (too easy to catch/counter). if i'm going to start out with a kick, i find it most effective to fake with a hand technique first, or fake so their timing is flawed. Other than that, fake jab to the face low reverse punch works, fake front kick to face level jab or reverse punch. Combos are limitless.
although kicks are easily countered by most people, if you throw it in a unorthodox way it really catches people off guard. For example, by faking a side kick to the mid section then following up with a roundhouse to the head most people would bite for the side kick and get hit with the roundhouse.
i suck at sparring =( hey, i started karate/taekwondo mix about june of this year. and i am really bad at sparring. yesterday, i had this shorter girl practically beat the crap out of me cuz i barely have any sparring experience. she was a green belt, me an orange 3rd... i suspect she has had lots of experience. i was taller than her, and i don't really like kicking girls lol... cuz you can't get out all the speed yet keeping it light. anyway... can you give me a few techniques, actual beginner combinations i could use? thanks... and yes, i am a guy... :cry:
Welcome to MAP Firstly, the thing about kicking girls... we don't mind, get over it quick, before we take advantage and kick your butt (j/k) If you've only been doing the style a few months, you're still very much learning. Rather than try and beat a higher grade, watch them and see what you can learn. Don't be afraid to ask them questions, or to take advice if they offer it. Stick to the basic techniques, reverse punch, back fist, roundhouse kick, whatever your taught. They usually work best anyway. Better to have 4 good techniques than 10 average ones.
trapping hands in point sparring?? Hey all. I've observed that a lot of the times point-sparring becomes a simple kickboxing match.. as I don't fancy myself to be much of a boxer.. I was curious if anyone has observed trapping/sticking hands techniques to be effective in a tournament fight..on the offense or defense..
some good tips posted by all...i thought i'd add my 2 cents a lot of what has been posted in this thread talks about what attacks to use (singular and combinations), ranges at which to fight, but i thought i'd add in some stuff about timing... in sparring (or if you ever get into a fight in the street), timing is everything! you may know more techniques than your opponent and you may be able to execute each one (or ocmbination) better than them, but if you can time when to make an attack, you may find yourself leaving the door open for your opponent to counter-strike i've sparred a lot and in my time, i've noticed a lot of people tend to wait until their opponent have completed a technique before returning with a counterstrike or they strike to early and get taken out half way through or at the end of the attack so here are my tips (i will assume the opponent is doing a single attack, but you can apply these tips for their combo attacks too): 1. if your opponent attacks with a roundhouse kick, then you chance to attack them before they get to strike you is when they begin the kick - as they are lifting their leg. here they have commited to lifting their left to kick and it's very hard for them to suddenly change and try to defend your attack. 1.2. if you can't attack at that point, try side stepping (or step back) and let their kick miss you and just as they are about to put their foot back onto the floor/ground (about 5 cm above the ground), you can attack for the similar reason that they have committed to finishing their kick and getting back into a fighting stance, it's hard for them to change directions back for another kick or to defend yours. if you attack after their kick while their foot is still high, they have the opportunity to execute another attack practice, practice, practice - you will need to get a feel for when if the best time for you and to get your reflexes fast - if you attack too early or too late they will realise and adjust themselves or you'll get hit other tips would include range and faking. after you see patterns in your opponents choice of techniques, etc, you maybe able to get an idea in your own mind of how they will respond to one of your attacks eg. if everytime your opponent counters with a back kick when you attack with a roundhouse kick...the next time you could: 1. do your roundhouse kick and instead of stepping back afterwards, step to the side and up close to them, their back kick will pass right by you and then you have the perfect chance to attack again 2. fake a roundhouse kick (which triggers your opponent to back kick) then stepping forward execute a counter to their back kick by getting too close to your oppoent, it is hard for them to attack and by faking, you can trigger them to attack in which you have already thought about possible counters for... lastly for now, practice in your classes, mistakes in your classes won't hurt, but it's a different story when you make mistakes in a tournament
"but if you can time when to make an attack, you may find yourself " should be "but if you can't time when to make an attack, you may find yourself "
