Sparring Tips!

Discussion in 'Tae Kwon Do Resources' started by TigerAnsTKDLove, Dec 31, 2003.

  1. hal-apino

    hal-apino New Member

    make sure you have good gear! Tekno is great. and a good mouth guard, invest in a custom fitted one,(helps your breathing) and start running every night you have to have great endurance. Eat Pasta the night before tournaments!
    If you’re a girl get a pedicure before every big tournament for good luck! Know who your fighting, watch them in forms competition usually those that score well in forms will be your toughest competition.
    And lastly, have fun! When you fight for fun you will be great! also invest in some good DVD's Tekno aso has a great line of DVD's and watch the top fighters. When your at the tournaments tape all the fights in your division as well as your own and watch them over and over you will learn a lot.
     
  2. neryo_tkd

    neryo_tkd Valued Member

    i'm sure you'll do some sparring at the club with your gear on, so don't worry, you'll get used to it.
     
  3. Counter

    Counter Train more. Train harder.

    Why not? If the beginner is paired with a more experienced fighter he can get taught the basics of sparring really fast. The higher belt goes easy on him and makes the beginner comfortable with actually kicking someone and getting some (minor) hits.. Like this, he immediately learns the basics of real sparring, what could it hurt, even if his technique is lacking skill?
     
  4. TJ StyLeZz

    TJ StyLeZz New Member


    Zzzz his technique in battle is what he gettin used to.
    If he kicks bad he will kick bad later...
    I think its good to introduce the sparring early so people will choose either if they want to spar or to do the technique :)
     
  5. Tommy-2guns...

    Tommy-2guns... southpaw glassjaw

    gloves up
    chin down
    keep moving

    remember the magic 3 and youll do alright. the rest is just practicing and perfecting,loosing and learning,winning and analysing why.
     
  6. neryo_tkd

    neryo_tkd Valued Member


    so it's the task of the higher belts to teach the lower belts?
     
  7. Counter

    Counter Train more. Train harder.

    I think it's the task of the higher belts to guide the lower belts according to what the instructor says.. Don't you all help eachother out during training? Don't you tell eachother what you do wrong during an exercise? The instructor can't possible see everything so that's why (at least at my school) we help eachother out. And in the case of lower belts, we help them by purposely leave gaps in our defence and give them the chance to fight back.
     
  8. neryo_tkd

    neryo_tkd Valued Member

    of course it's alright to help each other out, but now it's questionable if the one giving advice is giving the right one.
     
  9. Counter

    Counter Train more. Train harder.

    Well if our instructor tells the experienced fighter what to do (e.g.: show him/her how hard it his to actually connect a kick if the opponent is trying to dodge it).. The person the beginner is being paired with is always an experienced tournament fighter so he'll be able to teach and guide the beginner considering some basic sparring movements and rules.
     
  10. neryo_tkd

    neryo_tkd Valued Member

    maybe at your school, but there are certainly schools (as we could witness here as well) where that is not the case.
     
  11. Counter

    Counter Train more. Train harder.

    Do you mean that this is something that would not be allowed in other schools or that the beginners wouldn't be paired with EXPERIENCED people? i.e. do you mean this as a negative thing at our school or not :p
     
  12. TKDTraditional

    TKDTraditional Valued Member

    The routine I'm most familiar with--in a school that spars every class--is where everyone lines up with a partner of "adjacent rank", all the Black Belts at one end, all the lowest ranks at the other. After sparring, we rotate, the highest ranking student stays put. After several rounds, the Black Belts are sparring the beginners. Every class. Sometimes the Brown belts are the toughest to spar, sometimes it's the Black Belts. One thing that always seems to happen: Black Belts get their butts kicked--literally. White belts can't get their kicks up and Black Belts don't block very low. Result: Whack! You catch one in the bum!!

    In this school, every Black Belt teaches, usually one-on-one during whatever exercise the whole class is doing, and every advanced belt is an example.

    One of my instructor's great sayings is "It's OK to be frustrated when you spar anyone is this class but you should never be afraid to spar anyone in this class."
     
  13. kwang gae

    kwang gae 광개 Sidekick Specialist

    I suspect that a lot of schools would not be *always* pairing up experienced students with novices. For example our school is quite small, some classes we may have only 6 students. When it's time to spar we trade off so that everyone gets to spar everyone.

    Ideally a white belt can learn more from sparring a red or black belt than say another white belt. But in practice, it seems to me, that just the experience of sparring is valuable, even if the two students are novices. A good student will still take a positive away from that experience.
     
  14. kwang gae

    kwang gae 광개 Sidekick Specialist

    I don't know how I missed this thread until now :confused: but I'd like to add my own humble site to that list TKD-sparring.com. I hope some may find it helpful.
     
  15. Counter

    Counter Train more. Train harder.

    I think I didn't express myself very well there.. With beginners I meant people who are taking classes for less than a month, so really really really beginners. During that period they will be guided by a more experienced person, at least a few times. Neryo_tkd and me were discussing the usefulness of getting taught the basics by higher belts..
    I've taken a look at your website as well, looks good! You give insights on both ITF and WTF style taekwondo, respect!
     
  16. neryo_tkd

    neryo_tkd Valued Member


    there are schools in which there aren't (many) competitors (or not at all), or schools where there aren't many members to begin with.
     
  17. guobin2

    guobin2 Valued Member

    For me, sparring depends primarily on your range of movement and your reaction time.

    If you can't find an opening, you're going to have to create one. One move which I find quite useful is to spin, something like your standard 360 roundhouse or tornado kick, but instead of kicking you land. And spin again, around or towards the opponent. Spinning tends to confuse novices, or just people who aren't used to seeing a spin. It also helps to cover your movement- for example, when you're hammered into a corner and need to get out before being ringed out- spin your way around the opponent, preventing him from scoring as your movement.

    Always practise your counter-attack drills. That's where most of your points are going to come from, unless you're really good at faking or extremely quick at attacking. Jumping roundhouse, back thrust, back hook, are all some great counter kicks to be used. However, you need to be able to recognize the incoming kick and initiate your counter before the opponent strikes you, so that would depend on your reaction speed (which, of course, can be built up to mere milliseconds by reptitive drills which sorta burn the movement into your instincts :)).
     
  18. Counter

    Counter Train more. Train harder.

    Well yeah, but you have a sharp and fast opponent, it's kinda risky. In general, you give your opponent a chance to score the moment you turn your back to him, you can't see him. If you can anticipate on his next action really fast you can try it, but it's risky.
    You can also try to just switch, for instance from left front right rear to right front left rear. This will leave you less exposed than a full spin, but people will still try to take the chance to score when you switch. If you anticipate on that, you can make some nice counters. :)
     
  19. guobin2

    guobin2 Valued Member

    Hmm. Usually I try spinning quite close to the person if I'm using the spin to just move around, but yea, fast and sharp fighters could catch you in the back I suppose.
     
  20. Ty-00

    Ty-00 Valued Member

    I spar ITF style, but this still applies.

    1st time is a good shot
    2nd time is a habit
    3rd time is a mistake

    If someone hits you once you have to deal with it, if they do the same thing again you should know what to look for, you make them regret trying in a third time. Same thing applies to you, don't present a habit to your opponent, they will eventually pick up on it and make you pay. Rhythm is the same, look for it and time your shots but don’t fall into it yourself. It makes you easy to read because your rhythm will change as you prepare to attack and this gives the attack away. If you break up your rhythm you can disguise shots a lot better.
     

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