SO last week when I got the pictures of me and Pete sparring, my daughter took some video too, and I hmmed and haawwed about posting but what the heck. This is I would say medium contact between me and pete, there is only a couple good hits on the video here and you can probably pick them out, note also that we are not out to kill eachother or knock eachother out, he is basically coaching me a bit for the tounament I am taking part in on the 25th of march. Like always I'm open to comments and constructive critsism. Though simply stupid remarks seem to be way down lately so I doubt I have to worry about trolls too much. A lot of people in our club where the head gear when they spar, I don't like it, and I find I don't 'learn' as much because you don't feel it as much when you get hit, the week before this video me and pete sparred in the same fashion and in the first 5 minutes I had my bell rung twice, then I realized I need to keep my hands up higher, a lesson I likely would not have learned with the foam helmet thingy on, or sparring with someone who would have been 'afraid' to clock me Also 10 points for anyone who can name the movie the music is from. http://home.cogeco.ca/~smashbrosmelee/chrisvspetehigh.wmv
As a bit of constructive criticism, neither of you punched in a straight line in that video. Your punches were sweeping upwards in an arc so that a lot of the energy was dissipating in a upwards direction. Also, the other guy needs to work on not leaning as he punches as he was leaving his head pretty open and at one point his face was hovering dangerously near your knee!
Watch your guard is the main thing I spotted don't drop the back arm thus leaving your body open when front punching. Getting lower in your stance and bending the front knee forward whilst twisting for the reverse punch aswell will help you stop the leaning, drop your weight down rather than leaning onto your front foot to get the distance. Good kick speed though mate you a few of them up quite quickly. Epec the step ones toward the end.
Something to add real quick is that this video is 1 minute of about 20 minutes spent smacking eachother around. I'm sure there was some straight punches in there somewhere very good points all 'round though, the leaning forward is something i'm really trying to fix, I was doing way more of it the week before, reaching way out for the last punch in a sequence kind of thing, so it's getting better.
You were attacking from too far away. For the attacks you landed, you were at full extension and only just touching him. You had quite a few fall short. Your guard looks good until you throw a punch - keep your non punching hand up and in front you, dont let it flop away. The kicks looked good, and youre fairly quick. Good luck for your tournament
Seriously.........this is VERY important, especially when dealing with someone who kicks with thier shins and follows through.
3 words: Practice, Practice, Practice! Your punches weren't the best, your kicks were lacking speed from what I could see. Granted you were only light sparring, but still! P.S. I know I'll most llikely get flamed for this
Did more sparring today after class, which was at 10am so some of the later remarks were not made yet... I did try for more straight punches, and hit with a few they also set up a ridgehand or back fist strike quite well as long as you keep mixing them up. Also I was usually getting in much closer so as to not stretch so far out to make contact, it made a big difference in a few ways, like I could have been hitting a lot harder obviously because I wasn't reaching so far, but was aslo forcing him to back peddle and giving me more and more opourunities to strike continuosly. As for the guard, I only took one shot to the head today.. slow learner and all that lol so it's getting better, though if I'm throwing 3 or 4 strikes at a time the guard tends to get lower as that sequence goes... so hopefully that keeps getting better. Ikken and AAAhmed46 - blocking kicks with hands -> yeah, I very much see your point, especially if people were trying to kick through me, I can't really say wheather or not I do it often. learning to punch - A) I have -however B)it needs work in a sparring type situation no doubt, and it's getting the attention it needs, no worries. - not everything getting thrown is intended to be a 'punch' per se though too Andy - Practice it the word of the month for sure, before and after each class I have been practicing sparring, and getting pointers and such from the people in the club and all that and some good stuff here. Practicing sparring will likely continue after the tourney as well though too, it's fun. I'm not even going to bother with the rest of what you said.
you and your friend have very good side kicks, used them more, and if possible speed them up. a girl at my dojo, "cuts"you in half with side kicks.
try moving forward when you jab. i know karate doesnt really have a jab in a boxing sense but no matter what style you do, a good jab is vital. doesnt have to be the strongest punch, just to get their attention. when you stand in front of your opponent, both of you stretch out your lead hand. move back so that both of you with arms fully extended just touch gloves. this is where you want to be able to launch and hit with a jab from, one explosive movement covering lots of ground. the way we practice this is to do what i said above but with padwork, and check your distance every now and then. so you explode in with the jab, throw the combination, move back out. you might want to check your footwork a bit too, try not to "walk" so much. push off with your rear leg when you want to move forward, push off with your front leg when you want to move backward. if you want to go left, push off with your right. doing this you can incorporate the punches while you are moving which is a lot harder to do well if you are stepping.
This is a common technique in karate (called kizame-tsuki) - and it is definitely a good one to work on!
Thanks Samurai Man! New guy, I am in the blue gi top, pete is in all white.... And yes It is from Kung Fu Hustle. Ikken - that is exactly what I was doing yesterday morning to a much greater degree of success, I'll have to take moosey word for it on the japanese name we'd call it a initial step jab... things like coming in with a straight initial step jab, then a reverse to the mid section, then maybe a ridge hand with the jab hand and a side kick off the back leg to drive the guy out of the ring. Or first come with a lunging round kick as the opener sometimes(and other stuff as well).. One thing we found is that I tend to get into patterns when something is having some success, that is what lead to me getting pretty well nailed yesterday, I did nearly the same thing a couple times in a row and on the third I got plowed... If I have video of the first time we did this a few weeks ago and video of yesterday you'd really see a difference I think... maybe I'll get some more tomorrow. Thanks again for the helpful input guys.
not to highjack the thread (i will put this somewhere else if you want), but in the spirit of putting up clips for constructive criticism here is a light spar between myslef and a friend: http://www.savefile.com/files/1984122 i am the one that uses the knee strikes near the beginning, apologies for the quality, but it was recorded on a phone... anyway see what you think, and critque welcome, flame or otherwise ;D
you're probably right... but to be honest i do try to go for a 'shoulder - knee' alignment , rather than 'shoulder -hip' (like muay thai). I find that being to straight leaves you too exposed for takedowns and throws... aswell as making it harder to perform them yourself without telegraphing... saying that I have probably ended up going too far that way and need to find a balance
You pwned him! I didnt think you were leaning too much, but the other guy was. Nice kicks, especially the thigh smashes. Things to work on (?) - You were stopping all the jodan punchs with your arms, there was not much head movement on defence. The opponent didnt try any chudan or leg kicks off his jab, but it might have been a good idea. And same as Chris - your rear hand was falling away as you jab, I think because you weren't close enough, so youre stretching to hit him. The other guy ran away for the whole match so it didnt matter.
