Interesting day. Mike was out. Sam and I had an excellent forms workout, including taping of:
Dae Ryun, Kicho, Tae Geuk Sa Jang, Tae Geuk Oh Jang, Palgue Yuk Jang, and Koryo.
I will post something separately on the forms aspect of this.
Then Self-Defense:
After that, we did something I've wanted to do for a long time. We practiced fighting an untrained opponent. At least, we tried to do our best to seem untrained. I think I was a better untrained fighter than Sam. Go figure!
Anyway, it was a very interesting time. Sam seemed a little blown away by how different it was. As an attacker, my techniques were to try to tackle, and two punches: wide right haymaker, and wide left haymaker. I didn't try to grab as much as Sam did, but I should've tried to grab and punch him. I tried a couple of tackle/takedowns. Sam (as attacker) tried tackling, wide punches, and grabbing me.
The idea was to give the attacker the initiative and see what worked.
Summary of effective defenses and techniques that we tried:
Vs. Tackle: Angle off and push the attacker's head so that he careens to the side.
Vs. Right haymaker: duck under and attack from the side or behind.
Vs. Infighting: Dive position blocking, then grab attacker behind the neck and pull into the knee and elbows.
Stop-hit the wide shot with a jab: All the straight punches I threw worked pretty well when I could get in position to throw them. If you follow the quick hard jab with a follow-through right, I think this is when you could move into position for a throw. I want to work on that more. I told Sam that when I was throwing the jab, I was visualizing using either the jab to the nose, or a strike to the throat. Sam commented that this was very effective against him.
Leg-kicking: I tried it only a couple of times, but it seemed very effective. Sam commented that when he was throwing a right and I sidestepped and leg-kicked, that if I'd landed hard it would've taken him off his feet.
Grab and knee: We both used this to good effect. If an opponent is flailing with punches and wants to get inside, the best thing was to let him in, block his punches while clinching behind the neck, then repeatedly kneeing to the thighs, groin and midsection.
Lateral movement: Seems like just movement threw off the attacker quite a bit.
What didn't work:
The standard block, then counter: Problem was, when you block the first one, the second one is already on the way. The effect of the block is to stop your counter as well as the opponent's attack. In other words, it's a temporary stale-mate. Better to counter as a defense.
Moving straight back: This should be a no-brainer, 'cause it never works, but if you're back on your heels, you're gonna be gettin' hit.
Standing there and slugging it out: You may as well be untrained too, if you do this. It takes away all the advantages of your superior skill. Don't do this. Both of us had a lot of trouble when we stopped and just tried to duke it out.
Let's try this next time:
- Start out at close range. We don't like this because we don't have time to prepare. This could best be done with a third person to say, "Go!".
- Start out from a grab. Say you're pinned against the wall and about to be hit or just choked out. Again, have someone start us off.
- Versus a club or knife. This is going to take a lot of work. Sounds like fun.
- Sprawl versus a takedown/tackle attempt.
- Work throws and sweeps into the mix.
- Work the leg-kicks a lot more.
- Experiment with high-kicks.
- Work the backfist and spinning backfist into this.
- Start in a sitting, prone, or even grappling position.
Then Burn-Out Sparring
This was just for exercise. I was burned out already. I didn't pick up anything useful, or distinguish myself there in any way.
Sam, I want your feedback on this one ASAP, while it's still fresh in your mind. Please compose it on Monday, even if you have to do it offline, then email it to me to post.
-Nathan
