| I have used controlled boxing and progressive sparring drills over
the years and have found them excellent ways to:
- Make training more enjoyable
- Work the timing and execution of techniques in situations
approximating real or tournament confrontation without there
being actual real confrontation
- Allow a practioner to experience the potentials and limits of
techniques and strategies
- *Gradually* move one toward more demanding scenario's whether
it be competiton or just having to deal with an ever increasing
load of combative factors
- Employ a feedback mechanism to help one (or ones coach) determine
what needs more isolation and work or whether one is ready to move
on to handling more factors and intensity
Some limited examples of elementary drills
Role A Role B
Lead Jab only Parries, slips, stops, gates, line stealing,
evasive footwork and angling - no counter
allowed - goal here is to perfect
defense's to lead hand strikes on the move
In this drill role B controls intensity
Lead Jab only Slips to counters - counters can take form of
hooks to body/head (outside slips) or
straight power hand (rear most hand) to
body followed by lead hand hook to head
(inside slips) If kickboxing counter kicks
may be introduced as well. Note: Role B player
must be trained to watch out for power hand
when doing inside slips: line steal or stop
may help here
The primary goal here is to 'ground' in
the counterattacking skillset under dynamic
conditions.
In this drill role b controls intensity
Lead Jab and straight Boxing defenses such as listed above
power hand and differing patterns of footwork
- Role B player is coached to explore
the effect of varying footwork
Some of the goals here include basic
defenses on the move as well as discovering
how one can use movement to neutralize or
make mechanically slower an offensive
weapon (circle toward lead hand and note
effect on power hand)
This list of drills can go on and on incorporating more and more
factors and skill targets - the preceding were just a limited
example subset.
One should wear the appropriate level of safety equipment for any
drill.
Some good sources for controlled progressive sparring drills
would include;
Title Author/Publisher
U.S. Navy Boxing - U.S. Naval Institute
Tao of Jeet Kune Do - Bruce Lee Ohara Publications
Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do The Textbook - Chris Kent and Tim Tackett
Know Now Publishing company
Jeet Kune Do Kickboxing same as above
Kaman Muay Thai Kickboxing Video's - Panther Productions
see note 199.33
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| Shadowboxing, done properly, is an excellent training drill.
It helps to ground fluid execution of techniques, promotes
non thinking execution of same and can be used as a cardio-vascular
conditioner of sorts.
Introducing 'themes' into the practise helps make it more interesting
and focused as a training tool.
For instance:
Theme: Standard boxing warmup enhancer. Move around lightly
just after the general warmup period and finish off
with more specific preparation of the muscles that
will actually be used in the upcoming lesson.
Theme: Defensive patterns - While moving with multi directional
footwork patterns use the slips, parries, stops, gates,
bob and weaves (or their equivalents in your style)
to ground in defensive patterns - try to use as much
imagination as possible in experiencing the attacks
Theme: Closing/Transitioning range - straight job - power cross -
lead hook knee and elbow finish is only one example set
for this theme - find what your style deems appropriate.
Theme: Close range - Knee, elbow, head butt, uppercut, hooks
and whatever your style defines as close range techniques.
Theme: Retreating weapons - here the emphasis is on execution of
techniques while employing retreating footwork patterns.
To be able to fight and be effective while moving backwards
(straight back but mostly circular) is a very valuable skill.
Theme: Broken rhythm - Vary the speed or beat time for the execution
of a select group of techniques.
Theme: Indirect attack patterns - execute techniques after various
faking patterns used by your style.
..............and on and on
Final Caveats
It's good to have a coach watching for bad habits or to have an
other student watch and be trained to spot bad habits.
You can add a conditioning element by wearing a snug weighted vest.
The coach can call out themes and vary them to really challenge
participants.
Vary the speed or intensity as is appropriate - Chuck Norris
describes a graduated speed drilling plan in his "Winning Tournament
Karate" book which is very interesting within this context.
This is not Kata or Hyung (which are also excellent training tools)
but more free form in nature. If your experience is more traditional
this may be a difficult transition.
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Chuck Norris describes in his 'Winning Tournament Katate'
what he call graduated speed drills. I found it to be
an amazing formula - applicable to almost any style -
for learning, grounding and getting techniques up to
competition speed (or street speed?).
A) Slow speed - Like Tai Chi motion or even slower
B) Half speed - Like a shadowbox warmup enhancer speed
C) Full speed - While taking pains to keep good technique
D) Red Line - Faster and sacrificing a little off technique
E) mixed - obvious
There's a lot of in guidance given for each speed component
and I highly reccomend the book and the method. This inexpensive
book is loaded with drills, beyond the one mentioned, which I believe
Karate or Kung (Gung) Fu people would find very interesting -
especially if they're experiencing frustrations in sparring and
tournaments.
Again: Winning Tournament Karate - Chuck Norris - Ohara Publications.
Don
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