Effective Taekwon-Do Sparring E-Book

Jim Hogan

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

If you are a typical student of Taekwond-Do, or any other other martial art that practises semi-free, continuous sparring, then this book is for you. Written specifically for club-level martial artists, Effective Taekwon-Do Sparring bridges the gap between the wider Taekwon-Do syllabus and the particular demands of sparring. In order to do this, the authors go right back to basics. The fundamentals of stance, movement and defence are analysed in detail and significantly adapted for the sparring arena. Core attacking techniques are reviewed and, if necessary, modified in order to improve their effectiveness in typical sparring scenarios. Finally, basic elements of sparring strategy such as assessing opponents, creating openings, effective combinations and counter-attacks are examined.Based on Master Hogan's decades of competition and teaching experience, the book offers club-level martial artists a unique insight into the principles underpinning today's top international fighters, and encourages them to use that insight to analyse and improve every aspect of their own sparring. Aimed at Taekwond-Do practictioners and martial artists of any level of sparring ability and confidence.This book will be informative, challenging and thought-provoking through a combination of detailed explanations and practical exercises.Written for club-level martial artists it offers a unique insight into the principles underpinning todays top international fighters.Superbly illustrated with 603 colour photographs.Master Jim Hogan is an internationally renowned Taekwon-Do instructor, holds a 7th degree black belt and has decades of competition and teaching experience.James Home is a 4th degree black belt in Taekwon-Do and assistant instructor of Master Jim Hogan.

Leseprobe

Copyright

First published in 2009 by The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book edition first published in 2013

© Jim Hogan and James Home 2009

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

ISBN 978 1 84797 499 0

Disclaimer Please note that the authors and the publisher of this e-book are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any damage or injury of any kind that may result from practising, or applying, the principles, ideas, techniques and/or following the instructions/information described in this publication. Since the physical activities described in this e-book may be too strenuous in nature for some readers to engage in safely, it is essential that a doctor be consulted before undertaking any training or sparring.

All the photographs in this e-book were taken by Tim J. Rumble of Britannia Photographic Ltd.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Preface

1 Introduction

Part I Fundamentals

2 Sparring Basics

3 Stance

4 Guard

5 Movement

6 Defence

Part II Core Techniques

7 Hand Techniques

8 Lead-Leg Kicks

9 Rear-Leg Kicks

10 Jumping Kicks

Part III Strategy

11 Your Opponent

12 Creating Openings

13 Attacking Combinations

14 Counter-Attacking

Index

Preface

Some people love to fight – they revel in the excitement of meeting new opponents, testing themselves against more skilled fighters, taking risks to score with a winning technique … and some people don’t. For some, free sparring is an anxious experience, perhaps they just aren’t that competitive or perhaps they fear injury, but whatever the reason, they are uncomfortable in a sparring situation and their anxiety constrains their performance. This book addresses both groups. If you are an enthusiastic fighter but perhaps aren’t winning as often or as well as you would like, then maybe you need to fight smarter. If you lack confidence and find yourself ‘freezing’ then you probably need to be more in control of yourself and your opponent.

The starting point for this book is the recognition that sparring is not merely an extension of what you learn standing in line in class at your martial arts club. Yes, it is built on the blocking, punching and kicking techniques in the formal syllabus but these fundamentals need to be adapted for the sparring arena. This book seeks to help club-level fighters in Taekwon-Do and other similar martial arts to think about their sparring in more detail, to make those adaptations and thereby make their sparring more effective.

Master Jim Hogan, VII Degree James Home, IV Degree

1 Introduction

The Need for this Book

Taekwon-Do, like most Asian martial arts, has many aspects that attract students for many different reasons. Some are drawn to the physical training, some to the perfection of martial techniques, some to the wider moral and ethical principles of self-discipline, self-improvement and mutual respect … and some to fighting. But for whatever reasons people come to it, Taekwon-Do exists and prospers as a self-defence art and every aspect of Taekwon-Do training relates back to this core purpose: effective self-defence. The role of sparring in pursuit of this goal is therefore crucial since it provides the best test of how effective techniques are for individual students in realistic (yet controlled) combat. Or at least that is what it should be – in practice, sparring often falls far short of this goal because many people find it difficult to transfer the techniques that they have learnt ‘formally’ in class into the sparring arena.

Why should this be? Two reasons: first, there is a difference between how to perform, for example, a powerful side kick that can break through boards of wood as part of a grade promotion test and how to deliver a fast, deceptive side kick that can sneak in under an opponent’s guard. The former requires an understanding of how to generate maximum penetrative power against a static target, while the latter is more concerned with how to seize a fleeting opportunity against a moving target. Both are valid and, indeed, the ‘formal’ understanding is a prerequisite for the practical application, but they are nonetheless different and require different approaches in their teaching. While there is an ‘ideal’, technical side kick that everyone can aspire to when performing the technique in isolation, multiple variables come into play when sparring – each individual needs both to develop a personal style that best suits him and then to adapt that to rapidly changing circumstances. This is not something that an instructor can teach a class of students all at the same time; he can show examples, for instance, of sparring combinations and criticize students’ sparring performances, but, ultimately, individuals must take responsibility for applying what they learn in their sparring. And that is one of the goals of the book: to get you, the reader, thinking about how you fight more deeply than you may have done in the past and to use this analysis to constantly refine and improve your sparring.

Secondly, while the above describes a need for a process there is also a need for content. The fundamentals on which effective sparring is based differ significantly from the formal syllabus of Taekwon-Do and other similar martial arts. Basics such as stance, guard and movement need to be revisited and adapted; this book tries to set down in some detail what fundamentals you need to change and why.

In addressing these two needs the book does not seek to provide a comprehensive manual on the myriad aspects of sparring, rather it seeks to offer a framework that you can use to improve your sparring by making it more effective.

Who Should Read It?

The book is aimed squarely at the beginner to intermediate-level martial artist who trains at his local club and possibly enters local and national competitions. While it may be of value to more experienced fighters, with its strong emphasis on fundamentals the book’s primary focus is on the club-level martial artist who is conscious of that gap between his performance in class and when he is sparring.

It is written from the perspective of Taekwon-Do as taught by the ITF (International Taekwon-Do Federation). Taekwon-Do is a Korean self-defence art created some fifty years ago and is now one of the world’s most popular martial arts, that practises continuous, semi-free sparring where both hand and foot techniques can be applied to legitimate targets ‘above the belt’. Under this regime, fighters are free to kick and punch (with a degree of control and while wearing protective gloves and footwear) to the head and the body until they are stopped by the referee due to some infringement of the rules or the end of a round. Since this format, with slight variations, is shared by other martial arts, this book is therefore equally applicable to students of, for instance, karate, kung fu and kickboxing, as it is to those of ITF Taekwon-Do.

The Structure of the Book

The book is divided into three sections that reflect the authors’ view of the progressive nature of the teaching of sparring.

Part I Fundamentals

The bedrock of effective sparring is correct body positioning and footwork, and these are broken down into the core components of stance, guard and movement. The importance of these elements cannot be emphasized enough and they are covered in considerable detail before they are brought together in one of the most neglected aspects of sparring: defence. Again, defence is covered in some detail to reinforce its importance and to try to get you to put it at the heart of your sparring.

Part II Core Techniques

What makes a particular technique effective in sparring? How is it best adapted from the class to the ring? How can you train to improve your technique? This section answers these and related questions by examining some core techniques in all of the major categories (that is, hand techniques, lead-leg kicks, rear-leg kicks and jumping kicks) and providing training drills to help you to develop them. The use of sparring drills is key to your future progress because it is the most effective way to refine sparring techniques: by using those provided as a template you can go on to develop your own drills for your specific needs.

Part III Strategy

This final section looks at some of the more strategic aspects of sparring, such as how to assess your opponent, how to create openings, effective attacking combinations and counter-attacks.

Each section is divided into chapters that each cover a single topic, such as stance, jumping kicks and creating openings, and, within each chapter, photographs of the authors are used extensively to illustrate techniques in some detail. These photographs are your principal study aid because they (generally) show the performance of a technique from start to finish, allowing you to study the body position and footwork leading up to the technique. This is of particular importance given the strong emphasis placed on these fundamentals throughout and, where necessary, a red marker has been used as a fixed point in a series of photographs the better to illustrate the distance travelled and the direction being followed.

How to Use this Book

Each section is dependent on a good understanding of its predecessor (and, in the case of the first section, of each chapter) and you will therefore get the most out of it by tackling it strictly in the order in which it is presented.

As you approach each new topic, try not to be in too much of a hurry and try to ‘realize’ the points made rather than just to read them. This ‘realization’ is necessary because, from your current standpoint, you may not agree with many of the arguments made, for example, in the case of stance. If you have been training and sparring for a couple of years you will be used to working off your own stance and may not initially see that there is any need to change it. But we hope that you will find the arguments for a change of stance persuasive after you have considered them, but even this is not enough. If you are going to make fundamental changes to your sparring style then you need truly to believe the reasons behind them and you must therefore experience some actual improvement by changing your stance. The effort of reading is only the start – you must not only practise the technique until you can perform it adequately, but you must also use it in your sparring sufficiently to be able to recognize it as an improvement or otherwise.

Ultimately, sparring style is personal and you should use the book to make your own style more effective by a process of development rather than revolution. Take your time with the book, think about the points it makes, try them out, play around with them and then incorporate what works for you.

Part I

Fundamentals

The foundation of effective Taekwon-Do sparring is the same as that of the martial art of which it is a part – strong basics – and there are two core elements upon which everything else rests: a good defence and correct movement. We cannot emphasize the importance of these fundamentals strongly enough, and we have presented them here in particular detail, not merely to help you to learn about stance, guard, movement and defence but so that you may properly grasp their importance and put them at the heart of your sparring.

2 Sparring Basics

Before you even consider ‘how’ to spar more effectively it is essential that you have a clear view of what you are trying to achieve. Why? Because many students set themselves unrealistic goals; it is not about turning yourself into a martial arts superhero but making the best use of your abilities in a clearly defined and controlled set of circumstances. Your starting point must therefore be the rules and boundaries of free sparring that dictate your core objectives and the strategies that you must adopt to achieve them.

Style

Taekwon-Do, like an increasing number of more ‘traditional’ martial arts, practises semi-contact, continuous, free sparring. Semi-contact is a term used essentially to distinguish normal club and competition sparring from ‘full-contact’ sparring where techniques are executed at full power with the ultimate goal of incapacitating your opponent. While there is much to be said for the full-contact regime as a sterner and perhaps more realistic test of martial arts skills, with its intense physical demands and increased risk of injury, it is not appropriate for the majority of martial artists. Equally, while ‘no-contact’ or ‘touch’ sparring, where techniques stop just short of the target making no or only very light contact, can be very skilful and dynamic when performed at a high level, for most martial artists it lacks realism. Semi-contact is therefore a compromise between these two extremes, where the maximum amount of realism is achieved with the minimum risk of injury, and in Taekwon-Do sparring an effective technique (and one that will ‘score’) is therefore defined as one that is:

executed correctly at the appropriate distancedynamic with speed, power and accuracycontrolled and executed at a valid target

These definitions are, of course, open to some interpretation. Yet they are worth thinking over so that they become your goal and so that you try to deliver proper Taekwon-Do techniques with as much speed and power as you can while still being able to control their final impact and avoid injuring your opponent. In practice, it is difficult to get those ‘clean shots’, but this should be your aim since these would be the most effective techniques were they delivered at full power in a real self-defence situation and, in any case, competition judges will score them much more readily than flurries of unfocused kicks and punches.

Continuous sparring means that the fight continues without interruption unless the referee intervenes because of some infraction of the rules or it is the end of the round. This differs significantly from the ‘single-point’ sparring practised by some martial arts, such as more traditional styles of Karate where the fight is stopped if a point is scored. Again, much can be said for single-point sparring and, in particular, the way that it encourages great accuracy and fast counter-attacking skills – both aspects that can usefully be incorporated into Taekwon-Do sparring. However, a ‘sudden-death’ regime requires a very different approach from continuous sparring where your strategy needs to encompass the full duration of each round (usually one or two 2min rounds in Taekwon-Do), and where pace and defence become important considerations.

Finally, free sparring is a relative term in that, although there are rules regarding, for instance, the levels of contact and allowable target areas (see below), fighters should be able to draw upon the full range of techniques in their armoury. This is particularly the case in Taekwon-Do with its strong emphasis on aerial techniques that can be challenging enough to execute correctly in class, let alone when sparring. So in order to encourage fighters to demonstrate their proficiency in Taekwon-Do and not just rely on ‘basic’ scoring techniques, more points are awarded for jumping attacks resulting in fighters using a wider range of techniques, which, in turn, makes Taekwon-Do sparring so exciting to participate in and to watch.

Rules

Within this semi-contact, continuous, free-sparring style there are relatively few rules that the competitor must follow.

Clothing and Equipment

Clothing will be as dictated by your association – in ITF Taekwon-Do it is always the regulation white training uniform (dobok) and belt, signifying your grade, whether training at a club or entering a competition. Minimum safety equipment regulations will also vary but, at club level, students must always wear padded hand and foot protectors that are substantial enough to offer significant protection to your opponent, but not so much so that they greatly increase the size of your attacking tool as with ‘heavy’ boxing gloves. There are many good makes of martial arts sparring equipment – Hyashi Top Ten and Macho are two of the most popular in Taekwon-Do. These basic components can be supplemented by a range of optional equipment, some of which will be compulsory in competitions, including:

groin guard (males)breast protector (females)mouth guardhead guard (recommended at all times for juniors when sparring)shin protectorsforearm protectors

Target Area

See Target Areas Sequence

Target Areas

For safety reasons, the target area is restricted to the head, neck and trunk above the navel at the front and the sides of the head and body – striking to the back of the body, head or neck or at any point below the navel is not allowed. This target area is divided into two sections:

High section comprising targets above the shoulder line and in front of a line drawn vertically behind the ear.

Middle section comprising the body below the shoulder line, above the navel and in front of a vertical line drawn from the armpit to the waist.

Faults

The referee will pause the fight and deduct a point from a competitor for:

loss of tempermisconduct from a competitor towards an opponentbiting or scratchingknee, elbow or head attacksattacks to a fallen opponentexcessive contact

Warnings

The referee will pause the fight and issue a warning to a competitor for:

attack to an illegal targetstepping out of the ring area with both feetfalling (touching the ground with any part of the body other than the feet)holding, grabbing or pushingsweeping an opponent’s feetintentionally avoiding sparringcelebrating a techniquefeigning injury after receiving an attack

At the end of the fight a point is deducted for each complete set of three warnings issued to a competitor.

Disqualification

The referee will immediately stop the fight and disqualify a competitor for:

misconduct towards the referee and/or ignoring his instructionsfull-contact attackaccumulating three minus points directly during the fightbeing under the influence of drink or drugs

Scoring

Points are awarded for valid attack techniques to the target area as follows:

one point for: — hand attack to mid or high section —foot attack to mid sectiontwo points for: — foot attack to high section — jumping or flying foot attack to mid section — jumping or flying hand attack to high section — jumping or flying foot attack to high section.

(A ‘jumping or flying’ attack is deemed successful when both of the attacker’s feet are still off the ground at the moment of impact.)

Objectives

Your objective in free sparring is to win by scoring more points than your opponent. Simple! But the rules and the scoring system play a large part in determining how best to achieve that objective in the most efficient and therefore the most effective manner.

Clearly all fights are different in that you have to react to an unpredictable opponent (although recognizing predictable actions and ‘training’ your opponent to behave in a predictable way are key weapons in your armoury that are covered in later chapters), but the sparring format gives rise to three fundamental principles that form the basis of effective sparring.

Fight within the Rules

It really serves no purpose for you to deliberately break any of the rules and receive any unnecessary warnings or faults, not only would you be working against yourself by incurring minus penalty points, but, more importantly, you would not be fully in control. Consider this scenario: you are on the receiving end of a strong punch and you feel that your opponent was using excessive contact but the referee has not intervened, so in your anger you determine to get even and deliberately punch your opponent with full force. Even if the referee does not see the technique properly and does not therefore give a warning, while you may hope that your opponent will now think twice about using excessive contact again, he may well be thinking that he has the advantage since he has clearly made you react. He could be thinking that you are to be treated with respect, but he could also be thinking that you are easy to rile, to make lose control and therefore make mistakes. However, if your response is to tighten up your defence, show that you are not intimidated by standing your ground and reply with some good, clean scoring shots (and, yes, perhaps use a little more contact than you might ordinarily), then, whatever else your opponent may be thinking, it will not be that he has gained the advantage. You must have self-control to spar well, and fighting within the rules shows your opponent that you have it.

Aim to Score Points

A statement of the obvious? Not if you have any experience in judging sparring competitions where you will frequently see a great deal of activity from fighters resulting in relatively few points. Of course, you cannot attack effectively all the time – you need to react to your opponent, you need to feint, you need to defend – but try not to waste effort in attacks that are never going to succeed. You must score points to win, and attacks that have no chance of success – because they are well out of range, not on target or are not being used to set up a more effective attack – are wasted effort. Try to focus on delivering scoring techniques rather than just being ‘busy’. Equally, it is not enough to rely on counter-attacking (which can be an effective strategy in ‘single-point’ sparring): you are unlikely to score more points than your opponent by merely answering his attacks – you must put your opponent under pressure by going forward.

Avoid Getting Hit

An even more obvious point? Maybe, but if this book has a single, overriding message then it is this: a good defence is essential for effective sparring.

Again, if you have watched or judged sparring competitions you will have noticed that (particularly among less experienced fighters) a poor defence is more often the reason for a scoring attack than the quality of the technique. No matter how fast, strong and varied your attacking skills may be, a good defence gives you three key advantages before you even score a point:

Winning is easier – regardless of how good your opponent may be, the fewer scoring techniques he can land on you, the fewer you have to land on him to win.Your opponent must work harder – if your defence is the stronger then your opponent must work harder and perhaps try things outside his comfort zone to prevail; this creates more openings for you.Your confidence increases – once you begin to develop a good defence you will feel under less pressure and more able to think strategically, and that will, in turn, increase your confidence and your effectiveness.

In summary, effective Taekwon-Do sparring proceeds from a good defence that allows you to pursue an attacking strategy with the least risk to yourself, and this is what this book offers.

3 Stance

The absolute bedrock of effective sparring is a good stance. Everything else – how you move, how you attack and defend, your attitude and your self-confidence – is underpinned by your stance: your foot position, your weight distribution and your orientation.

Perhaps you are thinking that this is a statement of the obvious, that your stance suits you well enough and that what you need to learn are better techniques and strategy. Perhaps you are also somewhat irritated to hear such emphasis placed on stance when it is something that is stressed so much in Taekwon-Do and other martial arts with their wide variety of stances – what more is there to learn about stances? However, we regard a good sparring stance as fundamental to effective sparring and therefore to the rest of this book and we encourage you to study this chapter carefully and try to relate its messages to any shortcomings or areas for improvement in your current sparring. Do you have difficulty moving out of the way of attack? Do you get hit frequently? Are you too susceptible to counter-attacks? Are your attacks often out of range? Do your opponents seem to see you coming? Are you too tense? All of these and other issues are addressed at their core by stance, and free sparring requires a different approach to stance than that used in the formal stances you have been taught.

Why Change?

When you learn formal stances in Taekwon-Do or other martial arts emphasizing the correct execution of techniques and pre-arranged patterns (such as tul in Taekwon-Do or kata in Karate), the stances that you learn are introduced to cover the full ranges of weight distribution and body position. Each stance serves specific purposes, thus l-stance is a good defensive stance but it can limit your options for attack (see Limitations of L-Stance sequence).

Limitations of L-Stance

The classic, side-facing l-stance offers good protection for the body and with most of the weight on the rear leg …

… it is easy to launch front-leg kicks such as the front-snap kick but …

… a rear-leg kick, such as a turning kick, requires all the weight to be shifted on to the front leg.

Similarly, a strong walking stance is an excellent position through which to maximize the power of a punch, but not the best from which to move away quickly (see Limitations of Walking Stance sequence).

Limitations of Walking Stance

A deep walking stance can generate power in a stepping punch, but …

… to move away from a counter-attack the whole body must be raised before you can step away …

… creating a delay that your opponent can exploit.

Clearly different stances will be appropriate in different situations, not only in your structured classes but also in your sparring – there is no one ‘correct’ stance, each has its advantages and disadvantages. The ‘good’ sparring stance is not a ‘better’ stance than the l-stance or walking stance, rather it draws on the body of knowledge about stances and footwork to provide a ‘compromise’ stance that becomes your ‘default’ from which you can defend and attack and, if necessary, move into and out of other stances. What is the most effective compromise for effective Taekwon-Do sparring? There are two principal requirements.

Defence

As discussed previously, a good defence is essential for effective sparring, so the sparring stance must offer protection of the key target areas, allowing you to stand your ground behind your defence or back off, as the situation demands.

Mobility

Equally importantly, you need to be dynamic in your stance (that is, able to make small rapid movements to avoid presenting a static target) as well as able to move easily in any direction to defend, to counter-attack or to launch an attack.

Basic Sparring Stance

The basic sparring stance shown here meets all of these requirements and has been developed from three principal sources:

Master Hogan’s early experience in boxingMaster Hogan’s extensive experience of Taekwon-Do sparring and coaching at international levelcurrent trends in Taekwon-Do and other styles of continuous, semi-contact, free sparring

How to Form the Basic Sparring Stance

This stance (see sequence How to form the Basic Sparring Stance sequence) needs to become second nature to you – your default position when sparring – and you need to be able to form it instantly when under pressure. However, at the outset, this stance is far from natural for most people and it will require a lot of practice and awareness of the ‘bad’ habits that are so easy to revert to. It is therefore most important that you fully understand the advantages of the stance so that your self-correction (and there will be lots of it) has an argument behind it that you believe in. The principal components of the stance are examined in detail.

How to Form the Basic Sparring Stance

Start by standing in a normal parallel stance with the feet shoulder-width apart and facing forward.

Take one natural step forward with your lead leg …

… then turn both your feet slightly (10 or 15 degrees at most) towards your rear-leg side.

Turn your upper body so that it is at the same angle as your feet …

… and bend both knees, dropping your body straight down until your rear heel lifts slightly off the ground and you can feel your weight predominantly on the balls of your feet.

You have now formed the basic sparring stance.

Foot Position

The position of the feet is of paramount importance and is, in fact, a slight modification of the classic boxing stance. As with boxers, the starting point is to keep the feet at least shoulder-width apart to provide the optimum combination of balance and mobility. Similarly, one foot is placed forward of the other (typically the left if you are right-handed and vice versa) to give greater all-round stability. Where Taekwon-Do sparring differs from boxing is, of course, in the use of kicks that require fighters to attack from a greater range and to use longer strides in their footwork to avoid the longer-range techniques. This difference is highlighted when we look at WTF (World Taekwon-Do Federation, an alternative Taekwon-Do organization) sparring. WTF practise a different style of sparring from the ITF, where high-section punches are not allowed and there is consequently a much greater (scoring) emphasis on kicking that in turn has resulted in a particularly long stance. ITF Taekwon-Do and other sparring styles which allow both punching and kicking to all target areas need to occupy the middle ground the better to cope with both short- and long-range fighting with a slightly longer and wider stance than the standard boxing stance (see Sparring Stance Length Comparison sequence).

Sparring Stance Length Comparison

The WTF sparring stance is slightly deeper than the …

… ITF sparring stance, which sits between it and …

… the standard Western boxing stance.

Of equal importance to the length and width of the stance are the actual positions of the feet which must be facing forward and turned slightly inward to allow a more natural body orientation (see the section on body orientation below). This positioning is absolutely critical to the success of the stance, since it not only provides the optimum starting position from which to launch forward rapidly like a sprinter from the blocks, but it also allows you to move in any direction while maintaining your balance (seeChapter 5). However, of all of the aspects of the sparring stance this is the hardest to master since there is a common tendency for the rear foot to turn out when the feet are in this position and this is exacerbated when in a sparring situation, where your natural instincts are to lean back away from the source of potential danger and find yourself in more of an l-stance (see The Common Tendency to Revert to L-Stance sequence).

The Common Tendency to Revert to L-Stance

It is common to start out in a good sparring stance …

… but when under pressure from your opponent (particularly when retreating) …

… you can find yourself reverting to an l-stance.

While it certainly is not the case that you should never be in the l-stance when sparring, the difficulty is in forcing yourself to return to your sparring stance from what you instinctively feel to be your ‘natural’ defensive position when you are under pressure. This is an extremely common problem and you must try to be aware of its happening and make a conscious effort to correct yourself at all times – constant practice and correction are needed to create a new ‘natural’ stance.

Weight Distribution

To continue the comparison with the sprinter in the blocks, in order for you to launch yourself forward (and, indeed, to move in any other direction) you need to avoid being flat-footed and have most of your weight on the balls of your feet, which means that your weight must be distributed slightly more towards the front foot, which, in turn, will make the heel of the back foot rise slightly off the ground. Rather than express this in terms of the percentages of your weight on the front and on the back foot, it is easier just to feel when it is right for you.

As with the foot position, you need to be constantly on your guard to recognize and correct the ‘natural’ tendency to shift your weight more towards your back foot, particularly when you are under pressure from your opponent (see Correct Weight Distribution sequence).

Correct Weight Distribution

Standing in a sparring stance with feet flat …

… move your body forward until your rear heel just lifts off the floor …

… and then bend the rear knee, keeping the rear heel off the floor until you can feel the weight on the balls of your feet and you feel ready to move forward.

Knee Flexion

With the feet in the right position and your body weight slightly forward, the comparison with the sprinter yields one final component to your sparring stance – that there is a slight flexion or bend of the knees. Not only does this ensure that you will be able to move your legs more quickly, but it is also a good way to provide some dynamism to your stance. By keeping your knees ‘soft’ (that is, with slight movements up and down, never fully extending the knee joints and holding the legs completely straight) your body is in motion without your changing your weight distribution – this avoids your being completely static (which again makes subsequent horizontal movement that much slower, as well as providing an easier target) and helps to disconcert your opponent (see Keeping ‘Soft’ Knees sequence).

Keeping ‘Soft’ Knees

By keeping ‘soft’ knees you can raise and …

… drop your body by only an inch or two …

… to keep your body in motion, even when staying in the same spot.

Body Orientation

The final component of the sparring stance is the position of the rest of your body in relation to your legs and feet. If all the aspects above are correct then your trunk and hips should naturally face the same direction (slightly to the right, if your right leg is back and vice versa), presenting your body at an angle to your opponent. This position is the best compromise between a more full-facing position, as practised by boxers, that is not well suited to defence against kicks and an even more defensive position where the hips are turned more towards the rear foot, which upsets your weight distribution. While the hips and the trunk are facing slightly away from your opponent, your head must face directly forward, giving you the best possible visibility (see Correct Body Orientation sequence).

Correct Body Orientation

The correct body orientation: head facing forwards and body at the same angle towards your opponent as your feet.

With the body too square you present a larger target for your opponent’s kicks.

An overly defensive position shifts your body weight towards the rear foot.

Practice

As stated above, a good stance is fundamental to effective sparring and must become second nature to you when you fight. To achieve this is not easy since it requires not only much practice to be able to form the recommended stance at will, but even more practice to avoid falling back into more ‘instinctive’ habits. Clearly the stance needs to be combined with correct movement and an effective guard. These are covered in the following chapters that contain drills for all these components; these will form the backbone of your practice regime. However, given the importance of the stance, it is always useful to return to basics and to concentrate solely on the stance and its components as detailed in this chapter, for which the following free-form drill is always useful (see Dynamic Stance sequence).

Dynamic Stance Formation Drill

Starting with the body static in no particular stance …

… drop straight into the basic sparring stance …

… then jump slightly into the air while switching the legs …

… to drop into the alternate side-facing stance.

You cannot practise to get the stance right often enough – in front of a mirror, as part of a warm-up, or even when waiting for the kettle to boil; every time that you snap into the stance adds another instance of the stance to your ‘muscle memory’ and makes it easier to maintain it when sparring, but note any shortcomings and try to rectify them the next time. Practice makes perfect.

4 Guard

Nobody likes being hit. A good stance and correct movement will help you to avoid attacks, but in Taekwon-Do or any other martial art with sparring that involves some contact, it is inevitable that you will be hit from time to time. For some people getting hit is a fleeting concern, they don’t worry about it beforehand and forget about it afterwards; for others it is more of an issue and the fear of being hit can become more important than the actual blow. Maintaining and using a proper guard not only reduces the chances of an attack scoring against you but it also provides a strategy for coping with blows, thereby reducing your apprehension and increasing your self-confidence.

Again, as with the sparring stance, the demands of free sparring require us to look outside the formal syllabus of blocks and stances to find the optimum hand and body positions to stifle and absorb the range of kicks and punches that can be thrown.

Guard against What?

The primary purpose of the guard is to shield the most vulnerable targets from attack, which presents something of a problem given the variety of hand and foot techniques available and the different attacking ranges. The ‘default’ position is therefore determined by your defending against the attacks that you are most likely to face when you are in the sparring stance; these break down into three broad categories.

Turning Kicks

In Taekwon-Do sparring, the turning kick (also known as the roundhouse kick in other martial arts) is by far the most popular one, and it would be extremely rare to face an opponent who never used it. The reasons for its popularity provide useful pointers to an effective defence against it.

Ease of Execution

Most people find it relatively easy to execute a turning kick because it is a very ‘forgiving’ kick, where you can stray some distance from the technically ‘correct’ kick and still land an effective blow – the degree to which you chamber the leg, the angle of the foot on impact and the part of the foot used can all vary and it may still score a point. Because it is easy many fighters come to rely on it too much and throw little else – this creates a strategic opportunity for you, as will be discussed in the final section of the book.

Good Defensive Position

The attacker is in a good defensive position when delivering the turning kick: his body is out of range for a counter-punch and can be well protected with a guard in a half-facing position. Again, because people feel relatively secure throwing the turning kick it, they tend to prefer it to more ‘exposing’ techniques.

Versatility

Perhaps the most versatile of kicks, the turning kick can be thrown with the lead or rear leg and can be used against all areas of the body. If you have a fast and accurate turning kick and can master its variants, such as reverse turning kicks, jumping turning kicks and hooking kicks, then one core technique can deliver a wide range of attacks.

Power

Correctly executed, the turning kick gains a lot of momentum as it travels in an arc towards the target and can result in a powerful blow that is difficult to block in its later stages.

Surprise

Despite its popularity, the fact that it is delivered at an angle and therefore registers at the edge of your opponent’s vision gives it the same character as a hook punch – if one’s focus is drawn straight ahead the turning kick can be difficult to spot, even though it takes a relatively longer time to reach its target than a jab punch or a front snap kick.

From a defensive point of view, in a sparring stance you need to be able to deal with long (from your opponent’s back leg) and middle-range (from the front leg) turning kicks to three main target areas (see Turning Kick Target Areas sequence).

Turning Kick Target Areas