gaining distance

[leo]

im haveing problems in sparring at the moment as the people i fight and myself now have seriously good guards, its almost impossible to wait/ create openings and strike, and if you come in close then you well get hit badly. so heres my question:
How can i close distance very quickly and not lose my form?

[jabcrosshook]

im haveing problems in sparring at the moment as the people i fight and myself now have seriously good guards, its almost impossible to wait/ create openings and strike, and if you come in close then you well get hit badly. so heres my question:
How can i close distance very quickly and not lose my form?

You can't hit them because their guards are good? And when you move in you get busted?

Right... Try staying just out of range and waiting for THEM to make the initiative. As soon as they come out, jab them hard. If their hands were down, you've got 'em and you're in. If their hands were in, then you've hopefully forced them out of range again.

Another method is to pile in on them, forcing them to cover up. If they are covering from you, you effectively have them. If they try to ttack, bang them in the face.

The human arm is a short limb compared to the length of the torso :p If they have their hands up, work the body to drop their hands down again. If their hands are up, their head is exposed.

Important: Once you do tag tem, do not let off. Keep pressuring them as they are at your mercy. Does Korean kickboxing encompass leg kicks? If so, then use these strategically.

[Pete Ticali]

Regarding your "closing the distance, There are three points I'd like to present.

1)- It may be that you are telegraphing our intentions. If this is so, you need to correct that before anything can help. Do you ask the person you are sparring? They probably know if you are doing it... So does you instructor. Have you asked him/her? Intention can be given away by your eyes, your hips, your feet, and/or any particular "quirk" that you might have developed.

We use open fingered gloves, because I teach some grabbing techniques to be used in sparring, fighting situations. I used to spar a guy who had the habit of keeping his hands open until right before punching. Once I had him listed in the little book, he could never get away with a punch, because I saw him "close" and anticipated it.

2)- You need to learn how to "hide" your advance. Example: A left handed backfist to your opponents Left (your right) Temple, allows you to step forward and across to follow with a right spinning back kick.

You created a need for "high" defense, while masking a med/lower attack.
These "type" of combos ( there are many you could use) should be taught as sequenced drills in the school. When you get the body mechanics down pat, they will be very effective techniques to "insert" where necessary.

3)- Learn to strike from defense!. Everyone is least protected in the act of attacking. It therefore makes sense to practice "counter attacks". There are many possibilities here. Anytime you block an arm, it has the potential to be your "superhighway" back to ribs, neck, jaw, head. When you bodyshift right, left or back to escape being hit, you are actually positioning for side kicks, back kicks, empi's etc.etc. These also ahould be practiced as drills with a partner, so they transition naturally.

Hope this helps you!

Pete Ticali

[Ikken Hisatsu]

expeerience pretty much, its the sort of thing that you just need to keep practicing at. things like timing, reactions, and the ability to see an opening will come only with experience.

[Satori81]

Excellent post, Pete.

However, I have a feeling that there is a bigger issue at stake here, simply because leo's situation reminds me greatly of a shortcoming I had a while ago.

Leo, if you have trained intensely for a decent amount of time, then creating openings, counter attacking, "stuffing" attacks, and decepting feinting should not be new to you. So long as you aren't completely green (which by your mature inquiry, I assume not), the schematics of sparring shouldn't concern you.

The real problem is your fear of being hit. I suffered from such a problem during my 4th-8th years of training, and it crippled me greatly mentally and physically. I never had a problem until certain individuals NAILED me hard...after that, I was done. I couldn't advance for fear of getting "stuffed", and I couldn't counter-attack for fear of leaving myself open.

So what did I do? I puffed out my chest, and trained EVEN harder. I refused to acknowledge what my issue was, and so it took me a while to overcome a relatively simple fear.

If this is the case with you, then I recommend some deep introspection and reflection into the events that "triggered" this fear. Once you pinpoint the exact date you began to have difficulty, you can examine the event and figure out what threw you off.

In the meantime, I would recommend some light "absorbtion" (sp?) drills. For these drills, you go against a TRUSTED training partner while you keep your hands clasped behind your back. To begin, you stay static, and try to dodge their attacks without moving your feet. As you become comfortable, add movement and more detailed evasions, all the while keeping your hands behind your back. Keep the contact light and slow until you are fully comfortable.

Not only will you develop better "armless" evasions, but during the process you WILL GET HIT. However, you will become increasingly comfortable with such contact until the thought of getting hit and the reality of contact don't faze you. You might even learn to enjoy getting hit...though I doubt it.

I apologize if I have misinterpreted your post. Regardless, I hope you work through your situation.

May you achieve
Satori

[Rebel Wado]

...In the meantime, I would recommend some light "absorbtion" (sp?) drills. For these drills, you go against a TRUSTED training partner while you keep your hands clasped behind your back. To begin, you stay static, and try to dodge their attacks without moving your feet. As you become comfortable, add movement and more detailed evasions, all the while keeping your hands behind your back. Keep the contact light and slow until you are fully comfortable.

Not only will you develop better "armless" evasions, but during the process you WILL GET HIT. However, you will become increasingly comfortable with such contact until the thought of getting hit and the reality of contact don't faze you. You might even learn to enjoy getting hit...though I doubt it.

I apologize if I have misinterpreted your post. Regardless, I hope you work through your situation.

May you achieve
Satori

Satori, interesting drill. Did you say that this drill helped you? I can see that it can help to desensitive you to being punched, but I don't like messing with natural instincts to protect yourself.

The hands behind the back, unless you are tied up, what is the purpose of keeping them behind you? Would it not serve the same purpose if you covered vitals while doing the exercise?

We pound each other and if we go down, we cover up and protect ourselves while counter attacking (if possible) and trying to gain better position.

[Simplicity]

im haveing problems in sparring at the moment as the people i fight and myself now have seriously good guards, its almost impossible to wait/ create openings and strike, and if you come in close then you well get hit badly. so heres my question:
How can i close distance very quickly and not lose my form?


Leo, you need wheels!!
Try first jumping rope. Do this for three 3min rounds. As you get better increase time. Also, do changing direction drills. If you put more srings in your wheels, you'll be able to bridge the gap real easy. I hope this helps you. :)

[alex_000]

How can i close distance very quickly and not lose my form?

Care more about hitting the guy than loosing your form for starters.

[Satori81]

Rebel- Good point, and the drill is probably unnecessary for martial artists that don't mind getting hit. However, I had this bad habit of "hiding" behind my hands..."shrinking" when I saw someone approach. The hands and arms are such nice, big protective limbs. By taking away this "shield", you are forced to deal with an absence of defense, which SHOULD result in both faster evasions and a diminished fear of getting hit.

As for "protecting vitals", another good point. However, this is why I recommended using light/slower punches first with a trusted training partner. Only when full proficiency/comfort is reached should the partner throw with full force.

As for helping me, more or less. I ended up joining the Marine Corps, which subjected me to MUCH harsher beatings until I was essentially numb to getting hit. The suggested drill was an easier way of basically achieving the same result.

Hope that answers your questions.

May you achieve
Satori

[leo]

Excellent post, Pete.

However, I have a feeling that there is a bigger issue at stake here, simply because leo's situation reminds me greatly of a shortcoming I had a while ago.

Leo, if you have trained intensely for a decent amount of time, then creating openings, counter attacking, "stuffing" attacks, and decepting feinting should not be new to you. So long as you aren't completely green (which by your mature inquiry, I assume not), the schematics of sparring shouldn't concern you.

The real problem is your fear of being hit. I suffered from such a problem during my 4th-8th years of training, and it crippled me greatly mentally and physically. I never had a problem until certain individuals NAILED me hard...after that, I was done. I couldn't advance for fear of getting "stuffed", and I couldn't counter-attack for fear of leaving myself open.

So what did I do? I puffed out my chest, and trained EVEN harder. I refused to acknowledge what my issue was, and so it took me a while to overcome a relatively simple fear.

If this is the case with you, then I recommend some deep introspection and reflection into the events that "triggered" this fear. Once you pinpoint the exact date you began to have difficulty, you can examine the event and figure out what threw you off.

In the meantime, I would recommend some light "absorbtion" (sp?) drills. For these drills, you go against a TRUSTED training partner while you keep your hands clasped behind your back. To begin, you stay static, and try to dodge their attacks without moving your feet. As you become comfortable, add movement and more detailed evasions, all the while keeping your hands behind your back. Keep the contact light and slow until you are fully comfortable.

Not only will you develop better "armless" evasions, but during the process you WILL GET HIT. However, you will become increasingly comfortable with such contact until the thought of getting hit and the reality of contact don't faze you. You might even learn to enjoy getting hit...though I doubt it.

I apologize if I have misinterpreted your post. Regardless, I hope you work through your situation.

May you achieve
Satori

that may be part of the reason actually, i neevr used to mind gettign hit but lookign at it, this hardness of gettign through peoples guards started late last year and that is teh same time when i got my tooth knocked out durign a sparring session.
Thanx for all teh advice everyone

[Rebel Wado]

Of all the posts so far in this thread, I feel that Norm's post is probably the best tactical advice. It comes down to letting the other person do the work, circle and keep them at range, but the moment they move in on you, move off the line of attack and attack them with a powerful, long range, and fast attack.

Imagine a sphere (bubble) around you at around kicking range. Move back and circle as necessary to keep the opponent off balance (not able to get a good fix on you to attack), but be ready to attack them with equal weight on your feet. The opponent must come to you, as soon as they enter your bubble, attack them with a long range and fast attack with as much power as you can. This is to take the initiative. Don't be in a hurry to close in on them, let them come to you, then you only have to work half as hard to close in on them.

Now they could be really fast or be faking you, so part of this is to learn to move off the line of attack to give you a better position for closing the gap. Imagine the opponent is coming at you from your 12:00. Depending on the size of the opponent, moving off the line of attack could mean to move forward to 1:30 or 10:30, but if they are really large or have a longer weapon, you might need to go 2:30 or 9:30 to give yourself a bit more room to maneuver without moving into an attack.

The beginning footwork should probably be using shuffle steps and always move to the side of your front foot. e.g. right foot forward, move to 1:30. Left foot forward, move to 10:30. Avoid cross steps, skip steps, change steps and the more advanced footwork until you are good enough to understand how to use it.

And with all of this, learn to cover up vitals and protect yourself. Learn boxing covers verse punches and some of the Muay Thai covers with shins and forearms verse kicks. Utilize the covers with your attacks to protect you as you close the gap off the line of attack and as you fight it out at closer ranges.

-------

Satori81, thanks for the clarification. I might suggest a different exercise that you might like. I call it fence building.

Basically, you and your partner agree on contact level and intensity, then your partner puts on some hand and shin pads. A third person is timer and observer. You and your partner start in a small ring, around 10 feet around.

You can use your hands only to push, clinch, and cover up vitals. Your partner punches and kicks you (mostly punching) and it is continous forward attack so they don't try to fake you out or spar you, they just come in and try to hit you with as many punches as they can in the time limit, but it isn't a contest it is a training exercise and is for learning.

Start off at 10 seconds. You have to keep the other guy off of you or clinch them for 10 seconds with the goal of protecting yourself. This should help develop better covers, take away the thought of blocking everything and instead covering up and controlling delivery systems as part of shutting down the opponent's ability to attack you.

Increase the time interval to 30 seconds at a time when comfortable with the exercise.

Just some thoughts.

[leo]

thankgod for that , ive practiced some moves while comeing forward now and i tried them out during sparring yesterday and didnt lose a fight :D tho i did nearly get knocked out by a aerial spinning hook kick by one of teh black belts lol, didnt even see it untill it was right near my face then i got out of the way just in time lol.

[Moosey]

Satori 81s post is an excellent one!

Another thing to try is foot sweeps / ankle taps. Quite often, people keep their guard high and their attention in the same place, a swift ankle tap with the side of your foot can often lower their guard along with their attention - it doesn't need to be hard - just a touch can do it!