Pad work

[lokming]

When your doing punching drills Ljab Rcross on pads.
The person holding the pads holds them to your left which changes the centerline of punch if you are square with the person. It seems my Ljab is off centerline.

I asked my instructor whether to be square with the pad or with the person. He said manoeuvre and hit pad. Could someone explain this? Ive watched the instructor many times but just dont get it.

Ive read JKD training books the punches are supposed to be centerline.

In the beginning do you just experience punches on the move then progress punching towards centerline with pad directly inline with head?

[MichaelV]

That's kind of hard for me to picture, but it sounds like you need to teach your partners how to hold the pads. Why would they hold them off to the side of their head? They should be holding where their head would be, and move their head out of the way so they don't get hit.

[pug32]

i think what he means is the position of the person is irrelevant as your target is the focus pad (they are only there to hold your target). As long as you attack the pad in a relevant centre line between you and it that is what he is looking for.

depending upon your level the instructor may not want the pad too near the actual person as if you miss you will hit them. As you get better they will hold the pad nearer to themselves to make it more realistic.

That would be my take on it anyway

[Andrew Green]

I think you overthink things, Pad work is conditioning. Sparring is what gets you proper distance and timing.

Is the next question why there are two focus mitts when a real opponent only has one head? :D

[Dooby]

I think you overthink things, Pad work is conditioning. Sparring is what gets you proper distance and timing.

Not too sure about that one. I would argue that provided that you have an experienced pad man/woman (instructor/experienced pupil) then they should be moving in a appropiate manner. Whenever I train my Sifu always tells us not to be still and always keep moving. The idea behind it is to make the pad work as real as possible. However nothing replaces sparring, but pad work, when done correctley is a whisper away from sparring. :).

All I would suggest in my own humble oppinion is to, and as your instructor says, keep moving try to pratice your form and accuracy SLOWLEY. It doesnt only have to be at your lesson it can be in your garage, or in your bedroom. Power and speed i believe comes from the correct form, once you have that the rest will follow. Hope this helps :)

[Taliar]

Yep pad work is more effective when you have a good pad holder who will move the pads in a realistic way, and put the odd counter in, this will help you develop timing, distance and focus rather than just learning to hit a stationary target.

[pug32]

Is the next question why there are two focus mitts when a real opponent only has one head? :D

We target one to represent a head for that very reason the other is for body or differing angles

[faster than you]

practicing accuracy slowly seems counterproductive unless your sparring is slow.
a basketball player doesn't practice shooting slowly. why? because he knows that in a game a defender will not be moving slowly.
i agree with andrew green pad work is more for conditioning.

[Dooby]

practicing accuracy slowly seems counterproductive unless your sparring is slow.
a basketball player doesn't practice shooting slowly. why? because he knows that in a game a defender will not be moving slowly.

Ok. From my understanding of the inital question was that the lokming was was having trouble being in the correct possition so that the centerline punches would will hit on target. Is the correct?

From this it stands to reason that you practice your punches using the correct form slowly ensuring that each punch hits on target then speed and accuracy surely will come.?

As for your basket ball reference, how many people who are learning the game can dribble under pressure from an attacking defender and then produce the shooting motion, which will hit on target if he/she has not practiced the shooting motion time and time again with the correct form slowley.

If this was not the case why isn't the world full of people who can shoot/hit accurately quickly, without having giving up the time to practice? :)

Maybe I didnt make myself clear with referencing accuracy as a bi-product of correct form.

[faster than you]

i agree that accuracy is aided by correct form.
school yards and parks are full of people who have learned how to play b-ball under pressure without ever practicing slowly. at least in my experience . people should practice shooting, but not slowly.
my group never practices slowly and we all punch accurately. we learned very quickly how to punch accurately due to someone else punching quickly at us, while quickly moving away.

[JkdScott]

I agree with dooby here, what your forgetting is people who dont spend the time mastering the technique slowly, can pick up bad habits, dropping their guard tele-grafing etc but by slowly he doesnt mean in slow motion, the idea is when learning to:-
learn it ie:- learn the correct motion
practice it ie:- get it into muscle memory so u can do it
master it ie:- be able to do it without thought
functionalise it ie:- be able to use it in a fight (distance timing etc)
maintain it ie:- keep practicing it so you dont go rusty

when you 1st learn the punch or technique your do tend to go through it slowly then pick up speed as you "master" it

but on to the original question you need to be in a place where you can hit the target, so it could be square on to the pad man or to the pads, fighting/sparing is fluid so you need to be able to hit from wherever you are to your opponant, standing square on isnt always a good thing,
wing chun use the principle but kali zone and come in from the angles!!
horses for courses as it always is
hope i helped :)

Scott

have fun train hard

[medi]

Is the next question why there are two focus mitts when a real opponent only has one head? :D



Good question. I'm gonna ask my instructor:

http://www.hall-of-mirrors.com/labyrinth/Two%20heads.jpg

[tel]

When your doing punching drills Ljab Rcross on pads.
The person holding the pads holds them to your left which changes the centerline of punch if you are square with the person. It seems my Ljab is off centerline.

I asked my instructor whether to be square with the pad or with the person. He said manoeuvre and hit pad. Could someone explain this? Ive watched the instructor many times but just dont get it.

Ive read JKD training books the punches are supposed to be centerline.

In the beginning do you just experience punches on the move then progress punching towards centerline with pad directly inline with head?
the problem is that u can't really use focus gloves and actully hit your partner on centreline cos they willl get hit.so have to use tehm with safety of your training partner.
sparring is best for training your punches on centreline with a live partner
or use a heavy bag