What benefits do people think that patterns give to sparring if any? One of the instructors i train under has been British champion at sparring and is well known for his sparring. He's also been British champion at patterns. Coincidence or not? I think not btw
Cardiovascular benefits are a given, IMHO. Run through Saju Makgi, Saju Jirugi through to Po-Eun, at full power and see how you feel. The sine-wave also helps keep your knees in good condition as well, and keep your whole body limber as well. I wouldn't entirely agree that patterns will guarantee benefits in sparring, but they do help, if you have the right mindset as well. Think about exactly what movement it is that you're performing, and see where you might be able to apply it in sparring. Go through combinations, making up a pattern as you go along, and then modify the techniques for a sparring situation. IMHO, there's no coincidence about proper performance of patterns benefitting sparring, but patterns alone do not a good fighter make.
Hyungs and Sparring... Dear Sir, I would care to add that even from an elementary level (Saju-Magi & Saju-Jirugi) the patterns are teaching two things aside from mere technique. 1. Mobility in direction (freedom of movement) 2. Technical combinations (flow of technique) Now I ask, aside from that obtainable outside TKD (agility, speed, endurance) what are the greatest contributing factors to ones sparring ability? I would say mobility and technique compilation and transition. Both of which are highly attainable through practice in the hyungs! TAEKWON! Spookey
Patterns help alot during sparing. Firstly, they increase the speed and power of your blocks and punches. Even H pattern 1 will help your low block and punch ten fold if you practise it enough. Secondly, It helps your footwork. Footwork is what seperates good fighters from crap fighters. So obviously they work. Lastly. Patterns helps your body get used to particular moves, and also lets you learn how to group various techniques together.
I know I posted something like this a long time ago, but I'm really to lazy right now to do a search, so I'll just re-type it. Although I am a big fan of poomse/hyungs/tuls . . . . patterns, I don't put alot of stock into them in terms of sparring. With that being said I do understand that they are valuable in terms of indirectly helping a person's sparring. When I mean indirectly, I mean that the impact that patterns have on sparring is at the base level of the tower. Patterns are simply a tool in terms of training, and are benificial by giving people a way to practice technique, and learn technique. This I feel is the first stepping stone. The second stepping stone would be taking this technique and using it in controlled situations, such as step sparring. This can help teach a person to work with someone else in training and helps with distance and timing. Next step would be more intensive, less restrictive hosinsul. Add resistance, adrenalin, un predictability. Change the rule sets, keep the drills evolving. This I feel gives a person a good feel on how to work their techniques in different situations with resisting partners. Of course the last step is sparring. Work in near un predictable circumstances with a person who is fully resisiting. In terms of developing power and speed and other things that are needed when sparring, I think there are much more efficient ways of developing these areas. Forms in my mind do not develop this to the extent that one would need when sparring. These can be developed in patterns as a secondary means but if you want to develop power go hit a heavy bag for awhile or do some plyometrics. Same thing with speed. A patterns main purpose in my mind is to develop and learn technique, which or course indirectly helps a person become better in the ring.
Very good post. I agree 100% with you. Nothing but sparing will help you completly at sparing. Other things will help you indirectly, but if you want to be good at sparing, spar more.
I personally think you can just cut out the first step and maybe the second as well. once you have learnt the moves with live drills (this is probably what you mean by your third step I guess?)- someone holding pads and moving around- all thats left is application I agree. sure, doing forms over and over will help your endurance, but there are simply more efficient ways. its like the idea of standing in a horse stance for ages- well you get good at standing still, and thats about it. if you want to develop endurance in your legs you need to be doing what you would be doing in a fight, just doing it for a long time. or some kind of physically draining activity. if there was any merit to things like that we might see some pro fighters doing it... same with footwork, I dont see how doing the exact same steps in a pattern you know helps your footwork. doesnt make sense. for better footwork you need to be dealing with live training (I know how you all love that word ) which means you gotta be moving in a random manner. using different combinations on a pad (pad holders gotta be moving around too) and sparring will develop footwork, and the ability to strike from different angles. recently ive gotten into using weaving and ducking methods a bit more, and while they have limited use in muay thai I have felt that punches that would normally be awkward for me are now much easier (climbing combinations, such as a kidney hook/head cross/head hook) totally agree. tyson didnt develop the ability and power to knock out over 30 consecutive fighters by hitting the air. the idea of developing the techniques I semi agree with... similar in idea to shadowboxing where you are working solely on your technique, usually in front of a mirror. but in shadow boxing you are not constrained by a pattern- you work what needs to be worked in whatever order you want, with whatever foootwork you want.
I agree and I don't. I agree that you can probably cut out these steps and develop technique in the live format; however I feel the first two steps help develop technique to some green to fighting arts in a much safer manner. I say safer as it is very hard to learn technique when you have a resisting opponent for someone new. They tend to concentrate on the person more than the technique and this can lead to bad habits in my experience of teaching. Once they have these bad habits developed it becomes difficult for them to adapt the technique to another person who resists differently, or even holds pads differently. Boxers still shadow box after all right? Same idea. Again I do agree that techniques can be learned in different manners. Forms are simply a tool. People use them, other's don't. It is personal preferance. For myself I choose to practice my patterns for a variety of reasons, and I choose to teach patterns for a variety of reasons. These reasons though are mine and I know there are others that have different ideas and reasons. No problem with me, they've just found a different tool that they like.
Personally I dont particularly care for patterns very much, I dont personally rate them as an aid in sparring except as physical exzercise and possibly the fine tuning of soime techniques but thats only if the techniques you use in sparring are in you pattern (Taeguk poomse must be the worst in the world right? Please tell me no one suffers worse than them?). I have a competition coming up and I am entering all four categories in it, patterns, hand destruction, foot destruction and sparring and personally I practice my patterns for the sake of getting better at the pattern competition and I do fight trainning to get better for the sparring competition.
