Gedan barai defense for low kicks

Hello everyone! My question is pretty simple! My friend is participating to an open championship for martial arts, and there are lots of diferent stand up fighters. I asked him how he would defend himself against a low kick that a muay thai fighter usually uses and he said iam going to use gedan barai with very low stance blocking and hitting hard on their legs(wherever part it hits) considering velocity.

Can somebody explain to me if this strategy is a good way to pursue!

Welcome, rodrigo!

That's an interesting question. I think we still have a few MT practitioners here who will be able to answer it.

I practice Full Contact Karate Ashihara (from Kyokushin) Karate and I wouldn't block a FULL force kick with a standing Gedan Barai

For me its simple:
Arms for Arms, Legs for Legs

This means block low Kicks (below the waist) with your shins/Legs (below the Waist) and punches (above the waist) etc with your arms (above the waist).

The medical explaination is:
The Tibia against the Ulna (Smallest Bone in the lower Arm) the Tibia (biggest bone in the lower leg) The Ulna is one of the most commonly broken bones in the arm and to try and stop a kick with it would do nothing more than break it.



Of course there is some differences but

Rod

Dobb makes an excellent point/s

What kind of "open championship" are we talking about here?

I was taught to kinda of "hook and sweep" a gedan--no actual "bone meeting bone" kinda thing problem is:

-Most point meets don't allow you to do it.

-At full contact meets its REALLY hard to do with a trained fighter going full speed......and if you do pull it off then you had better be already following it up with something but quick.

This is correct,

Another thing is I've seem in championships and in the cage that a fighter's Shin has been broken on impact with the other fighter's shin, so an arm is no match for a muay Thai fighters kick, period.

Yesterday i was practicing gedan barai defending a mae geri and the lateral of my arm crested a "bump"! I mean even for mae geri if a practicer makes a mistake about the time to read the kick, there is a chance to injure hilself easily!
The whole point on my conversation is that! No matter if it is a tournament or not ...in order to control the time for a defense of a kick that you were waiting being a mae geri and all of the sudden it comes a low kick, well the time is so short that is better to move away like lyoto machida does than being a go no sen using legs and arms to defend ourselves!

The tornament is open for full contact! It uses gloves, that also takes away our aerodynamics of punches considerong we are empy hands, and there is no use of seiken!

Rodrigo my friend, it seems that regardless of what all the extremely experienced Martial Artists tell you about this technique you have already made up your mind.

I compare it to "don't drink the water it will give you a bad stomach", but you drink it anyway!

For one thing, you do not try to stop a front kick with a low block, that would break your arm and would be poor blocking technique, you deflect it sideways. I have used the low block against someone who was trying to kick me in the groin, 3 times, and it worked perfectly every time and my arm was unaffected.

Gedan Barai (lower level sweep)

all about context...

Just after a few go around's one would quickly come to the conclusion that a gedan barai against a mawashi geri, is extremely impractical.

The most practical in a "sporting context" is to either use ma ai (distance control) and hyosh (timming) and the lower extremities to block

Yet, we are talking about Karate.

Two reason why a round kick/mawashi geri in traditional karate didn't exist. A) it doesn't check the forward momentum of the opponent. In a self defense scenario the opponent soaks up the damage and presses forward. B) A mawashi geri/round kick is quite vulnerable to a timed counter of a mae geri keage to the groin/center mass. (think using a mae geri as a block with the rear leg.. when the opponent kicks, one counters with a mae geri to the groin.) Fully and totally non sportsman like...that's why many don't comprehend this. People just don't train this technique... but you bet karate ka of old did... that's why mawshi geri/round kick wasn't in traditional karate.

What counters a front kick/Mae geri? Oh.. a gedan berai. (yes correct ma ai and hyosh needs to be used... and one doesn't use their elbow joint to block the kick due to the angle of the sweep. ) However...Gedan Barai in kata isn't just a low sweep it represents many applications.