Footwork drills / sparring questions for Kung Fu

Posted by: MrEd

Footwork drills / sparring questions for Kung Fu - 09/29/05 01:49 PM

Hey guys...trying to improve my footwork as it relates to Kung Fu.

What drills do you employ when shadowboxing? We've started sparring in class, and I am having difficulty redefining my habits from kickboxing to eagle claw. I've identified a few weakness in my technique that I am aware of and was curious for suggestions.

1) Rear hand blocks lower gate, lead hand blocks upper gate: I have a habit of stepping to the side and blocking with my lead hand while bringin my rear hand to my face...the exact opposite of what we're supposed to do! Practice has corrected this to some degree..now i dont do it nearly as frequently. Any shadowboxing drills to train this?

2) Faith in the reverse punch. I lose points on this because I have trouble wrapping my mind around their effectiveness. After throwing thousands of boxing style punches from the guard, chambering and reverse punching doesnt feel quite comfortable to me

3) Flexibility with front side kicks? I've been practicing all of my kicks...will dynamic stretching improve this, or is a passive stretch required? (I have pretty good dynamic stretching ability (can kick above my head, but my passive stretching is not nearly as good)

4) Maintaining the offensive against a kick-happy opponent. Most in class that I spar are kick happy and I have trouble closing the gap against this. Usually when I can get inside, I do ok with punches, but when a series of kicks put backward pressure on me, I'm not sure how to change the direction of the fight (this doesnt happen often, just with one agressive classmate who happens to have long legs)

5) What are some practical kick combos to work?

Thanks in advance.
Posted by: ChangLab

Re: Footwork drills / sparring questions for Kung Fu - 09/29/05 03:36 PM

I can only reply to the kick happy portion,
as far as that goes if the kick is below waist level simply lift your leg as if chambering for a front snap kick,(raise your knee) use that to block the kick and when you put your foot down step in(close the gap)if timed well you can even jam or catch his kick .for high kicks learn to sweep the weight bearing leg.
Posted by: MattJ

Re: Footwork drills / sparring questions for Kung Fu - 09/30/05 09:55 AM

Quote by MrEd -

Quote:

We've started sparring in class, and I am having difficulty redefining my habits from kickboxing to eagle claw. I've identified a few weakness in my technique that I am aware of and was curious for suggestions.



Sorry....do you mean to say that your kickboxing techniques do not work or they do not fit the Eagle Claw system in particular?

Quote:

I have a habit of stepping to the side and blocking with my lead hand while bringin my rear hand to my face...the exact opposite of what we're supposed to do! Practice has corrected this to some degree..now i dont do it nearly as frequently. Any shadowboxing drills to train this?



Again, if the kickboxing techniques work for you, why would you want to change them? Do they really need correction?
Posted by: MrEd

Re: Footwork drills / sparring questions for Kung Fu - 09/30/05 10:38 AM

When we spar, we are supposed to use techniques in the system only.

So where i would normally open with a teep kick, followed by a shin kick to the thigh to close the distance, and onto a flurry of jab/crosses, i am supposed to use side cutting kicks, reverse punches and backfists.

We only get awarded the match for techniques we are tought, so despite sometimes landing the first blow, i still end up losing because i'm not playing by the rules, so to speak.

My instinct is to stay up on the balls of my feet and move in unpredictable patterns. We are supposed to be moving in and out of cat-horse-lunge stance transistions (to become fluid with these positions, which in the future will set up for joint locks and throws when we are advanced enough to learn them).

I'm trying to legitimately use the principles of the art and not my own made up preferences. It is supposed to take a long time to learn eagle claw as it builds on a strong foundation. It is proving a challenge for my mind to adhere to the system. That unfortunately costs me valubale time when we do the sparring.

admittedly, most of my actual kicking is still permissble and usually drives the opponent backward. I am used to leaning into a kick and just taking it with my leg/hip, that costs a point. Also, once i close the distance my gut tells me to punch boxing style, not reverse punch style and that is more of the problem.
Posted by: Neko456

Re: Footwork drills / sparring questions for Kung Fu - 09/30/05 02:34 PM

What I have incoroperated is range fighting in my shadow boxing I will kick, sweep, throw, strike, before and during clinch elbow knee, attempts takedown/throw, sprawl or pancake, bounce back up knee/elbow, bounce back out punch, kick then back in. Talk about an areobic workout, sometimes just hands, just kick, its hard to do just pancaking and throw/takedown it stops flowing and looks like kata.

Train like we fight, I teach just hands and grow to kicking and hand combos, the to music (try the 3 technique to a beat for building speed and noticing rhythum and broken rhythum, then to the rest....

Footwork can be sweating business.
Posted by: Subedei

Re: Footwork drills / sparring questions for Kung Fu - 11/01/05 08:41 PM

The long legged guy is good at keeping you away? What kind of kicks/combinations does he favor?
Posted by: monji112000

Re: Footwork drills / sparring questions for Kung - 11/05/05 02:36 PM

What is the goal of your sparring sessions?

It may be "smarter" to designate someone as a "street-fighter" or he should do none kung fu stuff. This will give you the benifit of applying your skill for street application. You will not fight Kung fu people on the street.

If you are having problem applying your Kung Fu then brake it down.

This idea works for any art (IE: music ect..).

Don't continue a mistake, take it in portions and string them together. For example..

I used to have a problem with a Cover we do for a Muy thai round kick.

Sifu took me to the side and worked with me on just that move.
Sometimes high,low,fast,strong, ect.. for many weeks over and over again.

Then he got someone to start throwing small combinations at me. Jab, jab cross, round kick. Not a Full all out sparring session but it forced me to use my Kung Fu. Each time we would stop for 1 second then continue. FULL power. Yah I got hurt allot.. but thats part of the game.
This helped my reactions and my application of Kung Fu allot.
Then we did Free-sparring, but we still mix the two types back and forth.

It don't like free-sparring becouse, (for me) the hardest part of a fighting is the initial start.
If you have good reactions, everything else come easy. Free sparring doesn't really work your initial reactions.
Don't forget
What good is sparring if I can't apply the moves? I will say this.. no one wants to throw a round kick at me anymore.


correct practise is invaluable.