22.09.21
Hour four of my client’s teacher development course for sparring moved into the kickboxing range. This was for Denmark’s Holstebro Taekwondo Klub via Zoom. We focused on layering in Muay Thai teeps, round kicks, shin-checks and scooping blocks over the western boxing previous covered.
Feedback Consultation: My client reported that attack versus defence specific sparring worked well on the whole with his class. Most students felt more confident with this boxing sparring once they could proactively defend. However, there were still students who erratically tried to fend off punches. I advised on scaling this back only for this particular students, having their partners restricted to only certain punches. The Feedback Loop Training on the focus mitts are also a great resource for promoting better defensive thinking and building confidence. He also said there was generally a problem having students transition from the more bladed stance found in taekwondo to the more square-on boxing style I have been teaching. This is interesting because most western boxing is performed from an angled or bladed stance as opposed to square-on. The peek-a-boo style is one of the few that goes against the grain in this respect. I teach a more square on approach only because I find it helps with the transitioning to Muay Thai and Wrestling. I advised to not be too concerned for western boxing for the reasons stated earlier and that the low kicks in Muay Thai will most likely encourage a change in stance.
Warm-up: We performed different muscle activation exercises, focusing on the ankles and in shadowing techniques such as spear knees, teeps, shin-checks, rear round kicks and lead/switch round kicks, as well as the usual dynamic stretching.
Technical Shadow Work: Here it was important to promote the fluid chaining of kicks onto punching combinations and onto different kicks.
- Teep/Low Round Kick
- Jab/Rear Round Kick
- Jab/Cross/Lead or Switch Round Kick
- Jab/Cross/Hook/Rear Round Kick
- Jab/Cross/Hook/Cross or Overhand Right/Lead or Switch Round Kick
- Jab/Rear Round Kick/Lead Round Kick/Cross
Sparring Drills:
- Teep vs Teep
- Round Kick vs Shin-Check/Teep
- Round Kick vs Teep
- Teep vs Boxing
- Round Kick vs Boxing
A natural progress on from here would be Boxing vs Kicking and then Kickboxing sparring.