unlearning bad blocks

Yael Grauer · 01-07-2007, 02:02 PM

So when we play light touch sparring, I notice that I do these god-awful blocks from my many years of karate...blocking kicks with my hand and such, or blocking punches instead of slipping. Of course the obvious answer is to spend the next however many years with perfect form and technique, but are there any shortcuts for unlearning bad habits? I thought maybe I could just tell a friend to kick my hand really hard when I do that and see if my body remembers it that way. It worked with getting me to improve my stick grip. Or maybe just a ton of really good shadow boxing every day to get used to moving more effectively... I don't train that much but since all of my crappy blocks were mostly done in the air I'm hoping I can unlearn them on my own as well... Anybody had this problem?

Josh Whiting · 01-07-2007, 04:55 PM

You are going to have to break things down into drills. During sparring you are reverting to old habits because you are under pressure, the answer is to drill some exchanges and gradually up the pressure. The skills you take from these drill should then carry into sparring and finally into fighting.

Lets take a left hook defense for example.

You get you partner to throw hooks. The first few maybe you just stand there and block. From there you can move round and he can hook to your head when he feels like it, using his foot work and body movement to try and hit you. Gradually up the tempo until he is trying to knock you out. Maybe do a round of this.

Do this sequence with all your hook defenses. Finally do a round using all you defenses. Repeat with all punches and kicks.

From here maybe do complex round (i.e he can jab, cross, low right kick). By this stage you should have a good carryover to sparring.

It's important that you partner makes this realistic and doesn't just turn into a left hook robot for a round, after all it's training for him too right?

Wear gloves!

Shadow boxing everyday will help, but will only take you so far. It is worth doing though even if is for a short 10 second bursts whenever you happen to think about it. Be careful where you do this ha ha.

Wear gloves for this!

Yael Grauer · 01-07-2007, 05:25 PM

We definitely do a ton of drills but it hasn't carried over as well as I want it to yet... so more drills, got it! The problem is that I can only train with my current group once a week, but I'm looking at a boxing gym that's practically next door for the spring. It's just that it's more than I want to spend and I hear it's not that good...shadow boxing it is!

Robb Wolf · 01-08-2007, 05:35 PM

Great Stuff Josh!

Yael-

Bottom line (IMO) you really need to solidify form in controlled environments (drills) before progressing to sparring. Also-Karate sux.

Yael Grauer · 01-08-2007, 08:50 PM

I get it, you want me to play scales and I just want to play Rachmaninoff even though I can't!

Hey, my old karate teacher now teaches kickboxing!

Robb Wolf · 01-09-2007, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yael Grauer

I get it, you want me to play scales and I just want to play Rachmaninoff even though I can't!

Hey, my old karate teacher now teaches kickboxing!

Tae-bo is also considered "kick-boxing". The Karate-five-O folks who start teaching kickboxing are usually "good" like a Tijuana hang-over is "fun".