Wushu Day Live! Thanks Shifu 全骏宏 for helping to organize this thing. Thanks Brandon Sugiyama for all your involvement in the community which has connected the wushu community at large. Also big thanks to all the other wonderful instructors who presented. Hard acts to follow with this incredible line up of instructors from around the world, but I was happy to be part of the event and share some of my favorite tricks. Hope it was beneficial for those who attended. If you didn't have a chance to check it out live, good news I recorded it just for you!
When I was asked to present a seminar for Wushu Live Day, I thought of all the different topics I could present on. Knowing the theme was Wushu, Chinese martiaI arts, I figured most seminars would be able solo exercises for form- Taolu. This is very appropriate given the rich culture of routines practice in Chinees Martial arts, but also given the circumstances world wide. Many of us are quarantined and limited to solo training. However, I decided that if many instructors would going to present on topics related to Taolu (forms training), both modern and traditional, I wanted to do something that related to Modern Sanda Kickboxing, Wushu’s other half, just for a different perspective.
Previously, I’d thought about the various related topics that might be unique and relevant. For example, I thought about presenting on:
Mental Game, and mind set in training and competing.
Strength and Conditioning: Running, Jump Rope, Body weight calisthenics, kettle bell, barbell, etc.
Stretching/Mobility Work
Recovery Work (foam rolling, sauna, ice bath, liniments, etc.)
Nutrition/Diet
While these are ALL IMPORTANT areas to a martial artist I knew today I wanted to talk about Kickboxing Specifically. But what to present on?
The obvious and most important area to address: Fundamentals! Marital artists all know basics are the most important element. This goes for forms training this goes for fight training. This goes for internal, external, modern and traditional.
Some examples of things we could address might be:
Foot work (not flat footed, not crossing feet)
Stance (guard up, always protecting, and returns punches back to guard)
Bad habits (not turning hips over on your punches/kicks, or chicken winging when throwing punches, not breathing when hitting, not breathing when being hit.
Amateur habits: Always backing up or always covering up w the head down and w/o having the intention to counter, etc.
I thought we could cover what constitutes good basics in Kickboxing. For example:
Technical precision:
Takedowns, level change, penetration, posture and follow through
Kicking precision/accuracy etc. addressing the chamber, and pivot and timing of turning the hips over.
These qualities are Of UTMOST importance to the kickboxer! The risk of doing something incorrectly in form is that is may result in injury to ourselves accidentally. Most often it will simply result in a less than perfect execution which is simply less attractive, kick height gets cut short, degrees of rotation are limited, or the power of the punch is not fully generated or released. However, in kickboxing the penalty for bad habits is much greater. Not only do we risk injury to ourselves for example if we are falling incorrectly on a take down, but we are greatly increasing risk of injury from our opponents capitalizing on our mistakes!
So, it was hard for me to not want to go the safe but somewhat routine effort of addressing fundamentals. After all this this is the BREAD and Butter, the Meat and potatoes, of all our training. However, on further consideration this is so important that this is what you and your coach should be focusing on regularly in the gym ALL the time!
Because this talk is a one off. Something different meant to lighten the atmosphere given the current circumstances, I really wanted to present on something different! Something a little more fun and novel.
Today I want to present on 1. Reading your opponent and setting him up, and 2. specifically go over my favorite, high percentage set ups!
Maybe this comes because I am not the most gifted, athletic, aggressive fighter who can “ move before my opponent moves”, or overwhelm my opponents with pure speed and aggression. But this has become an important element in all my martial outlets.
I typically do Tai Chi push hands about 3x per week, Spar kickboxing 3x per week and do BJJ about 5x per week. A huge aspect of my game is have predetermined set ups for different reactions. However, you drill them so frequently and employ them so often in sparring that they will come second nature, without thinking about them. (Example: Push Hands- we set up the split (maybe as a counter to push) they resist, we follow up with roll back arm drag or fair maiden works shuttle. In BJJ Ezekiel, Cross Collar, Sweep.)
The Set Ups!
This is one of the biggest different between Sport Fighting and Street Self Defense. In combat sports the mentality and ruleset allow for opportunity to read and set up your opponent.
As the axiom goes for every Action there is a Reaction.
Examples include:
Punch – hands up = kick to legs or shoot takedown
Kick- hands drop to block = super man punch
Takedown- snap down resist = shoot in for the takedown
The rule of 3!
This leads me to a general rule that I use in Kickboxing called the Rule of 3. In this approach you attack and elicit a reaction. You’ll throw it a second time to both confirm the reaction and integrating the pattern for your partner, and on the third attack on you alternate your alternate strike/combo. Now this goes both ways, if you find your partner/opponent throwing something successively. You’d better be ready to switch up your response, that might mean slipping instead of covering, catching a kick instead of circling away, or count
Let’s get in to some specifics.
Punch Set Up
Jab, Jab, Body Cross
Jab, Jab Body, Cross to Head
Jab, Cross to Body, Hook to Head
/
Crab guard/Philly Shell in boxing, but standard in wrestling (so no surprise we see it in Sanda)
Back Fist, + body punch, Side Kick to leg or body, Back fist pump fake to hook
/
Kick Set Up
Push- Round – Brazilian/Question Mark
/
Round Kick
to Push
Round Kick to Super Man Punch (counter to dropping hands bad habit or low kick catch attempt)
to Side, immediate no touch, or touch and pendulum/slide step. (Counter to Block)
Round Kick to Skip Step Kick/Sweep (Counter to Check)
/
Takedown Set Up
Push/Pull
Push + Push Back = Lateral Drop
Snap Down + resist/look up = Shoot for single/doubles
/
Most common is a hip throw to inner hook trip but I don’t like turning my back
should roll throw from shuai jiao, into cross or lead/lead inside hook trip (ex. Right/right)
Lead to lead inside trip, if they step back we will t-step, and lead to lead inside hook trip.
These are some of my high percentage set ups. They are based on the most common reactions. The point of drilling set ups is that they will be at your fingertips when you want probing your partner/opponent in sparring or fighting. Another purpose is to get the concept ingrained so that we start to explore reading and setting up our opponent, and following up with the counters that work best for us. Lastly, we do this so that once we understand how to apply it to others, we can be cognizant of how others will look to apply it to us and the steps and measures we can adopt to prevent them from being successful!
