The Final Drill

The final drill: A continuation onto the Magic Drill

I recall once receiving a phone call the son of a rival school’s owner. It was a late night after all the students from the second class had gone home, and I was putting the checks I had collected in their respectful location. I had spoken to this guy, even befriended him, over the past months and he asked me what I had going on after I locked up.

I could have just gone home but out of shear curiosity I had to see what was brewing. He said that a bunch of TKD guys, young 18-30 year old, competitive, guys were going to meat up at a gym down the interstate. This was very peculiar to me as my school was not real popular amongst some of the people that were going to be there, strange that I would be invited. 

I went, it was about 10 pm and the large chain style Gym was closing and the keys were being handed to a guy I was familiar with. We will just call him Craig. Craig had actually owned a franchise of my Grand Master’s once but defected and went towards a more AAU approved style. He was legendary in my mind, this guy was a top level hybrid TKD fighter and I knew by the end of the night I was going to get to spar with him. 

Before I had my chance to spar with him I had to join the rotation, starting off was one of the back belts from the, at that time, current Olympic Champion’s school. I actually hurt him, his ribs, he wanted to spar without a check protector on and I jabbed him with a side kick, all heal. Then it was this head hunter from the rival school, he trained under my instructors before he left and became a WTF fighter, he was really fast but I would say we both had our strengths and weaknesses. Next in rotation was a guy, not sure what school he was a part of but, I knew his name. He was really well known in the TKD tournament scene, he was good and pretty much mopped the floor with me. I knew how to fight WTF guys but for some reason he knew that I knew that and he knew what to do. And so forth the night progressed until I spared my friend. I like to think I won but his kicks hurt, I might have gotten more points off but the tree trunk like legs he possessed took it out of me, and I guarantee I hurt more the next day than he did. 

Finally I was there, Craig, now I got to go up against someone I have heard about for years. I was tired but so was he; I thought for sure I would get something off on him. Nope. I could not even touch him. He was so incredibly calm, smooth and relaxed that every move I threw he had an answer for. He did not hurt me; he kicked me swiftly and gently and seemed to be coaching me. “You’re too stiff, loosen up”, he kept saying. The same thing everyone better than me always said. The buzzer rang and this time instead of rotating we were done. He only had the keys until 11:30pm now we had to leave. 

This was one of the single handed best sparing experiences I had ever had. I, in one night, got to spar with 6 or 7 guys that all came from different schools, and were all good. Wow, this was a great underground group. The group continued and I met with them more in the future, but it was not long until chasing Olympic style left me. I move more to kick boxing, and learning boxing, but I think back today to what I learned from sparing Craig.

I learned that Craig was able to be loose and relaxed in every situation because he had been in every situation I put him in long before I threw those kicks that night. In fact he had been in those situations many times. Those were not new moves for him so he naturally had an answer for them.

So how do you take that formula and transpose it to a lesson? Well it’s quite simple. You take your students and pair them up. One side attacks and one side defend. Start by giving them a kick, front kick then begin. Side A will throw the front kick and try to hit the side B student in the stomach as many time as possible with in 1 Minuit. Then they switch, the defending side has to learn how to block it. Not by being taught, hopefully you have already instilled the blocks and counter attacks in them, but by being in the situation over and over again. 

You repeat this formula with every kick in the book, side kick, back kick, and hook kicks, revers turning kicks, round houses and punches. Once they are used to seeing these moves come at them hundreds of time, over and over, they will eventually become relaxed when the move is used on them in a tournament. This will help them to maintain the “in the zone” factor. The point where things start to move slower in action, more thought can be processed in the moment. 

Next you have them throw predisposed combinations using the same formula, again and again, until no one in their own school can get over on anyone else. 

This is the final drill. When a student wants to go into TKD tournament mode, this is the best formula for them to be loose and relaxed. The only pit fall is eventually you will have put yourself into a position that you will need outsiders to come in. they are going to have to learn what other kids are throwing out there. If you are not coordinating sparing sessions with other schools in your community then you are doing your students, and TKD, a disservice. The community must be strong if you want the final drill to pay off. 

To conclude, the magic drill is something that everyone at one time or another looks for. They are the simple tricks that make scoring a point easy, moves that trick people 90% of the time. I searched long and hard for these moves and found many, some that were great and some that were not, but once you learn the magic drills you have to move to the final drill. This is a strategy that will not only help your students become comfortable in every sparing situation but will also change the way you, as an instructor, view the Tuls. I will have to touch that on another post as I feel long winded here. 

And a note: don’t stop practicing sidekicks, diagonal kicks or round houses are like riding a bike, but sidekicks have a shelf life. 

Peace. 

Mr. Mustache