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
