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All the martial arts that I'm familar with teach basic blocking techniques. Most of them teach strikes as blocks to advanced students.
Few schools, in any of the arts, though, seem to teach getting hit. (for obvious insurance and liability reasons)
let's take a simple block - the inside block. The arm starts with the elbow bent, the forearm perpendicular to the ground. Keeping the forearm perpendiculare, the arm moves accross your front and your palm rotates to be pointing towards your face. (your hand is in a fist for this block)
The idea is that your forearm will contact any punches thrown and deflect them.
Done sufficiently fast, and with some force, this simple block can be a decent strike on your opponents arm. Turning your waist at the same time, increases the force of the blow and also presents a smaller target for your opponent's punch to strike.
Ok, so far, so good.
You need to practice both delivering a hard block an receiving one. It's funny to see people's reactions the first time they ever experience "hard" sparring. They tend to react to the pain in such a way that it throws their timing and game plan completely off. You don't want your focus to shift because your are feeling something unexpected.
It should also be noted, before anyone goes off and tries this stuff, that you can get hurt or hurt someone if you don't know what you are doing.
This was just a small discussion of a linear type block. Linear movements are usually associated with Karate, but most Gung Fu (Kung Fu) systems also include linear blocks. (just like most karate styles also include some circular movements.)
Btw, I'd like some feed back on whether or not to continue these posts - are they of any interest?
Any topics you'd like brought up?
:devil:
Few schools, in any of the arts, though, seem to teach getting hit. (for obvious insurance and liability reasons)
let's take a simple block - the inside block. The arm starts with the elbow bent, the forearm perpendicular to the ground. Keeping the forearm perpendiculare, the arm moves accross your front and your palm rotates to be pointing towards your face. (your hand is in a fist for this block)
The idea is that your forearm will contact any punches thrown and deflect them.
Done sufficiently fast, and with some force, this simple block can be a decent strike on your opponents arm. Turning your waist at the same time, increases the force of the blow and also presents a smaller target for your opponent's punch to strike.
Ok, so far, so good.
You need to practice both delivering a hard block an receiving one. It's funny to see people's reactions the first time they ever experience "hard" sparring. They tend to react to the pain in such a way that it throws their timing and game plan completely off. You don't want your focus to shift because your are feeling something unexpected.
It should also be noted, before anyone goes off and tries this stuff, that you can get hurt or hurt someone if you don't know what you are doing.
This was just a small discussion of a linear type block. Linear movements are usually associated with Karate, but most Gung Fu (Kung Fu) systems also include linear blocks. (just like most karate styles also include some circular movements.)
Btw, I'd like some feed back on whether or not to continue these posts - are they of any interest?
Any topics you'd like brought up?
:devil: