On Saturday the 30th of August IL Shim Melbourne hosted an IL Shim squad training session prior to the ITF Victorian Challenge tournament. The training session was conducted by Mr Frans Christensen (V degree) and Mr Gerard Kelly (IV degree).
The warm up commenced with some general loosening up but we quickly moved into stretching. We then ran through strengthening exercises for the adductor muscles. Adductor strength helps to keep the front leg up for quick sidekicks.
The sparring drills included front leg sidekicks to a target and then moved onto hook kicks. I particularly liked this drill as the aim is to score points as well as drawing a warning for being kicked in the back. The opponent uses a turning kick off the rear leg, to counter a hook kick is used off the rear leg. The hook kick allows you to turn inside the turning kick which then strikes the back.
We then moved onto the “Bull Rush” or blitz punching, first with one front jab and then onto using both hands.
We then moved onto more advanced drills to try and suck the opponent into jumping back kick. The premise was to use a front leg turning kick, follow through and turn the back to your opponent. The opponent seeing an opportunity to attack is then set up for a jumping back kick.
The session ran for 3 hours and we covered a lot of drills useful in tournament sparring. It was a tough but very beneficial workout prior to the tournament on the Sunday.
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