Last night at training the entire lesson was devoted to what we refer to as Sam Soo Sik Dae Ryun, or three-step sparring. Many “karate” arts have a set of one-steps, Tae Kwon Do have two-step and some have preset three-steps, but in Tang Soo Do (in our kwan anyway) the the three step sparring is generally reactive and spontaneous. We built on the basics for our lesson, working with pre-determined blocking sequences and finishing with a single kicking technique, or maybe a two move hand combination, and then built from there. It’s very strange to have a discipline which sits somewhere between free sparring and something more regimented like Ho Sin Sool (self-defence), and to my mind it’s much harder than either of those two. We had to create our own three-step routine to teach the rest of the class which was really interesting to try, and to see how others coped with something that essentially came quite naturally to me.
Later we tried some more fast-paced and linked hand combinations to finish defences with, and these were really hard to work and make look natural. It was essentially very Wing Chun looking movements, using small light attacks and lots of them.Each previous movement set up the next and each ‘precursor’ as such was used to open up or expose a different nerve or pressure point. I found this enormously difficult to get used to, and at the time I couldn’t understand why. If you’ve ever watched someone go to work on a wooden dummy you’ll understand the sort of motions and attacks that we held in mind and were shown, but performing them was a whole other matter.
I was lying in bed thinking about it (as I tend to do after a Tuesday lesson) and I think I know what it was that threw me so much and made it feel so counter-intuitive. Normally in Tang Soo Do, and in most styles of karate I imagine, the non-striking hand is retracted and prepared for another attack immediatly after the first. This is second nature to me now, if you punch you pull the other hand back under and have it ready to strike, but when you watch someone work these small movements (and I mean properly watch) there’s not a lot of retraction. Even if a hand is moved from its striking position to a position to open a vital point, it’s only a small movement. I enjoyed learning it and attempting (in the loosest sense of the word!) to create my own combinations, it was nice to have something so mentally taxing as well as physical.
I wonder if Kung Fu practitioners (those styles that use the short movements at least) find it hard to adapt to the 180° rotations and full extensions and retractions of a ‘hard’ karate style.
That does seem like the type of stuff you see in wc, especially the sticking hands.It is incredibly useful though, although tricky with gloves on,as you aren’t pulling your fist back after each attack. You use the other arm to block and then counter- can be tricky to grasp but there are some simple drills you can do to train it. I find I do that quite a lot in sparring now and find it’s effective,especially when going without gloves.
I think we’re lucky in that we use close in techniques but add in longer range stuff and get used to locking stuff out. Interesting though.I like the way your teacher approaches stuff and gets you working all ways- mine is similar,very useful indeed!