24/09/2026
We had a great couple of Classes last night.
In Kick Box and Burn we covered the standard programme of a warm up and a stretch out followed by my favourite bag circuit: 4 stations, 2 min per station, alternatively every 30 seconds between body weight exercises and bag work, repeat x2 with mininal breaks, then warm down and Stretch out some more (pad drills at the end optional).
My circuit used sit-ups, lunges, burpees and skipping. I sometimes alternate with plank, squat thrusts, kick throughs and wall sit. (I sometimes make the second round 3 mins and/or add in a 5th station but not on someone's first night).
All the bag drills are done with their strong side leading first time then alternate stance the second time to utilise their weak side as the primary attack (most people this is going goofy, but for goofys going regular).
This is a normal way train in Taekwon-Do but not in all combat disciplines and this can prove quite tricky at first if someine is not used to it. I call it "other side of the brain training".
In Taekwon-Do we had a night dedicated to basic sparring. We did foot work drills, and partner drills working front kick, back leg turning kick, front leg turning kick and jumping punches to the head mostly one and one with minimal contact.
We have one Yellow Belt student who has never actually sparred before so we are working on distance, movement, scoring points to legal targets, common warnings, competition formalities and of course fitness, stamina and endurance while taking hits to the body in full sparring gear for the first time. Their opponent an experienced black belt directed to execute extreme control and keep contact to the absolute minimum.
There was no free sparring at this stage but limited techniques and limited exchanges with fouls being called to inject a bit of realism and to keep competition rules at the front of everyones minds.
I have spent months working on these things with this student in advance of any sort of contact and foccused on building up technique, fitness, strength and agility due to them expressing a great keenness to spar. Last night they took their first steps and reportedly "loved it" ❤️.
The most important thing to me is to create a safe and supportive environment to allow students to develop at their own pace.
We finished off by going over 3 step sparring, to reinforce the fundamental elements of footwork, distance and effective blocking from a technical syllabus point if view and to keep the examination we are working towards in sight.
