What it takes to be able to fight using Sanda Kickboxing
You can spend many years even decades practicing a martial art such as kickboxing without ever being able to use it in combat. So how do you bridge the gap between technical training and combat?
Understand your technique
Step one is the simplest step but in many ways the hardest and one you must constantly revisit throughout your kickboxing journey. That is, building your foundation and understanding the techniques, strategies and tactics of your kickboxing. If you can’t throw a solid punch, kick or takedown in Sanda kickboxing there is very little point in progressing to the next level of development as you will just develop and ingrain bad habits.
We avoid this at Sanda Kickboxing Academy by having separate beginner, intermediate and sparring classes. This means you cannot progress to the next level until you have become proficient in the basic techniques of Sanda kickboxing. This is a slightly slower way of developing your kickboxing skills but it will make you a better martial artist in the long run as you will avoid developing bad habits that could slow your progress as you level up.
Specific sparring
The next level up is specific sparring. This is where you spar against a resisting opponent but you are only allowed to use specific techniques such as kick only sparring or wrestling where you are only allowed to use a handful of throws and counters.
There are a couple of advantages to this type of sparring. You are less likely to injure yourself as you know what to expect and are less likely to be caught out, it also means you need to understand the technique you are trying to perform as your training partner will know what is coming so in order to make the technique work you will need to perform it properly and find new ways to set it up.
Sparring
Once you have a solid technical foundation and you can apply some techniques against a resisting opponent the next progression is sparring. Sparring is a practice bout, the practice puts you against an opponent who will be using all their understanding of kickboxing you land strikes and takedowns. Your job is to be able to stop them from being able to perform their kickboxing technique while being able to perform your own.
Sparring will create an environment where you will need to adapt your skills to different ability levels, sizes and styles. It will show you how your kickboxing works and help you to develop your own style of kickboxing. That said, sparring is not fighting, it is the bridge between your technical ability and applying it to your opponent. It is still a learning process and should never be treated like an actual fight.
Competition
Competition is the closest we can legally get to a ‘real’ fight. It is a place where you can apply your skills against an opponent who is trying to cause you real harm, while greatly reducing the risk of serious injury or death due to the rules and a third party in the form of the referee. If you can walk into the ring and come out on top against high level opponents it is fairly safe to say that you can use your kickboxing to fight.
A note on context
No martial art, not even MMA, will fit into every context. So if your goal is self defence you will need to learn a set of skills that exist out of the realm of martial arts. These would include skills such as understanding UK law, tactics for how to escape and many many more.
Fortunately at Sanda Kickboxing Academy London we can help in both the combat sport and the self defence realm. We understand the difference between the two and can teach you how to fight and defend yourself in any context.
Click here to book your free trial class and start to understand how to fight using your kickboxing skills.