FIGHTING AT THE TECHNIQUE-LEVEL
Adrian and Miguel sparring at the First Shaolin Wahnam Free Sparring Competitions
The video below shows how we free sparred when we first started free sparring competitions. The first match shows the First Shaolin Wahnam Free Sparring Competition held in Frankfurt in 2010, and the second match shows the Second Shaolin Wahnam Free Sparring Competition held in Brighton in 2011.
It was commendable that we used kungfu patterns in our sparring and no one was injured -- two proud achievements not many kungfu practitioners all over the world can accomplish.
However the level of combat efficiency was low. At this level, we would likely to be beaten had we entered free sparring competitions.
Can you notice an important weakness. The combatants fought at the level of techniques, not sequences. In other words it was technique-sparring and not sequence sparring. A combatant would move in with isolated techniques, then moved away. He did not press in with a trained sequence as I had frequently advocated.
Another important weakness was the lack of threat -- in both attack as well as defence. In other words, our opponents did not feel threatened by our combatants when we attacked. On the other hand, our combatants would be threatened when other opponents in other free sparring competitions attacked them.
A likely result from this lack of threat was that even when our fighters were better martial artists, they would still be beaten by other inferior opponents in free sparring competitions. Nevertheless, we have made tremendous improvement since these two internal competitions.
Fighting at the Technique Level from Wong Kiew Kit on Vimeo.
Wong Kiew Kit
18th February 2013
Killarney, Ireland
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