| Have you ever seen two martial artists practicing with | | | | retreats. On each step, one of the practitioners |
| sticks? | | | | sweeps the other's foot, knocking him or her off |
| The speed of the hits is almost blindingly fast. This is | | | | balance. |
| the kind of martial arts practice that many practitioners | | | | This sweeping motion with the foot 'kicks' the other's |
| crave. | | | | foot out, making the opponent lose balance. Executed |
| For example, my students get very fast at the single | | | | properly, a good sweep can drop an opponent to the |
| stick patterns. (Double sticks, too.) Their hits are precise | | | | ground. |
| -- they enter at the same angle each and every time. | | | | In the better schools, they practice using the sweep |
| It almost looks choreographed. | | | | both ways. First they practice advancing and |
| That's awful! | | | | sweeping on the advance. Then, after awhile, they |
| Why? | | | | practice the reverse -- the person retreating attempts |
| It doesn't mimic real life. | | | | to kick the opponent's foot out from under him or her. |
| Unrealistic Martial Arts Practice | | | | As I said, after several minutes of practice, it seems |
| You and I both know that the bad guy is not going to | | | | that the partners almost help each other. They learn |
| swing at the perfect angle with just the right timing, in a | | | | the rhythm. They know just when their partner is going |
| real-life situation. | | | | to step and how big the stride will be. |
| (Maybe if we could teach the attacker which angles | | | | The familiarity hinders your ability to generalize to |
| we preferred, the encounter would progress more | | | | real-life situations. |
| smoothly.) | | | | Add More Realism to Your Martial Arts Practice |
| In a practice setting, as we get better working with a | | | | Sessions |
| single partner, we start to unconsciously help each | | | | I bet you can think of lots of ways, based on what |
| other out. | | | | was just discussed in this article, to simulate realism in |
| Martial Arts Practice -- From Sticks to Sweeps | | | | your practice: |
| I see this happen all of the time in both traditional and | | | | * mix the rhythm |
| nontraditional schools. It's not just in Filipino stick fighting. | | | | * vary the stride length |
| This "help your practice partner" attitude especially | | | | * have both defender and aggressor sweep |
| occurs during set sweep practice.... | | | | * change the technique |
| You square off with your partner, often grabbing each | | | | * change partners |
| other's arms. As one partner advances, the other | | | | * be a difficult partner ... |