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You are not alone my friend. This is something that is going on in every dojang.
The main thing getting in the way is fear. I can tell you from my own experiences that fear kept me from doing what I was train or taught to do. I remember my GM coaching me many times telling me to use my axe kick and even screaming "NOW NOW NOW!" from the chair when he saw the opportunity to use it. I just did not see what he saw and always thought that if I do this now I will get hit or knocked out. So I never even attempted it.
Well one day I decided to just blindly listen to him and just do it when he said "NOW". I decided that if I get hit or even worse, KO'd oh well. Well guess what? It worked and even though the guy was kicking and I got hit, the hit was minimized because they guy stopped or disengaged his kick to try and avoid my axe hitting him in the face. His kick that tapped me was not anything to even worry about.
It took me years to listen. But once I did that is when things started to make sense. That one incident made it possible for me to attempt new things and to keep trying the new things and find out how to make them work.
Knowing this and understanding what I went through I now can manipulate my kids into doing what I want by setting up a drill before the real drill.
Example: I may have my kids partner up and have one kick to the hogu. The kid kicking must kick for real (medium power but full speed). The other kid must let the kick hit, he or she is not allowed to block or move out of the way. I may have them do this many times over many days.
Then I will at some point introduce countering to this drill. The same drill will apply with one side kicking and the other side getting kicked but now the side getting kick is allowed to move off only after taking the kick and kick back to the body only. This drill will be repeated many time over many days in conjunction with the fist drill.
Next I will have them do the first two drills still while adding to them once again. The third drill will be following up. This drill may be for the person kicking at the beginning. Person one kicks and lands on person two. Person two now moves off and counter kicks person one while at the same time person one is also kicking at the same time again (following up his first kick) thus exchanging counter kicks both scoring.
This teaches both not to hesitate and to counter and not worry about being hit. This also teaches that attacker to follow up his kick and that one kick may not get it done. The kids catch on and can see what is happening.
Later you implement the guarding while kicking to teach how to block and kick at the same time. Not one then the other as if you simply block first then kick you will most likely be too late.
All in all it is a process, and in that process you have progressions that develop muscle memory and also teach the concepts as well. It takes time but if you start the concept drills and processs at white belt, by the time they are black belts they should have it down without even knowing it. They will then have the tool of understanding and setting up techniques. This process helps them develop their own stratagies.
It is kind of cool hearing a 10 year old come back to the chair and tell you that he can get the opponent with "X" because he just move back and trys to do "Y" So "X" will work. That's when you know he gets it. But that took years to develop, starting at 6 years old (when he first started to compete).
Originally Posted by d1jinx
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