Practicing Both Sides

[Gerry Seymour]

There's no reason why you can't practice both sides of techniques in your own time during your own personal training outside of class but in class it's just a waste of time to be honest because you won't get through as much stuff each lesson if everyone's basically doing the technique at least twice and then some will get confused and then it'll have to be demonstrated etc just not worth it in class but by all practicing it on your own doesn't hurt

I should hope everyone is doing each new technique far more than twice, anyway, in order to actually learn it. If they simply split the repetitions between the two sides, it doesn't take longer. And it is my experience that students often make different mistakes on each side, so fixing one side often doesn't mean the other side is right. Mistakes that are made only on one side tell me something different than mistakes made on both sides.

 

[Sami Ibrahim]

Good Evening,

I just want to share how I look at this topic. Each basic element of my sequence has a certain amount of versatility, for example the front snap kick in Delayed Sword can attack other targets if they are available, the hammer does not have to go to the radial nerve, etc. as my training partner alters the prescribed attack or deviates from the prescribed reactions in the ideal script I rely on the versatility of the basic elements to be effective. What this means for me is that I don't have to switch to my other side if my training partner goes off script, sometimes the training partner attacking with the "other side" ends up making the conventional sequence even more destructive. That does not mean that I don't advocate keeping a balance of ability with the weapons on both sides of my body. When one side is injured I find that being well versed on the other side very helpful in surviving. I do see that some of my ideal phase techniques are just the left or right versions of themselves but the nature of the attack is usually a little different, I think that was intentionally done so that students would realize how versatile these Kenpo basics really are.

Sami Ibrahim