Contact sparring 13/02/19

So yesterday at taekwondo we put on protective gear and did contact sparring. Contact sparring, since you're allowed to actually hit the other person, is actually a little different to no contact sparring. In no contact sparring its a lot slower, because you have to try not to hit the other person while also trying to be able to get a hit in. In contact sparring, just hit them. 

While it's a lot better than no contact, I'm still a complete amateur. On hindsight, the problem is that just a normal kick isn't going to do much. Everyone's expecting a kick to come in, so a single kick that's to be expected is just going to get blocked and countered. So what you have to do is mix it up a bit. You combo kicks, like climbing kick or tornado, or you just try to throw them off. 

When we were doing contact sparring, I ended up blocking a kick with my elbow, and that was kind of bad. Right now I've got a bandage around my elbow, since it hurts whenever I flex it too far. At least now I've actually got a reason to not go to the swimming carnival instead of just saying that I was "sick". Even though I think I am a little sick. I've been sneezing a coughing a lot recently, but I don;t really feel sick.