WEKAF tips

[Fuzzy]

Hey guys.

So my gym is having a mini-tournament next weekend, just a little in-house thing for fun and to give us noobs a taste of competition rules and conditions.

This is the first time I'll be competing in any sort of stickfighting and probably the fourth or fifth time I'll have sparred with a stick.

Obviously my instructor is preparing us carefully, but I was wondering if anyone here had some tips/tricks to share.

[Permalost]

For WEKAF?

-Work on wrap/sunkiti/abaniko to the head followed by tigbas across the body. This can be done as a forehand of backhand.

-Get comfortable wearing and moving in your armor

-Hand strikes are easy enough to get but judges miss them a lot, especially when they're the first move of a fray.

-don't forget about the sak sak/thrust to the torso

-learn to throw a forehand strike from a backhand chamber, and a backhand strike from a forehand chamber

-since WEKAF doesn't allow leg strikes, I like to play around using long fencing footwork, so I can score a point and immediately move out of range

-learn how to hit if someone's grabbing your wrist, using abaniko

[Fuzzy]

Thanks man, that's what I'm looking for!

So you're saying MOAR WRIST FLEXIBILITY NOOB?

[Permalost]

Thanks man, that's what I'm looking for!

No problem. One of the most grueling workouts I can remember in recent times was training with a WEKAF group up north. Lots of running, sit ups, push ups, sprawling, tire work and then FINALLY sparring at the end of the night, all in full gear with a stick. Their guys are definitely better athletes than myself, but I try to make up for it in treachery.

So you're saying MOAR WRIST FLEXIBILITY NOOB?

More wrist speed and power! Flexibility will be limited by whatever gloves you're using. A good place to start is setting up your headgear on a post or something around head level, put on your gloves, and work on hitting the headgear at all angles. Use regular cuts, use abaniko to both sides of the mask and also the top, use doblado. Everything should be explosive and fast; you should hear ding ding ding ding ding quickly as the mask rings. You may eat through a stick or two but I think its worth it. Some continuous striking drills I like, used the way a boxer would work a speed bag:

-forehand doblado to backhand doblado, continuously hitting with the tip. Right right, left left ad nauseum

-bounce between forehand and backhand abaniko; the idea is that you develop the sense to immediately switch lines as soon as your strike encounters resistance (a block)

-bait and switch: I kinda concocted this one myself, and it involves strikes in sets of 4. Start, let's say, with a right downward diagonal (caveman) chamber, and unleash a solid #1 strike. Do 3 of these, then on the 3rd caveman chamber, adjust your body position and do a diagonal down backhand cut. Do the same but switch forehand and backhand above. The idea is to sell your opponent the idea that you're gonna try for your predictable power shot, but then it switches to the other side en route (usually going for their arm as they go for a forehand block).
The backhand can also be switched for the sidewinder. If you're unfamiliar, start in a forehand chamber, palm facing in. Basically, you'll reach out like a karate punch and turn the palm down at the end of the motion. This will often get around simple blocks. It should hit flat against the mask in a fairly linear way, not swinging like a regular backhand. Almost like a witik from a forehand chamber. Its also similar to the DBMA stick jab, which is also like a linear offline punch, not an elliptical swing. Catching people with a sidewinder is one of my favorite WEKAF things, and one of my training partners is always inserting them into sparring.

[Fuzzy]

So I sparred 6-8 rounds on Saturday evening in prep for this thing and here's what I've discovered I really need to work on:

1) Ranging - my instinct is to close in for teh grapplez, I need to focus on staying in weapon range and beating him with my stick.

2) Keep the empty hand DOWN - again my reflex is to keep it up in a guard position, leading to it getting smacked like crazy.

3) COMBOS! I can get single strikes (especially hoizontal belly shots - Planchas?) fairly easily but I need to follow them up with different angles.

I did pull of one Dog Bro's style Drive-By which felt pretty awesome.

Now, MORE TYRE WORK!

[Permalost]

So I sparred 6-8 rounds on Saturday evening in prep for this thing and here's what I've discovered I really need to work on:

1) Ranging - my instinct is to close in for teh grapplez, I need to focus on staying in weapon range and beating him with my stick.

Would the doce pares you're studying happen to be Cacoy doce pares or eskrido? They seem good at combining stickwork and in-close grappling (Probably from Cacoy Canete's judo background). That may be a moot point under WEKAF rules though.

2) Keep the empty hand DOWN - again my reflex is to keep it up in a guard position, leading to it getting smacked like crazy.

I leave my empty hand up high. I figure that at any given time, there can be a sudden clash to close range, and I want to be ready to 1. throw a cross to the face, and 2. defend against a cross. Also I figure if my hand gets hit because its up high, the alternative scenario is that my head is hit if my hand is low. Punch to the face is legal in WEKAF, IIRC.

3) COMBOS! I can get single strikes (especially hoizontal belly shots - Planchas?) fairly easily but I need to follow them up with different angles.

We call the horizontal belly shot a Tigbas or Reverse Tigbas. I like to set it up with backhand witik or forehand doblado, with the tigbas as the 2nd strike.

[quote]I did pull of one Dog Bro's style Drive-By which felt pretty awesome.

Now, MORE TYRE WORK!

A lot of WEKAF players (myself included) aren't well-prepared to deal with some of the DBMA fast-closing techniques. I'm partial to the Kangaroo and I'm starting to like the PTK takeoff with double sticks.

[Fuzzy]

We're Doce Pares Multi-Style, so not Eskrido that I know of. My closing reflexes come from when I trained in Fanchento (JKD as taught by a Judoka) at University, so my instinct is still to get right up in my opponent's face and then try to throw him.

I take your point about the hand staying up and the alternative, I keep getting told to put it down for competition's sake, but I'll see how that goes.

More sparring on Tuesday and Thursday and then tournament on Saturday. Hoping to get comfortable with a very basic style by then.

Edit: Just to clarify, WEKAF is not my main interest, I'm just fighting in it because its happening, I hope to move on to low-armour as soon as I can (although I think I need to grade a few times before that) and my life goal at the moment is to fight at the Euro Gathering of the Pack in 2-3 years.

[Permalost]

Edit: Just to clarify, WEKAF is not my main interest, I'm just fighting in it because its happening, I hope to move on to low-armour as soon as I can (although I think I need to grade a few times before that) and my life goal at the moment is to fight at the Euro Gathering of the Pack in 2-3 years.

2 to 3 years is more than enough time to prepare for a DB gathering, IMO. There have been people that have fought with 6 months of training. The ones I've fought at have always had me thinking "I didn't spar enough, hard enough, for long enough, to be ready for this", but I go anyway because I don't want to wait a whole more year to fight again.

On the other hand, in my 2nd one, where I had not been sparring regularly, I got my mask kicked in immediately.

[Fuzzy]

Right, so this thing is tomorrow and I'm feeling pretty good.

I doubt I'm going to win, but I don't feel I'm going to disgrace myself either.

I've got a game plan for most guys, my only problem is with this one really tall guy, specifically in double-stick.

He stands there with his sticks out in front of him in an X-shape and basically just rains x-strikes down on my head and shoulders, I can land plenty of low stikes on his belly and torso, but I'm pretty sure he's getting the poiints for the higher strikes.

Any ideas on a way to counter this?

[DerAuslander]

I hate WEKAF rules.