Full-contact arm blocking: realistic?

[fanatical]

Why train bad habits?

[Southpaw]

What bad habits?

[BackFistMonkey]

I cant take _ing _un seriously anymore . Last time I sparred a _ing _un guy he kept putting an outstretched hand up just out side of my space .

Lets just say it was not a good thing considering Hapikdo is all about some silly standing joint locks and grabs , my biggest complaint was "When the **** is some idiot gonna just hand you an arm and maintain contact with you long enough to do anything ? " .

_ing _un was the answer ...

[I aint punchy!?]

I'm not trying to do chi-sau with boxing gloves on. I realise the limitations of chi-sau, even when its free style and has good contact, and tend to do sparring from the arms-off position when I do WC sparring without gloves. Chi-sau is good for practice movements, and a starting point for newbs.

What I spose I'm interested in is re-discovering WC arm blocking and punching within a boxing context. If I can do this then perhaps I can transition some of the training into a kyokushin style sparring environment.

Anyway as someone has pointed out pak sau is good as a parry (almost like a standard boxing parry - flick the opponents hand to the side as they punch).
Bong sau is good but you tend put the opponent's arm in the way of a good shot (head is possibly open).
'Chicken wing' bong sau (i.e. a low bong sau that is against the hip) works well against body shots and makes the opponent step past. But again allows the opponent to cover.
Low gaan sau (a low block with elbow out and hand kind of at the abdomen) is okay as a kind of crash-tackle of someone's body shot.
Jut sau is nice too, and you can possibly drop your elbow onto their forearm for a bit of bonus annoying value.
Actually the elbow seems like it might be a very useful thing in arm-blocking... see if you can get them to hit you elbow with their wrist or forearm.

The important thing, as lots of you have pointed out, is that the opponent will chamber their punch back again very quickly. So the benefit of blocking has to be either A) when you can't step out of range in time, B) to set them up for a sweet counter punch, or C) as part of some set-up for some stand-up grappling.

I guess right now I'm focusing on B.

[Southpaw]

What I spose I'm interested in is re-discovering WC arm blocking and punching within a boxing context.

I have made many WC hands work from mid range... or the basic boxer's distance.

Gan sao, tan sao, gum sao, pak sao, kwan sao...they can all be used from that distance...and all can provide protection.

And obviously you can counter from any of those hands too.

But...(as you know) the goal of WC is to close the distance and get in short range. If you are going to hang out and try to fight from the boxer's range...you are better off taking a more appropriate approach.

When I spar and I'm in mid-range...I look more like a boxer than I do a "pure" WC fighter.

[I aint punchy!?]

Actually the sparring style I'm using doesn't preclude closing, trapping or locking. At the moment we have a simple rule -- no punches to the head. But we will remove that as we become more familiar with the sparring style. Also, we are currently not applying kicks either, but you can trap the leg with the foot, and go for 'soft' sweeps. Throws are allowed too if you can do them.

The idea is to provide a training environment that allows for full-contact.

So having said this... using a block to close and do something nasty is also an aim. The problem is if you go side on to someone they tend to rain holy fire on your kidneys.... this is the one thing I really dont want to have happen... I can cop all the other punches without too much of a worry, but uppercuts to the kidneys hurt a fair bit heh.