I think I mentioned that I'm terrible at the new boxing/MMA-style sparring that we're doing in FIGHT now. Despite the fact that I use a right hand stance for pretty much everything (drills, kickboxing class, etc), when it comes to that kind of sparring, I would spend the two minutes feeling awkward, clumsy, frustrated, and, well, getting beat (which, if you know me, just gets me MORE frustrated). I'd work with my partners and try to do more drills during the matches, and really did try to incorporate stuff that Sir was trying to teach me, but I just haven't been able to get things to start clicking for me. Last night we did knife sparring before MMA sparring, and it occurred to me that I knife fight left-handed (for a couple of reasons, but needless to say that it's gotten to be my strong side), so during MMA sparring, I switched to a southpaw stance, figuring that I couldn't do any worse than I had been previously. It wasn't magic. I'm not some great fighter now, but I did feel MUCH more comfortable in that stance and suddenly things started clicking for me. I even got in a hit on Mr R! When I talked to Sir about it after class, he just shrugged and said it was probably because in tkd sparring, we like to put our fastest side (my right) forward a lot so we can throw really fast jabs and round kicks and then will switch stances to get the power side (also my right) behind to add momentum to them. We don't switch stances so much in MMA sparring, though, so it comes down to either developing the speed and balance as a righty or the power as a lefty. He said I looked a LOT more confident, though, and to keep playing around to figure out what works best for me. My left foot has always been my balancer, so I think keeping it back in the southpaw stance allows me to have more range of motion, while having the right foot in front lets me snap out stronger kicks faster. Unfortunately, because of spending four years training as a righty, I have a wicked right cross and left hook that don't work in a lefty stance, hence why I'd have to build up the power on the left side. I dunno. We'll see. All I know is that, for once, the sparring was FUN, even if I still took a lot of hits.
On that note, gotta run off to work. Go USA!! We want the gold medal game!!
1 comment:
It's not so strange. It's probably the same reason that your dad and many of your second cousins all throw right handed, but bat left handed. They say they're much more comfortable batting left and much more effective. Mat W is one of the examples.
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