Pre-Arranged Step Sparring

As with most Tae Kwon Do and Karate style martial arts schools, Seikido teaches a pre-set series of fighting techniques which are usually based upon the accumulated knowledge of the school' s present and perhaps previous instructors and/or founders. The Seikido pre-set step sparring curriculum represents a summary of the sparring tactics and defensive techniques which have been learned by the senior instructors of the organization. They are a convenient means of formally passing down accumulated knowledge and traditions from master to student.

ORIGINS

The origins of many of the individual pre-arranged sparring steps are techniques described by General Choi as part of the foundation of modern Tae Kwon Do. Most schools have built upon that foundation and added to, or at least modified, those original steps. Many masters have contributed their knowledge to the steps in the Seikido curriculum, including Master Chang Young Che, Master Park Jung Tae, and especially Master Hong Sung In. Some of the more sophisticated sparring techniques were derived from one of the best competitors in the world - Master Jung Kook Kim, who was twice Korean national champion and once World Tae Kwon Do champion.

Every Seikido school teaches the same series of mandatory techniques. Students from any branch school can go to any other school and feel comfortable training with fellow students who are performing familiar techniques. They can also take promotional gradings at any Seikido school and know the prescribed requirements for advancement. They allow every student to know and understand the attack and defence technique required for each step.

The prescribed Seikido step sparring techniques evolved over almost three decades of continuous practice, testing, and modification by the founders and affiliated instructors. Master Gagel and Master Petkovic, with the assistance of Master Taylor, have repeatedly modified, as well as added and discarded, individual techniques to make sure that those being taught are the best available anywhere.

Some of the more old-fashioned techniques were originally designed more for fighting in a realistic defensive situation than for modern tournament competition. Students can learn all of these techniques and especially the counter attacks, because they may be faced with such attacks in competition from a competitor who has been taught them at another school. In that event the student will be able to recognize the attack and know the counter.

It may also happen that students can be faced with an attack outside the Dojo or the tournament hall from an assailant that has learned some simple attacks, such as roundhouse punches, jabs, spin back fist, low kicks, sweeps, or leaps, in an attempt to injure the student. These are realistic attacking tools that may be encountered in a street fighting situation, even though they may be illegal in competition, and therefore students should practise how to defend against them.

The founders of Seikido recognize that the martial arts will continue to evolve in the future as they have in the past, especially with new techniques in the sport fighting aspects. This continuing evolution is a natural and beneficial aspect of martial arts training which should be encouraged and assisted. Recent advances in sparring tactics and particularly analysis of counter-attacks have rendered many formerly effective sparring techniques useless or even counter productive. Employing such old fashioned techniques in tournament competition may therefore inadvertently provide opponents with opportunities to score which could otherwise have been avoided.

The pre-arranged steps incorporate the very latest strategies and tactics available, regardless of origin. Tradition in the Seikido Way includes keeping an open minded attitude toward new techniques and procedures when they are presented, and avoiding slavish adherence to old fashioned techniques and procedures just because they can be called traditional.

Seikido instructors are always alert for promising new sparring techniques, whether they originate from an individual student's ideas or from other arts. In the event new techniques are discovered and proven to be effective, they will be incorporated into the curriculum.

SEQUENCE OF STEPS

The order of the step sparring techniques in the Seikido curriculum has been carefully designed to be progressively more sophisticated, to modify inherent natural behaviour to produce new sparring skills. As students progress through belt levels with time, they are expected to gradually become more and more proficient and therefore able to learn more and more sophisticated techniques. They will also need to be provided with new challenges throughout their martial arts training, so that learning never becomes mundane or boring.

Pre-arranged steps designed for beginners are the most basic blocks, foot movements, and counters to specific attacks. They are designed to teach the student to recognize an oncoming punch or strike and react appropriately. At the early stages of training there is an overt dependence upon blocks because it is unrealistic to expect students to be comfortable with sophisticated evasive movements. The first few steps utilize naturally instinctive reactions which are common to almost everyone, including the involuntary reaction to protect the eyes from a strike directed toward them.

Steps for intermediate belts are designed to introduce realistic sparring attacks and to provide simple evasive actions to augment the blocks, as well as to teach simple but effective counter attacks. One of the most important aspects of step sparring practice is to learn proper positioning relative to the opponent during competition. The attacker learns to reach the opponent with the proper technique to strike the correct target area with the appropriate kick or punch in order to score a point, and the defender learns to evade the initial attack and use the body movement and positioning of the attacker to score a point with precise timing of the appropriate counter attack.

Step sparring becomes progressively more sophisticated the higher the belt ranking. They involve attacks and counter attacks which are likely to be utilized in competition tournaments, where the attacking tool must strike the body or chest protector in order to score a point. The attacks are designed to be fast and effective, and the defensive movements are designed to use the stimulus provided by the particular attack to evade it and execute a counter strike which can score utilizing the movement, positioning, stance, momentum, and target area provided by the attacker. Not all of the particular evasive manoeuvres and counter attacks at each belt level are suitable for all tournaments. Different martial arts federations and associations have different rules, so that some techniques will be better suited to one particular competition style than to others. A variety of techniques are therefore provided in the curriculum to give students the opportunity to choose and perfect those techniques which are best suited to their abilities and the style of competition that suits the tournaments in which they choose to compete.

THE PURPOSE OF REPETITION

There is no substitute for repetition when learning sparring techniques and especially when learning defensive manoeuvres. The step sparring techniques in the Seikido curriculum are designed produce skills which eventually become conditioned responses to opportunities presented by the opponent during sparring. Practising step sparring repeatedly not only teaches excellent self defence and tournament sparring techniques, it also conditions the body to react immediately to stimuli presented by the initial stages of aggressive action without conscious thinking.

A straight punch takes less than two tenths of a second to complete, a front kick about two tenths of a second; which is faster than the average human reaction time to be able to block a strike. During sparring situations the attack may be executed much faster than the defender' s ability to react and counter if the defender has to think about an appropriate counter. Repeated practice will instil a conditioned response in the practitioner which initiates a countering movement at the very earliest stages of the attack, a response which may not even be apparent until it is underway.

Only repeated practice will teach the student to recognize a particular type of attack, move in the correct direction to nullify that attack, and then execute an appropriate counter attack with the correct timing. Repetition will eventually create the fusion of mind and body necessary to making that effortless. Repeated practice also builds up stamina, by conditioning the appropriate muscles of the body to perform the necessary movements quickly and effectively without becoming fatigued during a sparring match.

Such learned reactions can also be instrumental in protecting the practitioner during a situation outside the gym, where the defender could be confronted with a quick and strong attack from an assailant, particularly one which provides little or no warning. Under those circumstances it may be essential to maintaining personal safety, or the safety of others, to be able to react immediately in order to effectively counter a threat. Repeated practice helps overcome any reluctance to act out of fear or just being unsure of what to do, because the body and mind will have been trained to rely upon instinctive reactions to stimuli, almost on a subconscious level.