Sparring is like Writing

"You need to do your combinations!"

This is advice for sparring. In other words, when you spar someone, you need to do kicks in combinations of 2 or 3, not just one kick at a time.

But my thought Wednesday night is that I can't just do the same combinations every time. I had to use different kinds of techniques for Pam, who is strong and fearless; Kevin, who is tall, but not flexible; and Jane F. who is slower, but has good endurance.

If someone is tall, can't do head kicks. I try to get inside and punch. If they're slow, I just move fast. If they're quick and fast, I try those head kicks.

Kind of like writing. Writing is not writing is not writing, as someone said. You need to do it differently, depending on the situation. For this blog, I write fast and use a conversational style. For class materials, I need to be very organized. For the Gazette, I have to make room for source quotes.

Still, I need to learn some good sparring combinations. Maybe different ones for different situations. And I need to learn how to conserve energy so I don't get totally knackered!