"Pretend it's someone attacking you at 17th and B!"
Brian thinks he's giving me some inspiration to do a great flying side kick. But actually, I don't think about fighting when I do TKD. I don't think that someone's attacking me when I'm sparring. I don't think about killing someone with one stroke when I break boards.
I don't because I can't. Thinking about those things would be too distracting.
Instead, I just think about what I'm doing. I tell people who are about to break "be one with the board," which sounds silly, but it's what I do. When I get set to do a flying side kick, I think about flying at the target.
When I spar, I can't be angry or think about being attacked. I take a cleansing breath before I get into fighting stance, and clear my mind of everything but sparring: combinations, combinations; look for an opening; light on the feet.
What do you do? Does picturing an imaginary opponent help you?
2 comments:
I do better when I'm not imagining an opponent. As far as being "one with the board", I guess that's a good way to put it.
I get distracted if I imagine attacking somebody when breaking or sparring as well.
I do find it helps to imagine I'm actually attacking or blocking when doing patterns, though. It can be harder to keep a nice rhythm, but it improves the look of each technique. (IMO)
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