3 Punch Blocking Drill

First of all pay your respect to your partner, then with you both standing in a neutral stance begin.

One of you throws a 3-punch combo (slow) this drill is not to see how fast you can go or even to try and catch your partner out it's a drill. (Go easy).

The puncher; remember relax the shoulders; elbows should be drawn through your centre line and above all breath! Make sure you put the same effort into the basic punch as you would if you were doing a complex counter.

The person who will be doing the counter!

Same as your partner every bit of detail from the stance to the parry is important, more so for you, if you get it wrong; you are going to take a hit.

Relax breath, watch your partners every move, be aware small movements with your eyes can draw the punch in, if you are not aware you are doing this please be aware now. This isn't a bad thing if you know you are doing it as you may want to use it as a tool.

So, here we go:

When the first punch comes you are going to Bong Sau (Wing Arm), feel the energy of the punch deflect past; you can almost feel your partners energy absorb into your arm as it deflects, as the hand starts to draw back for the second punch be ready to Tan Sau (Palm up parry), the energy flow is the same as that of the Bong Sau, feel the hand draw back again for partners third punch, as this comes in execute your Pak Sau (Slapping block).

Once you have done a few reps change hands, change the feed, and let your partner punch as you parry.

If you are more confident you can also at this stage increase the speed of the drill (be careful).

Feel free to play around with this: Pak Sau, Tan Sau and Bong Sau for instance, or any combo you want to try.

Remember this is only a short basic drill.

Here the importance is in the way you react to 3 punches and how you feel and adapt to energy flow.

by Sifu Dave Hardy