2025-08-25

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Distance and angle are the two components of positioning yourself when it comes time to counterattack. Both can be difficult for students and using them together doubles the difficulty. But then, just when you think you’ve got them figured out, along comes timing, which gives everything a whole new dimension of difficulty, particularly when countering a kicking technique.

That’s because kicking techniques happen “on the half-beat”, in the middle of the attacker’s stride, as opposed to punches, which tend to happen at the end of the stride. If you place yourself in a position to counter where the attacker is when the kick would normally land, the attacker won’t be there by the time your counter lands. So you can’t counter where the attacker is - you have to counter where he’s going to be.