Head Hunter Vs Body Killer Sparring Drill Video Article
Copyright Pete Kautz 2015

This article goes with a two more short videos we just made showing of what a day's training looks like here in the gym.  I've embedded the videos below so it'll be easy to read and watch 'em here!

In the previous two weeks video articles we've shown you 4 videos of a typical day's training in 52 Blocks and then 2 more videos of 52 Blocks attribute training with different equipment.  If you haven't seen these, be sure to check them out as well!

And as a side note, I hope y'all like this new Video Article format and that you'll watch and study all the clips we're putting up on YouTube for you!  I was hesitant to get involved in YT but now that I'm in, I'll show you all kinds of behind the scenes training here if folks are interested.  There's a lot of content in watching us train that you can extract for your own practice sessions!

I also hope these videos show a little bit of the energy and skill with which we train here.  You see us do the drills and then you see the sparring and it looks the same, which to me is a good test of any art!  Anyone can look good in a choreographed demonstration but how many can move unrehearsed at speed and demonstrate the same skill!

Anyhow, in these 2 new videos we're working on a contact sparring exercise called Head Hunter Vs Body Killer.  As you might guess from the name, in this drill one person is firing head shots while the other is limited to working the body.

For this drill I like to give the head hunter the thickly padded Ringside vest so the man working the body can open up more freely with their body punches, and that's what you'll see us using here.  The vest has an additional layer of padding that attaches inside with Velcro so it can take some serious body punches.  It's easy to get on and off and adjusts quickly to fit different sized boxers in the gym, though since it's an older style I don't know if they produce it anymore.

In this game what I'm looking to do is gauge my opponent's punch and throw my own strike underneath it at the same time, so as to mostly preclude any defense he might normally have against the punch.

This timing of making an action at the same time as the opponent's action is an old concept in the martial arts.  Back to the Medieval German Masters we find the concept of timing Before (Vor), During (Indes), and After (Nacht) being an essential aspect of understanding the higher order of combat.

To understand what Bruce Lee was talking about when he used the word "Jeet" in Jeet Kune Do you need to have this idea down of acting at the same moment as your opponent (Indes).  JKD as Bruce did it was rooted in striking the opponent at the moment they moved - that is the "Interception" in "The Way of the Intercepting Fist" (Jeet Kune Do).

You need to develop your eyes and your other attributes to do this.  Live drilling using gear as we've shown is one way to develop these skills safely and efficiently.

All my very best to you,

Pete Kautz

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