Fighting gets your blood pumped and your adrenaline levels shoot up. Adrenaline numbs the pain such that you can do your duty and get out of there. But despite the chemical change in your body, you are not invincible. Your body is still as vulnerable as it was before. You are just more inclined to push your limits and do things you normally wouldn't do.
How did I bruise my right shin? I was protected my a shin guard, yet it was still hurt. I ran through my memory searching for when and how it happened.
It was the big guy. He wore shin guard but because he was so tall, it left his knee and the top of his shins fully exposed. That is basically pure bone right there. I kicked; He blocked. I paid for it.
It was my fault.
It was my kick that crashed into his knee. But I wasn't exactly kicking my hardest. That makes it all so much more scary. What if I wasn't wearing the pad? What if this was a full on fight? If the same scenario happened with out the pads and without inhibitions, I imagine my shin cracking.
Sure, the round house kick maybe be scary, but it doesn't compare to the devastation a simple knee block has.
What is a man to do now? Fear the round house? That leaves nothing but straight kicks. Straight kicks are only good as a counter. Straight kicks are most effective when they are done after your opponent attacks but before he lands his hit. With less in your arsenal, you may become predicable and easy to read.
Even the straight kick has its vulnerabilities. Especially if you are barefoot. Given the same scenario, but using a heel kick. A knee driving into your heel or the sole of your foot is just as bad.
You can do the right move and do a textbook style counter or an attack. But it seems like what it really comes down to is experience and knowing how to read your opponent.
Protection helps when you make a mistake, but to win you gotta know the when and the how and that only comes with experience.
By Derrick Ho
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