Last night in Muay Thai class, we were doing a touch drill.In case you're not familiar, that is a drill with a pre-arranged set of attacks and defenses that works as a kind of bridge between the totally choreographed techniques practice and the uncertainty of sparring. Watching everyone training, I realized how hard it is to be a good partner! Most people (whether they mean to or not) fall into one of two categories; 1- the too helpful, or 2- the jerk.
The too helpful people will make their partner feel like they're doing the drill right, even if they aren't. The way I say it in class is "The Speed bump". It's when they're punching straight at their partners head and suddenly, as if there was a force field involved, their punch goes up and over.
The good news is they aren't jerks. They care about their partners feelings and are looking out for them. The bad news is they're doing more harm in the long run. Their partners will develop a sense of success well above what they can actually accomplish. This will only set them up for confusion when one day they run into someone who will tell them the truth (and punch them right in the face!).
It is more kind to help them achieve their goal of getting better at Muay Thai in reality. Taking it slow and telling them the truth (aactually aiming at them), will develop their skills and save them a lot of pain and suffering if they ever really need to use them!
Tomorrow we'll talk about the Jerk!
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