“Hello, this is Randall and Glenda with KravMagaTraining.com. In this video I’m going to discuss some progressive training drills that you can use if you’re first learning the 360 blocks with simultaneous counterpunch.
Alright, now when people first learn this it’s very hard on the coordination. They tend to screw it up because it’s difficult because one hand is supposed to be open in a proper 360 block position and the other one is supposed to be in a fist. So when they’re doing the defenses they’re doing two open hands or two fists, which are really common problems. And this isn’t unusual. I mean everyone has trouble when they first learn this. So I’m going to give you some progressive drills to help you build up your coordination gradually.
So here’s the first drill is you’re actually putting your hands in a preset position. So this hand will be my 360 block position. Fingers straight, thumb tucked in, and I’ll make a nice tight fist. And then what I’ll tell Glenda, my training partner, is ‘Could you do me a favor and just attack with your right side only, right hand?’ And that’s all we’ll do. Just stick with one side. And the reason why this is a good starting drill is because your hands are already in a preset position. So you don’t have to think about the actual hand positions themselves. All you have to think about getting your hand in the right blocking position and sending a punch at the same time. And then once you get comfortable with that drill, obviously switch your hands and have your partner do the same thing but on the opposite side. So this time Glenda just the left side please. Okay, good.
So once you get comfortable with that then the next thing you need to do is you need to make the hand positions a little bit more natural. You’re not going to fight like this the whole time. You’re not going to know what side your attackers going to attack from. So on the next one you’re going to relax your hands and as you do the defense this hand tightens up, this hand makes a fist at the same time but, just like the previous drill, you’re going to ask your partner to only attack on one side. So that way you kind of know which hand is going to do what. So Glenda could you attack on just the right side please? Notice how my hands are relaxed but when they go out that’s when they tighten up. Let’s do one really slow Glenda. Notice right there, that’s when this hand tightens up and this hand tightens up. But as they go out they’re relaxed. Like that. And of course, the same thing, I would have her to do the attacks on the other side and just focus on that one side.
Now once you get comfortable with that drill, then you ask your partner to attack but you alternate from one side to the other. So she’s going to go from left side to right side. So I know which side the attack is coming from but it’s still going to be a little bit more challenging on my coordination. Let’s do that next please Glenda. Okay, good. So that would be your next drill.
And the final drill would be to have your partner do random attacks. A couple on the left, a couple on the right, backhand strikes, it doesn’t really matter. However, ask your partner to go really slow. The problem is new Level 2 people are used to training at a certain speed in Level 1. They’re used to going really fast. You can’t train at that speed when you first learn this technique. You’re going to have to start at a very low speed and build it up gradually. So let’s mix it up Glenda but we’ll pretend that I’m pretty new to this and we’ll go really slow. Okay, good. And then of course you gradually build it up.
So I would suggest these progressive training drills. Start with just this. Then just this side. And then relax your hands and only work one side. And of course the other. And then have your partner alternate from left side to right side. And then you can mix it up but you need to start at a very slow pace. Like I said, the most common mistake beginners make is trying to train at a speed that they are used to with Level 1 but you can’t do that. You got to start slow and build it up gradually. So those are my suggestions with some good progressive training drills to help you if you’re new to the 360 blocks with counterattacks.”
