Competition sparring - avoiding getting hit

Last week's squad training (coming as it did after the Dorset Championships) was a great lesson for me to try and get to grips with some of the weaknesses in my sparring technique. There seem to be two major issues.

1. I'm not getting out of the way of attacks - just standing there taking them and
2. I'm kicking with the front leg far, far too much.

Mr Gibbs decided to use a novel approach to teach me how to address point one. There are some pretty good fighters at Chung Yong, in particular Wayne and Val were there who both have impressive records at national competitions. Unbeknown to me, Mr Gibbs had a chat with them prior to my arrival and told them to put everything they had into their kicks when sparring with me. Wayne certainly didn't hold back - I caught a back kick to my upper right arm (because I didn't get out of the way!) and the bruise is quite something. It's the size of Waynes' heel and went from purple, through blue and is now a horrible yellow colour. The pain from this injury is quite something as well! Hopefully the lesson has been well and truly learned as I do not want to get hit like that ever again.

On point 2 Mr Gibbs had another novel approach. At the Dorset Championships he was cornering me and told me that under no circumstances was he going to accept kicks from the front leg. If he saw more than two of them, he was going to throw in the towel regardless of whether I was winning. Sounds harsh, but I knew he wasn't joking. It worked - I won the first bout and all the points and the final head shot that won the bout all came from the back leg. The same criteria were applied in the Squad Training session - no kicking from the front let or get penalised.

Hopefully these issues are addressed, or well on the road to it and I can concentrate on some more aspects of my performance in time for the next competition. I'm not giving up on it yet.