Originally posted by Kristian S.
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For me, the thing I have the most experience in at full speed full contact sparring is boxing. I did used to use footwork a lot, but ever since switching clubs/coaches and learning how to parry and use my hands properly, I've relied on that since, I find it suits me better. Within that, when boxing at least, and I haven't worked all this enough in kungfu yet, but I did indeed find that "intercepting" as you say was difficult and by that I simply mean parrying, meaning letting the left jab for instance go slightly past your right hand and then palming it slightly downwards or to the left, connecting with it on the side of the fist or the wrist. That sometimes worked, but what worked for me better was "catching" the punch ie meeting the knuckles part of their glove more or less flat against my palm. I know its force against force. I know that given the choice between catching and parrying, it is better to parry if you can, but given the choice between missing the parry then getting punched in the face, or catching it, I would prefer to catch it!
But I think the way we use guard hands in our kungfu, and in other kungfu styles, is more suited to parrying and intercepting than the typical boxing stance is, so I don't worry too much about that.
What I say above though is too geared towards boxing. I think in Muay Thai, MMA/Wrestling/Jujitsu and Kungfu, it is not so wise to just stand your ground or come forward all the time like many boxers do, it seems to me many of the possible attacks in those disciplines require movement to avoid, so I think my strategy is mainly suited to boxers and typical streetfighters.
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