Training Tip #4 – 9 Gates of Attack and Defense
One of our prior tips was focused on how to set up your training area and make full use of the 9 Gate pattern on the floor to enhance your understanding of footwork.
Now we want to discuss some of the basics and fundamentals of striking in our system. We utilize our 9 Gates as angles of attack and defense, or striking and blocking. This is such a core concept, you need to ensure that you are drilling the strikes and blocks (as well as combinations as noted in our curriculum) every time you train.
Every angle or “Gate” is a strike, and every angle or “Gate” is a block.
You can think of each angle or gate as a “quadrant”. IE – inside of each section or angle, it can be sliced into infinite amount of smaller pies/angles, however it will still be within that self-same quadrant. By practicing the angles of striking and blocking, then you will be able to micro-adjust in the moment if something falls into a particular quadrant.
This is all about doing what is known as operant conditioning of the core striking and core blocking angles. You will notice in the diagrams that we have the Irish Tri-Spirals or Tri-Skelion which is alluding to advanced footwork in our system. But that is a tip for another time. Train hard, train safe.
We look forward to seeing you on the mats.