Threatening Range

Critical distance is how far away your partner can be and still hit you effectively.  Threat range (just made that phrase up, but sounds good) is how far away you can be and still hit your partner effectively.  It’d be nice if your threat range was bigger than your critical distance, meaning you could hit your partner but they couldn’t hit you.

The obvious example of this is when you’re much taller than your partner.  Aside from our younger students who still have some growing to do, for most of us we can’t do much about that part of the equation.  However, for all of us (younger set included) we can work on honing our body mechanic at longer ranges.  Today we worked that in both adult and kids class by hitting the pads from slightly longer distances than we’re comfortable with.

Try it when you do your bag work.  Don’t just hang out in that range where you are happy with your power.  Scoot out a bit and try hitting hard from there… and while you’re at it, scoot in as well – it’s good to be able to hit in the clinch too!