Honesty

Spend some time playing with sticks and your more than likely going to be hit… a few dozen times.  Luckily, on the training floor, we can use padded sticks so as to make this feedback loop somewhat less painful.

The nature of coming up against an opponent with a longer reach (which is basically what a stick is) means that you have to get inside that reach to do your work.  The simple truth of it is that getting inside on someone who has a two and a half foot long club in their hand (and you don’t) is difficult.

The solution is to train it with a functional feedback loop.  The partner swinging has to be willing to hit.  The partner trying to get inside has to respect the speed of the drill (whatever that might be) and simply take note (not get upset or thrilled) at whatever feedback they receive (getting hit or not).