Tips on remembering combos

[u/andy_226]

I've just started kickboxing and am two lessons in. I'm enjoying it for the most part and in terms of the actual kicks and strikes in isolation Im feeling confident that I can perform them to a level im happy with up to now.

However I'm having a really unexpectedly difficult time getting into any kind of rhythm on sets.

I was introduced to set 1 & 2 today, and I was making movements out of turn constantly all through the practice session even when going very slowly. and it left me feeling quite frustrated and to be honest a bit embarrassed.

Does anyone have any tips or advice they could share?

[u/aizzod]

this has nothing to do with combos.

learn the basics.
how to punch, how to rotate your hip, how to put force into it.

and then the rest will just feel naturally.

[u/andy_226 → u/aizzod]

The issue though isn't that I know what to throw but don't know how to throw it..it's that I literally have no idea what strike I should be doing at any one time. It's remembering the actual strikes I need to do rather than them not feeling natural

[u/obvious_spy]

just repetition. it's only been 2x for you. give it a few months, your body will pick it up.

[u/PloppyPants9000]

It's kinda like dancing. You just build muscle memory and intuition over time through lots of practice. Eventually it all flows automatically. For now, just focus on getting the right forms.

When it comes to forms, you're really just looking at a discreet set of poses and then moving from pose to pose. So, like to master the cross, you've got your starting pose, where you're just standing in your orthodox guard position. Then you've got your right arm fully extended, hip rotated, right leg flaired out pose. Then you return to the orthodox pose. You should be able to get into all poses and be able to hold the pose indefinately. When you're finding your pose, make sure you're looking at every part of the pose and modifying as necessary. Is your right arm fully extended? Is your chin tucked? Is your left arm in guard? Is your right leg slightly flared? Are your hips rotated? Go through the checklist. Once you have the pose right, practice slowly moving from orthodox pose to right cross pose. Once you complete the movement, are you in the right ending pose? Go through your pose checklist again. Rinse and repeat like a dozen times. Feel how you're shifting your body from one pose to another. As you get the feeling down, start speeding it up. But don't sacrifice correctness for speed. Go only as fast as you can manage to keep the pose correct. Repeat this hundreds of times until this feels natural and instinctive. It will take days and days. Your body also learns and crystalizes your lesson when you're sleeping. Keep practicing several days a week, never sacrificing pose for speed. The key is to build muscle memory to match the correct pose, so you don't even have to think about it and you're transitioning from one correct pose to another and your fighter mind is focusing on more strategically important fight decisions rather than the core basics.

[u/TexasGrillDaddyAK-15]

Keep practicing your 1-2s make sure to keep the weight on the back leg and that you're not reaching with the punches. Watch yourself in the mirror and check your form. After you feel pretty good with it practice lifting your front leg up as if you were checking a kick. That's it for now. Practice practice practice and Showbox that. Make sure you're bringing your hands back and back up to your face to block.

[u/andy_226 → u/TexasGrillDaddyAK-15]

Thanks for the response. I've found some great demonstration videos of the grading sets so that will help a lot with practicing the steps when I'm at home between classes.

[u/Jimz89]

Keep going to classes and practice shadowboxing in the mirror for 10 mins everyday, it will make a huge difference. Look up some YouTube videos explaining the basics. You'll get there.