Paddle Drill Book: Holding, Angles, and Honest Reps

Mat Manual companion guide to "How to Run Paddle Drills That Build Fighters." Print it. holder certification standards taught as their own syllabus, a full per-kick angle guide with two-paddle and two-holder setups, dozens of sets across speed, reaction, combination, and footwork families with quality floors and gates, a fault library for holders and kickers, full class plans, and an ear school for telling a clean strike from a loud one

Name: ______________________________ School: ______________________________ Holder certified: ☐ (date ______) Block start: ______________

SAFETY, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE ☐ Holders keep hands and fingers behind the paddle's grip and face line, never wrapped where a kick lands. Any grip that puts fingers in the strike zone is corrected before the set starts. ☐ Holders brace for the agreed technique at the agreed power, and kickers throw only the agreed technique at the agreed power. A paddle drill is never a surprise full-power test on a partner's arm. ☐ Sets stop when a holder's arm tires or a holder's position degrades. The holder calls their own fatigue without penalty; training through it teaches wandering targets and risks the holder. ☐ Spinning and blind kicks (including the back kick) are held for only with the holder standing off the strike line, braced, at the stage the kicker has passed in that kick's own system. ☐ Younger and smaller holders hold only at the contact grades their certification covers. The instructor sets the grades; enthusiasm does not.

Part 1: The Specification

Every drill in this book is measured against this page. Your instructor's standard governs where it differs; the structure does not change.

Equipment note. The paddle in this book is the standard taekwondo kicking target, a handled, double or single pad. Everything here also applies, with the holder standards unchanged, to paddle-and-shield pairs and two-holder setups in Part 9.