Key Symptoms:  Always getting hit in the stomach or chest, especially when changing feet.  Often hit with quick punches or front kicks.

This very common problem comes from sparring too wide of a guard or opening your guard when changing feet.  When you spar, you want to be as sideways and skinny as possible.  Many times individuals leave their entire middle open and scoring on them is easy as "hitting the barn door."  Or, when you change from one lead foot to the next, you leave your guard open during the change, giving your partner a perfect opportunity to score.

Cures:
1. Quick change guard practice.  Keep your forearms close.  Look at yourself in the mirror.  Now step back into sparring position.  This is the view your partner has of you.  Are you too wide?  Too skinny?  Now switch feet.  Did you get an open view of your chest?  Try it again, see if your forearms brush by each other protecting your chest from possible attack.

2. Practice changing your guard and throwing a punch or a kick at the same time.  If you distract your partner with a technique, they are less likely to hit you when you are changing your lead hand.

3. Turn and change.  Another way to avoid an open guard change is to turn and change your guard, with or without a technique.  For example, a reverse side kick is a great way to keep your partner at a distance while changing guard.

Key Symptoms:  Always getting hit in the ribs, usually with some form of side kick or round kick.  Blocking with your elbows instead of your forearms.

Individuals suffering from this syndrome are very good at keeping their hands close together while sparring, however, they allow their elbows to drift up, looking like chicken wings, exposing their ribs and stomach to attack.  If you spar with your guard up, it is much harder to block the attacks, such as side kicks and round kicks, to your mid-section and ribs.  Your elbows will often do the blocking since you are having to lower them to block the mid-section attacks.

Cures:
1. Practice having a "Velcro Guard."  Try and spar keeping your elbows close to your sides; pretend you have your arms velcro-ed to your uniform.  Shadow box in the mirror and actually have your elbows touching your sides to see how it feels to move around and keep your guard close.  If you allow your elbows to float up, you leave your mid-section exposed.  As you throw techniques at yourself in the mirror, watch your guard closely.

2. Partner help.  Ask your sparring partner to alert you every time your guard floats up.  This can alert you that you are raising your elbows during specific techniques and/or if they are up all the time.  If you get hit in the stomach or ribs multiple times during a match, ask your partner after it is over what they were seeing that was open.  This will help you learn to close the gaps.