Originally Posted by
mbellish
At our school we spend quite a bit of time on forearm conditioning, as well as the rest of our bodies, with the goal being hard blocks that hurt the attacker as well as deflect the attack. This breaks up the timing of the attacker and grants access to strike your own attacks, though this could be considered an attack as well!
I do use the rising block when strikes are coming at the head, typically to deflect the attack offline, but it's a quick motion and doesn't stay up there long.
The middle block, rarely would I keep a block that close to my body, rather I would try to intercept the attack further out with a long arm strike.
Kicks are always difficult to block, when we do light sparring I try to keep proper kung-fu low block form, but kicks come in fast when hard sparring, and its always very difficult to gauge if its a low kick or its coming for your head. I usually advocate for just moving out of the way of a kick, if you can.