I'm in the Basic 2 level of our sparring class, where we're doing drills on blocking kicks and punches and beginning one step sparring. I'm a little discouraged because I'm finding that I'm having a problem with something that I feel is probably beyond my control, and not something I can really practice to improve, but maybe some of you more experienced guys or gals can help me out here. I'm not really having that much of a problem with performing the techniques, my problem is with reacting. When we do the drills where I know exactly what's coming (e.g. roundhouse kick, straight punch, etc.), I'm okay with that because once I see my partner even move I jump right in to the defensive technique knowing what's coming at me, but when we do drills where my partner has the option of throwing different types of punches or kicks, I'm having a hard time reacting to that specific type of attack and responding with the appropriate defense. It's like I'm not really picking up what the attack is until it's too late to respond appropriately. It's not to the point where I just stand there and would take the blow, but it's to the point where I don't have time to respond with the appropriate technique, I'll just have time to step back out of the way. For example, if my partner has the option of throwing a push kick or roundhouse kick, my defense for those are two completely different techniques, and by the time I really pick up which kick he's coming with, it's too late to do the right defense, so I either just step out of the way or step backwards. Part of me thinks it's an age thing (I'm 37) where my reaction time is just slow, but then I think of other people who are older than me who can react very quickly, so I dunno....