I train kuk sool hapkido and we do light contact sparring at our school, similar to wtf taekwondo style I guess. It's a small school so we all just mix it with each other, and most of us in the adult class are middle aged dads just doing martial arts for fitness and social.
There's one guy who is a giant. I am not. I'm 172cm/5ft 7. This guy is at least a foot taller than me and much stronger. He also has previous marital arts experience, though we're both the same level in Hapkido.
I just find it very difficult to get inside his reach. I can score points against him but I have to work a lot harder than him to do so. My general gameplan is to try to move sideways and diagonal to get angles on him, and to get inside quick if I can. But he's not as slow as I'd like him to be and getting inside his kick range just brings me to the edge of his arm reach before I can kick. Dude is ridiculous.
Ideally we wouldn't be matched up, but it's a small club and we all get along. I'm also determined to get a win against him. So how do I do it? Are there any good videos or examples of smaller fighters taking on taller ones? What are good tactics to use here?
Sadly no grappling in our club sparring at the moment, though it is coming in the future. So I can't just grab his leg or trip him. Needs to be striking only and above the belt.
Please don't just tell me to train MMA 🤣
Tldr: need a tactic to beat a much taller and experienced fighter in points sparring. Help!