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I used affordable fairtex boxing gloves during my sparring sessions, and they worked well for me—they offer solid wrist support and enough padding without feeling too bulky. They’re good if you're doing cross-training or just need something more durable than WKF gloves. I’ve had mine for over a year now, and they’ve held up through bag work and light contact drills.

Not true. He was punched by surprise and did not have the opportunity to contract his abdominals and breathe out properly. In fact, the puncher remarked that subsequent punches were met by rock-hard abdominals as the magician was now expecting it. Case in point: if someone doesn't expect a body punch, it will be more effective.

In competition, people expect to fight and contract their abs ahead of time as well as regulate their breathing to render body punches less effective. If someone attacks you, they will probably not be doing any of that. In any case, at the moment, I am doing little besides training my punching power and doing resistance exercises that increase their power. So far, it is working out pretty good and I feel like a better fighter than I did when I was practicing more complicated techniques.

Four games on Monday, two game one's and two game twos. Game 1 went to Washington in OT. Caps got off to a 2-0 lead, Canadians came back to tie it, and Caps won in OT 3-2. The Kings were also game 1 winners, 6-5 scoring the GW with under a minute left. LA was up 4-0 and 5-2 before the Oilers came back to tie, but they come up short and LA has a 1-0 series lead. Game 2 in Dallas went for the Stars, another OT game 4-3 Dallas wins it and ties that series. The Jets win against the Blues 2-1 and are up 2-0 in the series as they got to St. Louis. The old saying is that you are not in trouble in an NHL playoff series until you lose at home. If the Blues win game 3, they can turn this series around in a hurry, though a loss would put them in serious trouble. Four more games coming up on Tuesday, game 1 of the Panthers/Lightning and game 2 of Devils/Hurricanes, Senators/Leafs, and Wild/Golden Knights. It's that time of year

The people the run schools, whether it's part-time outside of a day job, or do it full time, even head up organizations, they have something extra, a drive, energy, inspiration. I've trained for a long time, and way back when, taught classes regularly at my instructor's school. But I had a career job, never had my own school or program. I know it takes dedication, when others are counting on you to show up, or if you don't have enough students to cover rent, etc. What qualities set them apart?

how houdini died has zero to do with self defense. to stand still and allow to be hit is not self defense, and is in no way even close to being hit while moving or fighting. which leads into this quote.. no matter how hard you can hit a still object, you will never land with that power on someone in a real fight. even sucker punching someone unexpectedly is rarely hit accurately due to most times being picked up peripherally and semi dodged or deflected....( plus if your comment is correct then your "scool" or "club" would be very short lived due to everyone being hospitalized....lol)

Again, by saying this you are essentially admitting that your karate is "useless," as is the karate of pretty much all Kyokushin karateka, which is the style you purport to like the best, not to mention all the other karate schools out there who do full-contact sparring, because the vast, VAST majority of full-contact punches to the body that occur do not send anyone to the hospital, and it also directly contradicts your reasoning for the body-only sparring (safety in full-contact sparring) that you proposed in this thread. I hope you know that none of us in this thread are trying to be discouraging or belittling in our responses. We are simply giving you the feedback you asked for when you started this thread. There's nothing wrong with workshopping an idea like this, but you should be willing to accept that everything has its downsides as well as its upsides.

If one's body punch isn't enough to send an attacker to the hospital, then their Karate is useless.

Hello to all, introduction is brief, text and questions will be long. I have a few. Here we go, what makes a Kata beginner level or advanced level? With that being said, some schools (styles) will teach Sanchin as the first Kata. In our school Seisan is the first. Is it related to how one see the importance of a specific Kata and place it first? Is it the technical difficulty in its performance? Is it the principles that it teaches that are advanced as they would have been learned in other Kata or material prior? Is it the ease to use the movements of the Kata in real application (not the performative Bunkai, stress drilled Bunkai only). Speaking of Seisan, our school (Chito Ryu) does it in a variation that is not seen elsewhere. It is said that Goju and Chito Ryu are similar in that both share same teacher (Aragaki Seisho), would we be correct to assume each student chose the Kata that resonated the most with them to be the main one and first taught in that style? In the same vein, would it not be correct to practice Seisan in the Sanchin position as it encourages close combat and Sanchin dachi is more comfortable for closer combat? And last but not least, seems many Masters of the old, created their own Kata. Based on Your experience, knowledge and combat skills, which Kata that presently exist would be the closest to the way you truly approach Karate?

The first statement is obviously false. Yes, I have been to schools that advertise self-defense. I am not saying that there isn't bad self-defense out there, I'm saying that I haven't seen overly complicated self-defense techniques from practical karate schools, specifically. I think most people know that Houdini died from a punch to the body, after a career of taking body punches as part of his act, and while he likely had appendicitis, which was the real reason the punch killed him. One person dying from a body punch in no way validates punches to the body as being a particularly effective way of defending yourself. As I previously pointed out, the existence of Kyokushin competitions completely debunks that belief, as thousands of competitors take thousands of body shots on a regular basis without injury or death. I will also point out that one of your key reasons for wanting to take this body-only sparring approach is because it is safer than striking to the head, which also directly contradicts your claim that body punches are ideal for self-defense.

Back in the 80's/90's, I remember reading a Black Belt magazine article that centered around this concept. A few options that were mentioned were a set of car keys and a car antenna. Of course, in this day and age it's not uncommon to have a key fob without any physical keys on it. And at least on my truck, I don't have a proper antenna on it -- I had to replace it with a stubby antenna so it would fit in my workplace parking garage.

So one other thing I'm going to have to do for the next little while -- take it really easy in kobudo classes. I've got something going on in my left shoulder/tricep area that doesn't feel quite right. It's one of those things where it's not seriously wrong -- yet. But you also know that if you don't take it easy and let it heal, it WILL be a bad thing. Two of the people in my dojo have had to deal with biceps and/or rotator cuff tears, and I definitely don't want to be the third. I have been battling a partial tear in my left rotator cuff for the past 10+ years, but this triceps issue is something new. That's the other thing us experienced MA'ists need to know how to do. Figure out how to train through minor injuries and not make things worse.

I'm not too worried about my Blues @KarateKen -- they made the mistake of finding themselves up 3-2 and took their foot off the gas. If they can play all 3 periods like they played the last 2, they should have a really good chance to win this series.

Do you know how Houdini died?

Ummm I never mentioned having to grapple. Besides if I can get my opponent to the ground, and not my big butt why would I go to the ground? I'm getting the absolute 'F' out of there. I'm not continuing the fight, if they get up and catch up to me (likely) I've forced them to run to just continue a fight. Which then is even stupider on their behalf; because it is then a meditated attack by them. Now, I do tend to prefer breaking a joint and restraining over straight up knocking the person out. But Question: How do you define a "Good Punch"? Is it based off: Biomechanical Form? Strike Power? Knockout %? Targetting? What I've learnt about MMA Fighters; they are 1 of 3 classes when it comes to striking with their hands: 1. Strong Strikes 2. Weak-Moderate Strikes; BUT amazing targeting (i.e hitting the 'off' switch aka the jaw) BUT Better timing 3. Strong Strikes AND amazing targeting + timing This you can apply to almost every combat sport that incorporates hand strikes. Although @crash has a point; you can practice all you want to knock someone out, but if you don't have the right timing then your not going to go far. Thats why when you watch that slap competition, not many people get knocked out. But the likelihood of a concussion is stupidly high. To me there is a difference between "Self-Defence" and "Self-Defence" and how its taught. but the problem is telling the difference between the two, and knowing how it is effective. Experienced practitioners tend to recognise the difference between the two.

Is this tread an April fools prank?

I prefer the Sharpie, but maybe it is time to check out those BIC markers.

Winners on Sunday were the Leafs, Hurricanes, and Golden Knights. All teams are up 1-0 in the series. A little bit of a strange ending to the Minnesota Vegas game, with 0.1 seconds left in the game it looked like Vegas had scored and empty net goal, then it looked like it did not count, then it did count and there was still 0.1 left on the clock, but Minnesota had already gone into the locker room so instead of playing it final one tenth of a second, the game was over. Vegas won 4-2. Four games on Monday: game one of the Canadians/Capitals and Oilers/King game two of Blues/Jets and Avalanche/Stars. All games can be seen on ESPN or ESPN 2 depending on the game. Two more head coaches fired. Detroit has moved on from Derek Lalonde and Philly has fired John Tortorella after two seasons. Hit the Ice!!

Then every MMA fighter does not have good punch. Have you ever been to a school that advertises "self defense"?

I would agree that complicated self-defense techniques are generally a bad idea, but it's pretty rare that I come across anyone in the practical karate sphere who teaches self-defense techniques that I would consider complicated. Certainly nothing more complicated than you'd find in any other martial art or combat sport, and some pretty complex things can be pulled off, even in high level competitions, by people who have trained appropriately. I would also add that the existence of Kyokushin's knockdown sparring method actually runs counter to your argument about continuous full-power strikes. Yes, they can wear down an opponent over time, but I've seen MANY Kyokushin matches where the continuous shots to the body didn't amount to anything. Full-power strikes to vulnerable targets work, but you're going to get WAY more mileage out of striking the neck and head than you are the body. I know that this originally said "Don't live in America," rather than "bad areas," but the fact of the matter is that your location has very little to do with the types of attacks you are likely to have to deal with in a self-defense situation, because human violence tends to be gendered and age-determinate, but otherwise quite consistent. Chokeholds and bear hugs are common attacks against children and women, especially, so maybe YOU don't need to worry about it all that much, but plenty of people do. Plus, there is simply no guarantee that a statistical anomaly won't happen to you, and you get put in a chokehold or bear hug. You don't get to choose what the attacker does. Plus, the "if you don't live in bad areas" argument can be made about self-defense as a whole, as avoiding high risk areas lowers your risk in general, but doesn't have any impact on the TYPE of attack you're likely to face. Making this argument basically weakens your points about training for self-defense, because if you "don't live in bad areas," your chances of even needing to punch someone go down just as much as your chances of needing to grapple someone. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this is very demonstrably false. A good punch only eliminates the need to be able to grapple if you drop the opponent with one shot before they get their hands on you. One-shot KOs against someone expecting violence (which someone attacking you will be) are rare, one-shot body KOs are even less likely, and self-defense situations don't always happen with you knowing where the attacker is and that they are going to attack you. Self-defense isn't a striking duel, like Kyokushin is. If someone attacks you, they don't have any reason to stand and bang, especially if they have any idea how to grapple someone, even without real training, and if you hit them hard, chances are they will not agree to your terms for the fight and let you keep hitting them. You wouldn't go into an MMA match as a pure striker and expect your opponent to have a kickboxing match with you, right? Same goes for self-defense. If both grappling and striking are possible, you NEED to be competent with both in order to be effective.

i think EVERY MMA fighter will disagree with this. the truth of the matter is that it would be highly accurate to bet every real fight will go to the ground...... knock outs arent as easy as most people think and fighting even an unexperienced fighter or someone trying to actually harm you isnt as technical or easy as just hitting them in the right spot. people move and turn, makes it a little different than hitting a bag or practicing partner..... just have someone blind rush you, and go low as in a tackle and evaluate from there......full speed and with intent is a game changer

The time spent doing things that are unrelated and not specific to martial arts varies wildly from one instructor/dojo to another. It also depends on how much time there is for one session. Currently the sessions are 2 1/2hours to 3hrs on 4 evenings per week. Quite common for a dojo in Okinawa/Japan, but this is much longer than the average dojo elsewhere apparently. Moat of that time is spent doing karate things. Only about 20-30min is used for general training involving traditional weights and the usual body weight exercises(push-ups, etc…). Correct technique and how to do these is explicitly taught, but it is something emphasized as “out of dojo training”. It is expected that everyone practices this and kihon as much as possible, like “homework”

People tend not to bear hug me because I don't spend time around that class of people.

Good punch = no need for grapple.

Adding both qoutes here so others know what I'm referring to. I have actually been attacked from behind several times. And one of those times was from a bear hug. Thankfully I am an oddball as a student and instructor, so it is something that I teach students to work through so they know what to do. And I live in Australia! As Bearhugs for adults may not be a common attack, but for kids/teens it is a very real risk of happening. So Karateken has a point, where body punches as your only tool is redundant. This is where a lot of clubs I've noticed at least, don't exactly give students the tools to work with. But just reading that post from Karateken reminds me of my time at High School, where that was a common thing for some bullying. WHen you lose the ability to use your arms to their fullest; you realise what tools you do have despite the amount of panic that may be going on.