joesteph

Just last night we had what is simply called free sparring. I wore gear on my shins and forearms as, even though it's non-contact, I block close to my opponent instead of darting away, so my shins get hit (no pain to me, but some feel it in their own foot) and my forearms block heavily enough that there's some bruising for my opponent, even though I didn't intend it (although, w/o gear, I don't get those bruises). We went through sparring drills beforehand, as we've done before, in which there's diagonal motion to get out of the way, even to the point of not needing to block, and with the opponent in motion, there's a lot of circling one another. My way of sparring is linear, not darting this way and that, and not circling at all. When I sparred years ago, I was an infighter and just naturally linear. There's a posting I'd made on web page 5 in this thread, thanking another member for posting about moving in-and-out. It really fits my style, and I wanted to try it last night. I was directed by my teacher not to use my shins, but to rely on the arms and darting/circling my opponent, with my forearms to block kicks as we'd just practiced. Naturally, I complied to give it a shot, as she wanted me to, but I simply can't spar--let alone fight--like this and not get slaughtered, even though it's a bloodless one b/c it's non-contact. The problem is that I get dizzy with those rapid, non-linear motions. It's a reaction to medications I take, each of them cautioning that they "may" cause dizziness, and I find they do not do so unless I perform contributory movements. I can slug it out and move in-and-out w/o a problem, even quickly turn a quarter-turn if my opponent is trying to break away to my side for his attack, with no dizziness while maintaining respectable defense and offense. As a lower belt (I just received a promotion to 5th Gup two days ago), this is likely part of the training program, with more leeway given to dan members, but the subject title, "I Suck at Kumite," really fit me last night. I spoke with my teacher last night after class, explained what had happened, and she was accepting, with me permitted to continue to wear sparring gear on my shins and forearms. I'm hoping for sparring tonight, so that I can "redeem" myself by using what is natural to me, i.e., linear movement, the suggestion of concentrating on in-and-out, and having shins and forearms in rapid protective motion.

What does this mean to you? This is a translation from the Japanese, and a good translator strives to go beyond the literal to a more meaningful choice of (in this case English) words. In philosophy, "end" does not mean finality, but "ultimate goal." This can be interpreted that technique is not the final stage of the art, but that there is a goal to be reached through the art. I believe that when certain goals of self-fulfillment are reached, they culminate in self-realization or self-actualization of the person. The greatest personal development is therefore reached.

Welcome to the Forums, Tony!

My teacher, and her teacher when she guest instructs, make it a point to have us perform a body cover before moving forward into what would be called the block. It's most noticeable in forms, although when we do Ki Cho (callouts of moves) exercises, we're to cover before blocking as well. In a Soo Bahk Do form, Chil Sung E Ro Hyung, there is a series of moves that start with a body cover (the ribs and upper abdomen), then an inside-outside block--which could easily be a grab instead--and then a front kick. Perhaps it can be interpreted, for more realistic purposes, as a covering of the mid-torso, a seizing of the opponent's pushing or punching arm, and then a kick to his ribcage. An interesting theory.

This is advice I haven't read or heard before, Kohai. I hadn't thought of the speed of the opponent, just his or her height. I'm an infighter myself due to height (5'6"). But maybe I'm staying "in" too long; maybe I'll try moving, as you said, "forward or backwards," and see how that works. You see, my art is non-contact, so it's that when we spar that I'm not connecting, so my opponent isn't reacting to the "strikes," and so he can "hit" me repeatedly. This is even though I feel that, if I'd been connecting, there'd be no way he could do this. Forward & backward, in & out--this could prove to be good strategy in sparring non-contact. BTW, please don't apologize for your English. I've read your posts and they're very clear.

This is an old and misguided conclusion by the person you overheard saying this, White Owl. It's even included in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, in which the drill sergeant has this same conclusion about bed-wetters, so among the young men he's supposed to train, he has the two with incontinence sleep in bunk beds, switching who's on top each night. An absolutely ignorant approach. I feel that the bell-and-pad method is worth a shot. It's certainly not as invasive as the hospital procedure described in other postings. Although I'm a parent whose children do not have the bed-wetting problem, I'd rather hear a bell go off during the night if one did, and check to see that my child woke up. It's in the chapter in the book I cited as "classical conditioning," meaning that when the bladder experiences tension, the body learns/is conditioned by association to wake up before that loud-enough bell sounds.

Hi Twigs. Welcome to the Forums. I train in Soo Bahk Do, and we use Kyo Sa and Kyo Sa Nim ourselves. What organization are you a member of? I'm a member of the US Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation, also known as the US Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation, founded by Kwan Jang Nim Hwang Kee.

I clicked on a link at the bottom of the page, and to my surprise it was of a reporter, Aaron Tru, being rendered unconscious by Chris "Cyborg" Santos. It's at: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=mma The video is in two parts, the knockout and the interview with the recovered reporter. Personally, I think it was the blood supply being cut off, even though the reference is to a choke.

Kez, I'm surprised, since there's nothing medically wrong, that the bell-and-pad method hasn't been suggested to you. From Psychology: Principles and Practice by Spencer A. Rathaus, p. 135: By the time children are five or six years old, most of them wake up when their bladders are full. They stop themselves from urinating, which is an automatic response to bladder tension, and go to the bathroom. But some children do not respond to sensations of a full bladder when they are asleep. They remain asleep and often wet their beds. To help children stop wetting their beds, psychologists came up with the bell-and-pad method. This method teaches children to wake up in response to bladder tension. A child with a bed-wetting tendency sleeps on a special pad placed on his or her bed. When the child starts to urinate, the water content of the urine triggers a bell, and the ringing wakes up the child. . . . After a couple of weeks of using the bell-and-pad method, most children no longer wet their beds. I sincerely hope this is of help; it's at least worth checking out. As for the medication, we live in a society that is quick to medicate, and yes there are often adverse side effects to medications, especially when dealing with the young.

There are individuals who, going through a successfully deepened meditative state as they practice meditation time and again, have expressed a perception of all-white with their eyes closed. Deep meditators will read out with alpha (relaxed level) brain waves instead of beta (alert). However, their bodies are completely still and relaxed, not in motion (such as in sparring) whether or not they are seeing white. For those who see white, they do not continue to see it if continuing the process, moving past it, and deep meditation is usually under the direction of a teacher. What's described here seems to be more of a psychologically-induced condition than biological, and so my posting, above, asked certain questions along that line. If the answer is yes to anything I asked, then a doctor should be consulted.

I don't know Shorin Ryu, NewLevel, but your OP made me think of a women's self-defense kick by Mallory Senne, whose background is in aikido and kyusho. It's at: http://www.ehow.com/video_4949101_self-defense-ankle-breaks.html Is this the kick you're referring to? It really looks effective.

I would be searching for an activity that I could share with my children, as karate is a father-sons activity in my household. (I have two seven-year-olds.) I'm also a single parent, so on the days that my boys aren't with me, I take the adult classes, allowing me to do something constructive--and even social--during that open time. I'm also keeping a step ahead of them, so that when they do go to the next step, I'm prepared to help. Karate is an important bond; I don't know what would replace it and achieve the same results. This is a good thinking question for a parent.

When you say you see white, are you experiencing a "tunnel vision," in which you see exactly directly in front of you, but what's peripheral is all white? Have you ever been diagnosed with anxiety? Or experienced panic attacks?

I found DWx's article, "The Art of Breaking and Conditioning Your Body," at: http://www.karateforums.com/the-art-of-breaking-and-conditioning-your-body-vt33089.html It's an interesting article, certainly well thought out and researched, although I think Tallgeese's view, "Personally, I think promotion should be based on the entirety of the process and a less than adequate performance in one category shouldn't necessarily mean a total failure," has merit. After all, if a school gives little to no time to practicing breaking (and its partner, holding), then shouldn't its weight on a test reflect that?

Hi Suzy. Welcome to the Forums. I'm sure you've got some great insights to contribute.

I'm not sure if it affects your response to Tallgeese, Michi, but of the eight "Contacts" and "Actions" demonstrated in the article, six of them are punches to the body, while the seventh and eighth have the defender's arms forming an "X" as he pulls the attacker's arm down and delivers a punch to the neck. Page 69's chart makes them easy to see all at once. Thinking of the pull and strike you described, in Soo Bahk Do, one of the defense against the wrist grabs, seen as a training exercise, is to pull the opponent's right hand (which seized your left wrist) to your left hip while turning your body at the waist, simultaneously having his pulled hand reach your left hip as your right hand strikes his neck with a knife hand. The hikite shown is obviously a series of basics, which I'm sure can be found in a number of martial arts.

I believe that the origin of board breaking was to encourage the student. It isn't any more a part of an art than breaking bricks would be. Breaking should be a fun part of training, and a learning experience for both breaker and holder.

This is a completely natural reaction that's experienced by someone who's not trained, or who hasn't trained in such a while that the conditioned response extinguished over time. Don't beat yourself up. Most martial artists would agree that a second assailant, let alone a third, is really bad news. You have to get back into training. The advice BB of C gave makes immediate sense: a self-defense oriented class, perhaps a school that maintains a "reality based self-defense" (RBSD) structure. Your fighting spirit will reawaken with training.

The June '09 issue of Iain Abernethy's newsletter has a link to a video that interprets what I call a "crash and seize" application within a kata. It's at: http://blog.iainabernethy.com/?p=231 Go to the right hand side menu and select Online Video Lesson to open/download. We've had in the past some photos of "covering up" so that the face is protected while infighting or moving straight in, and I've experimented with both forearms held vertically in front of my face, protecting by forearms and elbows. This video doesn't just have you protecting and crashing, but seizing, controlling, and slamming away. A short video, but a lot there.

Congratulations, and I'm glad that the black belt you referred to is so interested in helping others.

If this is the same outside-to-inside block that I train with in Soo Bahk Do, another Korean art, then I'd have to say that I understand your thoughts. I use this in certain one-step sparring exercises and, examining the movement of my body in tune with this block, considered it a waste. Now that I'm a green belt (6th gup--midway up the non-dan belt chain), my teacher had me participate in a certain non-required sparring exercise with a partner, so our hands were up in fighting position, left lead, with me using the high guard to protect my face. When he threw a reverse punch to my midsection, I had to twist my body while performing that block from where my right arm was, and she worked at introducing me/us to getting out of the way by that twist, deflecting with that right forearm, then twisting back into place to fire off to my opponent's face with my left. One of the concentrations in this exercise is to be relaxed and fluid, not tense and rigid, to do it smoothly. In the original one-step sparring--a training--exercise that I first encountered this block, it's included in a specific manner, but it's too bad the practical application isn't introduced right afterwards. I can't fault my teacher, as she has a number of requirements to teach us, especially because of testing, before the luxury of more realistic applications can consume class time. BTW, I thought of a way of redoing that original exercise, with the palm, not the back of the hand, in the direction of the block. When I spoke with the assistant instructor, he showed me that variation and how the hand can redirect the opponent's punching arm, leaving him open to a punch to the face or midsection. I can see that being down the road.

Would those in law enforcement say that, in their experience, the ones you find who resort to bullying and starting fights rely more on brute strength, initimidation (by their attire, loud swearing, size), and maybe knowing just the sucker punch and the front kick? If so, I can see MA training, as Kuma said, as an advantage, important in dealing with an assailant.

Tai Chi is definitely a martial art, it's just that it's most often taught, at least in the US, for non-MA reasons. There are Tai Chi moves that break bones. I can find in a form I learned for my art, Soo Bahk Do, Chil Sung Ee Ro Hyung, certain Tai Chi-based moves that, as one interpretation goes, breaks the opponent's two-handed grip, has you grab his arms to set him up, and then comes the kick. Another is to break his grip, and then seize his head while ramming your thumbs into his eyes. Still another is to break his grip, seize his arms, then cross them in such a way as to bend one elbow the wrong way--crunch! (The funny thing is that it's not what's taught in the Soo Bahk Do form; it's taught as a lapel grab and choke. It's because I studied Tai Chi that I recognized the applications.) The two-man form that I did with a friend in the past had lots of nasties and counters in it. It'll depend on your instructor, and even attending seminars.

Since we're dealing with a hand-to-hand attack, survival depends not on luck, but on something strong within us, something at the root, likely residing in the unconscious since birth: The will to survive. If this is found lacking, it's doubtful we'd be able to escape, let alone prevail.

I'd say the holder handles are great for using just one rebreakable or wooden board, DWx, which is what I wanted the board holder for. The holding equipment your link led to is like the metal one offered by Century, for multiple boards. They're both large, taking up a lot of room, too much when other equipment like BOB and WaveMasters need their own space. At least that's in the dojang I train in, where only single boards need be broken. I'm recommending it. It's not only price and that the handles can be stored on a shelf or in a desk drawer, but that it does the job.