evergrey

Welcome! If you've a lasting passion for it, and good instruction, karate will give you excellent tools that will help you deal with many aspects of your life in the future. I had no idea how much it would help me outside of learning to fight and defend myself! I hope you can keep the fire without burning out! OSU!

I'd feel really insulted by that, to be honest! When I first came to my dojo, they had this silly "women can only be hit in this certain spot on the stomach above the belt" rule. Yeaaaaah riiiiiiiight! I fought and fought and now my Shihan is on my side, and he'll chew out anyone who refuses to hit me with power when we're doing conditioning. Yessss... to become a strong fighter and able to handle myself in a fight, including in a real fight where I'm defending myself, I need to learn how to take a hit! It isn't enough just to hit someone hard... in a real fight, you're probably going to get hit, too. I have an article I've been thinking about sharing here. I'm due to write one. Maybe I will share this one!

*attempts an innocent look* would I do that? Honestly I am starting to think that the kid's classes all sit around a campfire late at night, flashlight shining up from under their chins, telling "Ev the boogeywoman" stories, because they look so terrified when they do end up sparring me, even though I'm so gentle! I really gently deposited that brown belt girl on the floor today, after spending some time just sort of walking towards her while she backpeddaled around the mat! Haha, do they think I'm going to hit them as hard as I do the ex Navy Seal guy? Actually, my dojo does do kata with bunkai, too. I even start to MISS it when I'm seriously injured or sick. It's good for spiritual development, focus, maybe some muscle memory type of things too. But yeah, there's nothing quite like good old-fashioned "dojo sparring," where you not only spar free-style, but you also get to pull a lot of dirty tricks that you aren't allowed to pull in a formal knockdown tournament. We practiced getting people in armbars and taking them down in class today, and were told to try some takedowns during kumite. Our entire mat space is probably about eh, 30 feet by 30 feet? Maybe 40 by 40, but that's probably stretching it a bit, and we had 14 people sparring all at once. We all got through it with only a couple knocked skulls, a split lip, and an errant throat strike (he was okay) but I did take a flying blue belt to the shin, haha! Luckily his skull was nice and soft. Actually today we sparred light. Well, Kyokushin light. But still, light! Like 25% power! Except when my Sensei split my lip. I did tag him in the jaw with a bit of extra pop after that. Then we went and got noodles. Anyway, if you want to learn how to fight, the best way to do it is to fight. It's like learning to ride a horse. Best way to do that is to spend time in the saddle, on a horse. Still a good idea to watch other people ride, and read books, and talk about riding theory, and work the muscles that you need to ride well. Still need to ride to become a good rider. Just remember that while the closer to realistic your sparring is, the better prepared you will be for "teh streets," it's still not at ALL the same thing, and a real attack can still be quite a shock. And also, I've been awake for 27 hours. Hoi! JusticeZero! I learned this awesome new elbow strike technique!

Thank you all for participating! Heh, really I just put up the dojo cleaning part as a little story illustrating humility. What I really worry about is when people at the top do or teach something that is seriously dangerous and harmful, or do something that is a real disservice to their students, but they cannot accept any criticism and cannot accept the fact that what they are doing is bad news!

Nice! Haha, we did more conditioning tonight at the dojo. I got a partner who was actually able and willing to hit hard enough that I had to ask him to go a bit lighter when we got to him kicking me in the stomach. He'd punched me in the same spot enough times that I actually started to become a little concerned! Everything takes time to build up... I've only been training for three years, and it is good to get a reality check every once in a while.

Congrats!

Oh, and after you've been training with toughening/conditioning/iron body, you become much harder to bruise, as well! Nothing demoralizes an opponent quite like no reaction, or even a little smile, when they hit you as hard as they know how.

OSU, We are all told that martial artists should learn to leave their ego at the door, and always have humility. We often hear it from the leaders of our styles and organizations. But sometimes you really do see leaders not practicing what they preach! Leaders who tell everyone to be humble, like they are... but everything is about their ego! I wonder how they expect their students to learn humility, when they are so poor at it themselves? Is the ego something they never learned to let go of, or did it creep in, under the guise of "earning respect" and "upholding protocol." What does one do when their leader cannot accept criticism, but needs that criticism? What if their ego is harming people? No, I'm not thinking of anyone specific. It's just a pattern I've seen, here and there. My Sensei notes that in some dojos, only the kyu ranks are supposed to clean after class. He always helps out, however. He says to me, "we have the privilege of rank, but with that rank also comes the responsibility of setting the example for the students below us." Thoughts? Have you seen this sort of thing? No need to name any names or point any fingers here, but perhaps you have a story, or a thought. How do we keep it honest? There is of course "the proof is on the mat," but sometimes the best fighter isn't always the most humble! OSU

This is why I sneak photos of my Shihan whenever I can, even though he regularly threatens to break my camera, or break me.

Welcome!

Well, I'd say that would depend on one's goals, really.

Once, a couple months shy of 3 years ago, I met this small middle aged white guy. He acted pretty meek, and seemed really harmless. He was the same height as me- a little under 5'3" tall. Turns out he is a Kyokushin instructor, and has been training since a couple years before I was even born. When I was a toddler, he was winning full contact tournaments. Now he's MY Sensei, haha! OSU!

Hit it until it falls down. Apply kicks when needed.

OSU, I've a friend who is an actress, and she was talking about a part she was going to be playing soon, that would involve fighting. I told her that I wished I could get a role in a show or a movie where, as a fat woman, I wasn't: 1. The evil arch-enemy woman 2. The comic relief She said to me "oooh ACTUALLY! I have a friend who is making a martial arts Western movie, and I know you can ride AND do martial arts! I bet he could use you! I'll do introductions soon." Oh yay! That could be really fun! Wish me luck! Hopefully they will have a serious role for me that is also not 3. The bordello madame LOL! OSU!

OSU! My thoughts are, of course, biased, but I also say go for it, and please let us know how you like it! Mas Oyama trained under Funakoshi, who founded Shotokan. You'll find some things in common! Expand your knowledge- if you are a first kyu, you're probably at a level where it's fine to start cross training.

Hello, and welcome to karate forums!

OSU, you could probably sign up for a beating at a Kyokushin, Enshin, Ashihara, or related dojo, if your Sensei is okay with it. ;}

How far are you planning to take this, and what do you want to accomplish with it?

OSU, thank you for your input, lit-arate, that's very interesting! :} Perhaps someday we'll get an aikidoka over here to spar. :} It has been used on me a bit during regular sparring, by a godan in Kyokushin who knows a bit of aikido. Flying lessons, wheee!

Yes. Often when I see how many mistakes I make during kumite, I get pretty down on myself, but after a few days I knuckle down and start watching them again to learn what I need to do to improve. It has become a very helpful tool! OSU!

Hello, and welcome! Are you considering taking up some training yourself?

Welcome! I guess it all depends on what exactly you're looking to get out of your training.

Haha, spinning heel kicks huuuuuurt. At my dojo we tend to strike hard enough to leave some pretty big bruises, but we try to not go so far as to break bones.

OSU! So my dojo has an open sparring day every month where we invite people from all different styles of martial arts to come and play. We do friendly sparring- stand-up, grappling, or a mix of both. Sparring partners can agree on things like no head punches, or no kicks, or no grabs and throws, or whatever. It's generally a good time, and there are rarely any problems. There are some kinds of martial artists we haven't had drop by yet though, as far as I know. The Capoeira thread got me to thinking about this... that's one style we don't have come by. Unlike the kind of karate fighters that were described in the thread, we are a knockdown style, so unless we're also purposefully pulling things, we strike with power, heh. There are some kicks that end up being slowed down because we're using control too... Anyway the thing I'm thinking about is Aikido. I haven't really sparred Aikidoka. I've only let them demonstrate on me, while being compliant. I wonder how actually sparring one would go though? I am told there's a really steep learning curve when it comes to this style, so let's just say both people participating are experts, and the other participant was a full contact knockdown fighter. What I imagine is that the knockdown fighter would kind of be faced with two options... either go slow and compliant and get grabbed and pulled around a lot, or go fast and hard, remaining balanced, throwing multiple strike combinations so that even if their first strike is "caught," they'll be throwing a second strike to hopefully knock around their opponent. Maybe I'm wrong though. Any cull contact fighters ever spar an Aikido person? How does one spar effectively in a FRIENDLY, mutual learning kind of way, with a martial artist whose style is very very different from one's own? Have you done that, and how did you make it work? How do both people manage to display the virtues of their style? One thing for sure though... it'd be a great way for people to learn where the holes are in their respective styles... Anyway, let's discuss this.

I kind of have that how much force and speed to use problem when sparring people who do a redirecting and joint lock type style like aikido. It's kind of an either be compliant and get thrown or go very hard and fast kind of thing... just not very compatible for sparring, though I could be wrong, heh! Seems like it's either "let them hurt you, or hurt them" kind of thing instead of a free trade of techniques. I think maybe this calls for a new thread!