jude30

I agree that it's not a good thing. Which makes me avoid it all that much more in the future. The two times I have been dazed one was the hook kick, and I had head gear on, and the instructor reprimanded the guy who did it. The second time I didn't have on headgear, but we both had on boxing gloves, and I stupidly dropped my hands. I don't drop my hands anymore. My Sensei is very careful to not let it go that far in class.

My two cents on pain, and sparring. I probably spar more outside of class than in. Always wear gloves, and a mouth piece, and I don't wear headgear nearly as much as I should. I've been tagged with hook kicks, and punches to the head that have stunned and/or dazed me. In each instance the attacker stopped and apologized. In recent weeks this has irritated me. A real attacker won't stop to ask if I'm OK, he will press the attack when/if he sees I'm stunned. I want to learn to fight through that and defend myself until I can get my wits back.

1. Learn everything I need to pass brown belt, then pass the test. 2. Compete in my first submission grappling match/tournament. 3. I have friends that run an MMA gym out of their garage, I need to make it there to spar. 4. Not embarrass myself running the Warrior Dash. 5. Cardio, cardio, cardio!

I received my purple belt in August. (Okinawan Kenpo) My school goes, white, yellow, orange, blue, green, purple, brown, black. I figure I have at least two years to First Dan. So very far away.

I didn't read every post in this thread but I did skim it pretty well, and I didn't see any of Rory Miller's books mentioned. Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence, basically what the title says. A comparison to what is taught in Dojos versus what works in the real world from the perspective of a jail guard. Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected A book on how to handle violence, before, during, and after an assault. I also have an ebook by him, " Drills: Training For Sudden Violence (A Chiron Manual)" I really like this book.

I'm really new here but I'd like to add my two cents if I could. I've been taking Kenpo for almost two years now, and I bet we don't spar but once a month. Which for me is fine. If I want to spar I can pretty much call my Sensei any time and we can meet at the gym and he'll send a text or two and get more people there. I also have a loose group of people where one of them is almost always training for a fight and looking for a different sparring partner. Which is also fun for me since I get to do some submission grappling, and they get to throw punches at someone with a pretty long reach. So that might be the answer for you, see if there's an MMA gym near you.