student_karateka

I have a purple belt in another style, actually, but what you said probably still applies. Definitely am receptive to what the instructors say as well as what people here are saying. Thanks to everyone here for your feedback. It kind of sounds like both bouncing and not bouncing each have their own set of pros and cons. My first sensei would not bounce during sparring and so that is what I'm used to. I definitely also need to figure out how to be more explosive, which I'm hearing that bouncing could help me with.

I would like to train under Lyoto Machida, a 3rd dan in shotokan karate and UFC fighter.

I haven't had the chance to *really* test this but I believe that it would be easy to add power to techniques practiced with control (ie no or light contact) in the dojo. I would love to try full-contact sparring just to get some idea for what kind of "chin" I have, if for nothing else.

I just started learning the first two Pinan's for my next belt. Having to choose between the two, I would say Shodan is my favorite. With all the praise Yondan is getting, I am really looking forward to learning that one, too.

I find that relaxing more is helping to improve my sparring and kata. When I sparred, I used to keep my arms in a guard position and was tensing my arm muscles tight. Once my sensei told me to relax more, I found that my energy went way up -- I could last longer without getting tired, and my techniques were all faster and the energy is conserved when power is needed. It lines up with something Bruce Lee said about being like water...fluid.

I have a couple of vids showing me spar on youtube. What I do in the video comes most naturally to me as far as bouncing is concerned. I'm the one in the red helmet. sparring with a fellow white belt (point sparring) sparring with a black belt (free sparring) So I would make the case that not bouncing does not necessarily translate into less mobility and that it's more of a stylistic difference.

Thanks, I'll have to try it then...in the dojo. Hopefully I'll never again need it out of the dojo. Could it be said that the choice to bounce is merely a stylistic difference or is it fundamentally justified like the twisting / rotating the fist at the end of a punch?

Is it then the case that I'm not crazy if I don't want to bounce around?

First post here. What are the advantages of bouncing versus not bouncing? The way I was trained, there was no bouncing though a lot of mobility was taught to us-- just without bouncing.