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This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. Why is it so Hard? To break down tournament fighting, you must first break down your mental composure. Let's say you are taking your first big leap into tournament fighting, or perhaps, you are just extending your leap in tournament fighting. As the title says, fighting is 99% mental and 1% physical. What does this mean? Let's put it into a scenario. You walk into the doors of a gym or school ready to compete. You sign up for kumite and begin stretching. Your division is called to line up around the ring. As you continue to stretch by the ring, you see 3 or more guys, much bigger, taller and more muscular than yourself also stretching and preparing to fight. They are also of a higher rank than yourself. What is your first thought going to be? "Hey, the bigger they are, the harder they fall." Well, if you're like most humans, it's probably not. You're going to be worried about their size, worried about how much experience they have, worried about their rank. It's only natural to let thoughts take over and disable your brain. What will happen to you in the ring if you have no mental composure? What will happen if you cannot think, and you cringe at the thought of fighting one of these steroid popping monsters. How am I able to defeat them, you ask? Getting Over the Stress As I said before, it’s all mental. There are many ways to relieve yourself of this mental stress. One way is meditation. Yes, I said it: meditation. Garbage, you think? Of course not. It has been scientifically proven that meditating (if done right, e.g. breathe in your nose and out your mouth) causes a relaxation of the muscles and mind. If you're not up for going totally guru before a fight, another way is to sit down and evaluate things. Look at everything positively, "They are a higher rank, but does it necessarily mean they are a better fighter?", "They may be huge and muscle bound, but I might be faster than this opponent.", etc. Look at every aspect of your opponent. Another way is to go up and introduce yourself, shake their hand and wish them good luck. Get to know them a bit before your match. You might find out that they are some of the best people you will ever get the chance to meet. Watching Your Opponent Prepare A well kept plan is to always be ready. It goes without saying that to win anything, it is always best to be prepared. With that said, watch your opponent warm up. Watch him stretch. Look at his uniform. Watch him do his techniques. What will this tell you? Watching him warm up shows just how much stamina he has. Is he breathing heavily after just a few pushups or whatever he's doing? Or does he seem to be just fine and dandy? Watching him stretch will give you an idea of how flexible he is and what to watch out for. If he can do the splits, he more than likely has great high kicks and you should be careful not to get hit in the head. If he stretches his arms more than his legs, he might be more of a puncher, so be careful about his arms and hands. Looking at his/her uniform can tell you what style they practice. If you see a v-neck one piece top, this might indicate that they are TKD (Tae Kwon Do) and are good with their feet. Are they wearing a nice dressed uniform with buttons, kind of baggy and a sash instead of a belt? This might indicate that they practice some sort of kung fu and are very fast and very flexible, etc. Now, about watching his/her techniques. Many karateka's don't do their techniques in front of others, as to not show their opponents what they're capable of. But some make the mistake of doing their techniques out in the open - this can be used to your advantage. An opponent will always tell you three times what they're going to do. What does that mean? The next time you are at your dojo, ask a friend to perform a simple roundhouse kick three times. Watch body language. Look at their facial expression (does it not tighten up?), look at their hands (do they drop or fly out?), look at their hips (do they chamber and prepare for the kick?), look at their feet (do they first set up for the type of kick going to be performed?), look at everything possible for signs of a roundhouse kick. Now watch him do the kick 2 more times, notice anything? Those reactions you saw, are his body's natural way for preparing for that kick and are consistent! That means, once you see these, apply them to when you are fighting and watch for these signs as you fight. If you see these signs, you might know a roundhouse kick is coming and you can perform a block and counter. Body Language Now, you may not think it, but body language is extremely important. Your body language that is. What would you think if you saw somebody about to fight, and they were fidgeting their fingers, sweating, looking around nervously and moving constantly? You would think they were nervous wouldn't you? Would you use this to your advantage? Well, I sure hope you would, because this should give you some idea to what your opponent is thinking. Now about you, what if you were that person and somebody saw you like that, do think they'd think easier of you while fighting? Of course! This is where it's important. Before any match, look cool, calm and collected. Put on a "poker face". The main point in a tournament is to have fun, let it show, have fun before your match and stay loose and relax. If your opponent sees this, what will he think? "Hmm... he looks pretty confident, this might be a tough match.” Of course, it's basic human instinct to go by what they see, so next time you're about to begin a match, look around for body language, and use it to your advantage. Mechanics of a Fight 1 rule of thumb while fighting, is when your opponent throws a punch or a kick, or any technique for that matter, it has to come back to him sometime doesn't it? This allows an opening. As his punch/kick, etc. retreats back to his body, why not simply follow it back? I mean, how can he block that? If he blocks with his other hand, both of his hands are tied up, right? You've still got 1 hand free and 2 legs. Another rule of thumb, is when you get bombarded by somebody with an array of attacks, all you simply need to do is to step off to the side, that's right, their back side. Why back? Because if you step off to their back side while they're coming full force at you in a line, you've allowed them to completely walk past you, making their back an easy scoring target and to get you they would have to turn a full 180 degrees. This is to your advantage. If you do get hit in a match, say "thank you" because your opponent has now shown you a weak link in your defense, that shows you what you need work on. You can now effectively block yourself here realizing you do have a hole open and it needs covered. Golden Rules of Competition 1. Be respectful. Nobody likes a disrespectful person and you won't make it on a judge’s good side if you aren’t. 2. Be fair. Do you like it if somebody cheats? Didn't think so, nor would they like it if you did. 3. And last but not least, HAVE FUN! That's right, competition is competition, no matter what, the soul purpose of it is to test your skills and have a good time. so win or lose, if at the end you tried your hardest, it's all worth it in the end. Good luck and have fun in training.

Well to answer one of your questions, before we go to tournaments yes, our sensei does teach us this and it seems to work quite fine . I'm not saying you should get into a set "pattern" of 3 or more, always mix it up....you're right there, I was simply stating that sometimes they do not see the points, it happens...at all tournaments...that's why if they don't call something keep throwing techniques. Another thing, I know when you touch and go if they're ready they'll nail you, that's why you have to be ready to block and counter. Sparring is a game, it's the easiest thing in the world once you know how to do it. Thats' why when you see karate fighters sparring, they go back and forth back and forth, it's constant "touch and go"...one hits, it's block, countered, the other blocks that, counters, etc... There's also the "leave yourself open" method. If you block high where do you think your opponent will hit? Low...exactly...same with if you block low, they'll hit high. Then you will be able to block this and counter it. Also, it is an immediate gap whenever you recoil a punch, sure you have another hand/foot available, and are encouraged to use it, but it doesn't mean that even the best fighters still won't have a gap there . Sorry, the internet isn't justifiable for "clarifying" things as you'd need to have them clarified to understand what I mean...I'll discuss it more in depth with ya later..

the left.

This coming.

No way.

here's me _____________________________________|___ | here's you __________________________________ |

I will on saturday.

I would..I would have them give me 50 bucks everytime ya asked Loans suck.

3 inches.

You're invited too krzy.

*holds head in shame* well darn.

Nope sorry but I think I did

No way...she's hot. On the subject...last night I dreamed I was out walking around and then there was this drive-by shooting. They saw I survived it, came back and shot me a few times. From then on I was running from them and somehow ended up in a hospital running around from them. Eventually they shot me int he head, I died..the end. Freaky.

Hmm.

Why not? Only one thing, I think we're kinda far apart