el_guitarrista

Hi everyone, I hoping someone can help me out here. I fought in my first tournament today, and it was a great event - I'll definately be doing it again! During my second round, I took a medium strength punch badly in the stomach (basically I stepped into a gyak-zuki, the other guy's contact was light). The impact dropped me to the floor for about 10 seconds I'd really appreciate some suggestions for training exercises to strengthen my resistance to these stomach punches. "Lots of sit-ups" is a bit of a problem as I get lower back pain when I do full sit ups in sets greater than about 30..will crunches acheive the same conditioning effect? Should I work on expelling the air\tightening my abs when I step forward while sparring. I think at the moment I'm forgetting to do this with all the adrenaline of what for me is a new experience. Anyway, thanks in advance for any help provided, el-guitarrista

You can harden parts of your body (eg. shins) by repeated injury because the micro-fractures formed heal harder than before, and the nerves in the flesh are deadened so you actually feel less pain. You can utterly ruin other parts of your body by repeated unjury. Read that again because a lot of people have the idea of 'no pain, no gain'. In the case of joint, ligament, cartlidge and tendon damage it's a case of 'no pain, no crippling pain in your old age'. If your injury is a joint injury (which it sounds a lot like - probably inflamation of the joint which is why you can't bend it) then each injury does two things. Firstly, it will make it more likely that you injure the same spot again. Secondly, it may vastly increase the chance of real, serious pain in your old age. With any non-flesh injury you're best to rest it completely until it heals then return to training very gradually. I've lost count of the times that I've been unable to walk after training, but rest and proper treatment has left very few lasting, recurring injuries. Anyway, hope that helps...and hope you heal soon!

If you're training to be a dentist, or a pilot, or whatever, you're working at least 5 days a week, clocking up about 30 hours. Again, compare this to training 2 hours, 3 nights a week (average karateka here...). You're getting about 1\5 the time to train. It takes at least 5 years to become a surgeon\lawyer\civil engineer\pilot. Multiply by 5 equals 25 years. So suddenly ten years of training 3 nights a week doesn't seem so long to be classed as 'very good' at what you do. If it takes someone 10 years to reach your standard (a decent benchmark for most teachers) considering you've taken 10 years yourself to get there, that's a reasonable training time. Again, factor in the fact that if you teach, you're probably commited and will train a lot. Someone training two nights a week at your class will take longer than you to reach the same standard.

Hi soulburned, neither school is bad, as a black belt has no internationally recognised meaning. Anyone can call themselves a blackbelt, and indeed buy a 'black belt' and wear it. There are so many different 'types' of karate, and each type has its own ideas as to what a black belt should require. Within each type of karate, each individual instructor has their own requirements to pass someone. If you look around you will soon see that it is not a national divide, but an individual one. Within portugal you will find schools offering black belts after a huge variety of time, just as in every other country. A school near me has a very strict instructer who wouldn't even consider awarding a black belt until many, many years of study were undertaken. My own school is very liberal, and a good student could conceivably leave after 5 years with a black belt. Every instructor has their own ideas of what should be required, and will award accordingly. A particular instructor may only grade those whose kata are of an exceptional standard. An old tournament fighting instructor may only grade those who can fight well, or indeed only those who can come close to his own standard. So you see, different things are prized by different instructors. On a more basic level, measuring time in years is quite difficult. A student may study every single night in class, and every morning by themselves. They may achieve 30 hours of training a week. A father\mother with a full time job may only achieve two hours a week of training. What does a black belt award? Does it reward personal acheivement, say learning to fight well despite personal difficulties, or does it reward the muscular, athletic fighter who is 'naturally' built to do karate? Different instructors have different views. I hope that provides some ideas for you to think about...

Hi, Just wanted to share what has been a very useful training technique for me (especially since the problem I've been using it to correct seems one shared by lots of people!) Put simply, leg raises! Following some of the work from the book 'Stretching Scientifically' repeated here: http://www.stadion.com/column.html I've been doing leg raises (front and side) for about two months, and my kicking height and speed has increased amazingly! I realised by how much when sparring a few days ago, without thinking I just went for a backfist\roundhouse combination and the kick was perfect! Head height, fast, and I got landed quickly as well. Afterwards, the brown belt I was sparring said that my kicks were very impressive - though my setting them up with hand techniques was mostly poor Which left me feeling great, but still with a specific improvement goal. In the same session I nearly scored from a roundhouse, turning back-kick combination that I'd been practicing, and it was just so nice to see hard-training come good in practice So, if anyone doubts they can improve, really, don't give up. It's taken me months to get this far, but the small victories in that one session have given me masses of confidence and I real desire to train harder.

After some careful negotiating, my landlady has agreed to let me use her garage to stick a heavy bag in (score one for keeping a tidy flat on inspection day...!) But I have a few questions. Firstly, any recomended bag makes\brands available in the UK would be gratefully recieved, also any ideas of what to look for in a good bag. Secondly, what are the limitations of bag work? What won't it train, and what should I work on to compliment my bag time? Finally (thanks for bearing with me...), what are the advantages, what drills will improve my stamina for karate sparring. (A little more specific than 'hit it lots for long periods of time') How long should I work out for? Should I work out every day? Every other day? In 3 minute (round) lengths, or longer. Maybe for a continuous half hour at low intensity? Thanks

Thanks everyone, some great ideas there. I've got just one more question, based on your replies: Is it better to wrap my hands\use gloves when I use it, or simply start of with low power techniques. I can see the advantages of using wrist wraps etc, but I would have thought that all I would be doing is conditioning using equipment. If I ever actually threw a punch to hurt someone (heaven forbid I ever have to) it would be without gloves. By training with them, aren't I just inviting injury in a 'real-life' situation? I take the point about the weight of the bag, but doesn't an adult weigh about 50-60kg? Hitting them in the torso isn't going to be any easier than hitting a bag... I would have thought that hitting a bag without protection would present no problems unless I tried to do too much too quickly. By training without protection, won't I slowly (and I intend to advance power slowly), condition my wrists and hands to take higher impacts safely?

After some careful negotiating, my landlady has agreed to let me use her garage to stick a heavy bag in (score one for keeping a tidy flat on inspection day...!) But I have a few questions. Firstly, any recomended bag makes\brands available in the UK would be gratefully recieved, also any ideas of what to look for in a good bag. Secondly, what are the limitations of bag work? What won't it train, and what should I work on to compliment my bag time? Finally (thanks for bearing with me...), what are the advantages, what drills will improve my stamina for karate sparring. (A little more specific than 'hit it lots for long periods of time') How long should I work out for? Should I work out every day? Every other day? In 3 minute (round) lengths, or longer. Maybe for a continuous half hour at low intensity? Thanks

I think control is something that should be taught and learnt before you even consider free-sparring. While accidents do happen, I just find it incredibly annoying to be constantly hit harder than necessary by some idiot with no control. To be honest I've felt like this since the first day I trained, so control has been one of the main areas I've practiced, I just feel I owe it to my partner to provide the contact they're comfortable with, be it bruising impacts or no contact at all. Anyway, the drills I'd suggest... - Wearing gloves to begin with, stand facing a wall and simply reverse punch until you can lightly tap it every time. Then alternate a heavy contact with a 'brush' contact until you can consistently choose how hard you hit something. Next step is to stand a metre or so from a wall and walk towards it until you feel you're the right distance away, then execute a reverse punch. Did you get the distance right? Repeat as necessary. Next, you can lunge forward and again, make the contact of your choice. When you can take the gloves off and still make light contact from a metre away, stepping quickly forward then you know you're on to something. I practice for a few minutes every day, no gloves, just firing techniques at a wall or post. PLEASE NOTE! This isn't a hardening exercise, you should never feel pain, if your contact is perfectly light then you won't feel a thing. If you want a bigger challenge, step a metre from the wall, close your eyes and step forward and execute a technique. If your distance, and awareness of contact is very good then you'll 'tap' the wall. If not, it'll hurt and you'll have learnt a valuable lesson. If nothing else the above drill works because when you get your control wrong it hurts you, good motivation to improve quickly! Do it al slowly to start off with. The other benefit of this technique is that you learn distancing, very useful when sparring. Finally, if you repeat the process with a heavy bag then you can work on the increments of power you talked about. Aim to hit the bag 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100% of power and you'll be able to adapt your sparring to any partner! I've found that people are much more likely to enjoy sparring with you if they know you have good control, in fact quite a few people have asked me to be a sparring partner for just that reason. I'm nowhere near 'good' at karate, but I hope I'm fun to spar with Sorry for an epic reply...hope it helps!

Hi everyone, I've found lots of information from this forum, but I've now got a specific question which I hope someone can help with. The situation I find myself in is: The university karate club I attend does 'some' sparring in the main class, and has a dedicated sparring class which runs on a '10 people per session, once a week, invite only' basis. Which translates as 'if you're not an exceptional fighter or an attractive female fighter, you won't be attending' (the less said about the instructor the better!) This leaves me (as someone who loves sparring, but has only been training a year or so) with a chance to spar once a week ,if that, for perhaps 25 minutes. Not the best basis for improving my sparring. I've been sparring with a friend for the past week, and we intend to continue on a regular basis, but we're not sure exactly what to train. If anyone can suggest drills to improve the following areas it would be greatly appreciated: Our tendancy to step in straight lines, not moving outside/inside attacks (I've heard this is a good thing but the principles escape me!) Our lack of in-fighting skills, any simple takedowns or similar would be appreciated. Our inability to spot gaps in the opponents defence, throwing combinations rather than situation specific techniques. Any other drills that people have found to develop fundamental sparring techniques. Thanks in advance!