Saotome

I've never seen any full-contact competitions. Lots of 'open' tournaments, but everybody seems to require hand pads, instep pads, cup, and headgear. And light contact is enforced - excessive contact gets you penalized. You might have to dig up a boxing gym.

Yep, but you're postulating 'competent vs. competent'. My bunch lets people start free-sparring at 8th kyu - basically just 4 months of training - at which point we can have a 5' tall, 100-pound woman up against a 6' 3" 250-pounder. Big guys do fall down go boom at that point. I've seen it before, I'll probably see it again. Sweat puddle on the floor, or the shorter opponent catches a leg and pulls, or the big guy doesn't keep an eye on his surroundings and falls over another sparring pair... Best regards.

How's this - Do NOT react if you've taken a hit. Don't look at the judges like "Whoa, they must have seen that." A lot of the time they may not have seen it, but your reaction gives them the impetus to call the point against you. Watch fights before your fight, if you anticipate the same ring judges. Pay attention to what they're calling. If they're calling weak backfists, you know what you can do, and what you have to watch out for. Other than that, enjoy it! Introduce yourself to everybody, you'll be seeing them again if you continue to train, and you're all brothers and sisters in your Art. I love socializing at competitions.

If you need coaching to force yourself to stretch daily, then I'd suggest buying a basic Yoga DVD. I used to have a hard time getting up the discipline to go through a stretching routine. Now the DVD leads me through a good routine and I stick with it. You can also order a copy of Thomas Kurz' "Stretching Scientifically" - all you'll ever want to know about a good stretching program.

Analyze your routine based on your goals. Is training to improve your martial art a priority, or do you want to train your absolute strength more, or are you more interested in your appearance? I've been drawing parallels between martial artists and male gymnasts recently. The male gymnasts have a goal that I think applies to martial arts training - they want maximum strength gains with the minimum possible muscle growth. Sounds funny, doesn't it? But they don't want mass, because mass slows them down, and disimproves their power-to-weight ratio. Power to weight is critical for martial arts, too - if you want to get faster and more powerful at the same time. USA Gymnastics strength training has pretty much shot down traditional mid-weight, mid-rep workouts. (You know, the traditional 3 sets of 8-12 reps). Said that it causes too much muscle growth (hypertrophy) for the actual increase in absolute strength you get. They are using a program that is like a powerlifter's routing - big weight, low reps. As in, one rep at max weight, then two reps at 90%, then another two reps at 90%, and so forth. Then of course on their off days, they run through their gymnastics (bodyweight) routines and half-routines. If you're interested, punch 'male gymnast strength training' into a search engine. I'll let you know when I can do an "Iron Cross"

Okay, ours isn't a knifehand at that point. Ours is a te-barai, a flat-handed sweep (palm vertical) with the right hand chudan, with the left hand moving up vertically palm-out, protecting the side of the head/temple. Right maegeri, left hand comes down in a downward push/grab, right had goes out in an inverted backfist, stance is gyaku nekoashi dachi. Sweep a kick, slap down and control the following punch, kick them in the guts, and backfist the bridge of their nose. Crud, it's hard to explain kata in a post.

Bunkai suru is so open to interpretation, no matter what. F'r example, Wado Ryu's Pinan Yondan doesn't have a knifehand strike - front kick combo. Ours has a couple of side hammerfist - front kick combos. There are all sorts of things you can do with those, but I can't think of any reason why you'd be using the *kick* to break the arm when the kick could go so many other useful places. (This is a side hammer / kick, then elbow, which is then repeated on the opposite side...)

I wear bag gloves, no wraps, no 'boxing gloves'. I wear them because my bunch doesn't do 'toughening' work, and I don't need bloody knuckles all the time. Wearing the gloves also protects and preserves that expensive heavy bag.

I read a lot about training, when I'm not training. I found some really insightful information on strength training for male gymnasts that I think could apply to us. Their goal is to train for maximum strength with minimum muscle growth - so that they get stronger without getting bulkier. Turns out, they get the most benefit with powerlifting-style training. That is, doing maximum weights with minimum reps. USA Gymnastics was alternating high-rep, low weight with low-rep, high weight, and completely avoiding the standard 'bodybuilder workout', with mid-rep sets. Link: http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/publications/technique/1996/8/strength-training.html The article is ten years old, but I think it's interesting. Mai Tai, you're right - time to hit the squat cage for some heavy lifting.

What happens when you "throw a knee"? You mean, actual knee-strikes? Not grabbing a knee and throwing the other guy? Just wondering. Obviously my dojo doesn't do either in free-sparring. For grappling, if you have to go for a lower opponent, you're having to reach down for them. I'm seeing Goliath accidentally fall on top of the smaller opponent (squish), but not seeing any increased vulnerability to chokes. On the upside, the short, low opponent has increased opportunity to do leg sweeps and leg throws. Everything's a trade-off

Think about exactly what you are trying to train, though. Training for maximum static lifting ability isn't as helpful for a martial artist as training for explosive movements. Explosive movements are easier and more effectively trained with just bodyweight. Plyometric pushups, sprints, standing leaps, and the like. It's like most teachers say..."If you want to get inside faster, practice getting inside faster!" - that is, practice the exposive footwork that you need to get in and out. For delivering powerful punches, you have to hit the heavy bag (or makiwara, or other resisting target of your choice). Cable pulldowns and the like are generally slow, controlled motions, at the least so that you don't bang the plates. Doing pull-ups, perhaps pull-ups with a weighted belt, you can be explosive, pulling yourself up as fast as possible - and, you could choose to do a slow negative, slowly returning to the rest position. Fast-twitch versus slow twitch, pick which fiber you'd rather improve. If I were to return to basic plate work, I would do Olympic-style lifting. Squats, deadlifts, the clean-and-jerk.

I agree with Isshin up there. Run away. Make them chase you down, then surprise them with a side kick. Then once they figure out that you only have one trick that works against them and they stop chasing you, it's a stalemate - unless your sensei orders you to engage when you try to stay defensive. Also, try getting lower. Lower your stance, tighten up, make yourself and even smaller target, and wait. If you increase the height differential suddenly the taller fighter is having to punch/strike *down* at you, negating some of their reach advantage, and you've gathered yourself for some good, powerful kicks in return that come up *under* their usual ready-for-anything position.

Something else that works if you're relatively short is to get shorter. Go low. In open sparring and being female, your target zones are already freaking small It's very hard for a tall man to punch a short woman in the guts without accidentally punching a breast, so we just don't go there a lot.... Of course, you'll get all kinds of ridgehands and backfists and such raining around your ears... but if you go lower, they'll be swinging down at you too. If you get smaller, and spring in close, and add power with a bit of leg thrust, you'll be able to terrorize the larger guys who can't move quite quickly enough. * * * Don't assume the more massive opponents are slow. Speed is about power-to-weight ratio. The more massive fighter can train to be just as fast, if they're willing to do the explosive-movement training to get their power/weight up equal to or better than the lighter opponent. Most bigger guys don't go to that effort, though.

If you ever pick up "Tao of Jeet Kun Do", you'll see that Bruce did hate kata. He thought that kata was ultimately limiting to the best martial artists, since it trains into the muscle memory a limited set of responses. He realized that for a lot of martial artists, who wouldn't ever be top-tier world-class level, kata was a good thing. He just knew it wasn't good for him, and didn't think it was good for people with the ability to 'rise above' the programmed moves of kata training. * * * Asking if we still do the beginner kata...? Heh. The list would be a lot shorter if you'd asked "Who DOESN'T still do basic katas?". Never good enough...

I have a form of arthritis in my left hip socket that is a 'building-up' kind, in that I am getting a calcium bone spur that is slowly closing up the socket. I've gotten to the point that I really can't do round kicks any more. Not enough range of motion in the socket. My side kicks look more like back kicks with the over-rotation I have to do. And I'm only 35. My doctor says that if I live to be a hundred, I'll be walking like a cinema Frankenstein's monster. That's okay...as Bruce Lee said (paraphrased), don't focus on what you can't do, focus on what you can do, and make it work.