control power in free sparing

[kzshin]

How did you guys learn to control your power during sparing. I found that sometime when you sparing with bigger guy or heavier guy, you do need to hit them little harder than... say same size or smaller guys. Because from my experience, bigger guys tend to like to think they are bigger and stronger, so they tend to like charge right at you or not move, especially the one that are not good at controlling themselves (the type of guy that learn martial art for fighting, and gets really excited at free sparing, i am sure alot of you have met guys like this), so you do need to hit them harder to kinda push/hold them back. However, I found out for me it's kinda hard to control not to hit too hard, but at the same time hard enough to stop the guy. I mean I can control it like 20% strength and 100% strength, however, I can't control like 20%, 30%, 40%,......100%.

 

I also know that when you hit fast, usually it will be harder, however, how you hit fast without hitting hard???

 

any suggestion will be good.

[SaiFightsMS]

Practice. This is something that will come to you with time and more experience.

[isshinryu5toforever]

It just takes experience. With the big guys though, sometimes it takes a few shots for them to realize that they can't just charge in. You might have to hit one of them hard a couple times to send the message that they need to gain a little control.

[el_guitarrista]

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!

[Grenadier]

At the current dojo, we do not let them go into free sparring until they have obtained at least their 5th kyu (green belt) rank. Up until that time, they are trained in one step, two step, and so forth, sparring methods. Also, they are drilled in sparring techniques even starting at white belt.

 

This way, they have the experience and muscle memories, to use what would be acceptable in controlled free sparring. When they get more advanced, some tapping is allowed, so that they can be desensitized to being "hit."

 

I can't argue with the results, as they seem to do just fine, even when they first start their free sparring.

[1kickKO]

Basically it comes with time, it's just something that you have to get the feeling for, you know, like learning how to ride a bike..ya just gotta do it for a while until ya get the hang of it.

[kzshin]

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

 

I felt the exact same way as you do. Especially there are alwasy few indivuals that can't wait to try the technics that he learned, or want to see how good or tough he is, and usually this are type of the guy that has no control at all.

 

That;s why I felt I have to hit him harder, but at the same time I don't want to really hurt the guy.

[1kickKO]

A tip: When ya face somebody like that, hit them in the nuts and just say "Oops, I lost control of my feet"...it works...trust me...

[kzshin]

A tip: When ya face somebody like that, hit them in the nuts and just say "Oops, I lost control of my feet"...it works...trust me...

 

HAHAHA, I don't want to get kick out of shool, cuz all my instructors know that I am very cautious person when sparing, so if I did that, they might think I did on purpose.

 

Maybe I should just give him couple really hard punches.

 

Honestlly, not only that guy didn't have control of his power, he also don't have good sense of the distance. That's why I was alwasy extremely cautious when sparing with him.

[1kickKO]

Another tip I learned from a friend of mine who does aikido, he always did this to me and it aggravated me, he wasn't supposesd to do it with karate but it was his natural "aikidoness" kicking in..haha...next time he comes in for a punch, just lean forward and put your elbow into him, he'll think twice about it.