"fighting stance" during sparring

[tallgeese]

You'll find that hte h igh guard position works equally well against straight incoming attacks. It just keeps the hands closer to the head, so there is less distace that they need to travel to intercept things.

Nor is it a posture limited to effectiveness with linear styles. Watch boxers, the good ones circle and cut angles all the time. It's a very good defensive, and therefore offensive as well, position.

[Shinta]

In Kyokushin it isn't allowed to punch the face. That's partially why they use that guard...

For me, I don't have a specific guard, I just keep on changing them through out the fight but I always guard myself. I believe that throwing your arms down is just stupid and disrespectfull. Well, in my style of fighting, I count mostly on antecipation and dodging.

As for street fighting, I do not allow anyone to come close to me. I attack first when they enter the my security circle - might look too aggresive to outsiders, but I prefer to be the one standing up in the end... I usually throw a couple of punches and then try to throw them down (while they're still recovering) and try to make sure they don't get up again... I use kicks mainly for defensive purposes, keep distance, etc. As I believe they aren't that effective and have a greater risk associated with them...

[Zanshin]

...I may be entering another tournament soon so I'm starting to examine my blocks and stance, which is when I turned to YouTube for references and found people doing it WAY differently to the way I was...

When I did my first tourney I used a more boxing-esq stance but after my first round a guy from our club (who's a black belt in Shato, Wado and Judo) advised that I use a block that also covered more of my body (as per a drill like fighting stance) as the most common moves I would encounter would be: front snap kicks to the body, side kicks to the body, jabs to the face and reverse punches to the body... his advice did work for me (I won men's 3rd Kyu and bellow ) ... But I started to re-* that advice after visiting YouTube and seeing this very relaxed, low guard used so often.

I've since watched this(Kyokushin): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7cHghqmUEg

and I can certainly see a high guard working very well in their style of karate; very few "linear" or straight attacks are used, lots of high round house, crescent and axe kicks and a lot of the punches are a bit "hooky" or at least don't come out as straight as the ones I see in sparing in Wado.

What type of competition are you entering?

Also can you post a link to the particular Wado clip you are refering to.

[joesteph]

Nor is it a posture limited to effectiveness with linear styles. Watch boxers, the good ones circle and cut angles all the time. It's a very good defensive, and therefore offensive as well, position.

Even though sparring is limited to non-contact at the dojang where I train, tallgeese, my instructor pointed out flaws in my punching technique to me--and I had been trying to be more boxer-like in terms of jabs and crosses. I did some at-home shadow boxing, and when I sparred, it was true that we circled around--it wasn't linear at all.

Since we can kick as well, it shows the benefit of karate, that you've got four weapons in sparring (and even more in a real-life situation).

[bushido_man96]

I do enjoy watching the Kyokushin videos. That guard is still useful, even for body attacks.

[Adonis]

My stance would be on the balls of my feeet, knees bent front foot with the toes pointing towards my opponent back foot, with heal off teh ground, and have it out at a 45 angle. Unless I am punching with my rear hand, then I turn it so my toes are towards my opponet.

[joesteph]

I've since watched this (Kyokushin): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7cHghqmUEg

and I can certainly see a high guard working very well in their style of karate; very few "linear" or straight attacks are used, lots of high round house, crescent and axe kicks and a lot of the punches are a bit "hooky" or at least don't come out as straight as the ones I see in sparing in Wado.

Would you know the rules involved here, Waza? I can swear I saw plenty of openings to punch to the face, but punches went to the body. There were kicks to the thighs and also to the head/face. I wasn't surprised at what might not be the traditional "no hitting below the belt," in this case the thighs, but seeing no punches to the face, only kicks there, made me wonder if there were special rules being enforced.

[bushido_man96]

Kyokushin, right now, does not allow face punching in their tournaments.

[kansascityshuffle]

Kyokushin, right now, does not allow face punching in their tournaments.

Correct, for the most part. Ichigeki fight cards which are under the IKO-1(kyokushin lead by Matsui)have kickboxing/mma fights.

Either IKO3 or IKO4 a year or two ago tested bringing face punching back and I even saw pics of it which I'll post if I find them.

Kyokushin knockdown kumite rules don't allow face punching that I know of unless John Bluming's association does? Anybody here train under him or one of his branch instructors & compete???

Even though Kyokushin doesn't allow them for the most part some dojo train in them....heck most make you train face punches for belt requirements with boxing gloves to some degree. I know of at least 2 of them that do for sure. Some Kyokushin dojo also train in "k-1 rules kickboxing", too..for obvious reasons(ala Filho, Feitosa, Pettas, etc.).

Back to the original author...there are pros and cons to every type of fighting stance, it really depends on you and for me it depends on what competition/rules it's for. For Karate I typically keep my hands down a bit lower than I do for Muay Thai/kickboxing but I still keep my hands up higher than most karateka that I know. I can't make the call what is best for you without seeing you train...seriously.

[The BB of C]

I suggest standing at a side and having your hands/arms guarding yourself comfortably. This way you can still be in a natural stance and keep your vitals covered.