Sparred Tonight

[Martialart]

Tonight I sparred with some of the black belts in the class. First time--in that class. I learned how to spar in England when I studied Higashi Karate (which is Wado-Ryu with only very slight modifications). But those guys sparred hard and I was whacked around quite regularly, but I never forgot what I learned. Tonight was kind of embarrassing.

The students are teenagers, granted, and I'm an full-grown man, but that doesn't really matter, because I pulled everything. I didn't hit harder than mere contact. Pad against pad, but these guys are clueless. I expected if they are 1st and 2nd dans, that they would not let me get in on them so easily.

I did a backfist to the helmet on one--very basic. He punched I down-blocked it and came over the top with a backfist to the head. Total control, don't get me wrong. It was fast, but my glove, merely touched his padded helmet. I didn't understand. So I asked, are we allowed to make contact to the head. Yep. No problem.

Then I'm sparring another black belt and I come around with a spinning crescent kick, and I'm totally mortified as I realize his head is completely ungaurded! I had to drop my leg emergency-like or it would have made contact big time.

Fortunately I was able to abort it. Fortunately I haven't lost my control. In Higashi, you had to learn control, control, control. It was way too fast and way too aggressive to have people out there actually trying to hurt one another. So, control was trained on as much as any other technique. Thank God.

I mean in all the time I've been sparring, I've never actually gotten in with a spinning crescent kick. Never. I had come to believe they were just for show, and that's all I was trying to do was have fun and show off the few things I can still do.

I didn't expect the guy's head to be waiting there like a train wreck about to happen. Fortunately, no train wreck.

In Higashi, it was spar until a good point was made by "controlled" contact, then break and start again for a total of three points, so people just charged one another throwing everything including the kitchen sink to get that point. It was very aggressive but very controlled.

In WTF, it was very agressive and fast, but no contact was ever made to the head with the hands so people just flailed about with their legs trying to score points. Very impractical. Martial arts is hand and foot.

Nevertheless, in this class, my side kicks were even getting in. Everything was getting in. It was like being in some kind of dream or something. I expected to be getting pummeled in a controlled way by these flexilble adolescent males who had black belts, and I found myself having to be careful. I mean, I'm bigger than they are, granted. But this was all very light contact if any, they should have been in on me like white on rice. But they weren't.

What I didn't have was stamina. I'm going to have to work on that big time. I've been a runner for 12 years, but this isn't the same kind of thing. Running is just legs.

I actually don't know what's going to happen. They can put me with the instructors who will be all over me, I have no doubt, but that would look pretty bad if a green belt can't fight with the black belts. They could put me with my wife, we always have fun sparring, but they put her with the other women. She had the exact experience as me with the black belt female in the class. It was sad. We were sad for them. There are better black belts. There are, I've seen them. Two guys who I quite like, are taller than me, and really skilled, so I could spar with them. Of course, I'm not sure that's fair to me.

Either way, I'm going to have to wake up and smell the coffee. Just because they are black belts doesn't mean they can fight, and I'm going to have to real-quick like get over the idea that I have to try as hard as I can against them because they're so much higher than me. They are higher belts, but somewhere along the way they never developed that aggressive fighting spirit, you know?

I can't blame it on the school. They tell them the only four things they need to know: move in a circle, keep your guard up, throw combinations, and keep light and moving on your feet. But they don't keep their guard up, and they don't block effectively, and they don't counter, and they don't throw combinations.

I couldn't touch the head master there, not in a million years. There's another male instructor I couldn't touch, no way. And there's some black belts who are really fast and flexible, but there's tons of black belts that aren't, and this is the first time I've encountered that. So, I'm going to have to be careful.

I feel bad and good at the same time. I really like sparring, but I want to get my butt kicked at least once a night, you know? That's how you grow. That's how you get tough. You got to get tough, you know?

Any advice. Sorry for writing a book about this.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Martialart

[bushido_man96]

I think if I were you I would use the opportunity here to push the ones you have to spar regularly so they get better, and then they might be able to help you get better. Otherwise, see if you can spar some of the better fighters there.

[Martialart]

I think if I were you I would use the opportunity here to push the ones you have to spar regularly so they get better, and then they might be able to help you get better. Otherwise, see if you can spar some of the better fighters there.

Yeah, that's good. That would probably work. And it could be kind of mutual, because I need to re-develop my sparring stamina. So, they're helping me with that, and maybe I can help them get a little more aggressive. I have good control, and I'm not one of these types that has to dominate an opponent, so they could benefit from sparring with me and I with them.

And a friend of mine in there, one of the really flexible teens who's taller than me is just itching to kick my butt now that I have a green belt, and I've told him it would be an honor to be pummeled by him, so there's always that.

Oh, and I mispoke. I can't train with the instructors (which is just as well for me at this stage of the game), because they don't spar in class.

[bushido_man96]

I see a lot of that, instructors not sparring in class. I think they should do so, but I think many times, they don't, to protect their ego.

[Toptomcat]

You've said in a number of your other posts that you knew you were training at- in your own words- a McDojo, and that you knew that others who weren't putting in anywhere near your level of effort were advancing up the gradings just the same.

Why, then, did this come as such a shock to you? You know that their standards for giving rank are low. Why be surprised that their high-ranking people aren't up to a high standard?

[Martialart]

You've said in a number of your other posts that you knew you were training at- in your own words- a McDojo, and that you knew that others who weren't putting in anywhere near your level of effort were advancing up the gradings just the same.

Why, then, did this come as such a shock to you? You know that their standards for giving rank are low. Why be surprised that their high-ranking people aren't up to a high standard?

I assume that these are rhetorical questions.

[Martialart]

I see a lot of that, instructors not sparring in class. I think they should do so, but I think many times, they don't, to protect their ego.

Funny you should mention that. I'm certain I couldn't spar with them, and why? Because I believe they are very good. But I certainly can't prove that. I mean, I have yet to see it. It's just an assumption on my part, and I'll bet to some degree they rely on those assumptions. Maybe they rely on weak black belts for the same reason.

But it doesn't really matter to me, I suppose. Like I've said before, the curriculum is good. I am learning traditional Taekwondo. It would be good to have an instructor who was also an example, but maybe that's just something I don't get to have. And, maybe that's like asking an economics professor to first be rich before teaching me economics.

Still, it's kind of sad.

[GeoGiant]

I'd be shocked if I were you. Granted my experience is only limited to only one dojo and a hand full of black belts, but I could never manhandle ANY of the BBs at my school. I’m no tough-guy but I’ve got a good reach, long legs and I’m willing to take a punch to give one. I’ve turned it up a notch a few times to see if I could handle what they had… very quickly the difference in rank was apparent. I have a lot to learn and I’m glad I’m surrounded by BBs that are qualified to teach me.

[Chitsu]

@Martialart:-

Mr Spanton would be proud

Chitsu

[Martialart]

@Martialart:-

Mr Spanton would be proud

Chitsu

I met Pete Spanton once at an event in London. He seemed like a really nice man, and he said a few words to me. I think he signed a book I bought there on Higashi forms. He was very approachable. Tough, but not a tough-guy if you know what I mean.

Of course this was back in the mid 1980's. I trained in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Are you connected with Higashi at all?