Improving shotokan sparring skills

[explosive_power]

I have recently started training in shotokan karate. 2 months,

and I had a boxing background for 3 years, and was used to the full contact boxing sparring.

now the point sparring that shotokan was teaching us was all new to me.

and the trouble I have is, I just sometimes throw flurries of hard punches that my sensei said could not score in competitions.

any advice on how to improve?

anyone from a boxing background that trained in shotokan to help me?

thank you

[Toptomcat]

How much was your boxing training geared towards fighting under the amateur-boxing ruleset, specifically? What were your strengths as a boxer?

[jsteczko]

Well, if you just train sparring on Shotokan classes, take it easy man. It's a training, not a competition. But I know how you feel from your point of view.

I don't like Shotokan competitions. You just have to do a little skin-touch. Training for such competitions can make you used to light punches. And when you train for these competitions, you can only exercise a few punches and kicks, while in karate has a big variation in strikes. On competitions you can only see a few of what's available.

There is nothing wrong in training for Shotokan competitions, the problem is that it is not enough. After some time you will get tired, because competition-Shotokan is so poor. This is what happened to me. So I talked with my sensei and now we train with much bigger variations of strikes. And there is no skin-touch and we train leg-kicks as well.

If you want my opinion, I would say you don't have much to improve. But if you want to be on Shotokan competitions, take it easy. Train by giving light punches, try to make a skin-touch. Your arm must be a little bit bent then. When you hit your opponent, take back your arm right after the strike.

It is hard to give advices like this because I don't know what you can. Simply have control.

[quinteros1963]

We have simular backgrounds as I have trained in boxing of years as well. My advice to you is to either stay away from the shotokan competitions, if you are into martial arts for self defence, or still train in both ways. The way I see it is that as a boxer you are taught to hit hard, often punching thru your opponent. Also you are taught to counter punch, which may mean getting hit before you strike back (you wont win many point sparring matches this way).

I have had a hard time making the transition to point sparring for these and many other reasons. I still try it from time to time, but my focus is still self defence (striking hard).

You may want to try contiuous sparring.

[Pajarito21]

I am not a boxer and I don't practice shotokan... but I feel like I can still relate because my hands are my best offence. The hardest part for me is the opponents ability to hit you lightly and it count as a point, even if you can clearly beat the other person with power and accuracy. What I tend to do is practice with people who like to give and receive more than the die hard point sparrer. I might do fine in a tournament but it keeps my karate good and shows me what I can take and what I can dish out. point sparring is just sport so don't worry to much if it isn't for you.

[explosive_power]

thanks for all the responses.

Yes I need more control.

and from what I see, in point sparring it's just a reverse punch they always use. or a two or three punch combo. and a few kicks here and there.

and light contact is the key my sensei said. Because they were shocked the other day cause they said I was hitting my sparring partner too hard. But I was already holding back cause they said light sparring. Now I know what they mean, I guess it really is literally light sparring.

I guess I have to work on speed more and technique.

rather than power.

thank you all again for the replies.

[Ti]

Just to throw something outside of the box

Since you are only 2 months into shotokan, have you considered other styles?

If you really liked shotokan than definitely stay with it.

Another thing to look into is to play on your strengths.

You have a boxing background so you are used to the back and forth until somebody goes down. Maybe look into a knock down style like kyokushin.

Wide variety of strikes allowed in those tournaments.

They said you were hitting too hard for "light" sparring, well definition of that varies from place to place. Kyokushin places probably won't complain though.

[Kuma]

Lotss and lots of sanbon and ippon kumite.

[explosive_power]

Just to throw something outside of the box

Since you are only 2 months into shotokan, have you considered other styles?

If you really liked shotokan than definitely stay with it.

Another thing to look into is to play on your strengths.

You have a boxing background so you are used to the back and forth until somebody goes down. Maybe look into a knock down style like kyokushin.

Wide variety of strikes allowed in those tournaments.

They said you were hitting too hard for "light" sparring, well definition of that varies from place to place. Kyokushin places probably won't complain though.

I was just thinking about that..

Kyokushin is full contact.

and they kick alot more than shotokan.

but thing is, the shotokan karate dojo is 3 mins away from here. haha

so oh well,

Maybe I can find a good kyokushin place somewhere.

But I don't know, I'll think about it. thank you for that suggestion:)

[Toptomcat]

There are other kinds of good contact karate than Kyokushin. There's a whole family of knockdown karate- Enshin in particular is very interesting and has a good foothold in the West- a good ITF Taekwondo school will be quite rough and practical, and there are Goju schools out there with respectable jiyu kumite. That's not getting into alternatives like Muay Thai, either.

I'm always willing to help someone find better teaching in their area- PM me with your location if you'd like a hand.