Full contact?

[phoenixzion]

Kyokushin is a solid style. I've got an old black and white text that's really really good.

Keep training hard and working those kata. Pretty soon the movements and techniques will come naturally and flow.

[evergrey]

OSU,

There is no choice but to train hard in my dojo, haha! At least I have a dojo to go to now. Sensei and I were just training in horse pastures and stuff before this... I don't suggest learning falls for the first time in a pasture, by the way- the grass doesn't really pad against the gravel much!

I highly value the time and effort both Sensei and Shihan are putting in to me. They don't have to, they owe me nothing. But they do train me, and help me, and care! I always try my best to give 110%, in the dojo and out of it.

And I will practice, practice, practice. There are no shortcuts to good technique or strength...

OSU!

[KarateGeorge]

Generally, where I train we do lighter contact when sparring, but a lot of us black belts will often step things up to more of a medium-contact sparring with each other. I say medium contact, because even though we're going at a higher intensity level, we're we're not going for full-blown KOs and such, but we want to train in such a way that we also know we can both dish it out and take it too.

[evergrey]

Yeah, I mean, sensei hits me at maybe 25% sometimes? And I get the radiating numbness from that. If he hit me at 100%, that would shatter bones. and I've seen Shihan send him flying about 5 feet without much effort...

[brickshooter]

IMO, the semi contact sparing is probably the optimal type of training.

No contact often turns into point-tournament sparing which focuses on speed at the expense of power techniques. It does end up a tagging contest. Not only offensive techniques suffer. Defense suffer as well when fighters resort to "slapping" away attacks rather than actually blocking.

Full contact often requires heavier gloves which changes the way one strikes. And the amount of injuries one sustains often interupts training. So it's counterproductive. The reality is that I've yet to find a gym that actually does "full contact" sparing.

Anyone notice that MMA fighters and boxers look "pretty" before a professional fight? That's because they don't actually do "full contact" sparing even though they do "full contact" fighting.

[tallgeese]

There has to be a training balance. Most sparring sessions will have to go at a lower percentage of contact. It's the only way to hold the body together to continue to train regularly.

One does need to turn it up here and there, just to check progress and training programs. Not to mention mentally preparing one of actual conflict.

There does need to be some sort of contact each time, though. Even if it's minimal.

[Snake1725681530]

I'm new here but definitely not new to martial arts. I just turned 28 and I started when I was 13ish. Unfortunately, I fell out of love with my Goju dojo and I left for a few years. I dabbled in a few other styles of Karate that never really set with me.

I've done a good share of sparring and in the latter years of my Goju days (I was a brown belt) I was doing some heavy contact sparring. As I look back now, I realize that since I was never really taught the body dynamics of making power I never knew how to make power. No matter how many times I would spar. I was focusing on the wrong thing. Technique and "good karate" won't come from endless sparring matches. Speed, conditioning and a faster reaction time come from sparring matches.

Now I train in a very traditional style of Shorin Ryu. More roundness to your limbs, more connectedness throughout your body equals more power. Not constant sparring. Training your body to know the motions in your kata as second nature need to be the focus, not sizing yourself up to someone else.

I've been training with my Shorin Ryu instructor for three years now and I've learned more from kata, kumite and some light sparring then I ever did from a class that gave me 80% sparring and 20% kata. Kata hold everything that a martial art has. If you ignore that and want to skip to the "good part" aka sparring, then you are completely missing the point.

Not trying to bash anyone's thinking here. Just offering my own perspective from a traditional and non competition point of view.

Bruce Lee said it himself, "At the beginning competition is healthy, but in the end it only breeds contempt and resentment."

EDIT: I also want to add, that the goal of kumite and sparring isn't to injure anyone. It's to use the full force and -not- injure the person. Anyone can throw everything they have into a punch, but it's the martial artist who can control that punch until the moment of impact. It takes years of skill to execute a perfect technique or strike with all your power and stop it before it hits. That's what sparring (to me) is really about. Learning control. If you can learn to control your hit to not hurt, then when you need to you can certainly go all the way.

Osu phoenixzion. I'm very much in agreement with what you wrote regarding Kata. For the longest time, I looked down on Kata (not having studied karate) and always saw sparring as something much more beneficial. Having recently picked up Kyokushin, I have to say that Kata is the essence of Karate. It's not only fantastic for learning techniques but also for hardening the spirit and I find myself practicing the few I know for hours on my resting days from training. This, for me, is unusual, as I'm training 5 days a week

To the OP. I haven't done full contact sparring yet- but did lots of semi contact in my Muay Thai days. I will though (as is inevitable with Kyokushin) and I look forward to it because I seek to push my body to it's limits and go beyond- One of the reasons I love Kyokushin

[bushido_man96]

Kata hold everything that a martial art has. If you ignore that and want to skip to the "good part" aka sparring, then you are completely missing the point.

I don't think this is true, because not every style has forms as part of the training. Nor do I think that just because forms are part of some MA training, that it isn't necessarily the most important part. You can't train reaction, timing, or distance with forms training. These are all important attributes when it comes to self-defense.

[Soheir]

If someone is looking for a style to practice for a long time, He should enjoy doing all those ways of training that the chosen style has???

[DWx]

Kata hold everything that a martial art has. If you ignore that and want to skip to the "good part" aka sparring, then you are completely missing the point.

I don't think this is true, because not every style has forms as part of the training. Nor do I think that just because forms are part of some MA training, that it isn't necessarily the most important part. You can't train reaction, timing, or distance with forms training. These are all important attributes when it comes to self-defense.

Well said. Kata is only part of the picture.