Best training partner ever

[ninjacop]

My wife and I take Karate together and I have found it awesome to have a wife who doubles as a training partner. The question I have is how many other Karate practitioners train with their significant other? And what are your thoughts on this, Benefit or not? And for those who wonder if it holds anyone back I do not think so she kicks like a mack truck and we go 100% in class and out

[JusticeZero]

I wish I could.

Unfortunately, following a poorly treated injury, my wife cannot flex one of her feet; my art requires consistent and rather extreme foot flexing. She has expressed some desire to train with me, but we would have to find another art - one which was flat-footed - in which to cross-train in to do it.

I've even tried to find some structure of mine to do which would work for her, but the dynamics would be too alien, and I would have to essentially create a new art from the ground up to do it.

[mal103]

Similar, I train with my 12 & 13 year old kids, I have to be more careful as sometimes even blocking can hurt younger arms.

Its great to have my boy 1 belt behind us as we can help him with the next Kata, the main problem we face is the amount of enthusiasm we all put in is slightly different - I am 100% full on learning + effort whereas they still treat it like a couple of lessons per week only like swimming or trampolines etc. I'm hoping they will adjust but will have to wait and see.

Its great when we all pass a grading together though!

[DWx]

Not my significant other but I do train with my sister. It has its great points in that we're excellent partners for each other because we know exactly how we both move so its easy to suggest improvements and get the finer points down and we know when to push each other. On the downside though, any argument from home can get carried on into training and we can end up trying to take each other's head off during sparring Or any argument that starts in class can be taken home!

[Montana]

I was a mid-kyu belt when I met my first wife and we got married 2 months after I received my shodan.

For the next 17 years I tried to get her interested in learning the art, but she never showed one bit of interest. 17 years later we divorced.

I remarried 3 years ago to a woman that is an exercise/workout fanatic! She runs about 20-25 miles/week and lefts weights at least 4 nights/week at the YMCA. I've talked to her about learning Shorin Ryu, but she says "It's to violent"...HUH? No matter what I say to her or show her, she has absolutely no interest in it.

*sigh*

[Dobbersky]

My best mate for 23 years is my best training partner. We're both grading, together, for our next Dan Level in October

We go full out with each other on sparring and with application

Thing is we practice Full Contact, Ashihara (Kyokushin style) Karate, not too sure if my Partner would be able to cope I'm 6 foot, 120kg and she's 5 foot and 70kg so I would never spar against her.

[ninjanurse]

My husband and I have trained together for more than 25 years. While we now both teach different arts, we continue to work on techniques and concepts together and we definitely have a unique bond because of it. We always get a chuckle over the many times the police arrived at our doorstep on a report of a domestic quarrel only for them to find us throwing each other around and sparring in the yard!!!

[sensei8]

My wife wouldn't make a good training partner because she's a yellow belt and I'd have to go to sleep one day; I shudder the thought of what she'd do to me.

[ninjacop]

The biggest benefit I found is that when one of us feels like skipping class or just plan calling it quits the other one pushes both of us through it. It goes that way through training at home or school. The funny part is that I could not get my wife to do any type of physicals activity for the first 26 years Of our marriage. Now we are both going to be testing for are black belts this year and she is gun ho. Since starting Karate she now runs, go’s to the gym and more. And on those bad days it is a lot cheaper to dawn the sparring gear then it is for counseling.

[honoluludesktop]

It's good to have familiar, and harmonious partners to train with. It's also good to face as wide a variety of persons as possible, even the clumsy, awkward, or evil ones. Children, adults, young, and old are all routinely encounter "off the mat". Although kumite is often seen as extreme, and confrontational, "on the mat" it is never "take no prisoners" fighting, and more like conversing, then shouting. However the result is as close as we can to fighting without potentially dangerous, "off the mat", confrontations. From prearranged drills to free sparring, each method must be used to get as close to fighting as civilly possible. The real world is random, training should approximate all varieties of opponents that might be encountered "off the mat". While a child is not a threat to an adult, an adult can be one to a child.

As boring as it seems to most karateka, one step prearranged kumite against a variety of unpredictable opponents is the best way to sharpen skills. A prearranged drill is the only safe opportunity to practice moving at the last moment, to a distance one inch away from the incoming strike; to block a strike so that it passes by your stationary head, or body. It is the most difficult way to learn how to attack, and actually have a chance to strike a retreating opponent.