Hey Karate guys, thoughts on George Kotaka's "Kumite Ac

[sensei8]

The ronin path that you're interested will be a very lonely journey. No feedback might lead to developing incorrect, thus bad, muscle memory. Memory that will take quite some time to correct, if and when, you seek out a credible, thus qualified instructor.

One can take kihon, however one decides to learn it from whatever source, and within the ronin path, practicing it over and over and over, and then some, thus, if learnt correctly some how, will be a force to be reckoned with.

Someone once said...

"I fear not the one who can do 10,000 kicks, but I fear the one who has done one kick 10,000 times." Forgive me if I've not quoted this exactly as it should be.

The most difficult thing about the ronin path is that no matter what knowledge, skills, experience, and the like, it will be quite void without sparring. No sparring equals no effectiveness and the like without that aspect in the ronin path.

One can shadow box and the like all one wants to, but I've never been attacked by my shadow. I appreciate the training aspect of shadow boxing and the like, but it's limited drastically compared to engaging another person. A person that will challenge you in every way possible.

I wish you the best, but it will be a lonely path, imho.

Good luck on your MA journey!!

Well, as I said, I'm not training totally on my own. I do belong to a dojo and usually train in class twice a week. And we do spar in class, it's just that competition is not a huge focus of what we do. So I'm basically looking to supplement my in-class training with some stuff I can do on my own to improve my abilities and understanding of karate.

I'm looking for solo drills that will help, but it's also my hope that I can find a few karate companions with similar goals who will want to get together for some out-of-dojo training to work partner drills and spar and whatnot.

Hopefully I can figure something out on that front. Thanks for the well wishes.

Sorry for my misunderstanding. I took the word "ronin" literally, my mistake.

[SPX]

Sorry for my misunderstanding. I took the word "ronin" literally, my mistake.

It's basically a situation where I'm not getting everything I want at my own dojo and I want to take my training down some paths that they are not able to walk with me on. These guys have been doing karate for a long time (30+ years) and are serious about it, and they have taught me some good things for sure, but it's not a very competition-oriented dojo and the types of training methods they use are very old school. (I've heard people say that an SKA karate class is like getting into a time machine and going back to the 1950s.)

I want to start competing both in and outside of my organization, and I also want to do some stuff that falls outside of traditional karate competition (like some light contact kickboxing stuff, for instance). The truth is that there just aren't schools around here that cater to this sort of thing. You basically either have to go with traditional karate or you have to go with sport karate with a bunch of kids running around and very, very few adult students. The school I chose was the one that I thought was the best under the circumstances.

So I'm trying to learn as much as I can from my instructors, but for the rest I'm on my own.

[sensei8]

Your doing a lot of Kumite/Sparring, right? If so, then that should be enough to compete with, well, it was for me, but I'm from the years and days way back when.

I did my driving test the same day Fred Flintstone did!!

If sport Karate is what you're looking for, and your current dojo isn't providing that, then the answer is clear to me. Find a dojo that will cater your needs. But, it's hard if none are around where you live.

Sport Karate isn't all too much different than the sparring you're doing now in your dojo. However, the rules and regulations are!! Having to learn the rules and regulations can be learnt at their websites, but, training in said rules and regulations avoids a lot of costly mistakes. Mistakes cost points in the sporting karate world.

Hopefully, you're sparring as many different practitioners as you can. Because sparring 1 or 2 will not give you a wide variety. Sure, same style, but people spar THEIR way, whether they'll admit it or not.

Place some adds, asking interested partners to contact you so that you all can meet and reach same needs. There are many ways to contact other like-minded practitioners of the MA, but, some leg work is going to have to be done in order to find them. They're out there, but you have to search high and low.

Another thing, is that many competitors are quite private. By that I mean, if they don't know you, they're not as willing to train/spar with you because they don't want to reveal their weaknesses and/or strengths to a fellow competitor that they might have to face in the future.

Keep asking those in your dojo to help you, to help you spar until the wheels fall off. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Hopefully, I've been some better help to you than I was before.

Hang in there!!