A kid's sparring alternative...

Kid’s love sparring don’t they? Their faces light up when they are told to get their sparring mitts on and they run off enthusiastically to fetch them out of their bags.

Though I'm not a huge fan of sports karate for adults I do think it’s a great exercise for kids. It develops fitness, courage, reaction times, and a sense of strategy. It also toughens them up a bit and teaches them to show a bit of humility whether they win or lose.

So it is with some sadness that I can’t introduce the kids to sparring in my after-school class. Why? Because they have no sparring mitts! These are kids doing a 6 week introductory course in karate, wearing just their P.E. kits. No gi, no belt, no kit!

To give them a taste of the thrill of sparring I’ve had to be a little inventive. I take in as many belts as I can find (all my old coloured belts, my kobudo club belts and any other spares I can put my hands on) and teach the kids how to tie them on. Then I have cut up several old white belts into strips of about 10 inches long and give them one each to tuck into the front of their belts – this tab becomes the target.

We then do a bit of ‘shadow sparring’ to learn how to move around in sport karate and practice a couple of basic block/punch combinations against imaginary opponents. I then pair them up and get them to use the same technique of moving in to their partner to do a reverse punch but instead of punching (no mitts remember) they pull out their partner’s white tab.

After they’ve each had a few goes at moving in to pull out the tab of an unresisting partner they move on to doing it in a more competitive way with both partners trying to get each other’s tabs. This starts to re-create the energy and flow of a real sparring bout with the kids learning to move around each other, guard their own tab and moving in to grab their partner’s tab.

Once they’ve got the hang of it we have a mini competition which helps to teach them the basic rules and etiquette of a sparring match. I divide them into two groups and sit each group either side of the sparring area. I then call up one from each group (matched for size and age) to compete whilst everyone else watches.

I act as referee and get them to stand opposite each other, bow, get into fighting stance and then at my command (hajime) they start to ‘spar’. A point is scored when one of them pulls out the other’s tab and the match is stopped (yame), the kids are put back to their starting position and the point awarded (ippon). They then bow to each other and off they go again. We carry on like this for a set period (usually a minute) and the winner is the one with the most points. At the end the opponents are brought back to starting positions and the winner announced (kachi). All the kids get a chance to have a go at this ‘shia kumite’.

Alternatives include ‘best of three’ points to win or winner is first to score a point. There are rules about staying in the area and penalties and warnings for bad or dangerous behaviour (not that this needs to be invoked very often!).

The kids really enjoy this opportunity to have a go at ‘sparring’ in this way and seem to get a lot out of it. I have found it a useful way to simulate sport kumite when sparring mitts are not available and many of the same skills can be learnt and practiced in a safe way. I haven’t yet introduced any kicks into this style of sparring but there is no reason not to use roundhouse kicks because our real kumite sessions in the club involve only touch contact anyway and we don’t wear any protective body gear.

Hopefully if some of these kids enjoy my karate sessions enough to make them want to join the main club they will be able to hit the ground running a little when introduced to real sparring with mitts!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Sport kumite – what does it teach you?

Sport kumite is a modern 20^th century Japanese addition to the original Okinawan karate. For those that choose to follow a very classical budo Way of karate the sport version represents anathema to them; to others the sport version is karate. After all why learn all those techniques if you have no arena to test them in?

For me personally I tend to swing hot and cold on the validity and worthiness of doing sport kumite. I have no interest in competing and I have philosophical objections to teaching people to ‘fight’ rather than to learn to defend themselves (more on this later). However, sport kumite is a part of our syllabus and I think there are some benefits to be gained from doing it.

There are many versions of kumite in karate so I’ll just define what I mean by sport kumite: I’m talking about minimal contact point sparring with only sparring mitts and mouth guard for protection. The aim is to score points by landing a  punch or kick on one of the target areas i.e. the abdomen, head or between the shoulder blades (kicks only) whilst preventing your opponent from scoring against you. Sweeps are allowed and points can be scored by punching the opponent when on the ground.  My analysis of sport kumite refers only to this type of sparring so if you are use to a more hard core full-contact version then your list of strengths and weaknesses may be different to mine.

The problems with sport kumite:

1.       It can teach a ‘fighting’ mindset rather than a ‘self-defence’ mindset. Fighting requires two people to consent to the ‘fight’. Both are trying to ‘win’ the bout by attacking the other person. Self-defence requires a mindset that wants to avoid fighting and does only what is necessary to avoid, prevent, de-escalate, control or escape a violent situation.

2.       It can cause confusion to the student if both classical and sport kumite are being taught side by side. I found this very confusing when I was in the junior kyu grades.  Until I understood that two different types of karate were being taught I didn’t understand why in one part of the lesson I needed to keep my feet planted firmly on the floor and punch from the hip and then later on I had to be up on my toes moving around and punching quickly without pulling back to the hip first!  I cope with it now by completely compartmentalising these two different versions of karate as if they were two different arts.

3.       It does not provide an arena for testing out skills and techniques (other than sport karate skills and techniques).  It bears no resemblance to how an encounter in real life may pan out, mainly because of the rules designed to maintain the safety of the competitors which means that most of the effective techniques are taken out.

However, though I don’t feel that sport karate bears any resemblance to a real situation and has many negative aspects that doesn’t mean that there is nothing positive and useful to be learnt from it either. I’m always the optimist and generally look for positive things to take away from any aspect of my training.

The benefits of sport karate:

1.       For many people facing an opponent in a sparring bout is the first time they’ve ever been in a ‘fight’ and had to find their courage to defend themselves. Not everyone who does martial arts has a history of getting into street fights or bar brawls as a youth or has worked as a bouncer or in the security sector. Sport kumite is as close as they’ve ever been to a real fight. It can take some people a while to find their courage to spar effectively with an opponent. Finding this courage is essential if you are to have the confidence to defend yourself in a real situation one day.

2.       In sport kumite, despite the relatively safe environment and limited number of techniques in use, the fight is still unpredictable and has a random element to it. This teaches you to be very aware and focused for the whole of the fight. It teaches you to react quickly and anticipate your opponent’s next move. It teaches you to look for opportunities to strike and to recognise telegraphing by your opponent and capitalise on it. You have to keep your mind empty of extraneous distracting thoughts, stay in the moment and control your aggression so that you don’t lose control of the fight.

3.       Sport kumite also teaches you to take a punch. Even in the light weight version of kumite that we do a punch can land a bit harder than intended and wind you or land on your nose which is very painful. A kick can catch you in the ribs. When this happens you have to learn to carry on despite the pain. This comes as a shock to newcomers whose instinct is often to stop once they are hurt or stop if they have hurt their opponent. However, unless the injury is quite serious the referee won’t stop the fight so you have to learn to just carry on. You can’t afford to just stop defending yourself in a real fight when you feel pain – your attacker will just carry on.

In conclusion:

I think that when one is engaged in sport kumite it is important to recognise it for what it is – sport. A real violent encounter in the real world will not resemble a sparring round in the arena and so sport kumite cannot entirely prepare you for this event (neither can any other form of martial sport e.g. boxing, wrestling, MMA etc.). However kumite does teach some skills that are essential to good self-defence – good speed and reaction times, anticipation, focus, defending your head, carrying on after being hit etc. In fact one could question how these skills could be learnt without the random element that kumite provides. 

Never the less, sport kumite is an incomplete package, it leaves out the techniques that are essential to controlling and/or restraining an attacker – slaps, eye rakes, vital point strikes, locks, throws, joint breaks etc. It also focuses your attention on violence and attacking rather than avoidance and escape which would be the self-defence strategies of choice. 

Though sport kumite offers something useful to the martial artist it is important to be mindful of its limitations as well. What do you think about sport kumite in karate?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Ippon kumite and kata applications

A bit of a brain teaser this one but if you can make sense of what I’m trying to say then I would welcome your feedback……..

This may seem like a strange question to ask for someone who is very close to grading for shodan in karate! My question is: What is the difference between ippon kumite and bunkai?


I thought I knew the answer to this until last Saturday when I went on a black belt/brown belt course with my organisation. We didn’t focus at all on kata or bunkai but spent a lot of the time practising ippon kumite. It was made clear to us that what was being looked for in our demonstration was a clear understanding of the application of basic kihon moves to a one step attack showing particular heed to distance and timing.

Well, that explanation tightened up my understanding of ippon kumite a bit but didn’t offer any new major revelations – I already knew what ippon kumite was about.

Here’s a definition of ippon kumite: Ippon kumite is the practice of not allowing your opponent more than one attack. In other words, due to the evasive and blocking actions of the defender the opponent is prevented from continuing his attack. A counter attack may or may not be necessary. It's all about shutting down your opponent's attack quickly. Ippon kumite techniques are generally learned against a range of pre-defined attacks.

Here’s a definition of bunkai: The analysis of moves extracted from a kata. In other words, a study of the applications of movements taken directly from a kata or an analysis of the meaning of the kata.

These two definitions don’t sound too similar until you delve a bit deeper.

Old karate master, Chotoku Kyan said, “First learn the movements of karate, learn how to strike, block and immobilize, learn the kata and you will then be ready for kumite.” The implication here is that kumite is the application of kata movements. Dan Smith Kyoshi of Shorin Ryu Seibukan adds, “…the kata is designed to always provide an ‘ippon’.”

So if ippon kumite techniques are built from basic kihon techniques; kata are the assembly of kihon techniques into set sequences and combinations, and kata provide us with sets of ‘ippons’ then isn’t the analysis of kata (bunkai) just the analysis of ippon kumite techniques within the kata? Are bunkai and ippon kumite essentially the same thing?

All the bunkai I have learned are effective against a single step attack (bar one*) and are therefore essentially ippon kumite techniques. However, many of the ‘ippons’ I have learnt have not necessarily come directly from a kata. So does that mean that all bunkai are ippons but not all ippons are bunkai?

Not many people will talk about ippon kumite and bunkai in the same breath (or even write about it in the same book) suggesting that they are different things. In fact, some people who consider themselves bunkai experts may even be very dismissive of ippon kumite considering it to be too stylised and people who are proponents of ippon kumite may not even refer to specific kata in their teachings of it.

So, what is the difference between ippon kumite and bunkai? Perhaps they are just different sides of the same coin or perhaps bunkai is a process and ippon kumite a practice? Perhaps bunkai just assumes more realistic attacks and ippons use more stylised 'karate' attacks? I’m just thinking aloud here.

What do you think about this condundrum? Ippons and bunkai – same or different?


* I have learnt a kata application from Bassai Dai which requires the attacker to throw two punches. In Iain Abernethy's Bunkai Jutsu book he suggests that one should not assume that the attacker will act in a pre-determined way and throw a second (known) attack in response to a block. If your bunkai application requires a second predicted attack then perhaps the interpretation should be looked at again.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Maai! Maai! How difficult this one is to learn.

Have you ever noticed that when you learn something new, as you progress with that learning, whole new tiers of complexity open up that you didn't even know existed when you started out? Just when you think you've cracked something or know everything about something someone introduces you to the next level and you suddenly realise that you know diddly squat about it! Education is a very humbling experience, perhaps that's why educated people remain intellectually curious about things - there is always more to learn about any given subject.

Martial arts is no exception to this; in fact, martial arts is a fine example of this. There are many complex and difficult concepts to learn in martial arts, concepts that are introduced to you in a very elementary way when you start out and then progress in their complexity as you advance through training. One example of this is 'distance' and 'timing'.

Even a white belt sparring with a partner for the first time may be told to 'keep your distance' and 'move in to punch then move straight out again'. A little further up the grades and you get advice like 'move in to disrupt a kick' or 'move off line'. The more advanced practitioner then starts to actually anticipate what there opponent is about to do before they've even made a move (sen no sen) and moves in to attack first or disrupt the opponents attempt. This is advanced stuff! We're still talking about distance and timing here but this ability is many tiers up - now we're in the realm of maai.

Truly appreciating and utilising maai requires a unity of mind and body. It is as much a mental skill as it is a physical one. The Japanese word maai translates simply to 'interval' and is referring to the space between two combatants during a fight. The wikipedia entry on maai describes it as: "a complex concept, incorporating not just the distance between opponents, but also the time it will take to cross the distance, angle and rhythm of attack." If one controls the space between then one controls the fight.

An analogy that I like that helps to describe maai comes from a friend of mine, Peter Seth, who is a 5th dan in aikido (maai is big in aikido!). He says, "Imagine music without the ‘spaces’ of silence between the sounds, the gaps between the notes. Without the spaces there would be constant noise, which may vary in pitch and intensity but would be chaotic and unbearable. These spaces set the time/timing, rhythm and beat of the music, which in turn affects/controls the whole composition. So influence in this area of the ‘space/s between’, effectively allows the leading of all these energies. You become the ‘conductor of this orchestra of energy’. "


Maai is a fluid thing, constantly changing as a fight progresses. Maai has a temporal element as well as a spatial one. It also pertains to the momentary lapses of awareness that are manifested in the opponents mind. Capitalising on these mental intervals (or lapses of concentration in your opponents mind) is also a way of controlling the maai. Being constantly aware of both your maai and your opponents as they constantly change and then being able to manipulate this to your advantage so that your opponents techniques are constantly disrupted requires an intuitive understanding of movement and timing. I am in awe of people who have mastered this skill because I am very much still operating in the lower tiers of elementary 'distance' and ' timing'.

How do you stay inside your maai (ie. your sphere of influence) so that you can land punches and kicks on your opponent whilst staying outside of theirs? How do you get inside their maai (to disrupt it) whilst still keeping them outside of your? These are currently one of life's mysteries to me. When I am practicing sparring I focus too much on what I am doing and don't really think about what the opponent is doing. I don't notice I've entered their space (well not until the kick hits me!). I don't necessarily notice when they've entered mine so I miss the opportunity to attack. I can remember to move off line or slide in for the punch and move back out again and I am often aware of the space between us but no way am I in control of it.

Controlling the maai - there is a steep learning curve to climb for this one. I have a long way to go!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Self defence training - are you scared enough?

Do you ever think of why you are doing karate? I expect that between us we have a variety of reasons – general fitness, sociability, sport and competition or maybe we like the aesthetics of martial arts. Some of us may have slightly loftier aims of mental and spiritual development. However, all these goals can be achieved through other types of activity such as aerobics, gymnastics, dance, team sports, yoga or meditational practices. Therefore, there must be another aim that binds us all together – a desire to learn self-defence.

For some of us learning effective self-defence will be the main, overriding aim of training in karate and for others it will be a secondary consideration. How important the self-defence element is to you, may depend on your perception of your risk of being attacked and needing to use it. This will be related to your upbringing, past experiences, job and probably your gender.

If you were brought up in the rough end of town, witnessed or were involved in several street fights and/or work as a bouncer , or, as a woman, you’ve been the victim/witness of domestic violence, then learning karate may be all about self-defence and not much else. However, if you are a middle class housewife who’s never even seen a fight or ever felt threatened by violence in any way, or, a mild mannered man who knows how to stay away from trouble, then your motivation to really learn self-defence may be much lower.

Whatever your circumstances, learning self-defence must be in the back of your mind somewhere because you are reading this blog and you’ve joined a karate club; in which case, you will probably agree that there is no point in approaching the self-defence elements of karate in a half-hearted fashion. Yet many of us do!

However remote the possibility that we may get attacked, if it happens, it may be a life or death situation. You will either get attacked or you won’t – it’s all or nothing. So is there any point in only half-heartedly preparing for such an eventuality, however remote the possibility seems?

There is a Japanese phrase – Ichi-go, ichi-e, which means, “one encounter, one chance”. This is what it will be like if it ever happens to you – you will get only one chance to defend yourself, so you have to make your training count. Do you train as if you are preparing yourself for a real encounter? Are you scared? If you train half-heartedly then you are clearly not scared enough.

So, what is a real fight like? Obviously your attacker won’t hold out their arm or leg six inches from your body whilst you think about what to do with it. Neither will they casually hold onto your lapels and wait patiently for you to respond whilst having a nice chat about something. They won’t let go as soon as you attempt to put a lock on or fall over as soon as you start to push or pull them.

In reality, an attack is fast, furious and unrelenting – at least a man on man or woman on woman attack will most likely be like that. The attack generally consists of repetitive punching and kicking. There will no ‘thinking’ time, no time to use complicated techniques, no time at all. The person who seizes control first will be the winner. You will only seize control if you have trained to do so and practiced to the point where you need ‘no time’ to think.

A man on woman attack is a slightly different scenario. According to crime statistics, the most common ways in which a woman is attacked by a man is by being grabbed. The five most common ways of attack are by variations on the wrist grab or arm and wrist grab. This is followed by bear hugs and strangles. A man rarely starts the ‘fight’ by striking the woman, though striking may come later if the woman needs to be subdued.

So, how will you react if you are attacked? Well, according to the experts in self-defence training, “you will fight as you train”. They also say that, “You won’t rise to the level of your expectations but instead you will fall to the level of your training”. Depending on your attitude to training this will either sound encouraging or alternatively, make you very scared!

Perhaps this is a good time to examine you own attitude and motivation to your training. Take kata for instance. It is said that when a lay person watches a kata performance they should recognise that they are watching a ‘fight’ in progress. Not only that, they should realise that you are winning! Do you perform your kata to win the fight?

Then there’s kihon (basics). Do you ever get bored standing in rows drilling basic punches, kicks and blocks? Maybe you think that you’ve been doing this so long now you can do those kihon combinations with your eyes shut. Good! That means you’re reaching a state of ‘no mind’ (mushin). Remember, you’ll have no time to think in a real fight, a state of mushin is what is required – so keep drilling!

And what about kumite? We do light contact point kumite; it’s not fighting as such, it’s sport. So does it have any value in self-defence training? It depends how you look at it but I think it has a lot of value. It teaches you to deal with confrontation, control your fear, speed up your reaction times, deal with unpredictability and ultimately achieve a state of mushin. The best ‘fighters’ just spar and don’t think but you have to train extensively to reach this mental state.

These three cornerstones of karate: kata, kihon and kumite, all feed into the ultimate aim of self-defence training. So if you are giving your all to these elements of training then it makes sense to give your all to the self-defence element of training too. Remember itchi-go, itchi-e – one encounter, one chance…..make sure you will win.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Some karate teaching conundrums....

Last night our karate classes started to get back to normal following the summer holidays. Since numbers drop off quite significantly during the summer, Sensei decided to combine the junior and senior classes together for six weeks. This meant that I didn't do any teaching at all over the summer though I did get to train with the students that I'm normally helping to teach.

So it was with a little bit of trepidation that I returned to the junior class last night to assist with teaching. About twenty students turned up, mainly young children and just a few adults; this is quite a large class for us.

Sensei had clearly planned to keep me very occupied and after a warm up allocated me six young white belts to go through their first kata. They were all reasonably familiar with the kata and I think Sensei is assessing their readiness for their first grading. With that in mind I set about helping them to fine tune some of the moves, particularly the 'look, prep, turn' bits which are often performed a bit sloppily in early kyu grades.

I find it incredibly difficult to watch more than one or two people at a time, especially when I'm trying to examine details so I decided that after we had run through the kata all together a couple of times, I would take them in pairs to watch whilst the other four practiced alone. I was then able to pick up more easily  which ones actually knew the kata independently and which ones were just copying and following the crowd! So although each child (and one adult) got some individual attention from me and hopefully benefited from that; I was also aware that the children who were left to practice alone soon became more interested in talking and playing together, so their time was not spent as productively as it could have been. Would I have been better to have kept them in a single group and just kept going through the kata with them altogether (which would keep them all occupied the whole time but made it more difficult to spot the ones that were 'hiding' behind others) or was it better to do it the way I did?

My next task was to take the red and white belts through a sanbon kumite exercise in pairs using an age uke block. There was an odd number of students so I had the problem of what to do with the 'odd' person. The choices are to partner the student myself, which then makes it difficult to watch what everybody is doing but gives the 'odd' student a good experience; or have one group of three students, which makes life easier for the teacher but not such a good experience for the student! I chose to partner the student myself and tried to watch the others as much as possible. Fortunately the students were familiar with the exercise and I was pleased with how well they did it, however I think if it had been a completely new exercise for them then my choice would have been the wrong one. What do you do when you have an odd number of students for a paired exercise?

My last task was to take the whole class for a sparring exercise. This was basically just getting them in pairs and getting them to practice bouncing correctly on the balls of their feet, switching stance, moving off line a bit, maintaining a guard and keeping the correct distance from their partners. With such a large group it's hard to know who to watch first. I think one of my problems is that I feel that I should try and give everyone some individual attention and that is not always possible with a large group. Sensei suggests leaving the adults to get on with it once they know the task - learning is their responsibility, and to focus my attention on the children. I think this was sensible advice.

Obviously adults must take responsibility for their own learning and be relied upon to practice alone or with a partner but my last question is:- to what extent should children be expected to take responsibility for their own learning, is it reasonable to expect young children (6-9yrs) to practice alone or should their learning be supervised at all times so that they remain occupied?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Karate provides ambidextrous training

Over on Dan Prager's blog, Martial Arts and Modern Life, he has just written a post called Left handed training.

This has made me think about the usefulness (or not) of training to do techniques left handed. It always strikes me as very unfortunate to be a left hander in the martial arts, particularly those arts that are predominantly right handed such as jujitsu or totally right handed such as iaido. According to Dan the solution in jujitsu when faced with a 'left handed' situation is to choose a different technique that can be applied right handed rather than do a 'right handed' technique in reverse.

In my karate club we have a slightly more ambidextrous view of martial arts. All kihon techniques are learned both left handed and right handed. So all blocks, punches, kicks and stances are performed an equal number of times with left and right side. With sparring we are trained and expected to show a range of techniques both left and right handed. In fact, suddenly switching stance and punching your opponent with a left gyaku zuki instead of a right is a good way of catching them out to score a point!

Even techniques like locks and take downs are practiced both right and left handed. Symmetry seems to be important in karate. But is it necessary to train both sides of the body equally?

Most of us have a 'stronger'side and a 'weaker' side - our partners will attest to that when they are holding the pad for us! Also our initial response is to say, '...well in a real fight I would never do this left handed...' However, since I have been training in this ambidextrous manner (I am naturally right handed), my left side has evened up a lot and I find it increasingly easier to adapt new techniques to a left handed version. It no longer feels so awkward and clunky to do things left-handed. I'm sure with further practice I will be able to do left handed techniques with even greater ease. Occasionally I even do the technique left handed by mistake - I notice I've turned in the opposite direction to everyone else because I've done it the left-handed way!

It is possible to train your non-dominant side to perform almost as well as your dominant side (as left handers will attest to)  if you start with ambidextrous training right from the start. Karate clearly has the edge over other martial arts in this respect.

I don't see why ambidextrous training can't be done right from the start in jujitsu - only tradition stands in the way. In my jujitsu club left handed throws are not introduced until second dan training commences. I'm sure it must be easier to do it if learnt earlier on before 'right handed' muscle memory becomes too ingrained!

Just think of all the advantages you would have if you could tackle a real attacker with both left and right techniques with equal ease......

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

1st Kyu Sue!

Before I tell you how my grading went on Saturday, I just want to make clear that I was grading for 1st kyu NOT 1st dan! My black belt grading is another 9 months away yet. 1st kyu is the highest kyu grade and in our system this means my brown belt now has 3 white tabs on it (we have 3 separate brown belt gradings spread over about 18 months - with each one you get an extra tab).

 

With that cleared up I'll tell you how it went!

 

The grading was well organised and started on time at 3.30pm. There were nine of us to grade, 4 people grading for 3rd kyu, one grading for 2nd kyu and 4 of us grading for 1st kyu. As is usual in our grading model we alternated sections between the different kyu grades, standing at the back when it wasn't our turn. This worked very efficiently as we only waited at the back for a few minutes at the time. The 1st kyu syllabus was by far longer than the other grades so unfortunately they did wait around a little longer than us.

 

After a brief warm up, we started off with punching and kicking combinations (6 of each) which we repeated several times each - we were definitely warmed up after that! These seemed to go okay, well I remembered them all anyway! This was followed by demonstrations of our 2 kata and a bunkai application for each. We performed the kata individually.

 

Kata is my weak point! Though I performed all the steps correctly, tried hard to get the timing right and remembered to look and prep my arms/feet before turning, I am still not sharp enough, repeatedly forget to snap back my kicks properly and I'm still a little wobbly sometimes. Though I have not had the full feed back or the individual marks for each section from my instructor, he did tell me that my kata performances let me down and is the area that needs most work.

 

The standard is set very high for kata performance in our organisation. It is an organisation that has produced or is preparing people for World and European level competition. Though we are not all expected to reach this high competition standard, by setting the bar high, we more average karateka will at least be pushed to reach the highest standard possible for us as individuals - and I still have 9 months to get this right!

 

We then moved onto pad work and demonstrated 3 different punches and 3 different kicks against the pad. This went well, I'm fairly strong on pad work, I like beating the living daylights out of a pad, so I'm hopeful of a reasonable mark on this section.

 

Next we moved onto the partner work - the ippon kumite, goshin waza and ne waza techniques. I was able to partner my husband for this and I think we both gave a pretty strong performance in these sections, particularly my husband. My son was also very strong in the partner work. He's only 16 and very slim and light but he has lightening speed and whipped his partner around like a rag doll! Glad I wasn't on the receiving end of that!

 

The final section was the sparring - we each did 2 rounds of shiai kumite (competition sparring). I did my first round with a young lad of about 12 who was grading for 3rd kyu. Though he wasn't much smaller than me, he was still a lad (and not very confident with himself) so I didn't feel I could go too heavily with him. Having said that, he did show a reasonable range of techniques - just not assertively enough to score. My second round was with my son, and he showed his mum no mercy! In fact, our instructor had to remind us it was light sparring only. I think we scored 1 point each, and gained a few bruises!

 

Then it was time to line up to receive our marks. Usually we get the breakdown of each section as well as the overall mark but there was only time to get the overall mark ( the grading had taken 2 hours). Prior to giving the marks he warned us that the 1st kyu's had been graded to black belt standard (which is tough) and to expect that our marks would be lower than we are accustomed to. I scored 60/100, my husband 63 and my son 62. We generally score in the region of 68 - 75 so I'm glad Sensei warned us!

 

I averaged 6 marks per section. If I do this in the black belt grading I would score 90 marks (there are 15 sections). The pass mark at black belt is 90! I would scrape a pass. Obviously I don't want to scrape a pass, I want to pass well so I will need to use these next 9 months to train really hard and make sure I improve my standard.

 

I think the 3rd kyu's were slightly in awe watching us 1st kyus perform some of our ippon kumite and goshin waza techniques. The differential in standard between 1st kyu and 3rd kyu is quite high, in the same way that the differential in standard between 1st kyu and 1st dan is quite high. I think we all finished the grading satisfied that we'd given it our best on the day, but with no doubts that improvements are needed for our black belt grading next May!

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Karate training - is little and often best?

Karate has a big advantage over some other martial arts in that much of it can be practised without the need for a training partner. Kata and kihon can be done alone and one can practice various kumite moves against a bag - so I have no excuse not to practice at home!

In fact we have a small gym at home so I really don’t have an excuse. However I still don’t get around to it as often as I intend. The problem is I always feel that I need sufficient time in one go to make it worthwhile, at least 45 minutes. Then I may need a shower afterwards, so now its an hour. If I don’t feel I’ve got an hour spare then I find myself making excuses not to bother!

Yesterday my husband read me something from one of Funakoshi’s books (not sure which one) in which he says that he recommends that karateka train for only 10 minutes at a time – but do this 3 times a day. This got me thinking – even I can spare 10 minutes at a time. What can you do in 10 minutes? Quite a lot actually. It’s a nice chunk of time to focus on one particular thing. In ten minutes you can practice one kata 6 times or drill some combinations or just practice a kick or other technique you’ve had a problem with. Alternatively you could do a focused 10 minute workout – just upper body or just abs or stretching etc.

If I could manage this 3 times a day then that’s an extra 3.5 hours of training a week on top of the 5.5 hours a week I do in classes. That would be a total of 9 hours training a week! I think that’s a respectable amount of training. Those extra 3.5 hours would just slot in around the rest of my life.

Well I decided that a Monday morning is always a good time to start on a new schedule so before breakfast I spent 10 minutes practising sword draws and a stance kata that I learned last night in kobudo class. My new bokken is great by the way – its shorter length means that I can draw it cleanly out of the saya and my movements are much swifter and less wobbly.

When I got home from work this afternoon I spent 10 minutes going through my 2 karate kata – Rohai and Neiseishi. I went through each one 3 times. Before I go to my karate classes this evening I am going to spend 10 minutes going through the white belt syllabus because I have been asked to teach 3 new white belts that are starting today. I think this could work for me!

Now I need to work out a schedule of what I will do with each of these 10 minutes slots so that the training becomes coherent.

How do you organise your own practice time at home?






This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Thank you snow - the perfect karate lesson!

The snow poured down yesterday afternoon and evening leaving about 2 inches of snow covering the roads and pavements. With the gritting trucks not yet out and the roads already slippery, this led to the dilemma of do we go to karate or not?

Summoning up a bit of martial arts dedication and determination we decided the best way to get there was to walk. It takes about half an hour so it’s not too bad. The first few minutes of the walk are through woodland. The woods were lit up by a combination of white snow, a full moon and the street lighting from the valley below and so were easy to navigate – they looked beautiful and magical with the trees glistening white and the snow was crisp and crunchy under foot. We soon entered the valley, crossed the main road and made our way up the side street on the opposite side, towards the school where the class is held. We passed two cars that had gently slid into each other on the ice, crushing headlights and denting wings. We were glad we hadn’t tried to come in the car!

We arrived in plenty of time to find that there were only five of us plus two instructors! I like classes like this – you know the instructor is going to have plenty of time to give us each lots of attention and we usually do some really interesting stuff.

We weren’t disappointed. After going through some punching and kicking combinations to get us limbered up, we partnered up and we did some kumite style punches and kicks focusing on speed and accuracy at hitting the target (i.e. making touch contact). I find the punches and front kick reasonably easy to make touch contact with speed, but the spinning back kick very difficult to do – I can do contact but I can’t do speed! With the roundhouse kick and hook kick we were expected to target the chin or side of face. Well it’s probably that ‘girly’ fear of hurting someone, but I couldn’t bring myself to make contact with my partners head and kept pulling my kicks far too early. If she put her hand up to protect her face I was fine but as soon as she took it away I couldn’t do it! However, it was a brilliant exercise, done at speed, alternating the technique with your partner.

We then spent about half an hour on kata. The advantage of the small class is that we had a lot of opportunity to ask questions about the kata techniques and have tricky bits demonstrated to us – several times if necessary. The atmosphere is always a bit less formal when the class is small and there is a greater sense of camaraderie which makes it enjoyable.

Finally Sensei took us onto the mats to show us something new – balance points. I found this quite amazing. We mainly concentrated just on the elbow as a balance point i.e. pulling on your partner’s elbow to make them lose balance. By tugging the elbow in the direction it is pointing in it is easy to pull them off balance. A relatively small pull seems to produce a dramatic loss of balance! We also did unbalancing using a rotational pull on the hip and opposite shoulder. Your partner throws a leading hand punch, you slip it and grab their hip on the same side and their shoulder on the other side (from behind) and pull the shoulder round towards you whilst pushing their hip away – down they go! I love the simplicity of these techniques and would like to do more of this.

We were saved from the long walk home when one of the instructors gave us a lift back down into the valley. We just had to walk back up through the woods, which were still beautiful and lit up (no torch needed). The end of a perfect karate session.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

SSK karate seminar - my first experience of a karate course.

( Photo: SSK course instructors)

I attended my first ever karate 'course' on Saturday. This was also the first course organised by our newly established karate association - Seishin-do Shukokai Karate. I didn't really know what to expect, I saw it as a chance to meet members from the other clubs in the association and receive instruction from other instructors.

Though it was an open grade event it attracted mainly black and brown belt students. There were 45 of us, which is the largest class I've ever been part of, with 6 instructors. I thought we'd be divided up into groups, each with an instructor, and then rotate between the groups but instead we did whole class teaching throughout the afternoon. This actually worked really well. One instructor would lead the teaching on the particular technique being worked on and whilst we were practicing it (with/without partner depending on what it was) the other instructors would wander around and advise us on our execution of the technique. This way we got quite a lot of personal attention from each of the instructors.

We covered a lot of the elements on the new syllabus including all the punching and kicking combinations, a detailed look at pinan nidan kata (not bunkai), some sparring, a locking kata and sanbon kumite with age uke blocks.

I was impressed by the standard of the students - it was very high. I suppose one should expect it to be high - about half the students there were black belts including 2nd dans, it would have been disappointing if it wasn't high! There is always something motivating about working with more senior people - it made me try hard, I didn't want to be the person that might let my club down. It was interesting partnering people from other clubs, everybody was extremely friendly and willing to mix - this led to a great atmosphere.

The standard of instruction was high too. I hadn't met any of the other instructors before (except my own) and I was impressed with how good and approachable they were. They took it in turns to lead different elements of the teaching, each teaching to their own strengths. It was also nice to receive instruction from some female instructors for a change - I haven't had that before!

Female instructors make good role models for female students, they show you what's possible for a woman to achieve. In fact one instructor was able to demonstrate that it is possible to do karate when you are 9 months pregnant! Though I did keep thinking we should have hot towels on standby - just in case. Her mother (another instructor) put us all to shame with the degree of flexibility she had - it's reassuring to know that that level of flexibility is still achievable as you mature through your middle years. To be honest if I'd had half that amount of flexibility when I was 20 I would have thought I was doing well!

Overall I thought the course was a great success. We all worked consistently hard for 3 hours, were pushed to our limits, had fun, got to know each other and came home thoroughly exhausted.

And the icing on the cake? That staple of British fast food on the way home....fish, chips and mushy peas, mmmm........

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Karate as an Olympic sport? I'm not so sure.

I don't know about you but I have mixed feelings about the IOC's rejection of karate as an Olympic sport for 2016.

On the one hand it is disappointing because I think karate is a world class level sport and it is exciting to watch. Personally I think it is more exciting to watch than either judo or taekwondo (but I may be a little biased!). Karate is more varied than either of these two martial arts with both kata and kumite events. However, I believe the proposal was for 5 different medal events, so whether that included kata and kumite or just kumite I don't know.

The details are immaterial though. It didn't get chosen. Other commentators have suggested that the reason it didn't get enough votes is because it has insufficient funds to effectively lobby the IOC and market itself with the public. Also the public understanding of karate is limited and they would be unable to distinguishing it sufficiently form judo and particularly taekwondo!

There is a side of me though that is relieved that karate didn't get picked. My concern would be that the modern sport side of karate would come to dominate. It would be seen as the most prestigious side of karate. The fit, most able people would gravitate to the sports side and the people preferring the traditional karate-do side would be considered 'second class'. This would be a great distortion of karate.

I know there is already world level competition in karate and my 'doom and gloom' prediction hasn't come to pass with that, but with it's lack of publicity and prime TV sports coverage, these competitions are only generally followed by other martial artists and competitors families/friends. It is not a sport that is in the general consciousness of the wider public and so karate has not been distorted by it. But make it an Olympic sport and it will be another matter. The Olympics is watched world wide by many people who have no interest in sport during the four year gap between events and then suddenly become 'couch enthusiasts' for two weeks!

They will form their impressions of karate from what they see, which will be two people sparring in short bursts with a cheering crowd in the background. To the uninitiated it will look similar to taekwondo or boxing. Only a tiny fraction of what karate is really about will be on display and that is what the public will think karate is.

If kata were an Olympic event what would the public make of that? Would they think it was some kind of weird athletic dance? In front of an informed martial arts audience the kata performance would be appreciated and understood but in front of a general audience I'm not so sure.

The other problem is how it may distort the training values of the competitors. Kumite will basically be seen as a method of controlled fighting in an arena with rules and referees and that is what people will just train to do. The consequences for kata would be even worse. The emphasis for competitors would be on the performance rather than the understanding of the kata. Though you may argue that to perform the kata well you need to understand the bunkai within it. However, to make it more exciting to a general audience perhaps there will be a temptation to make it more like gymnastics with leaps, spins and somersaults!

Am I just being a 'harbinger of doom' or do I have a valid point? What are your views on karate as an Olympic sport - are you in favour or against?

clip art courtesey of :http://topendsports.com/clipart/pics/olympic-games/olympic_medals

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Outcome of Kumite Competition

Well, the competition is over and what an amazing experience it was. Sensei's organisation of the event was impeccable as usual and the whole afternoon ran like clock work.

He worked incredibly hard as referee for every single sparring round - and there were dozens of them, but his concentration and fairness didn't waver once. He had help with the refereeing from some of his black belts and other senior students, his partner operated the stop clock and various people helped out keeping scores and recording the results -so it was a real club effort.

We warmed up with a team sparring event so that everyone got the chance to have a round of sparring before the individual event. This took about an hour and allowed us to loosen up and shake of some pre-competition nerves. Then we started the individual event with the children going first.

So how did I do? Well, there were three ladies in my category, two 1st kyus and me (still 4th kyu) so I didn't really expect to win. I came third out of the three of us but I think I put up a pretty good fight. I know both my opponents find me a little scary to spar with sometimes because I generally have a very attacking style, but they really shouldn't worry because their greater experience and more skillful techniques generally prevail.

I had a long think about where I went wrong when I got home. My big disadvantage is a lack of height and I haven't yet worked out how to deal with that. Both of my opponents were much taller than me, one about 3 inches the other 5 or 6 inches. This also means they have a longer reach than me and makes my head a nice target for hitting. Being smaller I tend to go for chudan punches but while I'm throwing my punch they are aiming for my head with the counter punch and their longer arms tend to make contact with my head before mine makes contact with their abdomen! The referee nearly always (correctly) awarded the point to them.

I think my aggressive style is working against me. I seem to be able to drive my opponents back with no problem but I seem unable to capitalise on this advantage. I'm too slow to spot openings but seem to be leaving myself undefended because they still manage to get a jodan punch on me. I think I must be getting too close to them as I drive them back.

It wasn't all bad - I did score some points but not as many as I gave away. One opponent landed an amazing kick on my chin, very controlled and accurate and deservedly got her 3 points. The other opponent, who has the benefit of youth ( she's only 17) , was just to quick for me, she's very graceful and light on her feet!

So the event was a great learning experience for me and hopefully I will improve with training.

I think I need to develop some more defensive tactics and perhaps be a little more patient and speed up my reaction times and improve my range of techniques and......and a million other things no doubt! This sparring thing is really difficult!

The only negative aspect of the competition (and it was quite a big negative) was that I injured one of my opponents. I attempted a jodan zuki but judged the distance wrongly and landed the punch too hard, hitting her in the orbit. She had to stop and bend down until the pain subsided and it did leave her with a small cut below the brow. I'm just hoping it doesn't leave her with a black eye. I felt really bad about it.

I'll get the chance to do some more sparring next week when I grade for 3rd kyu so hopefully I'll have improved by then! If you have any tips I'm all ears......




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

1st Kumite competition this afternoon

I am participating in my first kumite competition this afternoon. This is our first club competition for members of Elite Karate Centres and we have finally managed to persuade 30 people to enter. This will be the first kumite competition for pretty well all of us so it should be an interesting experience!

According to the flyer this promises to be "....a fun day and a relaxed atmosphere with a competitive spirit." We kick off with an explanation of the rules followed by a mixed team kumite warm up (the fun part). Then the individual kumite event starts after that (the competitive part).

I'll let you know how it goes.




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Kumite - it's not about fighting

I attended an extra kumite/fitness training session yesterday with my club. Sensei puts these sessions on about every 4-6 weeks and it allows us to focus just on this one aspect of karate (plus a bit of circuit training at the end). These sessions are open to anyone from his 3 clubs (approx. 160 people) and 10 of us turned up!

This is a shame because this extra session was to help us prepare for an 'in house' kumite competition next month. Alas not many people have put their names forward for this either (which contrasts with the very good turnout we had for the in-house kata competition held a couple of months ago).

So why do people shy away from kumite? Remember we do non-contact kumite (touch contact in reality) so you're not going to get hurt.

I think people misunderstand what non-contact sparring is about or what it can teach you. To me this kind of sparring is not about fighting- you have to actually hit people to have a fight and feel some aggression towards them. So if it's not about fighting what is it about and what use is it?

On the physical side it improves fitness and endurance; it speeds up your reactions and it makes you observe your opponent very carefully. It doesn't teach you any techniques that would be useful in a street attack, but it doesn't try to - it's a sport. However, it does teach you mental techniques that would help you in a self-defence situation.

In fact I think it is the mental benefits that really brings kumite training into its own. When sparring you have to find the courage to face your opponent and have a physical confrontation with them. For some people that is very difficult, some people have to dig pretty deep inside themselves to find that courage, but I do believe it's inside all of us somewhere - training will help bring it out.

It also teaches you resilience, determination, patience, self-control and awareness. These are all positive character traits that may help you in a real attack situation if you are ever unlucky enough to be in one, but they will certainly help you in other areas of your life - your work, interpersonal-relationships or just dealing with any situation or challenge that life throws at you.

So next time you have a chance to do sparring, don't shy away from it, rise to the challenge. Remember - it's not about fighting, it's about finding something deep within you.





This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

To Fight or not to Fight?

My karate club is holding it's first 'in house' kumite competition on July 4th. Sensei is clearly hoping for a good turn out for this. So should I enter?

I have shied away from kumite competitions so far. Why? Well, because I find it difficult to do, I'm worried I'll make a complete hash of it and I'm a bit of a wimp when I get hurt (see my last post!). But this is not the budo spirit is it? Maybe I should see it as an opportunity to face my weaknesses and overcome my reticence.

Sensei has certainly been training us up for this competition. We've been having mini kumite competitions at the end of each class. He uses this opportunity to teach us the rules, advise us on our technique and give us experience on what a competition feels like. This has helped. I do feel a bit more confident about sparring. I even quite enjoy it now.

So will I enter? Yeah, course I will........ bring it on Sensei!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.