KarateStudent ("KS") on Final Answer to MARKS POST...

2010-07-04T07:06:26.463+01:00

KarateStudent ("KS") on Final Answer to MARKS POST, March 2010, "EXPELL STUDENTS WHO DON'T SPAR?"

BACKGROUND: The then top assistant instructor at my current Tang Soo Do ("TSD") karate school tried to get me to quit. He did this by setting up a round robin two-on-one sparring session. The final round had KS against two athletically better, higher-ranked students.

Student No. 1 was younger, bigger, taller & stronger ("YBS"), stood 3-4 feet to my left. Student No. 2, a military police commander ("MPC") was set the same distance to my right.

KS was aware from their manner that all three were tacitly anticipating my slaughter. The top assistant instructor, there by himself that afternoon--so clever no one to step in if things got out of hand; said, "Go!" WHAT HAPPENED?

KS immediately slid left in a horse-riding stance @ YBS, and threw past YBS's karate guard, a chinese kempo-like rising backfist strike @ YBS's face, hitting him with force. YBS was knocked right to the ground, falling and hitting his head. This temporarily put YBS out of the fight.

KS pivoted and faced MPC who though surprised, stood his ground. KS advanced purposely (just like forms teach you) hands in TSD guard and ready to go. MPC tried to fight but quickly decided to back pedal away. In the meantime, YBS had recovered and came @ KS while I was preoccupied with my attack on MPC.

Once YBS appeared in range, KS repeated the same sliding horse stance / Chinese Kempo rising backfist strike @ YBS's head. This time, YBS thought he was prepared, having changed his TSD guard to that two-hands-held-high boxer's guard.

RESULT: YBS was knocked to the floor a second time. WHY? The power of my rising backfist smashed into / through his boxer's guard--his arms & hand(s) and my forearm (some combination of) slammed again right into his face.

YBS was now out of the fight altogether. Had he tried to get up, he sensed KS would have hit him again with that same full-body power backfist. And this time, however, I would have hit him just as he was getting to his feet--to completely finish him off. YBS (mentally) gave up.

Suddenly, I realized that MPC had closed and thrown a front kick to my groin (Pulled, thank you!) which would have scored on the street. As MARKS has said, multiple opponents are nearly impossible to escape from without injury. MPC, however, was no match for me one-on-one.

WHY did this one kick score? KS had made the fatal error of momentarily dropping my MENTAL guard, was perhaps too absorbed on finishing YBS with that possible 3rd Chinese Kempo rising backfist. It's a judgement call; and sometimes it's a win_&_lose situation.

FIRST LESSON: The effectiveness of the BOXER'S GUARD, can be put to the test by a full-body power karate strike. The essence of the whole-body power strike is the concept of 'one-strike-kill.' People get so caught up in the one-strike-kill as if it's a technique.

The more valuable lesson of the concept is that you hit your opponent so hard that he is hurt, then disarmed, then ultimately disabled. The sensible approach is to plan for three such blows--here it took two to 'take out' YBS.

SECOND LESSON: The power karate develops in the body is not exactly the same as athletics. The applied goal of that whole-body power is to be able to 'BAM' dynamically hit your opponent & he's hurt; BAM, he's down; and maybe BAM one more time & he's out of the fight.

THIRD LESSON: You don't need a lot of technically complicated techniques or advanced boxing skills. It's the telling effect of seemingly basic, here Chinese Kempo rising backfist, thrown from one of those awful, fixed, immobile? karate stances, the (TSD, Kempo) sliding horse-riding stance, using full body power.

This quick, decisive knockdown capability, to KS, is the essence of karate-do. And I didn't acquire it from free-sparring.

Good info!! There should probably be goals in min...

2009-11-24T03:49:54.333Z

Good info!!

There should probably be goals in mind for each:
hard sparring
1) work on timing and distance. anyone can pound the heck out of a bag...the real kicker is can you make contact on a live person.

2) practice executing various combo's or new techniques.

Soft sparring
1) work on new combo's and techniques in a somewhat safe environment

2) worst case scenario- let your uke get to the desired "winnable" position and see if you can find the counter. try a number of locks/holds and fight your way out. especially important for ground work.

john

Good post! Yep the trick is to learn and not run o...

2009-11-23T21:11:18.338Z

Good post! Yep the trick is to learn and not run out of sparring partners either so both are important.

The only thing I'd add here is teaching people is a fine line. On the one hand you are trying to hold back so they learn stuff but of course holding back you can be injured by the odd overzealous combination.

Hi Mark, Reminds me of a colleague who enrolled f...

2009-11-23T11:35:44.781Z

Hi Mark, Reminds me of a colleague who enrolled for a Karate beginnners course. The time came for his first sparring session and the Brown Belt facing him hit him full force in the stomach after the bow. My colleague retorted "Why did you do that!" to which the Brown Belt responded "Well, You've got to learn haven't you". Suffice to say my colleague never returned for lesson 2.

Comments on MarksTraining.com: Sparring, Hard and Soft

KarateStudent ("KS") on Final Answer to MARKS POST...

Good info!! There should probably be goals in min...

Good post! Yep the trick is to learn and not run o...

Hi Mark, Reminds me of a colleague who enrolled f...