There are many methods used in traditional Japanese Karate to obtain fighting competence,
some are solely reserved for the most advanced practitioners and so I will only be discussing the the first stages and most basic methods in this blog, whilst attempting to help you understand the how and why we do what we do using proven sports science along side ancient traditions.
I hope you enjoy.
I have been very fortunate to have spent the vast majority of my life time training and teaching this fabulous martial art.
At the age of just 18 years old and a freshly promoted Black belt I had my first opportunity to study in Japan and as you can imagine, all I wanted is to fight and test my skills.
I had spent the first 10 years of my training life thinking that fighting using full contact sparring was the ultimate goal, I had also spent a lot of that time getting totally destroyed by my seniors, bloody noses, windings, sprained fingers, thick ears I could go on,
so when I arrived In Japan I thought I knew it all !... how wrong was I.
Having travelled the globe teaching Yoseikan Karate I have been amazed how many karate schools seem to have missed a crucial lesson about this subject in much the same way I had in my first 10 years of study.
I have seen karate student literately take lumps out of each other during sparring sessions,
I have heard their teachers shout " The only way to be good at fighting is to fight full contact "
"how else are you truly going to know if your techniques are going to work"?
This is true to some degree in that techniques do need to be pressure tested but,
the secret is in how you practice it in the first place.
If you are going to the dojo with the knowledge that at the end of the session your most likely going to bleed from some point on your body due to sparring with that student who wants to knock your head off there comes a time when your going to say,
"Ive had enough of that" or "I can't afford to be off work with a broken finger"
You see its just not a viable long term strategy when it comes down to why we do what we do in the first place, the best fighters will survive until the next guy comes along.
All animals in the wild only fight all out when they absolutely have no other choice, when they need too, Kill or be killed, they know that fighting is very costly, this is why the most dominate Lion does not hunt, it lets its pride do the work, for even hunting comes with great risks.
Many professional fighter are waking up to this fact, with some of the best MMA fighters now opting not to engage in costly sparring sessions.
Ancient Masters realised this, in fact in Japan this method has been practiced since the time of the samurai.
I can still hear my Master say to me on my first visit to his dojo in Japan,
"How do you think a samurai prepares for battle? does he fight full out with his swords?
No, too Risky, he prepares to be prepared, he goes to battle with sharp swords and a kill or be killed attitude".
The first stage of your Kumite (Sparring) preparation is with Ten No Kata Ura,
this is the first time when students should begin to practice with one another, this is where students learn the basics of control whilst executing defence and attack combinations at each other.
The next stage is with a method called Sanbon Kumite, Three step pre-arranged sparring practice.
This teaches distance, control and timing, it builds self confidence and trust in ones partner whilst also conditioning the body parts required to receive oncoming attacks.
It teaches alertness, action and reaction, correct breathing as well as broken timing.
The attacker uses a pre-arranged attack for three steps and the defender defends with the appropriate blocks until the final attack by which time the defender must counter attack before the attacker withdraws.
Then comes Ippon Kumite or single attack sparring practice.
With this method the students are told which techniques to use and which height to use them in, they bow to each other and then on "Hajime" Begin one of the opponents swiftly attack the other,
the defenders task is to block and then counter before the attacker withdraws.
In all three methods controlled contact may be used, avoiding all vulnerable and vital point areas,
with focus being on the production of kime (Focus)
Jiju Kumite or Free Sparring.
In this method there are no pre-arranged rules of engagement,
there is no pre-arranged attacker or defender, but there is at the start only one attack permitted,
avoiding all vulnerable and vital points until fluidity is achieved, almost as if warming up.
This method of Kumite should be closely observed by the instructor, for this is when the risk of injury heightens, even though at all times control is to be emphasised in both practitioners,
practice should be more like play but with a slight risk attached to it,
eventually evolving into a much more free style method without any restrictions on where or when an attack should be applied or how many attacks may be delivered, the key word here is play with intent, or in sports science terms, purposeful practice with minimal risk of injury and no winners or losers.
This is not to say techniques should be allowed to deteriorate, more so the practitioners should appear fluid in movement and open minded, not fixated on winning or landing their strike.
This is how the Lion prepares to defend its pride, it play fights as a cub, it learns and practices in a safe yet challenging environment with its peers.
This is how the Samurai prepared for battle, they practiced for hours, firstly using bamboo swords then hard wood swords and learning the hard way when their fingers were hit, from a young age we learn to play fight, its human nature.
Heres the technical bit.
In sports science we use a graph to explain the importance of stress and the correct way to train so as to achieve peak performance in any sport or activity, heres a brief explanation.
You see the human body responds to stress in two ways depending on what type of stress it is.
Good Stress improves our performance because it causes an anabolic response (Growth)
Bad Stress encourages catabolic response (Deterioration)
the trick is in staying just above our base line or comfort zone.
Once you put yourself under too much stress by risking injury you tip the balance and fall into the catabolic stage, the body concentrates on survival rather than skill development, your nervous system over compensates by producing damaging hormones that are designed to help in the short term, your mental state responds by closing off the gates to the learning of complex skills and resorts to the most basic of instinctive response, fight or flight, all progress development is lost.
This was discovered by Russian Sports Scientist way back in the 1900's and has been adopted by Elite Athletes ever since, which is why we are constantly seeing new records being broken at the Olympic Games every year.
I hope you enjoyed this blog, please leave your comments and likes, I am happy to anser any questions you may have on this and other subjects discussed.
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