Sparring practice and eager to score

A tiring session tonight started with some light randori to warm up and also to see what issues fell out of these encounters with which to work upon. On of the things that sensei TO mentioned was the concept of winning before the engagement. An idea which involved trying to stack all the cards in your favour before the conflict even starts: something which can involve many elements but on the physical level it can mean making the opportunities for yourself without getting hit too much.

It occurred to me as we were discussing this that all my martial arts career I've always been eager to win the point. In sparring I tend to take the fight to my opponent always looking for opportunities but hungry for those occasions to arise. Wanting to land the kick or punch so much that I'd spar offensively. I wouldn't say I was impatient but I certainly usually look to put pressure on my opponent, chasing him or her down. The trouble with this strategy is an experienced opponent can simply wait and pick you off.

So this evening's lesson was simply that I should look to make the opportunities without the rush into conflict. Hold back, see the lay of the land and react to the opponent's techniques. Sounds rudimentary but I have to confess that it's something I still need to work on.

Sparring

Good sparring session last night so I came away tired and feeling good, having dispensed of some energy and learnt a lot. As we don't use sparring gloves my knuckles came away a bit red and sore but this, at least meant I scored a few hits and blocked what otherwise would have knocked seven shades of stuff out of me.

The sparring session was built up well by sensei TO and we investigated some key points of distance and timing and assessing how your sparring partner reacts to your movement. In addition I was prompted by MH to relax more (easy for him to say: he's bigger, stronger and more experienced!), but I don't think he meant for me to stop being more jittery. I took from this remark that in order to move in sparring with speed and deliver meaningful and strong attacks, this has to be done from a fluid and relaxed state (with obvious power at the end of the technique).

Point duly noted.

I wish we had worn sparring gloves though...ouch!

Learning with a clear mind

Last night's Shorinji Kempo lesson turned out to be a good, sweaty session with lots of refining technique and learning formats ready for the grading. Unfortunately as I entered the dojo I had a few things on my mind and I was in a dark and painful mental state. These, typically (for me, at any rate), can be difficult to shake and the first 20 minutes training (warm-up and kihon) were not easy. Interestingly the light randori I did with sensei TO to warm up was easy. I find randori really helps clear my mind. Sadly, just after I finished warming up with the randori I descended back into my dark mood and I could see the black dog was following me.

My main worry was that I was more concerned about my mental state than learning. This is a crucial lesson for me as it's the run-up to the grading and I want to fill in any gaps of knowledge I have so I needed to buckle down. During this period when I was preoccupied I wasn't learning effectively. At times when sensei explained something to us in detail, I glazed over and ended up thinking about my preoccupations. "Clear?", he asked. "Hai!" I replied, then thought, "Uh oh...what did he say?". I'm sure lots of people encounter this but it struck me how it impacted on my learning last night. By the end of the session I'd shaken it and was focused on techniques, especially my kumi embu, and was learning well because my mind was clear(er).

Interestingly sensei TO pushed me out of my mood without realising it simply by creating an atmosphere of determined and focused repetition of the kumi embu. The determination and focus on the techniques meant I had no space in my mind for other worries. Excellent!

For those interested, the kumi embu for 2nd to 1st kyu is as follows:

1. Uchi uke zuki - ren hen ko

2. Soto uke zuki - ren hen ko

3. Sode nuki

4. Sode dori

5. Kusshin zuki - ren hen ko

6. Soto oshi uke zuki - ren hen ko

7. Kata muna otoshi

8. Eri juji

9. Ude maki

10. Chidori gaeshi - ren hen ko

Sparring

When I started studying martial arts twenty years ago, I was training in Goya Ra Ru (now Tetsudo). This is a pseudo Tibetan, very modern martial art. I say pseudo Tibetan as all the stances, blocks and kicks seem incredibly similar to traditional karate styles and to me the 'Tibetan' tag is an attempt to seem different or aloof. Having said that this artform ignited in me a lifelong passion and drive for the martial arts as a wave of improving body and mind-back then it was touted as the "thinking person's martial art". Take that or not it, I found its approach to free fighting or sparring quite enlightened.

There was, and probably still is, three levels of sparring: compromised, competitive and combat. These are fairly self explanatory and as a beginner the compromised version of sparring in a stress free environment; slowed down and collaborative helps to boost esteem and skill in stringing together techniques. Both participants understand that this is a training exercise with nor pressure to 'score'. I still enjoy this form of sparring as a training exercise much like I enjoy one step and three step sparring. These contrived varieties of conflict help beginner's and experts alike. More experienced practitioners can really feel comfortable looking for striking points and target areas and feeling the flow of different opponents.

There are times and places for more intense and rapid combat but tonight at Shorinji Kempo we were encouraged by TO to really flow through the randori and it felt good. Stress free and gave me a chance to feel more what Kempo is about. Conversely I recall training in Grenoble when I was a student in France with the local University Shotokan club. While they were a nice bunch of people I never felt part of the club. I recall that their kumite or randori consisted of lining up against each other and upon 'Hajime' crap was kicked out of me. You could, of course, tell me to shut up, suck it up and take it but what I found very frustrating was that the brown belt I was sparring with would pull up half way, stop and realign. I didn't understand and he explained that he scored a point so we start again. I was a beginner so really didn't get a chance to score any points! All I got was a load of frustration, sadly. There is a way of thinking that you train in a hard way and the students have to go through a long tortuous journey of getting kicked in but eventually....they get it. They train and train and get pounded but sooner or later 'ils pigent'.

I prefer the slower but more thoughtful approach.

Short-term vs long-term thinking

A snippet of advice on randori (free practice) Judo founder Jigoro Kano:

"In order to beat someone now, it is best for those who are strong to use that strength to overcome the other person's strength.  However, with that method, if you encounter an opponent who is much stronger than you are, you will naturally lose.  So, even if you lose for a while, the correct practice of randori is to learn to slip dexterously away from your opponent, adapt to his strength, cause him to lose his balance while stepping back, and then take advantage of that opportunity to perform a waza [technique].  If you do this kind of training for a while you will be twisted by the arm and held down, or pushed down by your opponent.  But if you do not frequently engage in this kind of training you will never learn how to beat a stronger opponent." -- From Mind Over Muscle: Writings from the founder of Judo 

The person who wants to win at all costs (now!) is not going to learn much, if anything at all.  The best that (s)he can hope to do is validate what has been developed previously: Does it work, now?  

Beginners usually do one of two things when they first start randori:

1. Fight like it's a life or death battle
2. Only make a half-hearted attempt

To go further requires an attitude that we value learning over winning (at least in the short-term), and to remain positive and not be discouraged by "loss of face" when "defeated".

Achieving this balance is not necessarily natural, obvious or straightforward.  Choosing to treat randori as a game -- serious, but also fun -- can help.  If you can learn to notice what works against you, already you are learning something - and profiting from the experience.

Free fighting

Last night I was struck how little of interest is on telly these days. Granted I don't watch a lot of tv (I have two young kids!) but a couple of times a week I want to sit down for an hour after all the chores are done and absorb something. As I said-nothing doing on tv so I rooted around and found a DVD about martial arts I'd forgotten I had! Smashing-beer and martial arts documentary...

The blurb on Deadly Arts (it was first shown on National Geographic) says:

"A martial artist with over 25 years of experience, black belt Josette D. Normandeau sets out to uncover the history and culture of six martial arts. At the same time she will train under each art’s top masters… to the very limits of her endurance and ability. Her goal: to win what the masters possess: a touch of invincibility"

Hmmm. I won't be too disparaging. If you can't say something nice...!

Despite some small annoyances the capoeira episode I watched was very well produced and gave a great insight into this martial art (I thought it was more dance-like than this show illustrates) and made me think about the different aspects of free fighting (sparring or randori ). Quite timely as Mokuren Dojo has a thread about kata and Dan Praeder makes an interesting insight in the comments. Plus I had a frustrating randori session the other day...

So what did I see in capoeira? an immense amount of focus and control. What seems to me as a dance interspersed with kicks is much more aimed at a flow back and forth of energy between the players. There is definitely an aim to trick the opponent and 'win' but there also seems an implicit rule of respect and 'conversation' within the fight. Each player gives and takes taking care not to crush the other's techniques but allowing free movement and expression. It doesn't seem to me that the players want to oppose their will or their crushing force onto each other but there is a level of playful deceit too: all done with a smile.

Following is a clip of the show with some controlled 'sparring':

This brings me to my frustration with my recent randori session: there are many (unofficial) levels of randori ranging from non-contact learning skills, to competitive point scoring or even full contact. At the more sedate end of skill learning in free sparring there needs to be this sort of precision and mutual respect. At that level it certainly is more of a conversation! Give and take is essential. Unfortunately it doesn't gel sometimes. Your opponent and you end up striking mid technique, neither gets into the swing of the conversation and you tend to stifle each others techniques. It becomes difficult and staid. When this happens I try and slow it all the way down and highlight each technique or string of techniques that I'm making-this way there's more a chance of a flow to develop. Sometimes junior grades go at it full pelt, thrashing away at you. Everyone wants a piece of the black belts. But I just don't think this is so constructive at an early stage of randori development. Slow and steady then building up the speed makes for solidand more accurate fighting. When this is achieved you can then vary the pace according to the situation.

Much like the player in the clip above sparring can be intensely accurate and controlled in slow motion, stretching and reaching for the opponent in an unrushed and mutual way.

Taido (躰道)

Nathan Teodoro brought my attention to Taido on the convocation of combat arts (a cool martial arts networking and discussion site) and I thought I'd post a video or two of this quite spectacular style of karate which uses lots of spinning and jumping techniques making for interesting jissen (or randori).

Interestingly the founder, Shukumine, wanted to update karate with more flexible and less 'linear' movement.

Check out the result here...

Taido blog here.

The new gladiators

Interesting clip on Youtube with some great Benny The Jet footage. This guy moves really fluidly and I love to watch this sort of sparring. It's high energy, focused and hard.

This next video shows him knocking down Koshikawa. Check out Benny's duck at 15 seconds. Takes a lot of balls to do this and much confidence. Great counter blow to the body as he rises up from this.

Chaos taking

randori:

The term literally means "chaos taking" or "grasping freedom," (Reference.)