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!

Spinning kicks

Last night's Tang Soo Do lesson went well right from the off. The children's lesson came together nicely and by the end of the hour we were enjoying ourselves and pulling together nicely, making a good job of technique and attitude.

The adult class was varied and interesting but something that *always* kills me is spinning kicks (I was reminded of this by SueC at http://kickasssuec.blogspot.com/). I know it's pathetic for someone who practices a Korean martial art but I am extremely sensitive to spinning and after about 5 reps find myself clinging to the floor trying not to fall off it. We were kicking an outside to inside kick swiftly followed by a spinning wheel kick which has a good solid feel to it, especially on focus pads when you can thud into something. But...as usual after 5 kicks I was gasping, fighting back *the* urge... Shame really as I love to kick.

Later in free sparring I executed plenty of spinning kicks which didn't affect me as they were spaced out enough to get my balance/wits about me again. Good sparring session with a young adult and a fit brown belt. One of these days he's gonna 'get it' and flatten me... (in the nicest possible way). I was really choosing my points and fighting strategically. I'm too old to go flat out, all guns blazing and I don't think this is very effective anyway.

Good session leading to healthy fatigued feeling....(and some unhealthy looking shin bruises...)

Gratuitous Van Damme spinning kick compilation.

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.

Tiredness and training

I'm tired out today. It doesn't help that one of my children had a nightmare and I tended to her at about 2am. But I can't blame her, poor thing! The reason I'm physically tired is that I've had training sessions, non-stop for the past couple of days. Shorinji Kempo on Monday night, boxing for an hour and a half on Tuesday morning then Tang Soo Do on Tuesday evening.

I feel a bit run down but I like the tightness of the muscles and the feeling of having worked at something.

Shorinji Kempo gave me insight into the way I learn a martial art. The philosophy discussion was based on this and as a Zen art has some fairly regimented attitudes towards learning. What I found on Monday was humility works quite well at learning. Being there, present for training and willing to soak up knowledge goes a long way. It's sometimes very easy to become over-confident about one's own abilities if one is never challenged! You can potentially get an over inflated estimation of your own abilities. Of course confidence is a good thing and I believe martial arts training delivers this in bagfuls: not the confidence to beat someone up or defend yourself (which is achieved) but the confidence of knowing yourself, your limitations and your ability to train within a process or system.

Boxing was fun. I was completely tired out after it and all the younger scamps looked like they could have trained for another hour! Interestingly the teacher told us that the best way to box is to not get hit. Sounds like a no-brainer but there were a couple of big guys there trading slugs at each other and I think this was meant for their benefit. We looked at turning the body sideways to minimise the target area, laying back, parrying and countering rapidly. I was amazed at how these similar elements crop up in more traditional martial arts. I shouldn't be I suppose because fundamentally there can be only a limited number of strategies to striking another person in 'sparring'. Very good practice of laying or leaning back, out of range and then returning with counters. Very tiring!

Tang Soo Do started off quite up tempo as well with light sparring straight off to warm us up! I realised quickly that my body was tired and I wasn't recovering as quickly as I would like! When this happens I try to focus on core technique, slowing it down if I have to but maintaining good posture. It's easy to shoot out tired limbs to make the technique *look* ok but it's another do the technique well under stress. This was what I was trying to do but very often I ended up gasping...and sweating! Later I had the pleasure of working with a young woman for her hyung. This was made a pleasure as she was reacting very well to my coaching to the extent I saw a great difference between starting and finishing the session! We mostly looked at engaging the whole body from foot through hip rotation and ending up at the arms. It's a difficult thing for beginners to grasp but she did a great job! Younger practitioners tend to fling their arms and legs out without engaging their whole body and this, in some ways, is normal: they haven't seen or been shown the intricacy of the body mechanics involved. I find, however, that once the whole body is being used to generate power it becomes an entirely better experience! And you get more feedback from your body when you do this. Otherwise you just end up flapping your arms about...!

These guys seem to be trying REALLY hard to engage their entire bodies...

(oldie but goody!)

Encouragement for beginners to sparring

I offered some pre-tournament sparring practice to a friend who gladly accepted. Off we went to the country park...

As we searched for a suitable clearing to kick off our shoes I asked her what her 'problem' was (so I could focus on this in the following 45 minutes) and she replied that she found it difficult to score a point. She was a bit flustered by the plethora of techniques she knows and felt unable to bring them into play during sparring.

OK-let's bring up her confidence by concentrating on a few essential sparring techniques, after all much free-fighting is made up of front kick, round kick and a variety of straight punches. Of course we aspire to be able to use all our techniques in order to score the point but invariably we rely on a stock of well serving base techniques and sometimes the simpler, the better.

So with a minimum of time we set about improving her confidence (she'd only sparred twice in class before!) and this is how we did it:

Round 1: Just front kicks from her. I would encourage her to connect with the attack and I would counter at competition speed with anything I fancied but she must use only front kick.

Round 2: Same deal for me, but front and round kick for her.

Round 3: Front kick, round kick and punches.

Last round: Focus on these three but feed in any 'fancier' technique if she felt that there was a scoring opportunity availing itself. (In the end she only really added in back kick and possibly side kick).

I also emphasized kihaping.

How did it go? She's a natural. She didn't need my help she just needed confidence. It's easy to forget that when we started out in a particular style there is a bewildering amount of techniques that we are exposed to directly in our syllabus or indirectly in group classes and often this is just too much information and we cloud up. "Oh yeah but I can do this, no wait....Er, what about this technique...."

No. Stop. The object of competition sparring is to get the point. To score within whichever framework of rules exist. In order to score you have to react to the attacks of the opponent as well as look for opportunity to counter or initiate. My advice today was to use a core set of techniques (as the student is a relative beginner) in order to score points. Keep it fairly simple.

What I didn't do was go easy on her. My attacks were speedy and of varying heights: I wanted to get her flinching, checking out her blocking reactions, which were great!

Photos courtesy of my little girl...

Breathing out the bad

I had a bad moment during the day today so during training my mind was a bit mixed-up. I was focusing on the bad moment during training instead of leaving it behind me and outside of the dojang. I tried breathing it out: breathing in cleansing air down into the belly and all the dark thoughts out through my feet. Whether you believe in Chi movement & the power of breath or not, this sort of visualisation helps me 'reset'. It provides a tool for me to get out of the loop of negative brooding. Once I've reset I can (try to) focus on technique only. Or not focus on technique but have a free mind... That's the idea anyway.

Good sparring session with Master Campbell and I learned two things: Master Campbell can stop you dead with a reverse front kick. As I tired my technique combinations became sloppy and I was chasing him down (this sort of hot headedness was the reason I had a bad moment today!) and as I stepped in he stopped me: gasp

the second thing is that I need to work on my fitness levels (and lose some of my spare tyre). After three two minute rounds I'm facing AC. He's tall, strong and experienced and during the first minute I'm toeing the line, scoring points and pushing him (sometimes) onto his back foot. During the second minute I was paggered (tired)! My ability to fend off attacks diminished and needless to say I was clattered round the chops a few times. Your hands tend to drop somewhat when you're tired.

I need more training and less chocolate.

Sparring strategy (Tang Soo Do)

Last night was a good, long, hard sparring session looking in particular at some set pieces. Before we set to, though, we got into the spirit of things with some regular sparring which started off gentle and finished in a hard but well-natured manner.

It was tough though. I was trying to get a point onto my taller and strong opponent who very often stopped me with a firm but polite side kick. I was chasing him (which puts me at a disadvantage) but I wanted to play! At one point he attacked with a high kick to my 'open' side (ahneso pakeso cha ki I think) so I defended and countered with a spinning hook kick to his head. I didn't score but I avoided a kick in the chops. His kick did, however, connect with my spine at the top of my back about T3 and my body shuddered! It didn't hurt so much as rock and surprise me. It ached much later after my shower but it made me think about not getting hit there again!

That particular bout also made me reflect on closing distance on my opponent to score a point. Tang Soo Do 'neutral' distance is just out of normal kicking range-this is primarily a kicking style after all-and the two fighters want to be just outside of each other's kicks to be 'safe'. 

Distance is very important and knowing where you are on the distance spectrum can help you with techniques. As far as I can see these distances exist:

- Out of range

- Jumping kick range

- Rear leg kicking and spinning kick ranges (spinning kick has a slightly longer range)

- Front leg kicks

- Hand techniques (Bill has something to say about this though!)

- Biting, gouging, finger techniques.

For sure not all of these are permitted in Tang Soo Do sparring! Biting and gouging were not permitted even before Queensbury codified boxing. Not even pankration allowed these either, but this illustrates how close real fighting can get. Feel free to add to the list. In competition however if you want to win, don't draw your opponent's blood. Although this seems harsh it is intended to ensure techniques are controlled and you will be disqualified if you see blood from your opponent as a result of your technique. In any case direct frontal attacks to the face are not allowed.

The issue I'm thinking of is getting from neutral range into scoring range quickly. A jump kick is possible but rarely scoring. I always find an initial attack of a jumping kick is seldom missed by the opponent and consequently easily blocked or evaded. This said it's very good at closing the distance in order to follow up with other techniques-more likely a kick, chasing down with hand combinations. You can also gain ground by replacing the standing front foot with the back foot and kick gaining you some distance and then follow up with other techniques.

Gain your ground into your opponent's space and follow up with point-scoring techniques.

This stringing together of techniques is important and something beginners often find hard to achieve. The truth is that your opponent will most likely evade techniques 1 and maybe 2 but will struggle or at least be on the back foot (so to speak) for technique 3. Follow up the attack and pursue. Having said that I mentioned earlier that chasing the point-scoring technique is sometimes a disadvantage as the *best* fighters are those that counter well. Don't believe me?

Then take Bill 'Superfoot' Wallace's word.

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.

My bloody thumb!

Energetic sparring and conditioning session at Tang soo Do last night. I learnt another important lesson whilst bashing up a fellow student: keep your bloody thumbs tucked in! I didn't have my gloves so was free sparring 'naked' (so to speak) and as I thumped him (with a good straight punch I might add!) I caught a hard part of him and as my thumb wasn't tucked tightly round correctly I whacked the end of it which drove it backwards and stressed the first joint. (the carpometaparpal joint apparently! see below) Bollocks, it hurts. But as I said I'll learn. Hopefully ... I'm fairly sure I've done this before! 

Subsequent bag work was good as I was then obliged to tuck it in firmly to contact correcty without further injury.

As it was the last lesson of the year we went for a curry afterwards. The company was great but the Curry Queen on Mill Rd has gone done the swanny for sure....

Three step sparring

This evening at Tang Soo Do training we did some little-practiced three step sparring which turned out to be very satisfying. It's not usually part of our training like one step sparring is but it brings in an interesting dynamic and forces sharp thinking and quick reflexes making it a good pre-sparring technique.

The three step sparring we exercised tonight were random techniques in classical, formal style so not codified and open to creative interpretation. Given this it meant you had to think fast to get some correct blocks and counter techniques in. Although it's a very linear structure (go see this article by Dojo Rat for more on linear or circular) in many ways there is a lot of room for interesting counter techniques on the third defence bringing the entire syllabus into play: hits, kicks, grabs, throws, immobilisation and although done in a very contrived way I think this may be a good precursor to sparring for some junior grades.

A big problem I see with junior grades and sparring is that they rely far too heavily on strength and speed, forgoing a lot of technique. When I see this I always encourage them to slow it down, take the opportunity to try some fancy stuff and practice things 'live' rather than see it as all out conflict! The aim isn't to kick me black and blue. Not yet anyway. I find ramping up to sparring much more sensible than throwing the juniors in at the deep end at full speed and strength. Tang Soo Do sparring is very energetic and quite spectacular to watch and it would be a shame to miss out on this. Above all I find it thrilling to do and great FUN!

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.