Quote Originally Posted by Bartrim View Post
What are the sparring guidelines?
No attacks to the face. Everything else is fair game. Only "soft" strikes to the groin and ribs are allowed. I found that the students' that I sparred with:
+ Good defence below the neck - excellent groin defence.
+ Craphouse defence above the neck.
+ Students were good with long range fighting but poor at close range fighting. Students were utterly inept at countering any form of grappling and were completely incapable of performing breakfalls. I don't think these students have ever been grabbed or thrown before! I was speaking to another Karate practitioner earlier today who said that at his Dojo one of the first things they learn is breakfalling - and he raised an excellent point - because beginners are far more likely to _need_ to know how to breakfall than a more experienced student! One student actually went, "Ow!Ow!Ow!Ow!Ow!Ow!" when I put him in a wrist lock. It wasn't even that "intense" of a wrist lock... I think he just had never felt what it's like to be wrist locked before!

Most of the time when I closed in to drop my opponent to the ground, I ended up having to also cradle them as they fell down to prevent neck/head injury (no mats in the Dojo - probably because nobody ever grapples/throws).

I asked the instructor how often they did grappling training, and he answered "We don't really do much of that here." Alright... you guys don't believe in grappling... that's fine. But at least learn how to counter a grapple! It's the same when I hear people tell me that they don't believe in groin strikes (because they think it's a "dog" move) -- okay fine, you don't have to use these techniques, but you really ought to learn how to protect yourself from these kinds of attacks!

Oh, then it came time to spar with the instructor. He said to me, "Watch this, I'll show you something cool," and the threw a punch toward my head which I blocked, followed immediately by a sweeping kick to my front leg, so I instantly lifted my leg to avoid the sweep. That was it. The instructor then said, "Good! Good! You managed to avoid that!" He then showed me an alternative counter to that attack, which involved dropping back into a Renoji-Dachi, then coming forward into a Zenkutsu-Dachi with a counter punch. I personally just simultaneously blocked the punch and lifted my front leg into Crane Stance... if I wanted to launch a counterstrike, I could easily throw a Maegeri from that stance, or step into his position into a Zenkutsu-dachi etc. *shrugs* His technique works too, so I'm not faulting it per se... but IMO if my technique ain't broke, I don't see the need to change it. (nor should he change his technique to mimic mine if it's working for him - as I always say, the best technique is the one that works for that individual ).