Retribution

Sensei Mark ran a self-defense and grappling class last night. It was very good and we covered an excellent new self defense move against a hay-maker punch. Towards the end of class we did a Jiu-Jitsu grappling match. It was me against Sensei Mark. I was able to get side control and never relinquished my position and eventually wore him down and he tapped from a kimura. So a little later on I issued a challenge to Sensei Mark to wrestle again only this time if he loses his UFC contract will be let go! (This was all in good fun of course-he does not have a UFC contract – it was a joke as a professional fighter may lose his contract if he loses 2/3 matches in a row). So the second match was on and a student declared the match to be “Retribution”. It turned out to be a really fun match, lots of drama, many many moves and counters, close submission attempts.

In fact, at one point he had me in a heel hook. I turned but it was in deep. I was ready to tap, but then I thought to myself “I don’t want to be like Brock Lesner losing to Frank Mir”, so I held on, he moved slightly and I broke free. In the end he got me with an arm bar. So his contract was saved! Now we will have to have a “Retribution III – Mark vs. Granite – Winner Takes All”.

Markinator

VS.

Granite

RETRIBUTION III

Kumite and Sport Sparring – Pro’s and Con’s

When thinking about how Karate was practiced in Okinawa, we should keep in mind that as the original Okinawan practitioners were being trained in China (Fujian) during the time of the Ryukyu kingdom (the 37 families – please refer to historical karate documents),
they were being taught a “kata” centric system, where the “kata” was a series of memorized techniques that contained all the self defense moves that a martial arts practitioner needed to adequately defend themselves. The “kata” were used in place of a written out version of the movements, as most people at that time were either illiterate or did not feel that these moves should be written as the kata were more than a sufficient way of handing down the information.

The 37 families that were in China, learned the Chinese martial arts forms (eg: White Crane) and brought them back to Okinawa when they returned.

Once these forms were imported into Okinawa, the same isolation facts that occur in a language occurred with the kata, meaning that it was much more strictly adhered to and not subjected to changes, as it was away from its origin. Therefore, the practioners were very strict in maintaining the movements and footwork associated with each kata that they learned. In pre-World War II Okinawa, kumite was not an integral part of karate training.

This explains why Gichin Funakoshi spent so many years learning kata only, and once the kata was completely memorized and the bunkai (meaning of each move) understood, he was given a certificate and was permitted to teach the kata to other students. This is very similar to the way some Kung Fu schools operate.

With this frame of reference, we can see that Funakoshi was very serious that the techniques that were being taught were for isolated, once in a lifetime events, where a strike could be lethal. Therefore, the techniques should be learned with care and safety.

Upon arrival in mainland Japan, Funakoshi encountered other different martial arts styles. I feel that at the time, Judo was the most prevailing and dominate martial art that he encountered. Karate was able to co-exist with Judo as it was emphasizing kata, and kata based training. However, as more Japanese became karate students, there was a degree of these students that had some experience with Judo, and wondered how karate would actually operate in a full contact, live application, as they experienced with Judo. Due to their experience with Judo and applying techniques, they were more acclimated to the rigors of full contact action, and therefore desired to see the Karate bunkai in motion.

As students of Karate learned the bunkai, I am positive that they wanted to test it out against a live, attacking opponent, just as they did in Judo practice. This was the beginning of Kumite. Gichin Funakoshi said, “There are no contests in karate.” which was an obvious reference to the “sport” of Judo. Shigeru Egami relates that, in 1940, some karateka were ousted from their dojo because they adopted sparring after having learned it in Tokyo. This is another instance of how the practicality of Judo has begun its influence on Karate.

As kumite grew, the sport aspect of it naturally materialized. Just as Judo influenced Kata-centric karate to bring about kumite, kumite led itself to develop sport karate. As kumite developed, the need for various rules came about. Rules to determine if a strike would knock someone out or cause a lethal blow, as one can only be knocked out so many times before an action is required to “hold back” or “stop just before you hit me”.

KUMITE PROS:

I believe that the adaptation of kumite into Karate was a beneficial one. Just as styles can benefit from the study of other styles and incorporate things that work into them, so too Karate incorporated the notion of kumite to help with striking, throwing, kicking and other elements.

KUMITE CONS”

The cons of Kumite are that it does lead itself to a notion of “all I need to do is fight well and I don’t need to know kata”. This statement, which is very commonly found in dojo’s and martial artists, strikes at the very core of what Karate is and its history.

SPORT SPARRING PROS:

Sport sparring has many benefits, including the practice of a technique against a non-cooperative opponent. This practice forces the martial artist to continually work on a technique until it is mastered. Unlike in the old days when a student would spend years on a technique, sport sparring can quickly develop mastery of an application due to the nature of the sport.

Sport sparring also allows people to compete and win, which bolsters self confidence and the knowledge that hard work will pay off.

SPORT SPARRING CONS:

The cons of sport sparring are that it can lead to an over-inflated ego, too much self confidence, and the false sense that since you are so successful in the ring, that this will carry over to real life.

More on Tournaments

I was reading over my last blog and felt that I had more to share with you about my experiences at this last tournament (Pittsburgh) and the Kumite (sparring) aspect. One of the black-belts who saw the recent may-lay between the two black-belt kumite fighters overheard some of the Jiu-Jitsu competitors, who were finished and standing around watching the black belts compete, first state how impressed they are with the speed and accuracy of the kumite fighters, and then expressed disdain after the two fighters got out of control and started wailing on each other, with one of the Jiu-Jitsu competitors stating “that is why I don’t do Karate, too much ego involved”.

In regards to the second part of the comment “too much ego involved”, I couldn’t agree more. Those two kumite competitors completely lost their heads and this was in large part due to their egos. As I stated in my previous blog, “they aren’t competing for the world cup”. Not only do they need to work on their self-control (regardless of who is to blame) but they need to keep in mind that people are looking up to them and watching their every move., It created a tremendous black eye for Karate amoung the spectators (and not just the jiu-jitsu guys), who have to think to themselves “if this is how the black-belts conduct themselves, I don’t think I want to be associated with them”.

Come on now, I have been struck hard numerous, countless times. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. I am proud that I never lost control of myself as a black-belt. I will not deny that I have never lost control, the most infamous time was when I was taking my brown belt test in Tang Soo Do during college, and one of the instructors hit me bare-knuckled right in the face. I saw red and just went after him. Not a very proud moment. But that aside, as a black-belt, I have always maintained control and constraint.

I might have an advantage though. Having competed in MMA, as well as Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling, I have been in enough competitions that I realize that I don’t always have to win. In fact, I look forward to someone beating me because they have just exposed a weakness that I did not know I had and now I can work on improving it.

Then what about someone who winds up and hits me hard on purpose? I have come to realize that the retaliater ALWAYS loses. In a tournament competition, I would back off, take a knee, and then let the referee do his/her job. If I were to retaliate, I would lose for two reasons. First, because I have just taken my opponent’s bait and am doing exactly what he wants me to do, and second the person who retaliates is always caught. You can always hit them back hard later on in the match to even things up, and by then they realize it was pay-back.

Going back to the first part of the Jiu-Jitsu player’s comment about not doing Karate because of ego: I couldn’t disagree more. Of course, standing there watching two black-belts humilate themselves helped provoke that comment, however, Karate offers so much more than just kumite. Kumite is just a by-product, and if you look down to my one of my previous blogs, you will read how Kumite has helped Karate, however this is a prime example of how “sport-karate” has negatively influenced our art. I will post another blog on kumite and sport-karate later.

Misbehaving at Tournaments

Okay, in my last blog I told you about the tournament that I was participating in this past weekend. It was a well run tournament, a lot of fun, and I believe that everyone there had a good day. I got a first place in self-defense, which really surprised me, and I got two fourths (weapons and kata), which I was a bit disappointed about because I thought I was stronger doing these than the self-defense, but there you go, “what do I know”, obviously. So I will just have to work harder on them.

Anyway, the reason I titled this message “Misbehaving” is because at the end of day they usually run the black belt kumite (sparring). Now the sparring can get pretty heated, but in the ten years that I have been going to tournaments, this is the first time it got out of hand. The two competitors started swinging for the fences and the five referees had to jump in and pull them apart.

Now I can see this happening with kyu-ranks. You place two green belts in the ring and yes, they can sometimes lose their cool and tempers flair. But these were black belts, and to top it off it was in the 35+ years division, which is absolutely ridiculous. What are they fighting for, a world cup? I know how the game goes, if you get hit hard, hit them back hard. Give a little, take a little. But it is a sport. They have to keep that in mind. If you want to start slugging it out, then go to the MMA division and fight it out.

Well, enough of that ranting. In another note, I really don’t like going first. I think that the best position to be in is around 5-6th. It seems that if you nail your kata or whatever in that position, you usually end up with higher scores. Just a guess, I don’t know if it is valid or not.

Getting Ready

We have a number of tournaments coming up, and it is time to get ready for them. There are three big tournaments that we attend in December and January:

1. Pennsylvania Karate Championships

2. Pittsburgh Tournament

3. King Cobra January Tournament

I personally enjoy the King Cobra tournament the best. It is held in a nice hotel, and schools from England, Wales, Canada and New York come in to participate. It is very challenging and nice to compete against and meet all the different people from around the world.

To get ready for the tournament, I generally go over my Kata, Weapon’s Kata and Self Defense routine. It is one thing to do these in the school setting, and quite another out on the floor with five judges and about 200 people watching. So last night, by a stroke of luck, I found myself outside of the dojo in the baseball facility (that we share the building with), and there was a full baseball team out there practicing. Normally at night there usually isn’t very many people around (outside of  our dojo), but last night there were. So Sempai Brenda and I decided to work on our Weapons Kata outside the dojo, and we had the entire team watching us. It was much like working the form in front of the judges, which was a good thing.

Can old school training and MMA co-exist?

Here I am thinking about Sanshin practice over and over. I read a very interesting article by Iain Abernethy who was talking about applied karate and how kata are essential to it.

Which I agree with, however, can this be relate-able to someone interested in learning MMA and going on to compete in MMA? The reason I am bringing this up is because I have a new student starting this week. I remember when I first met him, he was talking about entering into a local MMA contest. We started talking and I asked him what his background was. After hearing that it was almost nothing (a few months of TKD), I started to urge him to train first in either a classical MA style (like Shotokan), Muay Thai, or BJJ. Otherwise, he would just be raw meat in the cage.

So he will start coming to the school this week. Now he is excited about learning Shotokan, and since we also run a “grappling” night once a week, this will help him learn the ground game. My hope for him is that after getting a good foundation in stand-up (Shotokan), while also learning BJJ, he will be able to go off to a MMA finishing school to sharpen his skills for competing in the sport of MMA.

How will classical karate training help him improve? Well for one, Sanshin will toughen up his body so that he can take a hit as well as help his endurance. Kata will help his muscles memorize reactions, so that his movements become instinctive. Kata will also help him learn traps, counters and throws.

These are my thoughts.