From: billc@motatl.UUCP (Bill Cutts)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: When to start kumite?
Date: 24 Jul 92 15:57:35 GMT
Organization: Motorola Technical Systems Division, Atlanta, GA

In article <1992Jul22.055111.15038@nuscc.nus.sg>, engp2024@nusunix2.nus.sg (ALI NAJAFI) writes:
> 
>     I used to pracitce shotokan karate. There our instructor believed in
> starting kumite after receiving black belt only. Now I am practicing 
> shitoryu karate where kumite is started well in advance of black belt.
> 
>     Each approach in learning kumite  has its own advantages: 
> starting kumite after black belt ensures that one is experienced enough 
> to use his skills; Starting it at earlier stages, on the other hand,
> makes him more experienced in kumite when he receives his black belt.
> 
>     But which one is really prefarable? In my own opinion, it might be 
> better to emphasize only on learning the techniques before receiving
> black belt. Although some people find it boring just to learn abstract 
> techniques ( which they call it of little use to real life ) for a 
> long time before they receive their black. In fact they
> ARE useful in real life. Even those who are not much experienced in
> kumite can more or less use the techniques for they have trained their
> body to act.
> 
> Ali.

I like the way in which my instructor approached kumite. All students
practiced what we called self-defence drills, one, two or three step
responses to attacks. The students paired off and the attacker worked
with the defender, i.e. if the defender was a new student attacks were
carried out slowly and deliberately. As the defender progressed the
attacks became quicker and "tricks" were occasionly thrown in, e.g. a
straight punch might be hooked to keep the defender "honest". The
defensive moves were usually adapted from kata to support kata practice.
This allowed everyone to see how to make use of the abstract kata which
they were learning, and to work on timing, distancing, etc. with a
minimum risk of injury.

Free sparring was never really emphasized, it was considered more of a
"fun" drill. No one sparred at first, we waited until the student seemed
prepared for it. There was no real rank requirement to spar as this was
a small University based class and the instructor merely made a
judgement call. Even then, at least one participant was always a senior
student. When a (relatively) advanced student sparred with a junior
student the senior was expected to challenge the junior but not pummel
them. What this usually meant was that the senior student would mostly
just defend himself against the junior students attacks as long the
junior student remained aggressive. If the match turned into the two
people just looking at each other then the senior student would break
the cease-fire. :-) Note that this doesn't mean that the senior student
never threw offensive moves against a younger student - when
opportunities were presented they were pounced upon - but the junior
student was allowed to set the pace such that he was comfortable. As the
students progressed the pace increased until both sides were going all
out.

Another two cents,

Bill
______________________________________________________________________
Bill Cutts                             | INET : billc@atl.mcd.mot.com |
Systems Engineer                       | UUCP : gatech!motatl!billc   |
Motorola Technical Systems Division    | #include <disclaimer.h>      |
-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Bill Cutts                             | INET : billc@atl.mcd.mot.com |
Systems Engineer                       | UUCP : gatech!motatl!billc   |
Motorola Technical Systems Division    | #include <disclaimer.h>      |