Journey to a new style...

[Yokozuna514]

Hey Simon,

I enjoyed reading about your training session. Even on those days when we do not feel like training is the best time to train . We may not get the pump but there is something to be said about the discipline of moving the needle forward even if it is just an inch at a time. Keep sharing your sessions because someone is reading about them and finding their fuel.

A friend of mine invited me to train at his judo dojo last night. It was fun to strap on a white belt again and just follow along. Although I had taken judo many years ago, the break falls came back rather quickly. The terminology is pretty much the same (in Japanese) so that was fairly simple to understand. A parent of a student recognized me from my dojo as I taught his daughter for a couple of years. He was wondering if I was going to branch out and pick up another art to compliment the Kyokushin but I'm not looking for another 10 year commitment. The class was fun and the group was nice. Always good to train with an old friend but I am sure he is looking to throw me at some point, hahaha.

Keep at it and keep posting the sessions.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Last night only one training brother Jess, and no students in class. So we both did a 30 minute stretch and bs session and then worked some two person forms for the rest of class. Very low intensity but it was good for both of us to take a slow easy day and just focus on focus. Sometimes that enough.

 

[Fungus]

OH and in sparring they also encouraged us to use elbows, tetsui (hammerfist), uraken (backfist) etc as well!

Old post, but I am curious how you used uraken in sparring? I like this technique myself and train it everytime on other hardest bag, or a beam. It's extremely fast and can deliver local force but little energy. So I have been figuring howto use it in sparring (as jodan would be the most obvious application for decense bare knuckle).

I only came up with using it on the opponens guard, and strike the upperside of their hand/fist with my knuckles or possibly a snap to the center of hte chest bone?

How did you use it assuming it was not to the head? Any padding on your knuckles from gloves makes the strike useless as well.

I still train it because it like the technique, but i miss applying it in sparring. hitting the hands is closest thing i can come up with that would be effective.

 

[_Simon_]

Old post, but I am curious how you used uraken in sparring? I like this technique myself and train it everytime on other hardest bag, or a beam. It's extremely fast and can deliver local force but little energy. So I have been figuring howto use it in sparring (as jodan would be the most obvious application for decense bare knuckle).

I only came up with using it on the opponens guard, and strike the upperside of their hand/fist with my knuckles or possibly a snap to the center of hte chest bone?

How did you use it assuming it was not to the head? Any padding on your knuckles from gloves makes the strike useless as well.

I still train it because it like the technique, but i miss applying it in sparring. hitting the hands is closest thing i can come up with that would be effective.

Ah nice, yeah those are ways you can do it. I can't remember in that specific club how we did it, but I still use uraken in sparring nowadays every now and then.

I've used it as a sort of dropping over their guard to the nose (we don't make contact with urakens to the face haha). Like I'll press their guard down with one hand and roll over the top smoothly with a uraken.

Also doing a yoko uraken to the side of their head too. But I have done it to the body too making contact. If their guard is too high a side backfist to their ribs is quick and let's them know their guard isn't protecting their ribs hehe.

 

[Stuarto]

Posted this in another thread but thought I'd repost here just cos.

Had a really rough day internally and wasn't able to get to karate. I know, probably what's best would have been to go, be with people, train etc, but just not in the headspace at all...

Managed to train at home and it was really nice.

-5 minutes Zhan Zhuang standing meditation: really great check-in to the body doing this, seeing where tensions are etc... not something I'm well experienced with but am exploring.
-Tensho: interestingly it felt like the Zhan Zhuang had some sort of impact on this... my body felt really unified and connected through the movements, AND my gaze was much better. Usually it drifts downwards but it held steady out to the horizon. Really interesting...
-Warmup on the heavy bag, a weird way to warm up but here we are! Mixing it up.
-Kihon, everything x20: Focus on power and intensity
-2x Sepai: 1x water version (which means no real power at all, doing it with flow and not stopping between techniques), 1x with power
-Bag 1x 2m round: freestyle
-2x Naifunchi Shodan : 1x water version, 1x with power
-Bag 1x 2m round
-2x Gekisai Sho : 1x water version, 1x with power
-Bag 1x 2m round (music off for last round, so I could just hear my breathing and the sounds of strikes thwacking the bag)

Sometimes I go in with a theme, other times I won't plan a single thing, and then others I'll write down some stuff I wanna work on, and the theme becomes apparent afterwards. Was like my inner self knew the theme and orchestrated it without me knowing haha.

Oh and for something different I trained by candlelight haha. The candlelight... the windows fogging up, breath, intensity, flow, swishing of the dogi... There's a real poetry in solo training... a sentiment of stepping into your aloneness to explore a depth you don't quite understand, but are willing to step into.

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I agree Simon, sometimes you are just not in the right mindset to train with others. There is a nice peace to training alone where you can explore, free from the eyes of others. I get a decent amount of dojo time in but I also will also go over my techniques and kata at home, and I can practice them in any order. Thank you for sharing my friend.

 

[_Simon_]

I agree Simon, sometimes you are just not in the right mindset to train with others. There is a nice peace to training alone where you can explore, free from the eyes of others. I get a decent amount of dojo time in but I also will also go over my techniques and kata at home, and I can practice them in any order. Thank you for sharing my friend.

Hey appreciate your thoughts, that's a nice perspective

 

[Fungus]

Ah nice, yeah those are ways you can do it. I can't remember in that specific club how we did it, but I still use uraken in sparring nowadays every now and then.

I've used it as a sort of dropping over their guard to the nose (we don't make contact with urakens to the face haha). Like I'll press their guard down with one hand and roll over the top smoothly with a uraken.

Also doing a yoko uraken to the side of their head too. But I have done it to the body too making contact. If their guard is too high a side backfist to their ribs is quick and let's them know their guard isn't protecting their ribs hehe.

Ah those two first are I think the prime applications of it, but as you say in sparring it would then be non-contact for those versions. I was looking for contact version to apply, this is why central chest bone or hands was what i had come up with so far. Of course striking the opponents hands would be done not with full snap force anyway, as I think it could even cause fractures of the hand. As I practice it on a beam or hard bag, i get pretty deecnt snap force into it. But breaking bones in the hand likely does not need much energy at all, so i suspect it might be enough if you have no gloves and the opponent has no gloves.

The contact follow up to dragging the guard down i've used is just a shuto to the chest or arm muscles, as while that use a bigger aread it has much more energy than an uraken. But in a self defence the same strike could goto the neck.

But its fun with technique you can safely apply in sparring and actually train on a moving target.

 

[Fungus]

There's a real poetry in solo training... a sentiment of stepping into your aloneness to explore a depth you don't quite understand, but are willing to step into.

As somone with back issues and problems with many "basic" things, I have regularly replaced some of the "group trainings" with solo training, and in the beginning it was a substitute but now I also feel that it sometimes is more satsifying as sometimes you have your own idea of "I want to train this or that" and if that doesnt happen in a group class then you go home feeling not satisfied. With solo training, you can focus on whatever have been on your mind the last week, and do it not just 20 times, but spend half an ahour on it if that is what it takes. So while I miss some training togethre, solo training does come with values as well, and having the discipline to actuall train on your own, also gives a sense or more power and control in that you are not just dependent on others, you have this under your own control, and that suits me as a person.

That said, nothing can replace weekly sparrings! There the training partners are worth gold.

 

[HighKick]

Old post, but I am curious how you used uraken in sparring? I like this technique myself and train it everytime on other hardest bag, or a beam. It's extremely fast and can deliver local force but little energy. So I have been figuring howto use it in sparring (as jodan would be the most obvious application for decense bare knuckle).

I only came up with using it on the opponens guard, and strike the upperside of their hand/fist with my knuckles or possibly a snap to the center of hte chest bone?

How did you use it assuming it was not to the head? Any padding on your knuckles from gloves makes the strike useless as well.

I still train it because it like the technique, but i miss applying it in sparring. hitting the hands is closest thing i can come up with that would be effective.

Backfist? In points tournaments that allow punching to the face, I would say the backfist accrues more points than any other technique.
That quick flip from the elbow can be really, really fast, and in points tourneys it doesn't take much contact to count.