One of the things we are taught is to wait until you have to move, and not move beforehand. The reason for this is that by then, the other person has committed his attack. By then, it would be much more difficult for him to adjust his attack to your new location. I blogged about this earlier. And indeed I have noticed the difference it made for my technique.
Now I have taken it one step further: If I don't need to move, I just stand still. Some people (esp beginners) have a mental barrier against actually trying to hit someone. They either hit to my side so that they miss me entirely, or their hit stops a feet short. If the hit stops short, it's not because they pull it but because that is how far their arm can reach.
Lately, I just stand in kamae and wait for the attack to come, but if my judgement tells me that the attack is not going to hit me, I just remain in kamae. This really freaks out some people, and I can see the look of bewilderment on their faces while they try to figure out what just happened. And then I explain to them that the point of the exercise is to evade an attack and then counterreact. If the attack is not going to hit me, then why would I react? It's pointless.
It is worse than pointless actually. First of all, my distancing will be messed up. Secondly I will learn to react to harmless attacks or respond to an attack that will miss me, rather than one that will actually hit me. This annoys me. Another pet peeve of mine is if people don't actually hit, but just extend their arm towards me. The point of being here (the dojo) is that you try to hit me and I try to prevent it. If you don't try the former, then I can't learn the latter.
And the same holds true for the attacker. If he doesn't learn to hit on target, then in a real situation he will also make a mess of his hits or miss out of habit. This may seem silly, but my previous sensei was a bouncer, and he told me that a guy he knew got his *** kicked because he had always done 'touch' karate instead of 'hit' karate. One night he had to hit someone, and his hit literally just touched the other guys face. The adrenalin made him fall back to what he did automatically.
So after I explain this, they usually correct themselves. At least for a while. But some of the beginners are getting better at it. And by the same token, they know deep down that if they don't move out of the way or at least block my punch, my fist will meet whatever I was aiming at. Of course that doesn't mean that I don't maintain control over my strikes. If they freeze or stumble, I don't KO them or break their nose. But the distance and the angle of the attack will be such that it would connect well if I did not decide to pull it.
Now I have taken it one step further: If I don't need to move, I just stand still. Some people (esp beginners) have a mental barrier against actually trying to hit someone. They either hit to my side so that they miss me entirely, or their hit stops a feet short. If the hit stops short, it's not because they pull it but because that is how far their arm can reach.
Lately, I just stand in kamae and wait for the attack to come, but if my judgement tells me that the attack is not going to hit me, I just remain in kamae. This really freaks out some people, and I can see the look of bewilderment on their faces while they try to figure out what just happened. And then I explain to them that the point of the exercise is to evade an attack and then counterreact. If the attack is not going to hit me, then why would I react? It's pointless.
It is worse than pointless actually. First of all, my distancing will be messed up. Secondly I will learn to react to harmless attacks or respond to an attack that will miss me, rather than one that will actually hit me. This annoys me. Another pet peeve of mine is if people don't actually hit, but just extend their arm towards me. The point of being here (the dojo) is that you try to hit me and I try to prevent it. If you don't try the former, then I can't learn the latter.
And the same holds true for the attacker. If he doesn't learn to hit on target, then in a real situation he will also make a mess of his hits or miss out of habit. This may seem silly, but my previous sensei was a bouncer, and he told me that a guy he knew got his *** kicked because he had always done 'touch' karate instead of 'hit' karate. One night he had to hit someone, and his hit literally just touched the other guys face. The adrenalin made him fall back to what he did automatically.
So after I explain this, they usually correct themselves. At least for a while. But some of the beginners are getting better at it. And by the same token, they know deep down that if they don't move out of the way or at least block my punch, my fist will meet whatever I was aiming at. Of course that doesn't mean that I don't maintain control over my strikes. If they freeze or stumble, I don't KO them or break their nose. But the distance and the angle of the attack will be such that it would connect well if I did not decide to pull it.
