So the weekend is finally over, oh what a weekend it was! The tournament had a fantastic turnout, with a significant increase in competitors this year (sadly the increase was in the NKF/WKF division, and not in the AJKA shobu-ippon division). Hopefully, next year will have an even bigger turnout, and so on and so forth. Anyway, back to the seminar, the things we learned were more than interesting, and multiple applications.
What we worked on wasn't strictly applicable to karate in the classical, training sense, nor was it singularly applicable to shiai kumite, but it was also very applicable in real life altercations. Here's a quick run down of things we did, and more specifically, things that I will need to be working on in the months to come:
Sensei Nathan Scarano
Sensei Nate is a sweeping expert, if you ever watch his highlight videos on YouTube, the majority of his techniques and attacks revolves around outside reaps and sweeps. In his portion of the seminar his focus was, of course, on sweeping. Not with regards to the actual sweeping technique, but how to use your body to set up for sweeps.
In any typical sparring situation, the competitors are generally matched up belt knot to belt knot, and this is fine, but when fighting you're better of cutting your opponent in half so that you only have to deal with two weapons (one hand and one foot) rather than 4 weapons. To do this you need to go toe-to-toe, your front foot lined up with your opponent's front foot. The difference is very subtle, but by setting up in this position, the hips are allowed to maintain their forward drive without having to over rotate to execute the sweep.
Doing this movement without distracting your opponent first is very difficult, though, so we introduce to the concept of zoning and making your hands take up double and triple duty. Through your kizami-zuki, but instead of leaving that hand dead, use it to immediately take away your opponents lead hand, opening him up for a second attack and distracting him further to set up the sweep.
Sensei Kevin Warner
While kata is Warner Sensei's forte, his kumite is something spectacular and dynamic to watch. As Scarano Sensei favors sweeping techniques, Warner Sensei prefers kicking, specifically mawashi-geri and ushiro-geri. Warner Sensei's session built upon what we worked on with Scarano Sensei, and looked primarily to fix the issues he saw with our techniques. Warner Sensei's main observation of our first session was that many of us disengaged our hips before moving - this being a huge tell in competition that can give your opponent the fractions of a second needed to score first.
We worked on keeping our hips tucked and engaged towards our opponents without breaking the hip when driving into lead leg mawashi and inside footsweeps with the lead leg; particularly in combination. Warner Sensei's main point was that with the hip constantly engaged your creating a dynamic tension like a spring which just needs to be released, not to be wound up extra. Once your hip is cocked forward, you can throw any technique with minimal set up and very little telegraphing.
Sensei Leslie Safar
As usual Safar Sensei's session was very basic, but had a lot of insight into the simplicity of technique. Safar Sensei's primary focus was on maintaining proper range for execution of technique and using body management to create distance and space. In real kumite, a karate-ka doesn't really need to move his/her feet all that much to create space, but only need to rock the hips in and out of range. Move the hip and the body should follow. The other major point that Safar Sensei had was to just keep it simple, don't over complicate simple actions and screw them up completely. Keep to your bread and butter.
I learned a lot through this weekend, about myself and about my karate. My kumite matches were far from my best performances, and I know I can easily beat both of the opponents that I had. I lost to one and I had a draw with the other. Both of those matches should have been mine. Scarano Sensei told me that I dominated the mat, that I controlled the pace of the matches (especially the second one), but once I had control I didn't do anything with it. I need to start using my ability to control the ring, and add in techniques, or plays as Coach put it. I'm going to work on three combinations from now on, those are my bread and butter that will work for me 100% of the time.
The other thing that this weekend highlighted for me was that while I am fairly fit, I've definitely let myself go with regards to my fitness. I've gained a not insignificant amount of weight, and I've slowed down a little bit. It's time to get back on the wagon, and get my ass in gear. Prioritizing needs to come first, school and dojo are my priorities, nothing else matters right now. Along with the dojo comes the general fitness work that I need to put in. Running doesn't seem like a viable option anymore, but swimming is definitely a good option.
Starting next week I'm going to begin hitting the weights three days per week, swimming three days per week and dojo at least three days per week. Wish me luck!
What we worked on wasn't strictly applicable to karate in the classical, training sense, nor was it singularly applicable to shiai kumite, but it was also very applicable in real life altercations. Here's a quick run down of things we did, and more specifically, things that I will need to be working on in the months to come:
Sensei Nathan Scarano
Sensei Nate is a sweeping expert, if you ever watch his highlight videos on YouTube, the majority of his techniques and attacks revolves around outside reaps and sweeps. In his portion of the seminar his focus was, of course, on sweeping. Not with regards to the actual sweeping technique, but how to use your body to set up for sweeps.
In any typical sparring situation, the competitors are generally matched up belt knot to belt knot, and this is fine, but when fighting you're better of cutting your opponent in half so that you only have to deal with two weapons (one hand and one foot) rather than 4 weapons. To do this you need to go toe-to-toe, your front foot lined up with your opponent's front foot. The difference is very subtle, but by setting up in this position, the hips are allowed to maintain their forward drive without having to over rotate to execute the sweep.
Doing this movement without distracting your opponent first is very difficult, though, so we introduce to the concept of zoning and making your hands take up double and triple duty. Through your kizami-zuki, but instead of leaving that hand dead, use it to immediately take away your opponents lead hand, opening him up for a second attack and distracting him further to set up the sweep.
Sensei Kevin Warner
While kata is Warner Sensei's forte, his kumite is something spectacular and dynamic to watch. As Scarano Sensei favors sweeping techniques, Warner Sensei prefers kicking, specifically mawashi-geri and ushiro-geri. Warner Sensei's session built upon what we worked on with Scarano Sensei, and looked primarily to fix the issues he saw with our techniques. Warner Sensei's main observation of our first session was that many of us disengaged our hips before moving - this being a huge tell in competition that can give your opponent the fractions of a second needed to score first.
We worked on keeping our hips tucked and engaged towards our opponents without breaking the hip when driving into lead leg mawashi and inside footsweeps with the lead leg; particularly in combination. Warner Sensei's main point was that with the hip constantly engaged your creating a dynamic tension like a spring which just needs to be released, not to be wound up extra. Once your hip is cocked forward, you can throw any technique with minimal set up and very little telegraphing.
Sensei Leslie Safar
As usual Safar Sensei's session was very basic, but had a lot of insight into the simplicity of technique. Safar Sensei's primary focus was on maintaining proper range for execution of technique and using body management to create distance and space. In real kumite, a karate-ka doesn't really need to move his/her feet all that much to create space, but only need to rock the hips in and out of range. Move the hip and the body should follow. The other major point that Safar Sensei had was to just keep it simple, don't over complicate simple actions and screw them up completely. Keep to your bread and butter.
I learned a lot through this weekend, about myself and about my karate. My kumite matches were far from my best performances, and I know I can easily beat both of the opponents that I had. I lost to one and I had a draw with the other. Both of those matches should have been mine. Scarano Sensei told me that I dominated the mat, that I controlled the pace of the matches (especially the second one), but once I had control I didn't do anything with it. I need to start using my ability to control the ring, and add in techniques, or plays as Coach put it. I'm going to work on three combinations from now on, those are my bread and butter that will work for me 100% of the time.
The other thing that this weekend highlighted for me was that while I am fairly fit, I've definitely let myself go with regards to my fitness. I've gained a not insignificant amount of weight, and I've slowed down a little bit. It's time to get back on the wagon, and get my ass in gear. Prioritizing needs to come first, school and dojo are my priorities, nothing else matters right now. Along with the dojo comes the general fitness work that I need to put in. Running doesn't seem like a viable option anymore, but swimming is definitely a good option.
Starting next week I'm going to begin hitting the weights three days per week, swimming three days per week and dojo at least three days per week. Wish me luck!
