Share your most recent sparring/kumite session with The Coli

[KyokushinKarateMan]

Everybody is welcome to share.. boxers, mma practicioners, traditional martial artists, freestylers.. anyone and everyone, I strongly encourage ALL.

Sparring is a very essential developmental aspect of any fight-training.
And before going any further I want it to be noted that I have specified fight-training, not self-defense training, in regards to the importance of regular sparring.

Be it shadow sparring, light contact sparring, or full contact sparring, there is no better training tool for developing a sense of distance, timing, and the opportunity to apply your trained techniques in a real-time scenario with resistance(your sparring partner) that sparring gives cannot be simulated any other way.

As an aside, there is a great learning experience to be had here with all the people on the forum who train. And with us encompassing so many different arts and styles of fighting/combat, it should make for an endless bound of resourceful tidbits and interesting stories, and I look forward to reading them.

Osu!


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I will go first, and will try to be as detailed as possible.

My last kumite(sparring) was last week, Thursday. It was a "round robin" format, where everybody in the dojo fought everybody at least once. Sensei even threw himself into the fire, as he sometimes does (but it's definitely not an often occurrence).

My first round was against a green belt. I'm 5ft 11in tall, 170lbs. He's about 5'8ish-5'9, maybe 155-160. He's quick, and an awesome kicker, and also great with his level of contact on lower grades (I am but a 10th kyu, orange), although I wish he would be more aggressive and hit harder at times.
The round was good, a lot of footwork at play and kicking. I am fairly proficient with my gedan mawashi geri(low roundhouse kick to the leg/thigh) and I managed to execute those at the end of a few combos. I have a history of catching this particular dojo mate with jodan mawashi geri(high roundhouse kick to head) so I launched a few, and missed.
Then he caught me with one. All I heard was a bang and saw a flash of bright white light- and then in the very next instant we were fighting again. Me and this particular partner usually manages to find a sweet rhythm when we kumite, and this time was no different. Shortly after he managed to land his jodan mawashi geri, I began to keep the distance closer than before and after throwing a right jodan mawashi geri and missing [although it clipped him just above his eyelid/below his eyebrow and cut him with my big toe's nail

] I immediately followed up with a straight left punch-right uppercut-left jodan mawashi geri combo, and melted the kick right alongside the back of his jawline and just beneath the ear (with a safe level of contact of course!). He had a brief look of amazement/proudness at me executing the combo, and in a flash we were at it again.. but only momentarily as Sensei ordered everyone onto the next partner.

Nothing much really worth telling happened until I reached my 3rd partner (brown belt, 6ft-even, or maybe 6'1, and weighs about 200lbs). This guy, smh.. I love him to death as my sempai, but man, he is such a freight train during kumite. And I can never land any thing solid on him, aside from my usually proficient gedan mawashi geri(low roundhouse kick to the leg/thigh). But I land those on everybody, and vice versa, so, nothing to be excited about.
He is a much older gentleman, in his 50s I believe, but fit enough to send guys decades younger than him limping out of the dojo..
And this round promised to be no differently

And you know what?, it was my fault that it went so brutally I've since concluded

. You see, there is a code in Kyokushin sparring, and it is to never dish out more than you're willing to take back; meaning- however hard(or lightly) you hit your partner is the same level of contact you will recieve in return..
So what ha-happened this round was basically my own doing.
As soon as we started I closed the distance, and then got knocked right back to where I started with his usual "seems-to-appear-out-of-nowhere" mae geri(front kick).
I let it frustrate me to a degree, thinking "oh no, you will not dominate me with that shyt today!", and rushed back in with a nice one-two punch into gedan mawashi geri combination.. only problem was that the "two" in the "one-two" had a little too much spice on it, and I knew it soon as it landed by the way it sank into his gut and lifted him slightly.. heard him groan a little.. and as a result the rest of that round was spent with me getting great practice on running..err uhh I mean footwork/circling and getting pummeled when I wasn't runni-- uh I mean evading and circling.
I was glad when that round was over.
Then Sensei was next.

I've sparred with Sensei before, and it's always the same with me- I can never bring myself to hit him with any real force. I pitty pat and love tap , but no real effort put into the techniques.
I don't know if it's my being apprehensive about hitting him too hard and him turning up the heat on me the way sempai(mentioned above) does, or if it's just my not wanting to 'disrespect' him in any way.
Im not sure.
And as usual he noticed it right away, and demanded that I hit him harder.
Osu!, I said, but didn't..
I continued my love taps and just worked on my footwork.
He called an end to that round quickly

Then it was back to the green belt, I believe. Or maybe there was one other person sandwiched in there, can't quite recall.
I recall making it back to the green belt partner though because it was a round that we were both exhausted, yet I managed to execute a "new" technique that Sensei had been trying to drill into us for a while.
It's a "push-kick" style mae-geri sort of hybrid, and it's not so much meant as a strike as it is meant to just knock an opponent off balance as he starts to either advance towards you or throw a kick.
I started by throwing a right ushiro geri(back kick), which he easily evaded and began to execute his counter- but I immediately followed it up with the push-mae geri(left leg) and it caught him just as he was lifting his knee for a high roundhouse(kick he caught me with earlier).
It worked like a charm better than it did during partner drills, even.. due to the live momentum/speed of sparring vs the slower pace of drills, I suppose.
It knocked him back pretty far, almost to the floor.
It was the second time that day he paused in amazement at a technique that I'd executed. He even had this wow-ish half smile thing going on, in that moment.
He was truly impressed, and it felt good. Positive feedback is always good from the higher grades of the dojo.

Overall another great sparring session!

Osu!

 

[Amare's Right Hook]

A war story thread ? Subs

 

[KyokushinKarateMan]

Kumite today.
Fought 2 people, 1 round with the first guy, 2 rounds with the second. (odd number of ppl showed up today, plus 2 noobs and noobs aren't allowed to spar so the pairing up was a bit off)

My first partner was an orange belt, like myself.
He is an older gentleman, somewhere in his late 40s early 50s I believe he once mentioned.
He's a short but wide and powerful man, and has Karate experience from years past.
For his build he is surprisingly fast, though not very mobile, if that makes any sense.
Round 1 began with me completely lost. I just could not get into the moment, and as a result spent most of the round eating one strike after another, running into strikes, eating leg kick after leg kick with no visible effort made to check them. It is not unusual to be a little achy after a session of hard sparring, but tonight both of my thighs are tender and throbbing.. hell, my thumb and lip too(but I'll talk about that in a later round).
After round 1 Sensei sat me down and brought someone else up for round 2.



After round 2 of those matchups, everyone changed partners and I was brought back to the floor and paired with the brown belt I spoke of in my initial post in this thread.



Round 1, the contact was hard and fast from the start and I will admit caught me a little off guard.
You see, in Kyokushin sparring, when sparring with a higher kyu, especially one as high as brown belt(brown is the belt just before black), they are responsible for setting the tone of the fight and are expected to do so at a level complementary to the lower kyu standing in front of them.
They are to teach through their sparring, while at the same time kicking your ass. Not just "try to kick your ass", period.

So again, I was a bit taken aback with how the round began. But I quickly recovered and reminded myself who I was paired with.
This guy always hits hard, never tries to (positively)challenge or teach you, just tries to freight train and pummel you into oblivion.
I immediately turned everything up. I swear there's nothing like getting the crap knocked out of you to bring you back into focus, back into the moment.
He's older, as I mentioned in post 1 of the thread. Somewhere in his 50s. As a result he's not very fast and has slightly limited mobility, as is to be expected at his age relative to a guy my age.
I used this to my advantage and kept him on the move while at the same time draining his stamina. I wanted to work on my footwork and timing and he is the perfect person to partner up with for that because if you don't get out of the way you're getting rocked. I easily lured him into two ushiro geri (back kicks) and neither of them were very pleasant.
But it was the tone that he set so I enjoyed hearing the air go flying out of him when each one landed. Today I just wasn't in the mood for his over-aggression.

Round 2, I thought I was going to lose my cool.
The round begins and he's visibly a little frustrated at this point and is doing his usual smash and bash attempts. I stood in the fire and traded with him, knowing that it would only further his aggression and allow me to set up more easily.
Well, before that could even happen he ended up catching me smack in the mouth with a right. There was no reason for that and not only was it not his first time catching me illegally like that, but he's done it with others in the dojo as well.
I was furious.
I threw everything I had, and I threw it all with bad intentions. I'm generally known in the dojo for head hunting(perfectly legal) but up until this point I had hadn't thrown a single head kick. Mostly out of respect for him and knowing that I could probably smack him with one whenever I really felt like it. All of that went out the front door.
I set him up to come stepping in and soon as he did I stepped left, punch-punch, and launched a front-leg jodan mawashi geri(high roundhouse kick). I threw that kick with fury, anger, and frustration and I knew it the moment my foot left the floor. And you know what?, I should have followed through and turned his lights out with it, but instead, by the time it reached him I just let it slide along the top of his shoulder and it just tapped him in the neck a little. (he still got reprimanded by Sensei for not keeping his hands up ).
Another "advantage" I usually have over him is that he doesn't check leg kicks, and with his skinny and old legs you can really punish him if need be. Today, it needed be. I slammed leg kick after leg kick into his thighs.
Sensei had had enough after that and called an end to our round. He constantly had to remind us to breathe, relax, focus, we are sparring not fighting, etc, and we wouldn't listen.


When fighting it is VITAL that you stay relaxed.
It greatly increases stamina, and it greatly reduces injury. The moment you become tense and tighten up and let the adrenaline take over, you can generally count on something bad happening. And as a result of my fighting frustrated and tight and unfocused during that second round, I screwed my thumb up somewhere in the melee and now I probably will not be able to (fully)train tomorrow. Clearly the result of fighting tense and wild and out of control. I will not let someone else's lack of control draw me out of my focus like that again, though.
Lesson learned.

Osu!

 

[Amare's Right Hook]

Tensing up is only wasting energy, learning to relax and breathe properly is crucial.

 

[TheNig]

Hadn't sparred since 2010 when i first got to New Orleans. I'm 186 lbs at the time and the guy that wanted to spar was about 150 and about 5 inches shorter. He did the amateur circuit in Colorado before joining the Navy. He was pretty good but I just neutralized him with my jab the entire time.

one thing I dont like is taking body shots. Everyone on here that knows me, knows i hate getting hit in the stomach. the reason why I started using boxing strictly for training and recreation is becuz of a body shot taking me down when about 17 or 18. dude was putting in work on my ribs. still tho, it was fun.

 

[KyokushinKarateMan]

Hadn't sparred since 2010 when i first got to New Orleans. I'm 186 lbs at the time and the guy that wanted to spar was about 150 and about 5 inches shorter. He did the amateur circuit in Colorado before joining the Navy. He was pretty good but I just neutralized him with my jab the entire time.

one thing I dont like is taking body shots. Everyone on here that knows me, knows i hate getting hit in the stomach. the reason why I started using boxing strictly for training and recreation is becuz of a body shot taking me down when about 17 or 18. dude was putting in work on my ribs. still tho, it was fun.

Ouch!
Nothing to really fret about though, and it seems you don't, being that you've chosen to continue training.

Training recreationally is still beneficial for health reasons and just in case you find yourself in a fight with some random hood nucca or someone. You will, barring some freak incident, put a beatdown on him.

 

[KyokushinKarateMan]

Kumite/6-6-14

I sparred with a fellow 10th kyu/orange belt. Well, two, actually.

The first one is a fellow who stands the same height as me but is at least 20 pounds heavier.. solid, though..not fat. He is quite the challenge as he is heavy handed and very adept at countering. My approach today was supposed to be all about footwork, distance, and timing.
I am not pleased with today's results.

Round 1, my 'approach' for the day that I spoke of above went out of the dojo entrance instantaneously and my "new plan" was to keep the distance close and tight and crowd him like a boxer sometimes does.

My combination of choice was to one-two punch and then work on getting my knee raised high enough to effectively crash gedan mawashis down into his thighs at the end of the one-two combo(knee has to get up higher than usual to throw gedan mawashi kicks effectively at that close of a range).
It played out the way I wanted it to only once

The rest of the short amount of time that I spent "trying" to crowd my good friend, well, he made me pay for it by simply blasting away through my guard and landing punch after punch. I did manage to block more punches than usual(normally I'm a two legged punching bag during kumite) and that gave me a moment of satisfaction, but just as quickly as I began to manage to defend pretty well up top I also began eating gedan mawashi geris down below.

Which reminds me..
Sensei also had to step in and remind me not to kick my partner's knee, and to instead aim for the thigh. It was such a moment of embarrassment, him having to remind me of that. I do not know what was wrong with me today.
I have never thrown such ill advised gedan mawashi geri, and it happened more than once during that round (which is what initially prompted Sensei to step in and address me about it).
I didn't stick to that approach long, that whole 'crowd my parnter' idea, and instead went back to what I'm "good" at, circling, in and out, jodan mawashi's. I immediately leveled the playing field back to out in doing so, and with the extra breathing room I was able to practice more techniques and, specifically, my beloved feints.
And boy o boy did I execute a good one.
He was coming in on his usual straight line path to which I met him head up like a bull and engaged in a minor exchange before stepping back one step. That step-back drew him in, which I knew it would, and I immediately lifted my lead leg up and placed a jodan mawashi geri against his ear. It may be hard to picture how a step-back flows into that, but simply put, the step back was with my right foot and it also doubled as a plant-foot in preparation for the kick I knew I was going to do. So when I did it, it kind of just seemed as if I was retreating and then BANG!, meet my left in-step. He congratulated me and we continued on, but the flow of action was a lot more measured and deliberate for the remainder of that round

Round 2 was with the older, short, powerful gentleman I spoke of in a previous post above. We had a pretty good round. I purposely didn't throw much and instead used that round as a defensive training round. He tired much quicker than usual today though, and in response I toned down my pace as well. Was a little bummed about that as I wanted to keep the same pace me and my prior partner had but there's a lot to be learned at each pace, respectively, and of that I took full advantage. I learned during that round that I actually am starting to finally develop a half decent inside gedan mawashi geri(I don't think that's the term for the inside version?). The easier pace also allowed me to do a better job at "seeing" an opening, instead of always trying to feint and fake my partner into opening up.

Today's sparring was great in that it was another injury free, productive session; but I could've done without being so off my game the way I was.
I just wasn't all-in today in regards to focus.

(got to class late, too.)

Osu

 

[KyokushinKarateMan]

My apologies, been a while and many a sparring session since I've shared.
Since the last time I've shared I've even promoted to 9th Kyu (orange belt/blue tip)
Anyway, on to the most recent sparring session..
08/20/14


I came to training with a slightly pulled muscle in my lower back.
And I deserved it.
Got horny a few hours before training and decided to thrash wifey to death
Gingerly pulled a lower back muscle somehow during the beatdown
Arrived at class extra early to have extra time to stretch it out, but no bueno.
We did a 3 man rotation/round robin format of sparring that day. First round was against the short, stocky built, older gentleman I've discussed in previous posts. He's the same rank as I, as well.
I started off trying to keep things simple..punch, punch, gedan mawashi geri (low roundhouse kick), reposition(my own lil added touch).. one of the most fundamental combos of knockdown karate.
I had a little trouble executing, though, because as I've mentioned before, this particular gentleman is not only a former Karateka of another karate style but he's also surprisingly mobile..and hits hard..
I found my combinations, ,instead, being chopped off after the first punch.
When it was supposed to be punch, punch, low kick, it became punch-defend or get smashed.
I realized quickly what the issue was, though. Too much standing in front of him.
I remembered that he is equally as mobile as he is slow.. and I know that may be hard to imagine, but it is so..
I used my own mobility and speed to counter his mobility and lack of speed, and began to execute my combinations.

It's crazy how if you just DO WHAT YOU ARE TOLD during training, HOW YOU ARE TOLD TO DO IT, the ish just works
Or in other words, stick to the basics and everything else will come to fruition. I reminded myself of that and the rest of that round was spent sharpening my positioning and timing.
I did very well, although I take it with a grain of salt considering that my partner is much older.
But in sparring, it's not about winning, it's about learning..and I learned and sharpened a lot that round.




Next partner was one of my fav dojo partners to spar with.. a younger cat (dude's only 18) who stands about 6-4, but he's not a skinny "basketball" type 6-4, but instead more of a slim/muscular build like Jon Bones Jones type of 6'4 and is a HS wrestler. He is a rank higher than I(blue belt) also, but hasn't trained in quite some time.

I took that into account and told myself I'd go light and deliberate with him, you know, ease him back in.
What does my big lil homey do soon as Sensei yells fight!, ?

Smashes me.


Bam bam, overhand right to the sternum, uppercut left to the solar plexus

Woke me up instantly and was a sharp reminder that young nuccas don't get "rusty" like my self would've been after missing the time he has.(which really wasn't much)

I returned with my own combination (my usual basic mentioned above) and slid around him. He wasn't too thrown off , though, and proceeded to hammer me again with a few punches.

I really "woke up" at that point and went into focused mode.
And not a moment too soon as he set me up soo nice for a high roundhouse kick which, had it landed, would've stunned the crap outa me, at the least.

This kid is long and he's powerful.
Thankfully, he's not very fast.

I was set up nicely to get caught by it, yes, but my positioning allowed me to see it (thank god because I did not plan it that way and will not take credit) and I blocked it. I countered it with some punching, bull rush style.. then feinted left and turned the action into a simple middle roundhouse switch kick that caught him in the ribs(chudan mawashi geri).
Heard that trademark "umph" of air escape him

Round was called shortly thereafter.


There were 2 more rounds with 1 other partner but right now I'm too tired at the moment to continue with this post my bad its already a crazy long post anyway.



- as a reminder, any and all who may be engaging in any type of sparring- be it boxing or martial arts or MMA, full contact or light, are encouraged to share your experiences.



Osu

 

[KyokushinKarateMan]

Not the most recent sparring session, but it was very recent and, to date, it is now definitely the most memorable




Sept, 3, 2014 was the day...

Sparred the first two rounds against a green belt. He is a very proficient kicker and I always learn a lot sparring with him.
Our sparring sessions usually goes as follows: circle, strike, counter -strike, circle, jodan mawashi geri(high roundhouse kick).
This time proved to be no different and it was a great 2 rounds of footwork and timing, and lots of noticeable improvement.
I'm becoming more adept at countering his kicks instead of just "pausing" after I block or evade the kicks.
And at timing his kicks too. I've been going mae geri(front kick) crazy lately and have been trying to time it as my partner is about to kick, and it's been finally starting to come to fruition...before, i was only having sporadic success with it.

The next two rounds were with a young kid, a blue belt. He's a very tall guy, but not skinny/lanky..just lean and solid.
I like kumite with him as well because of the challenges his height and reach present. I always make it a point to throw jodan mawashi geri when sparring with him, as a challenge to myself (due to his height)...




Round 1, we had a pretty good rhythm going - in and out, back and forth, strike counter strike..
I got in close which is normally ideally what I like to do with him because of his reach, but this time I paid for it and ate a hiza geri(knee kick) straight to the ribs.

As we circled back around I snuck back in close and began a small non-stop 'punchfest' to distract him, and then stepped back slightly and landed a left jodan mawashi geri against his head.
He became even more alive after that and things got very animated as we circled and traded. He started mixing it up, throwing ushiro geri(back kick) every once in a while.
I crowded him again using the same "distract him with a barrage of punches" technique and then bang, landed a right jodan mawashi geri to the other side of his head as the previous one.

It was different this time though

This time, as I was bringing my leg back he was in mid-kick for another ushiro geri. I didn't feel it at first, but he landed it (mistakenly) smack dead in my groin.

When I came down I immediately felt my left testicle wasn't "right". Then the pain slowly started to come, but even that was very low, considering wat'd just happened..
My biggest concern in those moments was the weird feeling of my testicle. It felt as if it was it's own "seperate" appendage, and every step I took it felt like it was barely hanging on.
Very hard to describe. I stopped immediately and indicated my groin, and Sensei rushed over and lifted me up a few times, etc.

Fortunately it was the end of that round and shortly after also the end of class.
We bowed out and immediately I headed down to the locker room, scared to death.
Got into a bathroom stall and looked down my pants... my testicles had swollen to the size of about a cantaloupe, literally.

Fought off a tny wave of mild shock, then pulled my pants back up, gathered my things and drove myself straight to the emergency room...dogi(karate uniform) still on and everything.
By the time I'd gotten to the hospital the pain still really wasn't the most "intense" thing about the situation. It was barely noticeable, even.. which strikes me as odd every time I think about it, considering I've been accidentally hit there before in kumite with far less force, yet, it hurt way more.

The worse thing about it all was how uncomfortable and heavy and grotesque it all was to me.

I was put into a wheelchair and wheeled up to a room, some pretty little blonde nurse did an ultrasound on my swollen buddies, was so embarrassing ...

Doctor came into the room some time later with the results and told me, verbatim, "dude, all you have is a really bad ass bruise."

Words cannot express how relieved I was. During the wait time I had googled groin injuries, specifically the ones resulting in my type of swelling, and had seen that it could be something that required surgery (torsion, for instance). So i was uber relieved when he walked in and stated that it was just a "bad ass bruise".

But the next 2 weeks were a living hell, and it was if it all began that very night that I finally got home from the hospital..

The pain was exactly what you would imagine it would be if a man gets kicked in the balls hard enough to make them swell up to the size of a cantaloupe.
It was HELL.
And as with all bruises, it only got worse each day before it got better.

Easily some of the worst pain in my life was during that 12-14 days or so, second only to the time when I broke my arm.(that pain was indescribable. no words )



Today, I would say I am about easily about 98 % healed. Zero pain and Zero swelling.
I only say 98% instead of 100% because when I'm self examining I can still feel a tiny abnormality of swell tissue still breaking down in there.. but it's virtually gone too, and gets less and less each day.

And let me go ahead and say it and get it out of the way before someone else does :
"spar full contact without wearing a groin cup brehs "



Aside from that incident, kumite was great!

Osu