Karate Talk

Sweeping Techniques

I've never liked sweeps.  Not because they're not an effective technique -- quite the opposite.  They're very effective in the right circumstances, and against the right people.  Me, for instance.  As I was coming up through the ranks, everyone wanted to practice their sweeps on me because I was smaller and easier to take down.  To say that I got tired of it is a bit of an understatement.  Since these people were practicing a technique they weren't particularly good at, I ended up hitting the ground in bad ways, having my legs twisted at the ankle and knee, getting kicked HARD in the foot, ankle, calf muscle or knee by poorly targeted sweeps.  I particularly learned to loathe people who had no concept of timing or targeting, but would wait until I was a stationary target and then just try to kick my leg, anywhere on the lower leg, hard enough to take me down.  This happened more often than I care to remember.

Have I mentioned I hate sweeps?

My husband, bless his heart, loves to sweep.  He's good at it, too.  Good hip motion, great timing, plus long legs.  It's a really good technique for him, because he can do it quite effectively.  He wants to do some play sparring with me after training once a week or so, practice some new techniques and get timing.  I told him I would on the condition that he could only try to sweep me once per session.  This wasn't happy-making for him; sweeps are one thing he wants to work on alot.  I suggested he work on them with someone else.  He tried to convince me that I'm higher rank now, faster reflexes, yadda yadda yadda, quite a lot of words that all mean you can take it now so pretty please let me spend an hour or so trying to knock your feet out from under you?

This was one of those occasions where we had to quit being sparring partners, and go back to being husband and wife.  His wife does not wish to have her butt hit the ground a lot, nor to risk injuries to lower leg joints that are just healing up from the last round of tweaks.  The husband had to concede this was probably fair.

Last night in class we practiced a drill that included sweeping techniques.  I have bruises on both ankles, a sore right knee, and a really impressive bruise on the back of one calf, from a sweep that was much closer to a hook kick to the knee.  My Achilles tendon is quite sore on the left side. 

It's safe to say I still hate sweeps.

So here's the dilemma:  Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of bad sweeping technique, but sweeping is hard and in order to make your sweeping techniques better, you need to practice them.  A lot.  On people.  With power and speed.  This requires people willing to be on the receiving end of bad sweeps.  If anyone out there is working on sweeping techniques, let me give you a few pointers, from the queen of sweep targets. 

First of all, timing is critical.  The good sweep hits just as the foot is landing, as the weight is being planted and their forward motion cannot be stopped.  If you let their stance land and plant, then you're not really sweeping, you're just kicking them in the lower leg, and if you do it hard enough to take them down, then you're probably hurting them. 

Second, the best sweeps are ground level, right at the person's heel.  It takes a lot more strength if you nail them in the ankle or the calf, which is closer to the center and thus less easily moved.  See above comments about what happens when you add a lot more strength.  Don't even think about going after someone's knees, unless you want to pay for their knee surgery.

Finally, and I really can't stress this enough, the best sweeps use the sole of the foot.  Yes, the sole.  Do not try to sweep someone by cracking them in the lower leg with your bunion or your ankle bone, unless you really hate them.  It's not nearly as effective (your leg is not in the proper position for the hip snap) and it leaves big bruises and bad tempers.  If you do this, people don't want to practice sweeps with you anymore.  They whine.  They might cry.  It's just ugly.

My final piece of advice is to practice them on someone else until you're really good, and then come to me.  At which point I will know you like to sweep, and refuse to spar with you...  =D!

The Dojo Goes Personal

So if karate is karate-do, a path through life and a part of your life, then the dojo and the people in it are part of your life, yes?  So these people are, perhaps, like the people you work with, or your friends or even your family.  Does that mean you have personal relationships with all of them?  Does it mean you should?  Or maybe, that you shouldn't?

If you train regularly in the same dojo, then you see the same people all the time.  Presumably, you get to know them, at least a little bit.  You smile, exchange greetings, make some small talk.  In some cases, you will probably develop a fuller relationship, maybe become friends and start doing things outside of the dojo.  This makes training even more fun, and sharing karate adds depth to existing relationships.  Having this sort of atmosphere is great for the dojo as a whole, as well as for the individuals.

However, as we all know, no relationship is ever stress free or trouble free.  You get in spats with your friends and family, to varying degrees of severity.  You also get miffed with people in the dojo from time to time, however much you might like them in general.  If you go to training miffed at someone for personal reasons, that can affect your ability to play nice with them in karate.  Similarly, if you have an incident with someone in the dojo who's a part of your non-dojo life, it can have a broader impact. 

A classic example of this occurred several years ago when a husband and wife were doing a sparring drill against each other.  The husband moved in quickly and tagged his wife on the nose, hard enough to make it bleed a little and make her eyes water.  As she glared at her husband and he looked like he wished the floor would swallow him whole, the sensei looked from one to the other, then looked back at the husband and commented with a laugh, "Sucks to be you!"

Joking aside, it's important to know where to draw those lines.  My husband and I met in the dojo, and we love to discuss karate with each other.  However, there are times when we've learned not to.  If one person had a really rotten training or tournament, then they need their spouse, not their dojo mate.  They need someone to say, "wow, that sucks, I'm so sorry" -- and to mean it.  What they don't need is someone to say, "well you know, it wasn't totally their fault, you didn't really block properly..."  Save that for later!

The other crucial matter is to stay out of other people's issues.  This is probably good advice no matter what (taking sides in someone else's argument is almost never a good idea!) but is especially critical when it is spilling over into the dojo.  Over the years I've been witness to so many personal conflicts that ended up in the dojo and affecting other people, and it just never ends well.  I've seen hook-ups and break-ups.  I've seen friendships form and dissolve.  I've seen senseis and sempais who disagreed with the other's training philosophies and techniques.  There are those people who would never be friends outside the dojo, who are just so different that it can be hard for them to be civil even in such a constrained setting.  And, of course, I've been the one who hooked up (hey, I chose well, we're married now!), I've been the one who had a friendship tested by dojo incidents, I've been the one who didn't like how someone taught or how someone trained, and I've trained with people that I dislike on a personal level, however much I try to overcome it or at least mask it.  And I've seen all these situations get so much worse for everyone when other dojo members become involved.

No one likes the office cliques who whisper or gossip or backstab, no one likes the person who lets their personal issues affect their ability to get their work done, no one likes the person who refuses to play by the rules and work well with others.  In the dojo, no one likes to feel that people are picking on them or making fun of them, no one enjoys sparring someone who is taking their bad day out on their opponent, no one enjoys training with someone who is disruptive by arguing or otherwise displaying bad behavior. 

In some ways, I consider the dojo similar to a (hopefully) good workplace.  You see these people all the time, and it's wisest and most pleasant to be on good terms with them.  So try to play nice and be fair, and be civil to everyone.  Some of these people you would never socialize with, others might well become your friends, but that's really not important during working hours.  Just remember to treat everyone with respect during the dojo time, no matter what is going on between you on a more personal level.

Revisiting the Sparring Question

All the comments on sparring have led me to want to clarify a bit, because I don't want people to get the wrong idea and think that I believe you should never go full speed, full power, or never try to score.  It's not always wrong to be very aggressive in dojo sparring, just as it is not always wrong to be very hesitant.  It's a question of the right place at the right time. 

So in a dojo like mine, just what does that mean?  Well, for starters, we do very little full-out free sparring.  When we do free sparring, we wear pads and mouthpieces.  We are always told to use control.  We are almost always given something specific to work on, shifting or timing or technique.  Therefore we are almost always told not to go full speed, especially not at first, because we are supposed to concentrate on something that needs work.  This is not to say we all go slow motion and never press each other, far from it.  It means that we start off slow, get good feeling, work on what sensei wants.  As we get more comfortable and confident, the pace starts to increase, then the adrenaline, and by the time he calls "yame!" we're packing a fair amount of speed and juice.  This allows everyone to build their skills and confidence, rather than having one person with vastly more aggression or experience just moto-ing over his opponent, who learns nothing and starts to think that free sparring sucks!  On occasion, usually after class, people will pad up and work while sensei just watches, and these matches are usually full speed and power.  Sensei will make suggestions, but will generally let it take its course unless he sees that one side is at a severe disadvantage and he wants it slowed down so they can work on their technique, and so they don't get hurt.

It means that in class, we do five step, three step, one step, or semi-free sparring, depending on belt level.  It means that sensei is gives us specific combinations to work on, again to work on things like shifting, technique, timing.  For example, the attack side may be told to attack using a front snap kick (mae geri), then jodan punch as the kick lands (jodan zuki), then immediately reverse punch stomach (gyaku-zuki chudan).  The defense side may be told to step back and down block (gedan berai), then rising block with the same arm (age-uki), then outward inward block with the other arm (ude-uki chudan).  The attack side should be working on timing and focus, the defense side will be working on hip rotation and vibration.  After doing it slowly a few times, partners will usually increase their speed and power, and when black belts are doing it, it can get pretty impressive!

So, where do the problems arise?  They arise if you are told to do slow speed free sparring and one side goes after the other full speed when they aren't expecting it.  They arise if one person is obviously more experienced and skilled, but doesn't tone it down to their opponent's level so that person can learn rather than just worrying that they're about to die!  It arises if a higher belt, larger person, faster person is doing a set sparring drill against their opponent and does not take their level of experience or skill into account and just overwhelms them.

I'll give a couple of examples to illustrate what I consider to be problem behavior under these conditions. 

One time we were doing a drill:  roundhouse kick followed by a back-fist jodan level, while your partner shifted 45 degrees and blocked, then countered reverse punch chudan level.  Fairly standard, the attack side was concentrating on timing and focus while the defense was working on shifting.  We were told to start slow each time then gradually pick up speed.  I'd had a couple of opponents, then we rotated partners and I was facing one of the problem people.  Their first attack against me was full speed, full power.  I barely got out of the way and darn nearly got whacked in the face.  I was furious; they were so pleased with themselves they smirked at me and said, "gotta move faster".  Next time I was ready, and easily evaded.  The smirk disappeared, and for ten repetitions it got worse and worse.  Somewhere in the middle, they started throwing the kick before sensei told us to start.  Then, since they knew that I was expecting to block a jodan backfist, they used chudan techniques instead.  The combo went out the window as the brown belt desperately attempted to "score".  Harsh words were exchanged after class, with them insisting that since I outranked them they should always be able to go after me because I could handle it, and me pointing out that if they're told to go medium speed by sensei, and again by someone who outranks them, then they should bloody well be going medium speed, and that in addition, they were expected to do the combination sensei gave them, not make it up as they went along.

Another example, which was much more potentially dangerous, came when one of these people was called out to partner a green belt during a kyu test.  The brown belt wasn't testing, just giving the green belt a partner for one-step sparring.  The green belt in question was a bit hesitant, easily intimidated.  The brown belt went after them at brown belt speed, full power.  The green belt was hit the first time, then stumbled and almost fell twice in a desperate attempt to get out of the way of the next attacks.  They just didn't have the skill level to shift and react properly at that speed.  When the green belt attacked, the brown belt did a non-standard block, moved in, and nailed them with a reverse punch to the stomach that doubled them over for a second.  Their next atttacks were hesitant and as soon as the punch or kick landed, they virtually leapt out of the way because they didn't want to get hit again.  In short, they looked terrified and outclassed, which in fact they were.  The brown belt ignored being told by sensei to slow down and use control; they were too amped up to listen.  They didn't understand that their job was not to show off what a brown belt could do, but to help the green belt show what they could do.  The green belt was in tears, particularly when they overheard the brown belt gloating about how they'd "totally owned" them during the test.

So... being aggressive in free sparring, looking for openings and taking advantage of them, pressing your opponent, none of these are bad things at all.  Working your speed and skill, exploiting your opponents weaknesses, helping them learn what those weaknesses are, these are good -- as long as both people understand that this is what's happening.  If one side has asked to go slowly (or been told to), if they specifically are trying to work on something that requires them to concentrate rather than just react, then it's a problem.  If you're told to do a specific combination of techniques and don't, then it's a problem.  If you endanger or frighten your opponent, then it's a problem.  If you injure someone, then it's a problem, unless it's totally unavoidable, like when someone walks right into a punch and you have no chance pull the technique. 

So in the end it comes down, again, to respect.  Respect what your sensei is telling you to do, and do it properly so that your partner can also do what's being asked.  Respect your partner and work with them, not against them.  If you're up against an inferior opponent, take that opportunity to work on your technique, since you can slow down, and take that opportunity help them grow by giving them a strong opponent that pushes, but does not overwhelm them -- don't show off at their expense.

Of Show Dogs and Karate-Ka

I just returned from spending a week at a major dog show, the nationals for that breed.  My in-laws breed and show dogs, and I went with my mother-in-law.  This was only my second dog show ever, and a far cry from the little regional all-breed show that I attended before.  I got to see a whole lotta dogs, meet a whole lotta dog owners and breeders.  It was fun, educational, and tiring.  It was also amusing in a totally unexpected way, as I realized that I could easily relate so much of the dog show world to the karate world! 

Karate-ka will probably be offended by being compared to dogs, and show dog owners would probably be offended by having their top animals compared to people, but I stand by my comment.  There are so many things that cross over, and it was just one more example of how martial arts penetrates every aspect of your life, and can relate to just about any situation.

For example:  Much discussion was taking place about bloodlines and pedigree, as might be expected.  The breed standard delineates what is appropriate for the breed, and also outlines various "ideals" in terms of some specific body aspects.  People talked about what would be ideal for the breed standard of the dog, and pointed out various weaknesses in the dogs that they saw out there.  I was unavoidably reminded of the many, many times I've sat ringside at a karate tournament and compared what I saw out there with the "ideal" karate techniques and attitude, analyzing the weaknesses of each competitor!

Another example:  Much discussion was also taking place about dog training.  How you need to keep the dog interested, keep them disciplined, make them obedient without breaking their spirit or frightening them.  Ideally you have a well-behaved companion who is also happy, curious, and great fun.  As people begin their lives in a karate dojo, they need to learn the proper techniques and the proper behavior.  Ideally, you teach them how to do good karate, how to understand some of the deeper aspects of the martial art, and end up with a member of your dojo who has worked hard, enjoys the art and what it represents, and behaves properly.

Another example:  Combining the two above precepts, how do you integrate the dog's shortcomings in terms of ideal to breed standard, and adapt them to make it a successful dog in that world?  Of course there are the little tricks to try to minimize how much weakness might show up in the conformation classes (for dog show newbies, these are the judged ring events like Westminster Kennel Club dog show that you might have seen on TV).  But much goes beyond that.  This particular breed also does obedience training, agility training, herding.  If a particular dog is a little short, a little heavy, a little wired and hyper, a little whatever, then the owner or trainer needs to make adjustments in how they train them for these various events, and for how to present them in competition.  A very specific example of this is one dog who does agility (that's the doggie obstacle course, very fun to watch!).  He's a great agility dog but when his owner is out there directing him, the owner needs to be careful to keep a little behind the dog.  Why?  Because if the dog keeps seeing the owner out of the corner of his eye, he starts thinking it's a race, and instead of running the obstacle course, he starts cheating on some of them so he can win the race!  In karate, we have people with bad knees, bad ankles, bad backs, people who are out of shape, people who are older and stiffer, younger kids with shorter attention spans, and many other things which are not quite "ideal".  We learn to teach them differently to make allowances for these issues, and they learn to work around them or overcome them.

Another example:  There was one ringside tent reserved for judges in training, roped off from the general public.  At the end of each division, the judge took the winning dogs and their owners over to that tent.  There, discussion took place.  I must assume that the discussions included why those 4 dogs were deemed superior to the rest of their division, and what separated the 1st place dog from the others.  How many judges' trainings have I sat through, how many Instructor Training classes, where we learned what things to look for to determine who should win a particular division of kata, how to determine if we should award that point in kumite.  They're invaluable because you get the opportunity to discuss things and to be shown specific things by people who are so knowledgeable and experienced!

I'm not saying that karate-ka are fluffed up show dogs that are paraded around rings  =).  I'm not saying show dogs are just furry humans.

I'm saying that once again, an experience in my real life was enriched by my knowledge of karate, and that I feel my martial arts experience helped me to really start understanding something that I know little or nothing about.  It's one of my very favorite things about karate, how it just adds so much dimension to everything else that I do!