so what things in particular did you learn from sparring with that champion?
There was a few layers to it. The first is i was surprised how wide his stance is. Most people who stand that wide take a more defensive stance but his wide stance allowed him to be on balance and always ready to attack. His footwork was great. He also moved in with great pressure. But the thing I noticed the most from playing him is he had particularly good eyes. He was dodging me using his head and movement and I had a really hard time hitting him. As well, he would open up a target and I would attack the target, mid attack he would remove the target and counter hit.
The other aspect is its interesting to see these people when they play people of lesser skill or in a more casual setting. When you watch someone play against another person of the highest caliber with stakes on the line, often the matches have a different flow since both opponents arent really willing to take risks. Seeing him play in a more casual setting was nice to see some of his pure fundementals at work.
Final thing that was nice is even though his whole life is literally nothing but Kendo, he still enjoys the sport and he said his main focus these days is just to have to fun. Seeing him having that much fun playing us and playing me really refreshed my love of the sport. Like we were both having a genuinely good time fighting. I found that aspect really refreshing. I was also good to see what that level looks like. Our best instructor went toe to toe with him and although he lost, the skill discrepancy wasn’t THAT far. So I know what world champion caliber looks like.
I would like to second this piece of advice.
If you do nothing else, 3 days a week of training is sufficient. If you plan doing this kind of stuff long term, it is important to take care of your body and allow for adequate rest. M,W,F is great in that you get time to recover. I think even at my peak, I wasn’t training more than 4 days out of the week. We used to have a lot more MMA fighters back then, so fight camp style training was more common. That was brutal though, and probably why there is a lot of turnover at the gym lolol.
Nowadays I do two days of hard wrestling/grappling on Tue/Thur. M,W,F is all cardio. I am soon going to be 32, and can’t rely on solely one type of workout. Jogging (outdoors with hills) has drastically improved my stamina, kind of how I used be 10 years ago lol. Once you get in better shape, mixing up your workouts will go a long way to building your conditioning.
Thanks to my work schedule change and the schedule at my gym
I had to switch to muay thai mon, boxing wed, bjj friday
T and th is lifting at night and gotch bible/cardio in the morning
These are some nice tips. I’m trying to figure an optimal schedule for training, too. I do Karate on M,W,F but I want to do some stretching in order to improve my flexibility and I’m not sure how’s the best way - doing them on the off days, in the same day as the training (in the morning, then go to the gym in the afternoon), or just before the training session. It’s a bit difficult to figure out how to improve my training, while also giving the body time for rest.
I’m also considering switching to a taekwondo club, since I suppose they will help me with the flexibility and I won’t have to worry about doing it in particular. Though I like my current club and I wouldn’t want to leave it…
You could always Youtube flexibility. It’s free. :lol:
If you’re trying to figure out flexibility Id suggest you wake up early to stretch every day. Even just 20 minutes a day will make a substantial difference. Youtube is definitely a good tool. Dynamic stretching I hear is the way to go these days although I’ve never tried it personally.
Stretching everyday
Like every day when you wake up
When you train
After you train
There are tons of yoga instructionals on youtube
I would suggest ddp yoga and gotch bible but some of you guys are so bitchmade and fragile
officially, just a red/black belt in taekwondo (from my teen years). though i watch tutorials and street fights on youtube and have picked up random mma stuff through the years.
Cool story bro
Any of you guys suffer from like the mental fatigue of over training? For the first time since I started Kendo, I’ve been sick, dealing with family and work stress and I’m having a hard time keeping up my hard training schedule. Before shit was super automatic but now in my mind, sometimes its been an option to skip class (which I hate). Any advice/Thoughts?
Such is the endless struggle. Training more than twice a week is nearly impossible most times for me at the moment.
It’s a pain in the arse, since my next kung fu test is going to be a good 2 hours straight - an entire non-stop assessment of the whole curriculum to date; basically 4 tests in one.
I miss a week because of time, but it makes weight days and gotch bible days more focused
But for real i take a month off to heal and it helps
Ring rust is real, but you will always find your groove
I played in a training tournament this weekend (Points are scored and there are winners but you get to play all matches regardless of winning or losing). It was good training last year and good again this year. I scored a really nice point on one of the Team Canada members in front of everyone which made me happy.
I also scored this pretty sick point. Check it out:
I notice how okinawan karate is fairly different from shotokan. Speaking of which:
[quote=“Gimpy, post:1608, topic:131577”]
[/quote]What do you guys think regarding blocking in a real fight ? Do you think traditional karate blocks (age uke/soto uke/uchi uke etc) do work ? because I heard a lot of contradicting oppinions - they don’t work, they are not even real blocks, etc.
Someone else (ando mierza on youtube) even said you shouldn’t block in a real fight, just strike. So, does blocking has its uses ? and if yes, what are the most practial ways of blocking ? How do you feel based on your experience ?
Karate parries are okay, but in boxing a shell defense and peekaboo style is what keeps you from eating head blows
You are an idiot if you are defending yourself and have no defense i mean look at all the wshh videos of chicken neck geeks standing with hands down and chins up
Defense nullifies offense
Shelling works because of the gloves. Shelling on the street just leaves your sides open, unless you can compensate with good head movement.
Blocking / parrying an obvious power punch is a good way to get into clinch/throwing range.
[quote=“Emanuelb, post:1637, topic:131577”]
I notice how okinawan karate is fairly different from shotokan. Speaking of which:
I mean, the traditional block is usually a lot of wasted movement. You’re pushing the punch way offline when in reality good headmovement, small parrys, and slight centre adjustment is usually the optimal way to strike. This applies for literally any striking or fencing or even wrestling techniques. If you drive force offline its good but your movement needs to be efficient and effective. I generally don’t believe that kung fu or karate blocks are usually like that but it depends on the style because some are very applicable. But most arent honestly and they don’t work in most real life situations. Thats why you never see them doing their moves succesfully in full contact sparring vs other sports like boxing or judo or wrestling or fencing. I always reiterate that the most optimal way to train is real training scenarios (ie hard sparring).