Has anyone else noticed the distinct lack of sideways avoidances in competition karate? Everyone seems to want to block straight on and attack linearly head on. Any comments? Colin
That's most of the movement I experienced in karate based training. We did very little movement other than linear at any time. That's a big part of the reason I changed systems
Yep. I love people who train almost exclusively linearly, step round them and they're lost. I believe it might be something to do with the stances, low stances are fine when you're moving forwards or backwards, but they tend to be neither particularly mobile not stable at angles.
The last time I tried side-stepping around my opponent, he caught me in my way with a spin kick from the opposite side and I ended up face down on the floor. |Cain|
It helps if you side-step off techniques, blocking and moving off as they're thrown. Naturally if you just try to sidestep while they're just standing there you're going to have trouble. They're going to be ready to throw a technique, and you're going to be in motion.
Example: Reverse punch is thrown by guy1. guy2 either just blocks it, steps back out of range, or gets hit. He doesn't block and set out so that guy1's arms in his own line of fire, thus giving himself some ribs to play with. Col
People forget (even the people doing it, so it would seem) that the wide stances in some Karate styles are an excercise and not a fighting application. Even thoughs that realise this seem to only want to move linearely. Colin
"People forget (even the people doing it, so it would seem) that the wide stances in some Karate styles are an excercise and not a fighting application." hmm this is intresting i would like to point out one article by bob orlando... http://www.orlandokuntao.com/master_frameset_stances.html check out... -TkdWarrior-
Hey Freeform, I still ended up using gingerninja!! Firstly the reason people generally attack in a linear fashion during sparring is the automatic K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple, Stupid) response that comes with the rush of hormones through your body. Besides roundkick, reverse punch - easy, jumping spining round kick - hard and the opponent can see it a mile away! As for the question of stances, a high fighting stance as in Wado is a fast stance but can be unstable. Teaching and learning the classical stances allows the practioner to drop in to these stances during a fight or sparring session. You have to ask your self the question of are classical stances such as a reverse cat stance or a horseriding stance, the kind of position you want to be in during the fluidic envornment that is sparring/combat.
Please consider Angles rather then linear movement. 45 degrees forward 45 backwards,moving siddeways forces a change of direction in the attacker but maintians the distance. Please refer to my post in the Thai Boxing thread as I beleive forms of evasive movement are fundetmental for all types of Fighting.
I am in karate and we practice side stepping in sparring. It's just how your taught. Don't let this turn into a karate is bad cause my one experience with it did not include side stepping thread. Side stepping is useful but if your just doing it while not currently in a manouver or avoiding one there is really no point (unless you want him to turn and are setting him up for something). I like the K.I.S.S. theory also Gingerninja fancy things with big wind up often don't work, and put you in bad positions.
You never see any bobbing and weaving either. Do you think this form of avoidance could be used? Colin p.s Gingerninja, ha, now you have claimed the name as your own!
They work nicely, saving energy over blocks, and giving you a nice angle for counters. Slips are quite effective as well, true confidence destroyers.
bobbing n weaving r good n i think it shouldn't be avoided just because u only see them in boxing... personally i don't think that high stances r unstable...it's true that low stance gives u more stability n less mobility(says who?? i hav seen hung ga guys moving from one low stance to another with a swissssssshhhhh...) proper high stance will never be stable as far as rooting is concerned it can be practiced with high stances too... those who do hsing-yi would agree with me... -TkdWarrior-
If its points fighting bobbing and weaving wouldnt serve much of a purpose because karate scores nothing hits. Its more of a continious in-fighting technique. How often do you see close range in-fighting in a karate tournament. You will still get hit while you bob and weave the principle is to dissolve the punch (especially in the weave) by body movement and minimse the impact of the blows.
Not only boxing, thank you. I'm sorry, why won't a high stance be stable? You can stand upright can't you?
You can see bobbing and weaving in Karate but it seems to more popular technique with those people who do not fight in rigid Karate competitions. In my experience the umpires don't like this style of fighting because you are lossing sight of your opponent and is not a pretty technique - just look at the lack of open hand, grappling, locking and throwing techniques in most clubs these days because of the 'sporting' aspect of martial arts. As for big techniques they are generally good for the movies and bad for the street, just ask Freeform he's seen my spining kicks! Even kicking off the back leg for mawashigeri can put you in a bad spot , I tend to kick off the lead leg and not the back, its a far quicker kick, hence reducing the time you are off balance. The only down side is it makes doing your traditional drills A LOT harder because you are used to kicking off the lead foot! Also it could be argueed that this is a kung fu style tactic because they favour lead leg kicking. ps Freeform you should be ashamed of yourself for missing training, I'm going to have to slap you for that!!!
