Tag Archives: karate kumite

He Used Karate Kumite to Beat Me Up…and I loved It!

Karate Kumite in Yer Eyeball!

My first experience in real Karate Kumite was back in 1967 in a Chinese Kenpo Dojo.

I had signed up for five lessons in Kenpo Karate, and I had liked it, but it was pretty much dry instruction. Still, it was pretty heady, I was going to be able to stop kidneys, squash adams apples, and end the life of any fool who messed with me. I was, you might surmise, a bit young.

karate kumite

Karate Freestyle is a special type of discipline

 


For youth, a good lesson in hard fists is always the best antidote.

My sixth lesson, i had signed a contract, and the instructor lifted my hands up and said, ‘Don’t try to hit me, just see if you can stop me from hitting you.’

Well, that was a blinker.

And he proceeded to wail the tar out of me.

Great control, the bruises wouldn’t even show, but…there were bruises. There were especially bruises to my 19 year old ego.

You mean…I can get beat up? I am not immortal?

And, when some fifteen minutes of me being pummeled around the mat ended, we sat and talked, and that was when the real lesson commenced.

Learning how to puncture lungs and stop hearts from beating is fine, but that is just the anatomy lesson. The real lesson was in learning how to move, and…learning how to be polite.

He beat me up, without really damaging me, and smiled gently the whole time. He knew he was changing my outlook on life. He had gone through it. It was time for him to pass the message down.

Sure, you can hurt somebody, but what’s it going to cost you? And, wouldn’t you rather get along? Be on the same path? Share a brewski at the end of the day?

One of the saddest things I see, these days, is when people are taught how to freestyle in the wrong manner. The instructor doesn’t take the time to give the lesson thoroughly, and with understanding.

Instead, kids are thrown into karate tournaments and told to win, win, win.

The real lesson is in the back of the dojo, when few are looking, and it consists of sweat and bruises, and learning that there is a real human being on the end of your fists. Both ends.

If you wish to learn how to freestyle the correct way, I suggest Matrix Combat. It’s a short course, but has all the progressions of freestyle presented, how to do them, and–here’s the bonus–how they fit together so that you know when to do what. That is something that NOBODY goes into.

I do , and it’s an inexpensive way to get to the back of the dojo and get that friendly, little fists on education in Karate Kumite.

What The Well Trained Mind Truly Observes In Karate Freestyle

With all the excitement of the UFC MMA type of fighting, most people have not seen the incredible qualities of Karate freestyle. When one undertakes training in traditional Karate or one of the old Kung Fu methods, certain things happen that are beyond human understanding. This article will go into what actually occurs when one trains enough to gain a ‘zen mind’ in combat.

karate freestyle

Karate Freestyle is a special type of discipline


First, it should be known that fighting is fighting. If one is training to learn just by fighting, they will not come into the qualities I will be talking about here. There is a difference, you see, between training oneself to enjoy combat and beat an opponent, and gaining the ability to stay aware, and grow even more aware, in the middle of combat.

Thus, one should study classical forms, learn the subtleties of body motion, and calm the mind down. Further, one should learn how to do karate freestyle through the taking of progressive steps. This is the only way to get to the zen state of mind I am talking about here.

When ones training takes effect and they start to appreciate a calm mind in combat they will observe that freestyle is not a matter of frantic reaction, but of reflection. One sees what is occurring, and a plan pops into the mind. This plan is often an image, of what is happening, and what is to be done.

The trick is to be able to recognize this picture when it occurs and to pay attention to it, rather than to thrust it away. The picture might be a quick snippet of an image, almost too quick to see, or it could be an actual cartoon overlaying reality. One must then focus on relaxing, no matter what is about to occur.

Many people, especially when first seeing a vision before a fight happens want to do something. They want to make a response before the action has happened. But if you move before the action has happened, the opponent may not do the action.

So one has to be patient, and this frequently involves ‘pushing down’ an energy building in the chest. The body wants to get going, but the mind must stay sane. The key is for the person to tell the mind to sit still, and to tell the body to wait.

So when does one go? If they are relaxed and secure in their vision, if they have a calm mind, they will move in accord with the action, and not before and not after. This takes some practice, but that is what training the mind in karate freestyle is all about.

Learn How to Do Karate Freestyle the Right Way!

When I was learning how to do Karate Freestyle the instructor would tell us harder, faster. No matter how hard I trained, how ever, the guys who had studied longer than me could still beat me. Check out the video, then I’ll tell you how I turned the tables.

Then, along about black belt time, this guy was promoted in front of me. We had been training the same length of time, but he was promoted before me, and suddenly he could beat me in freestyle.
Wait a minute! I was better than him, and until he got promoted, I could beat him!
I quickly realized that his confidence had gone up, and that this was a secret to freestyle that nobody knew.
So I went back to trouncing him.
And, now that I had figured it out, I jacked my confidence and started trashing a lot of other people.
Those guys who had studied longer than me? They were now my meat.
Now, you still need some rudimentary training, but I use methods that jack up confidence, and my students learn to freestyle in an hour or two.
Serious.
Got proof on the Black Belt Course. I filmed myself taking somebody to Black Belt, and in the over twenty hours of filming we did freestyle for about an hour, and you can see that at the end of his instruction he doesn’t blink or hesitate, he just confidently moves in and fights without fear.
It’s the training method I use, and nobody else uses it. Heck, nobody knows it, and it is almost diametrically opposed to the methods currently used.
Anyway, if you’re interested in learning how to do Freestyle the right way, or you just want to find out a bit more about the training methods I use, pop over to LearnKarateOnline(dot)net. Heck, take a free lesson while you’re there.

Real Karate, Real Freestyle, Putting Aside Fighting

Back in the sixties real karate instructors differed in their opinions towards freestyle. Yes, it was necessary to keep students in the door, but there was freestyle, and there was fighting. Check out the video, my student is really trying to stab me, and I use control instead of fighting to manage him. I’ll tell you about one of the wildest tournaments ever right below that.

My school went to a big tournament in San Francisco.

During one of the matches one of the brown belts jammed his finger, and the second bone on one of his fingers actually came out of the socket and slid over the third bone. The refs looked at it, said he had to go to a hospital and have somebody straighten it out. He wanted to fight, however, so he pulled it out himself and kept fighting.

Interestingly, in spite of this type of die hard enthusiasm, my instructor pulled the entire school out and went home. Well, he didn’t pull them out. He just gathered everybody together and said fighting had little to do with learning how to control an opponent through kumite. He said we were free to remain, and then he left. Everybody followed him.

He was right. Fighting is for people who don’t know the martial arts. A person who knows the martial arts controls his opponent. He predicts him, manipulates him, and does what he will with him.

That’s the difference, of course, between real karate and somebody who likes to fight, and that’s the difference between sport and a real martial art. Check out the variety of different Karate programs at Monster Martial Arts.