With State/Zone Titles coming up featuring many children competing in a tournament for the first time, we wanted to put together a list of ways that children can improve their chances of getting a medal.

Here are some tips for tournaments that are sure to help their performance.

Tournament Kata Tips

When you do kata, you are not only being judged on your technique. There are other things that the judges are looking for, so keep in mind the following:

Look Sharp

Looking neat and tidy will give the judges a good impression, and it will also help your confidence. Be sure to have mum or dad give you a clean, ironed gi. If you have long hair, have it tied back neatly and try to keep your fringe out of your eyes.

Finally, tie your belt nicely so that both ends hanging down are the same length.

Louder Is Better

Most of you would be used to your parents telling you to keep your voices down. The good news is that in the tournament ring, these rules don’t apply, in fact, in a tournament, louder is better!

When you hear the judge call out your name to come up and perform, respond very loudly with “Hai” as you get up. When you enter the ring and call out the name of your kata, call it out very loud and clear. This tells the judge that you are confident, and when it’s time to kiai in your kata, do it so loud that everyone at the tournament hears you.

Put On Your Kata Face

One thing the judges are looking at is your focus. The better your focus the better the score they will give you. You can show them that you have good focus by putting on your ‘kata face’.  This is one of serious concentration, and NEVER looking around. When you finish your kata, stand still (without fidgeting) while waiting for your score.

Get Down Low And Go, Go, Go

Sometimes we do all our punches and kicks as fast as we can but we forget about our stances.

When the judges are deciding what score to give you, they pay close attention to your stances. Make the decision that before you go up, you will try your hardest to do the longest, lowest and neatest stances you can do.

Be A Good Sport

Manners and respect are important parts of karate. So when you are at a tournament, after each person has completed their kata, be sure to join in and clap and cheer for them. Even if you don’t know them, it shows everyone that you are a good sport. Plus I’m sure they tried his or her hardest and for that, they deserve your applause.

Finally, if you get a medal, that is awesome. But if you don’t get a medal, don’t worry, because as long as you tried your best then you should be proud of yourself and happy.

Tournament Kumite Tips

To Do Well, You Need Energy

Kumite requires lots of energy so be sure to get a good night’s sleep and have a good breakfast. Even if you are a little nervous and don’t feel hungry, eat a bowl of cereal anyway. Also, pack a bottle of water or Gatorade to bring with you to sip between rounds.

Pull Your Punches

It’s not how many punches you throw that scores you points, it’s the quality of your punches. If you want to score points, make sure that after every punch you pull your hand back to your hips.

Kiai Loudly

Every time you punch, you need to yell out a nice, loud kiai. This tells the judge that you were trying your best to punch hard and fast. If you forget to kiai, your point won’t be scored.

Step Forward When You Punch

The most common reason that kids don’t score is that they are too far away from each other. The trick is to take a big step forward with your front foot each time you punch. This will get you close enough to score… but remember it’s non-contact! Another trick is to step forward after each kick.

Keep Up Your Guard

When competing, you have two goals. To try and score points for yourself AND to stop your opponent from scoring points. This is where your guard comes in. You need to keep your guard up high and out from your body. When your opponent throws a punch, move your guard to block as fast as you can.

Have Fun!

Whether you win or lose is not as important as to whether or not you tried your hardest and had a great time. So decide before you start that you are competing for fun. Winning is just a bonus!

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Preparing for a Major Tournament

As the 10th GKR Karate World Cup is drawing closer, we take a look at the story of David and Goliath, which if studied, can unlock principles that can help us to take on our own ‘Goliath’ and win.

David was the youngest of eight sons. He took care of his father’s sheep and, at times, would bravely fight off wild animals that tried to eat his flock. David was fit and strong and as he cared deeply for his sheep, he developed his martial arts prowess through necessity, by way of the sling-shot and practised regularly for the safety of his sheep. Once he killed a lion, and another time, a bear that was carrying away a lamb.

David’s three oldest brothers were soldiers in the army of King Saul. His country of Israel was in a desperate battle against the army of the Philistines. Both armies were camped for many months despite no fighting taking place. This was because both armies were weary and had no real desire for battle. One day David was asked to take food to his brothers on the battlefront. When he arrived, a Philistine giant named Goliath, marched up the hill and yelled to the soldiers of Israel “Choose a man from among you to come fight me. If he can kill me, the Philistines will be your servants. If I kill him, all of you will become servants of the Philistines”. This thundering giant who stood over 9 feet tall struck fear into the hearts of King Saul’s soldiers and the entire army fled, including David.

This went on for days where Goliath challenged the army and no-one accepted. So King Saul offered an incentive, that he who killed Goliath would become a Prince and marry Saul’s daughter. Still, no soldier took up the challenge, focusing not on the reward, but on the certain death that awaited anyone who took on Goliath.

Yet David found much incentive in the title of Prince, marrying a princess and saving his country from war. He had taken up the sling-shot for the self-defence of his sheep, but now it could do far more. So David walked out to face Goliath, carrying with him only his sling and five smooth stones. Breathing a quick prayer, David placed a stone in his sling, drew back his well-trained hand and slung the stone quickly straight into the forehead of the giant. The giant fell face down onto the ground and David ran quickly to his form, grasped the sword from Goliath’s sheath and finished the task. The Philistine army fled in panic for they knew the promise Goliath had made and the people of Israel shouted, danced and sang for joy because of David’s victory.

SO WHAT PRINCIPLES CAN WE TAKE FROM THIS STORY?

Anyone Can Win

David had only ever taken up his martial art for the self-defence of his sheep. He was no war trained-solider, but still had the tools required. Likewise, while you may not have tournament experience or train specifically for tournaments, this by no means says you cannot prevail. You receive all the necessary tools to win, just by training in your dojo.

Perfect Your Arsenal

David had no elaborate array of arsenal. He had his sling-shot. Yet in a second he had killed a giant and won a war. Winning a kumite title is not dissimilar as it does not require all the techniques, just a carefully selected few, or even one (as in David’s case). Bruce Lee always said the two most important ingredients for sparring are ‘timing’ and ‘distance’. A carefully timed, well-placed and clean technique can win any confrontation. Don’t go to work on sixty different techniques. Instead, focus your energies into developing a few attacks and counters and then perfect them through massive repetition and analysis. Aim to minimise telegraphing by every millimetre and develop explosive speed and you are on your way.

Road Test It

David knew he could kill Goliath because he had killed a lion and a bear. Nothing will prepare you better than hours spent road testing your techniques in a tournament scenario. Whether during, before or after class, or even at home with fellow students, make time to tournament spar every week. Create a ring so you are comfortable sparring in a confined space and be strict on all the scoring criteria: form; Kime; stance; control etc.

Develop Your Body

Much is written for kumite on developing self-belief, and for good reason (visualisation, affirmation etc). Developing your body is not only for physical sake, but yet another way to strengthen this. By taking up a physical exercise routine (running, strength training etc) the physical improvements may only be minimal, but the mental benefits are often enormous with new-found confidence. Before taking up the sling-shot, David had to wrestle wild animals. He had a fit, strong body which gave him confidence to do so.

Purely from a physical viewpoint, when the body is tired, the mind soon follows. When the body is weak, the mind will be weak. For every second you are thinking about your tired legs then that is a second you are not thinking about your tactics or your opponent. If a tournament bout runs for two minutes, practise your tournament sparring in four-minute intervals. Become so used to going well beyond time, that come the day, focusing for the entire two minutes is easy.

It Starts With An Incentive

The first time Goliath challenged the Israeli army, all fled, including David. It was not until David had the incentive of the title of Prince that he decided to take on Goliath. An ardently desired goal will move you to train harder, train more often and face your fears. While David focused on the title of Prince, focus on the title of World Champion.

Focus also on what it will make of you, just by doing the training – do this and you will be disciplined. Focus on the sacrifice required or the thought of losing and you will lack the discipline. It is said in life, we live either with discipline, or we live with regret.

Entry to the 2019 GKR Karate World Cup is now open!  For more information regarding the most prestigious event on the GKR Karate calendar, including location, dates and qualification criteria – head to the event page here 

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Kumite: More than Sport

I hope this article speaks volumes to you and succeeds in opening your mind to something bigger than the dojo or tournaments. Regardless of our prowess in kumite, always keep in mind the first aim and purpose of karate is self-defence. This is an important mindset to adopt in your karate.

So for the moment, discard your concept of sparring and draw your attention to a hypothetical real-life confrontation. In most cases, it is the attacker who will initiate the first strike. With this in mind, it is the karate-ka who has taken the time to develop a sound defensive ability that would most likely walk away unharmed. They may not rule their dojo and may lack the prestigious tournament accolades, yet they succeeded when it mattered most.

Please do not mistake my intentions here. I am taking nothing away from those people who have worked hard and won tournaments. Nor am I suggesting that people should spend all their kumite time working on defence. You will have no argument from me that attacking is vital and getting in first is often a wise move – especially in situations involving multiple attackers. Ultimately that is a judgment call based on the situation at hand.

I deeply care about the well-being of all students and hope that all can grasp the concept that sparring is more than a sport. While it is to be enjoyed, it is imperative that sparring has a sense of realness behind it and that we aim to develop a balanced ability in attack and defence. However, this article was conceived through the observation that most students are far more apt in their attacking. I believe one reason for this is that people tend to gravitate towards those things they are good at and avoid those areas where they struggle. To start with, there is no substitute for practice. You may not be proficient in your defence but as long as you appreciate its relevance, you will commit to its practice.

By sharing some important points on defence, I hope to speed up your process of turning a weak defence into success. For many students, during kumite, their primary objective is to attack and get in first. This results in the development of solid, fluent attacking combinations. Perhaps they have the strongest kumite in their dojo or even go on to win a number of tournaments – fantastic! And, while their blocking and counter-striking abilities are often quite limited, they often disregard this weakness in their sparring…after-all, they are dominating in the dojo and in tournaments anyway. To add to this, there is that old cliché “The best defence is a strong offense”.

Stance Counts

Have you ever forbade yourself from moving backward and insisted to yourself that you will stand your ground and block – only to find yourself retreating each time?

Where this could be a number of reasons, it is often a symptom of a sparring stance too short and too high. Many people have a sparring stance that barely extends one shoulder width and virtually no bend in their knees. This results in a high center of gravity, a widely exposed target area and equally important, has absolutely no strength.

Your subconscious will be aware of this and in the face of an attack, will start to retreat backwards – despite your insistence to stand your ground.

Most good counter-attackers will hold a stance at least one shoulder-width long (or one and a half for taller people who have a higher center of gravity) and have their knees well bent. This creates strength and minimizes your opponent’s target area. You should feel quite strong and stable in your stance. You should feel you can move fast, but equally can be steadfast.

A way to practice this and develop confidence is to stand in sparring stance and have someone try to push you backward. You will, over time, develop the body balance and strength to hold your ground.

Angle Counts 

Another reason people struggle with defence is that they stand too square (front-on) as opposed to standing on a 45 degree angle. This bad habit, often spawned by desire to facilitate an attacking reverse punch, requires correcting for two reasons. Firstly, while the attacking reverse punch may come out more easily, it will have less power than if it were to come from a 45 degree angle as the hips are not contributing to the punch’s power. However, for this topic, let us look at its adverse effects on our defence – both mentally and physically.

Most of the vital areas of the body are found down its middle (from the eyes, nose, jaw, throat, solar plexus, stomach and groin). It is inherent to human nature to be aware of these areas, and when faced with danger, our natural reaction in to turn away or go into a fetal position – two traits that detract from karate spirit and ability.

Physically it is far more difficult to protect an open (square) body than it is to protect one turned off. When our stance is on a 45 degree angle, there is less surface area to cover.

Guard Counts

Every person’s guard during kumite communicates. It either says, “stay away, there is no room for your techniques here” or it says “come on in because I won’t stop you”.  What does your guard communicate?

When an opponent sees targets everywhere, they will have more confidence to attack – and with confidence comes competence. When an opponent cannot seem to find any holes or easily see any targets in your guard they will hesitate and attack with less conviction. Your guard is like your fortress and like any good fortress, it best keeps away attackers by its discouraging appearance.

• Stand on a 45 degree angle.
• Hold your front hand higher (around throat height) making it easier to protect your head or attack with a lunge punch.
• Hold your back hand lower (around solar plexus height) making it easier to both protect your body and launch a reverse punch.
• Keep your hands out from your body. This gives you more time to block, enables you to meet an attacking limb further out from your body (where it has less power) and gives your opponent less visible targets.

Reading Your Opponent

Another reason many have a lack lustre defence is due to the old adage that ‘action is faster than reaction’. Because this is very true, and most realize it in sparring, they opt to attack whenever possible. When it comes to sparring, the fatal flaw to this theory is that to the careful observer, the first action is rarely an attack. Actually, most people’s first action is to move into an attacking position before launching their onslaught. For example, a split second before punching they might bring their hand in towards their body, or lower their stance, or suck in a deep breath etc. This split second is the time required for you to react to their attack.

When sparring, become a careful observer to those you are sparring. Try to read their body language and look for signals that they are about to pounce.

The Open Fortress 

Most people believe in sparring that the attacker has the advantage. Perhaps it stems from the previous point. However, once you have developed good reflexes and fluent blocks, it is actually the opposite. Think about it…there you both stand with a good guard, poised and ready to throw a powerful punch from your strong stance. Like a game of chess, you both analyse the situation and look for openings. Patience is paramount. One suddenly launches into a lunge punch. Now let’s freeze it there. Here we find one person waiting patiently with their guard (fortress) still in with its walls secure. Front hand ready to block and reverse hand ready to land a powerful blow. Now let’s examine our attacker mid- flight. To attack they must risk opening up their fortress. Their front hand is out (with a punch) but leaving the soft lower ribs vulnerable. What happens next? To the well-practiced defender, it presents an opportunity to deliver a punch to an open fortress. Their front hand defends the oncoming attack and they make the most of the opportunity presented.

By Shihan Anthony Ryan

Related Articles

Preparing For A Major Tournament
Returning To Karate Training After A Break

The post Kumite: More than Sport appeared first on GKR Karate.

Improving your Style of Kumite

GKR practitioner’s come in many shapes and sizes. Some pick up sparring like a duck to water while to many others it is something that starts out feeling very unnatural. Learning techniques is one thing, but successfully putting them into practice in a semi-realistic situation or developing a successful strategy to do so is another.

Because of this, many people may feel lost when it comes to sparring; even more so when their role models may be much bigger and stronger than they are making it almost impossible to emulate them. You may ask questions such as, “Is there a correct approach or method of sparring that we all should use?” “Do we try to emulate our instructor? Or Kancho Sullivan?”

The answer to these questions are ‘yes’ and ‘no’. I do believe that on many levels we should model the style of kumite that we see our instructors perform. I also believe that there are basic kumite philosophies that Go-Kan-Ryu and many other traditional styles promote that should be taken on board by a student who is trying to develop their kumite. It is, for this reason, we are taught similar techniques in class – similar attacks, counter-attacks, footwork drills etc.

In the end, however, there is no correct approach or method of sparring that a practitioner should adopt. The reality is that kumite is a form of self-expression. One key reason that there is no one style of kumite is that there is no one style of the practitioner. Some are tall, others are small, some are flexible, and others are not. Some people are physically strong and heavy while others may lack real strength and are light by comparison. Because of this, what may work for one person may be ineffective for another.

Becoming Multi-styled 

A philosophy many martial artists take on board is that not only are there different styles of kumite for different people, but there should also be different styles for one person.

It has been said many times in martial art circles that ‘a light wind can push grass around, but against an oak tree it has no effect at all. The oak stands strong and proud. Yet a strong wind can uproot the oak tree, but even the strongest winds cannot uproot the grass which just moves to and fro in its force’. The key is that a karate-ka at times must be like grass and other times like the oak. Too often, however, a karate-ka takes on board one style of kumite and refuses to adopt new styles. Bruce Lee spoke of the dangers of this when he said, “When a person is bound by a set pattern of ideas or way of doing something, they stop growing”.  Kancho Sullivan shares this philosophy. and states “We as people never stagnate, we are always going forwards or backward. Even if we think we are stagnating, the fact that others around us are moving forward has the same effect, we end up behind”.

First Things First 

While it is important to adopt a number of styles for our own kumite, it is essential that one first adopts their own ‘one’ style. Only after a person has a style they feel comfortable with, can they become confident in kumite and then start to expand their horizons.

Now when it’s said that you must adapt your own style, it does not mean you need to invent techniques or new and interesting stances. It just means you need to adapt your strategies for kumite. It also means you need to look at yourself and find your strengths and bring them into the forefront of your Kumite while understanding your weaknesses and keeping these to the back. This is why we said earlier that first establish one style to gain confidence, then you can expand your horizons. An example of this can be found one of our students many years ago. Her name was Cindy and she was 17 years old. Constantly taking on grown men in the class (who often were twice her weight) it was understandable she was always uncomfortable sparring and often asked them to go very easy on her. We established she was very good with her right hand, when it came to both blocking and punching, but her left hand was light years behind. Cindy began to work sparring with her right foot forward so her right hand could be at the front to block. We had her work on blocking only to develop confidence in her defences. Then later we added counter-attacking, but with the same arm. She became very proficient in blocking and countering with her right arm only. She was light and quick and could get in and out before the bigger men could reply to her counter. This style of kumite limited her as a martial artist but built her confidence to get in a spar freely. Once she became confident with this we started adding a left counter punch and attacking more. In the end she became confident and could spar with either foot forward, and freely attack or counter attack. Because of her small size however, regardless of which style she adopted at the time, she was always like grass, constantly moving around and using her speed to get in and out.

‘Kantan Na Mono Yoku Sho O Seisu’  

Where we have said that people’s approach to kumite may, and should, differ, the techniques people use should basically be the same. That is, a punch or kick has good form and comes from a good stance. A karate-ka spends many hours going over the basic techniques so that they become embedded in the subconscious. When this happens, during kumite a person can concentrate on what they will do and the how takes care of itself.

This does not mean that a person should use all the techniques they practice; it just means that what they use should follow that which they are taught. When one is looking for their strengths and weaknesses, it is here that they can decipher which techniques they will mostly use. There is a Japanese karate saying which is ‘Kantan na mono yoku sho o seisu’ which means “the difference between victory and defeat hangs on simple matters”. This tells us that in a real life situation, or in kumite is not how many techniques we know that will see us through, but developing excellent timing, distance and focus in the few techniques we do perform.

Bruce Lee once wrote on such a topic; “A few simple techniques, well presented, with an aim clearly seen, are better than a tangled maze of data whirling in disorganized educational chaos”. “It is not a matter of daily increase, but daily decrease. Hack away the unessential”. “To get better don’t complicate things, improvement is often as simple as to simplify”.

So we understand that there is no real style or method of kumite that a person who practises Go-Kan-Ryu should follow. All are free to develop what works best for them. Some will be strong attackers, while others may counter or pick their opponents off. Some will use many punches, others many kicks, while others will use just one single, powerful punch. Some will stand strong, others will move and be light-footed. Whatever style one chooses, there are basic philosophies towards kumite that anyone can benefit from.

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