Bash Street Kids: Kumite Night

Kumite Night

Yesterday morning when I woke up with brown patches on my left and right ribcage and a swollen left hand (and inability to make a fist) I thought....mmm, last night's kumite was great!

Tuesday was Kumite Night, the first time we were allowed to cut loose for a long time and I think we all had fun. Goro came up to me and said "Your wife's fists are very painful!" Last week, Yuko tried one of the self-defense techniques against Chikan and rammed her knife hand up between my legs. I can't actually remember much for about 20-30 seconds; just a sort of vague circular haze crumpled up in front of our door. She was deeply apologetic of course. I didn't have much say in the matter either way ;-).

Anyway, kihon was a bit different on Tuesday: we basically did static shodan kihon syllabus plus kusshin- ake-uke=> gyaku-zuki, soto-uke=>gyaku-zuki, uchi-uke=>gyaku-zuki, gendan barai=> gyakuzuki (compression->explosion, compression -> explosion). Just as you were becoming like some sort of steam hammer, YS would raise the pace...then maegeri- just maegeri, up and down, up and down.

Then suddenly, Kumite...then more Kumite....then more Kumite

....45 minutes of Jiyu-Ippon Kumite in three stages

a) Aite performs just basic defense (block and/or tai-sabaki, jiyu/tekito-ni), 5-7 minutes each of one partner just attacking with favorite techniques unlimited number of attacks-> swop (5-7 minutes, mypace, as many as you want, non stop)

b) Aite defense and (block and/or sabaki- hangeki -> same as above but aite can have a go back (5-7 minutes, free, mypace) then swap (same time restriction)

c) Both moving one or double triple attack (aite defense then hangeki) (5-7 minutes free non stop) then swap....

Sorry I am not sure about the individual timing because all I know was that by the end I was dragging myself along. The critical thing with ji-yu-ippon/nihon/sambon kumite is kihon and if your opponent does not defend, he or she is going to get powerfully hit.

Note on Japanese

From feedback I am getting, I realize sometimes I assume that people understand all the Japanese I am throwing out. If you train in Japan for a few months, or have a teacher who was trained or has extensive experience in Japan, then most, but all of these expressions should be second nature. If not, just in case!

Mypace

Mypace is a Japanese shoryaku (省略）(abbreviation) for "at your own pace, in your own time." As many of you may know, Japan is full of abbreviated loanwords or Japanese originals; for example pasacon means "personal computer" and of course the most well known I guess is anime (animated cartoon).

Hangeki (反撃）"Counter Attack"

Self explanatory, I think

Tekito-ni (適当に) "Appropriately, depending on the situation, as needed...."

Ninzubun (人数分）

This is special Japanese known to few foreigners: ask Bryan Dukas Sensei ;-). He has had extensive training in this technique by the Honbu Dojo, including optional exercise extras provided by Shirakawa san.

Bash Street Kids

Then YS pulled out OS and Ibuki san, and we all lined up to have a go at them! Oh what fun we had.

I steamed into OS like a myopic rhino (Yuko has said I don't so much resemble a donkey as a rhino, which for me is a step up, I suppose) to no avail of course by the time I was trying my sneaky second attack I had already had a fist in the face and a boot in the ribs and was going backwards, all with perfect poise and control from OS and, unlike with Pieter, pain free defeat!

Then Kata

1) Jion: Chu-i　(take care) （注意）points;

a) Length, power and kanshin on maegeri ->oizuki, gyaku-zuki

b) Extreme hanmi, tame-tametametameru (hold, hold, hold, hold,WHAKspring! hips) to gyaku hanmi

c) NEVER raise hips when going into gedanbari- in fact in the turn, your hips should be going down

d) Mesen awareness- look your opponent in the eye

2. Gojusho-Sho: Chu-i (注意） points (Here is YS checking out Oht suka Sensei (OS) and Ibuki doing Gojusho-Sho in the photo below.)
Note: Junban (order) is as in Nakayama Sensei's Best Karate!

1) Move 24:Yonhon nukite- remember the first strike is oi-tsuki with perfect shomen. Easy, right? Never forget, right? Well, check again, OK! Ah-ha, not sure now, right? Get the picture.

2) Extreme koshi tame, tame, tame is required before the switch back to oi-zuki.

3) Move 15, repeated elsewhere, e.g. 20: Hidari Nukite Chudan Uke: Remember that you are using the shuto before the sambon nukite to block a coming oi-zuki; you deflect the block by drawing the punch away from you. A lot of people just wave their hands, or thing they are doing something similar to Bassai Dai.

4) Move 61: Ryoken Koshi-ni Kameta-mama: the hands on hips swivel block has to be thrust from the hips and be powerful as much as speedy- really go in and attack with it, and expand off the back leg when you do it. Mentally I thought "Yeah, give the bugger the elbow!"

3. Sochin: I am sorry, at my level I just followed the others. Fortunately I next to Ibuki- so I had a great role model to copy. YS gave Ibuki a clinic on Sochin while the rest of us watched. The main thing was to make sure that the ke-age kicks are strong without loosing momentum or snap. It's very easy if you are young, fast and talented (the three critical areas that I am most deficient in, gumpf) to whip out the kicks for show. Now I am not saying that Ibuki did that, but after he was told, the kicks certainly looked as if they would knock my block off...

Warm down: I felt my left hand already blowing up, so I decided to do as many press-ups on my knuckles as I could - about 35- before my left hand gave out. Ouch ouch ouch... It was a bit of a bugger yesterday, I couldn't even open a carton of milk with it. Much better today though and the bruising has taken on a nice brown/red color and I can move my thumb again. I can't make a fist, so I guess it's time for a big dose of aspirin tonight.

Yoroshiku ;-)

Paul.