On Thursday night, the black belts were tapped to help correct during a very basics oriented class. Sensei Brewer worked with some of the lower ranked students in basic distancing concepts, and us black belts got to help keep them out of arms reach of one another.
In between the first and second class,
I ended up across from Dobbleaire-san, when I started trying to get across “the line” – the midway point between one stance and the next – faster. This worked and I was able to catch up with him, so I resolved to try it during slow sparring if possible.
So I did. We got to do some slow sparring, and as slow sparring tends to do it amped up. With my first few partners things went normally, I was able to catch them but barely. Then along came my match with Oedewaldt-san. Before we began, he asked if we were going slow or free and I replied “slow… and free.”
Apparently, my intention was not that clear. I decided to use the strategy of wading in slowly and building a rhythm, then quickly launching across the line and throwing some techniques to break the rhythm. This worked extremely well, however I wasn’t quite so able to control my punches at this distance, and one ended up in his neck and at least two punches met with his mouth.
I felt bad- very bad- right after this had happened because it split his lip open and he was bleeding. I thought that perhaps I could’ve gone slower or controlled my punches more, but this is the nature of advanced karate. I’ve taken many a-lump in this exact same mode, and I suppose I can’t feel too bad about doling out a few lumps.
After class I apologized to him and all is right with the world, but I did wonder why I felt so badly about this one incident. I think in the end it is because this particular strategy worked extremely well and I had intended to use it ahead of time. I was happy that the strategy worked, but you never want that to be at the expense of your training partner.
I’m going to keep working on this same strategy in a more controlled fashion as things move forward. Hopefully in time I will figure out the distance. Until then, I hope my opponents can front a healthy rising block.
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