karrot sparring help

[MercuryTurrent]

hey, the other day i was sparring with my shidoshi in class, but i got whooped. karate point sparring is more like tag then a fight! o.O whodathunkit?

i realized that those standard roundhouses, cresent kicks, spinning back hook kicks, and your tornado kicks aren't gonna cut it... but im not sure what my strategy should be. if started practicing my speed with my lead foot side kicks and roundhouses, as well as a number or combinations on backfists and the like, but i would like to start a discussion; hopefully some good points will be made. so, to anyone who took this type of competition, or has anything to say about it... please give some imput!

[Groin Grab]

I did point fighting for years, it helps with speed, timing and initial interceptions if you work on on your counter fighting a lot. Thats basically it, your right it's nothing like a real fight. As long as you can make the distinktion that when you are point fighting your are playing a game and not fighting, if you recognize that and can switch from point fighting to real fighting I don't see any problem with it.

[Groin Grab]

I just wanted to clarify on thing, in the previous post I said that point fighting will help with interceptions if you work on your counter fighting a lot. What I mean by that is in a point fight your opponent may move say to attack with something, as he does this you see that he drops his hand slightly so you throw a high round house kick over it and tap him on the side of the head with it. The ref yells break and the judges call a point then the entire thing starts all over again. Obviously if you do this in a real fight and tap the guy in the head with a kick as he attacks it probably won't even phase the guy and he'll be in your face trying to if not already pounding you in less than a seconds time, for this reason point fighting is completely fake and has nothing to do with real fighting, but what you have learned to do from your point fighting is strike your opponent while he is attacking even though it was with a technique that probably won't even phase the guy in an actual fight you've learned the timing of when to move in for an interception. What you have to learn how to do and teach yourself to do automatically in a real fight is the exact same thing but this time it's gotta be a differnt technique to a differnt target like a knee to the nuts or stop hit or an entry or punch or elbo to the face, anything thats going to hurt the guy and put him in enough pain to disrupt his attack and you need to follow up with something where as in point fighting you don't have to follow up any thing.

[mushinmaster]

Who needs point fighting to learn that!

[Groin Grab]

I never said you did need point fighting to learn that!

Obviously you can develop those attributes with out point fighting. What happens too many people how ever is they will spend years on point fighting thinking that what they are doing is real fighting and then one day realize the truth that it is not. When this happens you have to be able to pull out what works and throw away the rest of it. That's what I was trying to point out the portions that work and the portions that do not.

While many point fighters are critizised often on forms like this, I at least apprecate the athletesim it takes to excell in the sport. If you look at some of the top NASKA and other major circuit point fighters around today they are very impressive athletes if anything else.

[mushinmaster]

Just bustin' on ya!

Yeah point fighiting does develop certain skills, but it's a game, a sport. I think tag is the appropriate name. It takes quickness and strategy to nail those points home...and control.

The real thing is a lot different, and a lot more satisfying

[Groin Grab]

Well said.

[thekuntawman]

hi if a guy is fast enough to tap you in the face, then he is fast enough to break your jaw or knock you out. if you are not fast enough to intercept his attack, you will not be fast enough to stop whatever he is going to do.
true that pointing is not a real street fight, but neither is full contct sparring, and neither is nhb. but all those kinds of sparring can help develop a different skill that will help you in the real lfight. learn whatever you can because all of it will help you, even point fighting. but dont let only one style of training or fighting take over everything you do, even full contact, because they all have a weakness.

also, avoid being like the martial artist who tries a trounament, doesnt do to good, and then say "well, its stupid anyway". they all help develop stuff that other kinds of training cant.

[MercuryTurrent]

i got some new tricks in my bag for sparring.

hopping roundhouses work great, even against blackbelts

a quick shuffling backhand-underpunch works serious wonders

a backhook and a wheelkick... BEAUTIFUL!

dip your landing after side-kicks and throw a backhand.

instead of a back-leg roundhouse, switch strattle position and go for a front leg round-house

a spinning back hook beats almost all other spinning type moves.

ask "who's walking on the ceiling?"

duck dem high kicks son; go for a crouching jab!

okay, thats all i got for now. if you guys got some killer techniques that work for sparring, please share! i got a tornament on the 25th

[Groin Grab]

If you're looking for moves watch that last Roy Jones JR fight against the Australian. Did you see that fight. Roy Jones JR used a flying upper cut, a gallop in and double jab and he knocked the guy down by bating him into a chicken fight and then a right hook. Not bad. Check it out.