I am curious if seasoned martial artists have any opinion on this. A Kyokushin black belt visited our goju dojo and we had a sparring session. Naturally he had advantage as kyokushin spar like twice as often as goju I didn't watch his other spars but when he got to me I wasn't too pleased First of all he head kicked me, we don't really head kick in goju without prior consent instead we head punch (we wear gloves). Also I am only an orange belt and higher belts usually give you openings so you have something to throw Instead he just threw all the time would I had to block the entire time. He hasn't come back yet so he may have just come to test his skills which I would find kind of uncool, we were just sparring not doing challenge matches... What would you say is that cool to do?
He probably felt the need to stamp his dominance down. Show that his style is superior. Now that his ego is appeased he will probably act normal. Its not cool to go somewhere with the single minded goal of beating the crap out of everyone to prove a point, but on the other hand he might just not be used to the way your spar. I see nothing wrong with head kicks, BUT you should have clarified before what is and isnt allowed. As for allowing you to get an opening, having just met you he probably didnt know your level, so didnt know wether to go easy or not. Also, train where he trains, it sounds better (twice as much sparring and head kicks)
Kyokushin fighters train for tournaments In their tournaments their are no head punches allowed but head kicks which is why they train head kicks but not so often head punches. In goju we spar for self defense so we train head punches I rather learn head punches then kicks
He probably didn't realize how light you guys spar there. If this was a frustrating experience for you though, do not blame him, blame yourself for not sparring enough. Did you even try to convey any of these thoughts to him after sparring? Guys come from surrounding areas everytime my gym has an open mat day. We let EVERYONE join us as long as they sign consent forms, so naturally I spar with a lot of different styles. Try not to let overly aggressive people get the best of you. It may not be so much of them trying to impose their ego and dominance over you as much as that is just how it's done where they come from.
You see that crap all the time around here,there's two or three good mma schools around here and they like to test each other from time to time. I think it's a straight a$$hole move to personally and when am at someone else's place try to be as repectful about the visit as possible.
I think open sparring is important, especially for self defense. If SD is your goal, than it is important that you get to the level that people visiting your martial arts school can't surprise you with their tactics or ideas on fighting. Ideally, next you want to get to the level where you can spar with MMA people, at least those who aren't pro, at the level they think of as going hard. Best would be able to have hard sparring under MMA rules with someone who boxes, as that is the ultimate test for a karateka to see if he can protect his IQ. There is just almost no other way to be good at this. So the start is to go to other schools yourself and / or directly ask people there about their tactics and ideas on fighting. If you knew that the kyokushin guy thought the best way to win was to not block his face, punch you in the chest until you get tired and back up, and then kick you in the head, you could have been more ready for it. You could have also prepared an active defense, like stepping away from his rear leg and in while punching him in the face, and keeping your own hands up to soak his spinning kick if he manages it.
a good true post. I study multiple arts at my school (it is good that it offers me 3 arts I can do in the school) but am fairly new to them in general (10 months exp) when someone (black belt in other art for example) with 10 year exp comes in its tricky to know what to do with that especially when they seem to want to prove themselves. Which is why I just sort of held on and played defense and still I got head kicked. I would of been interested in sparring different styles like MMA style if I had known about it prior but this was not my understanding. It sounds fun to me to do this.
It's up to the trainer/manager of the gym to make sure everything goes okay and that new guys (regardless of their level) know how to spar at that gym. At our gym, the trainer usually takes a minute to let the guy know how things are done. Then there are no surprises for anyone when it does come to sparring. Getting knocked out isn't a good thing, period. So tell your trainer to keep a better eye on his students.
Was the sparring intense or hard? Eg. was he sparring aggresively but with controlled power, or was he sparring as if it was a fight with full power? Did he know about the no head kicks thing? You should thank him, because when you fight for real, you cant expect openings to be handed to you
I think sparring at other gyms is great and should be encouraged. It's easy to get too comfortable sparring the same people all the time.
I agree with everything you said, but it sounds like TS just got his feathers rustled, not knocked out, which may not have happened were he used to sparring more. But I do agree, the trainer/manager/owner should be the only ego that enters that door and should have everyone there know it.
I agree. However, I think it is very important to show more respect to your opponents than usual. This basically translates to getting your arse handed to you a bit (which can be good for your development). The other martial artists will go harder than you until after a few weeks you will no longer be seen as an 'outsider' but one of them. Then you can up your intensity to match theirs without anyone thinking your just an egotistical dickhead. Afterall, you took your licks with humility and now your showing them you didn't have to if you didn't want to. In summary, sparring against other martial artists at other gyms/dojos is great as long as you retain your humble learning spirit.
TSF member? I do tkd and with traditional martial arts everyone is convinced that their art is perfect in every way and can get very defensive if it looks like that might not be the case. He probably wanted to prove a point, that his style is superior, and now that he is satisfied that is true.
