DESCRIPTION OF SPARING (KUMITE) EXERCISES

The following notes describe the different types and levels of sparring taught within ESKA. These notes are not intended to provide a detailed description of each technique and certainly do not intend to teach the exercises. Instead these notes intend to provide a general description of each sparring exercise, explain why each exercise is used and also point out some of the common problems experienced when practising each exercise. It is hoped that these notes will help ESKA students understand (and therefore improve) their sparring and may help ESKA instructors by highlighting various aspects of each exercise that should be emphasised whilst instructing. It may also be of general interest to anyone wishing to start or learn about Karate.

It should be pointed out that Karate is primarily a physical sport and no amount of purely reading or writing will improve your physical ability. Therefore these notes are only intended to aid ESKA students with their physical training.

Collectively the aim of these sparring exercises is to introduce the various aspects of sparring gradually, to enable students to develop their sparring in-line with their grade and ability (in other words you are not expected to fight without first building up the ability and experience). Each sparring exercise is explained below by describing the aim of the exercise, the general form of the exercise (but not a move by move breakdown - this is for the instructors!) and some of the common problems encountered.

For general tips on kumite, see the General Kumite Tips page.

KIHON IPPON KUMITE (basic one step sparring)

Aim of Exercise: The aim of this exercise is to familiarise the student with using karate techniques against a real opponent, which is not readily experienced in kihon or kata. Although this exercise uses only predetermined attacks and defences, the concept of body evasion is also introduced at a fairly early stage.

Description of Exercise: This exercise consists of a sequence of individual, predetermined attacks and counter attacks. The individual attacks (a series of 3, 4 or 5) are made in the order, jodan punch, chudan punch, a chudan front kick, a chudan side thrust kick and a jodan (or chudan) roundhouse kick. Although the attacks always remain the same, there are 5 sets of defence and counter attacks to be learnt, on both left and right sides. The defence/counter attacks get progressively harder and more complex, and the importance of correct distancing and body evasion is emphasised at an early stage.

Points to Watch: Learning the 5 different sets often proves to be the most mentally challenging of the 3 K's (kihon, kata and kumite), as each is different, must be learnt on both the left and right sides and there is little thinking time during the exercise itself. When using body evasion to avoid an attack the block should only be used as an extra precaution, however many students believe that they must always make contact with the attack and therefore over stretch or extend the technique so that it becomes weak and out of position. As with all kihon (or basic) sparring, no contact is made (or should not be made!) on the counter attack.

GOHON KUMITE (5 step sparring - basic)

Aim of Exercise: The main aims of this exercise are to teach students about reacting to consecutive attacks and maintaining correct distancing. It also improves the awareness of the defender, as although the defender knows the area of attack, the time of the next attack is unknown and the defender must react only to the attackers movement. Finally this exercise gives students experience of having to consistently defend well (as may be needed against a particularly determined opponent).

Description of Exercise: This exercise consists of a sequence of 5 consecutive attacks, to the same target area (jodan or chudan punches). All 5 attacks are blocked using the same blocking technique before a final counter attack is made.

Points to Watch: The 5 attacks should not be equally spaced, but should be random in timing, as to surprise and test the defender. On the chudan attacks the attacker should aim to make light contact (ie attack faster than the defender can defend). Finally it is very easy for the attacker to unknowingly indicate that they are about to attack by giving little signs, such as a small initial foot or hand movement or a change in facial expression. The attacker should avoid this in all kumite as it telegraphs the intention to attack. Conversely the defenders should learn to read these signs to help them react to a possible attack. As with all kihon (or basic) sparring, no contact is made (or should not be made!) on the counter attack.

SANBON KUMITE (3 step sparring - basic)

Aim of Exercise: This exercise aims to familiarise the student with a realistic fighting scenario, in which they must defend against several different attacks before counter attacking. Although similar to Gohon Kumite, the sequence of attacks are now at different target areas, and so the student must learn to expect and defend against different attacking techniques to different target areas.

Description of Exercise: A sequence of 3 attacks (a jodan punch, a chudan punch and a chudan front kick) are made in succession by the attacker. The defender defends each attack with a different block, before counter attacking after the third (final) block.

Points to Watch: As the sequence is still a predetermined one (as with Kihon Ippon and Gohon kumite) it is important for the defender to react only to the attack, and not pre-empt the known attack and move/defend to early. As with all kihon (or basic) sparring, no contact is made (or should not be made!) on the counter attack.

KAESHI IPPON KUMITE (return one step sparring)

Aim of Exercise: This exercise is usually the students first experience of a true sparring situation, as it involves both defending and attacking from both students. This exercise highlights a lot of aspects important to freestyle sparring, including reaction time, distancing and the importance of good blocking technique and strong attacking technique.

Description of Exercise: This exercise starts with an initial attack from student A, which is defended by student B. However, student B then immediately attacks back and this must be defended by student A. Following the defence by student A, a final counter attack is then made by student A.

Points to Watch: The first attack should be very strong in order to make it difficult for the defender to counter attack either quickly or strongly. Conversely if the first attack is weak, then the defender can counter attack strongly and quickly and easily obtain the advantage (despite initially being the defender). As with all kihon (or basic) sparring, no contact is made (or should not be made!) on the final counter attack.

JIYU KUMITE (semi freestyle sparring)

Aim of Exercise: Jiyu or semi-freestyle sparring introduces the student to a more realistic application of karate techniques and has less emphasis on basic (technically correct) techniques and long stances (often associated with Shotokan karate). Instead more emphasis is placed on the speed of technique, accuracy of attacks, good distancing and then pulling away (to relative safety) after a counter attack. As in all freestyle sparring, light contact with control is expected of each attack (for safety reason no contact to face is permitted).

Description of Exercise: This form of this exercise is very similar to kihon ippon kumite using the same sequence of 5 individual attacks. The differences between this exercise and kihon ippon kumite are intended to make jiyu kumite more realistic. For example, · the attacker can delay and feign an attack (the defender must only react to the actual attack) · light contact with control (but no contact to face) is expected as all realistic techniques must be able to contact the target · the defences are generally more realistic and are often not as complicated as some of the kihon ippon kumite defences · techniques can be extended beyond the length allowed by basic front stance · pulling back to a safe range once an attack is made is expected, as it is dangerous to stay close to an opponent in a real situation.

Points to Watch: Due to the freestyle stances and the emphasis on making (controlled) contact, students often lean forward when punching resulting in a weak (unrealistic) technique. Also because students are first introduced to basic kumite, they are not used to pulling away after a counter attack and often forget to do so. Conversely those that do pull away tend to put too much emphasis on pulling away, resulting in a very 'flicky' counter attack instead of a good strong counter attacking technique.

OKURI JIYU KUMITE (2 step semi freestyle sparring)

Aim of Exercise: This exercise is the first to include an unknown attack to any target area and therefore ensures that students are capable of blocking an unknown attack from any angle or position. This exercise is a further step towards open freestyle sparring and is a very good exercise to develop good positioning when sparring.

Description of Exercise: Okuri jiyu kumite involves the attacker making 2 consecutive attacks, the first to a known target area (same as Kihon Ippon Kumite and jiyu kumite) and the second being any attacking technique. The defender must block each attack with any suitable defence and finish with a counter attack. The sequence followed is first attack (to known target area), first defence (any defending technique), then second attack (using any attacking technique to any target area) and finally second defence and counter attack (again any technique).

Points to Watch: The final counter attack can be repetitive (ie some students always use gyaku zuki) and although often practical, students should try not to limit themselves to a single good technique and try to develop several good counter attacking techniques. The choice of first defence technique is important and strongly influences the position of the attacker for the second attack, therefore the defender should try to use a defensive technique which will make the second attack more difficult.

KUMITE (freestyle sparring)

Aim of Exercise: This is open freestyle as seen in competition fighting and is used only by fairly experienced students (generally after about 18 months of training). The aim of this exercise is to use karate in a true fighting situation and discourage any behaviour, which would put you at risk in a real situation (eg lowering your guard or turning your back). Although essentially there are no restrictions on the type and number of karate techniques used, there are sensible safety restrictions in order to prevent serious injury (eg no contact to dangerous target areas such as face and throat). All techniques are expected to be strong and yet controlled.

Description of Exercise: Freestyle sparring involves 2 students attempting to make as many good (scoring) karate techniques against each other within a limited time (normally 1 or 3 minutes) whilst defending themselves against attacks from their opponents. In a competition environment good techniques are scored and bad technique or bad behaviour (such as uncontrolled techniques, lowering your own guard, turning away from your opponent or disrespect) are penalised.

Points to Watch: This kind of sparring is competitive (even in the environment of a lesson) and so care must be taken as to not allow the control of techniques to reduce or the severity of the techniques to increase. In this freestyle environment, it is often very difficult to execute a good karate technique, and so it is important to ensure that the proper kumite sparring does not deteriorate into ragged sparring or simple pushing and shoving.

LINE TRAINING

Aim of Exercise: The aim of this exercise is to give students experience of different opponents of different heights, strength, grades, speed and technique, to ensure that their defences and attacks work against a wide range of different opponents with different abilities. This kind of exercise often raises the standard of a students karate, especially if the opponents are of a higher grade.

Description of Exercise: The exercise can take the form of any of the above exercises but instead of the same opponent being used for each attack, a different attacker is used each time. Student line up one behind the other facing the defender. Each attacker then attacks the defender one after the other until the line has rotated once. Then the next student takes up the defender role and the prosess repeats.

Points to Watch: Because the opponents can vary, defence and counter attack techniques can often become stretched or distorted as a student reaches or tries to make extra range. However this should not happen, as karate techniques are only aimed at defending yourself and so the defensive techniques should also not vary dramatically. Range and height can cause problems, but sliding to obtain distance and changing the height of a counter attack should not affect the quality of a karate technique.

CIRCLE TRAINING

Aim of Exercise: All of the above exercises have essentially been ono-on-one sparring. Circle training is used to represent a many-on-one situation giving the student experience of being aware of and reacting to the actions of more than one attacker.

Description of Exercise 1: The exercise starts with the single defender in the middle of a ring of attackers. Again the exercises take the form of any of those described above (but mainly the one step or return sparring). The defender is attacked by the first attacker and performs his chosen technique. The defender then aligns himself with the next attacker in the circle and is attacked by this person. The defender continues this process until he has travel the full circumference of the circle and then changes positions with the student that attacked the defender in the first instance. Although similar to line training, circle training can be carried out with greater pace and in larger groups two defender can be "travelling" the circle at the same time to speed up the process.

Description of Exercise 2: The exercise starts with the single defender in the middle of a ring of attackers. Again the exercises take the form of any of those described above (but mainly the one step or return sparring), but any attacker can attack from any direction, at any time. Initially this exercise is used with a very short warning of attack (eg a shout) but higher grades can train without any warning being given.

Points to Watch: The defender often needs to twist in order to react to an attack from the side or behind. This twisting can cause the defender to be off balance when defending and result in a weak defence. The use of stepping is important when twisting or turning, in order to maintain a good solid stance, so care should be taken on foot movement in this exercise. This kind of exercise can result in 2 simultaneous attacks, which are not generally encountered in other forms of training (but is of course a realistic situation). A decision must be made (depending on the grade and ability of the defender) whether this situation should be defended as normal, or dismissed and the defender wait for the next single attack.

SELF DEFENCE

Aim of Exercise: Although not strictly a sparring exercise, self defence can still be considered as a kind of defence and possible counter attack (and so is also included here). Often self defence concentrates more on defences against grabs and locks as opposed to defences against more dynamic attacks such as the kick and punches used in sparring. The aim of self defence is to learn to use techniques suitable for escaping any unwanted physical situation.

Description of Exercise: A realistic attack is made on the defender (eg grab from behind, straggle hold, or knife attack etc). The defender must attempt to avoid or escape from the attack using both standard karate techniques but also more specific self defence techniques (designed more for escape from rather than attacking your opponent).

Points to Watch: Self defence techniques can be very specific to each individual (due to differences in size and strength) and a technique that works well for one person may not work well for another. It is therefore important that each student finds self defence techniques which are practical for them.