Do you study martial arts?

[takyris]

You reminded me of this...

Heh, that sounds like my sparring test -- a precursor to my 5th-degree test. Not as tough as yours, I think, but:

5 rounds
Each round lasts three minutes
Fresh opponent each round
First round: kickboxing, full-contact
Second round: as first, but leg kicks are allowed
Third round: as second, but takedowns and throws are allowed
Fourth round: boxing gloves come off, no punching, grappling emphasis (choke-outs or tap-outs, for the most part)
Fifth round: Judge's choice -- ended up being a multi-opponent scenario like yours...

It was VERY cool. I had always loved katas and techniques, and always been uncomfortable sparring -- but by the end of my training for that test, I was in great shape and could take a lot of punishment. And I could hit hard, too...

-Tacky

 

[Magic Rub]

My current personal favorite boast is picking up a yellow belt in my peripheral vision who had gotten behind me and came in kick I wasn't supposed to see. I was able to pull my currently leveraged victim into the path of the blow instead and counter to the new agressor's groin. I felt very good about myself for that one.

At least until Darian caught me by surprise, put my head between my feet and sent me airborne. I love martial arts. There is no more educating or fun method of exercise I can think of.

As long as you don't mind the bruises.

Sweet move! I know the pain, but the rewards are worth it.

 

[Magic Rub]

Heh, that sounds like my sparring test -- a precursor to my 5th-degree test. Not as tough as yours, I think...

-Tacky

No man that sounds pretty evil! As tough as mine if not TOUGHER I think, I hate (!!!) leg kicks.

How did you do?

 

[barsoomcore]

For part of my black belt test my instructor made me do something he calls the gauntlet. ...(snip)... It was hell! 3 fresh experienced fighters against poor wiped out me. I didn't fall but man did I hurt the next day.

I think that some instructors do these sorts of things to remind us that we're not all that tough.

When I passed my kendo shodan, my dojo had a "celebration practice". I had no idea what was about to happen.

In Japan, kendo is kinda like hockey here in Canada -- it's a community thing, with kids and teenagers and adults all mixed up together. Run out of the local high school gymnasium, with mothers looking on from the sidelines, sharing cookies and gossip and all that fun stuff.

Keep in mind that this is kendo and not Katori Shinto Ryu -- very different.

Anyway I of course was the only foreigner at the club and so nobody would tell me about this "celebration practice" but from the giggles I knew something bad was coming.

There were four of us who passed our belt tests that day -- two guys had received their sandan, me and another guy getting our shodan. All four of us lined up in front of the entire dojo.

The most senior guy went first. Thank heavens.

So it started out with the little ones chasing him around the gym, whacking away with miniature shinai. Aw, so cute. They don't wear helmets so he can't hit back but they're under ten years old and aren't too scary.

Then the junior high kids take over. Again, no helmets but these kids are getting nasty -- trying to grab his shinai and wrench it from his hands, tackle him, smack him on the backside or across the shins or whatever. Obviously all the rules of kendo have been chucked out the window.

Then the senior high kids. Then the university kids. They've got helmets so now it starts getting completely berserk. The nidan is throwing kids over his shoulders, punching, stabbing, running for his life. His opponents are trying to dogpile him, trip him, tear off his armour, hold him down and beat him senseless with their bamboo shinai.

Then the assorted sensei take the floor. We had four sandan, two godan and one hachidan (eighth-degree). It was brutal and ugly. They utterly beat the snot out of this guy. They got his helmet off and took his shinai away from him and beat him into a paste.

Then it's the next nidan's turn. He fares a little better, but I'm so terrified by this point I'm not paying much attention. These people are CRAZY!

My turns comes and I'm determined to make a good account of myself. I throw caution to the wind and lay into anyone who comes close. I'm tossing high school kids into the air, letting them slam down on the hardwood floor. I'm kicking and head-butting, doing anything I can to keep from getting held down.

It's no use. The sensei step out of the on-deck circle and I'm seeing stars every time they hit me. I just keep circling, charging anyone who gets in front of me, no style, no moves just charge, crash into someone, knock them down, run a few steps and spin to face the crowd pursuing me. Repeat.

They get me down. I have seven expert kendoka whaling on my body as hard as they can while I lie helpless. And the whole room is laughing like maniacs.

"You must be not afraid. Keep fighting!" That's the explanation Sensei gives me afterwards.

I'm not so keen on kendo anymore, but that was honestly a great experience.

 

[barsoomcore]

Oh as another point I meant to make clear about that little story:

I'd already won the belt. The actual test, while hard (seiza for two and a half hours on hardwood!), was very controlled and polite and not at all a violent, rowdy brawl like this was. This was done AFTER we'd gone back to the dojo from the city center where the tests were being held.

"Celebration practice" my sweet fanny.

 

[Magic Rub]

Oh as another point I meant to make clear about that little story:

I'd already won the belt. The actual test, while hard (seiza for two and a half hours on hardwood!), was very controlled and polite and not at all a violent, rowdy brawl like this was. This was done AFTER we'd gone back to the dojo from the city center where the tests were being held.

"Celebration practice" my sweet fanny.

Sounds like a good ol' game of pound the snot out of the Canadian. I agree, I too think that instructors do these sorts of things to remind us that we're not all that tough.

 

[takyris]

The funny thing was, I did really really well...

The full-contact aspect was a killer... my testing buddy and I, the two people at this rank, knew it was gonna be tough, and we just trained the hell out of each other. He had a lot more experience than I did -- he's 46, I'm 26, and he started taking martial arts when he was 14 at a kickboxing school. So for this test, he really trained the hell out of me. Got me to not freeze up when I got hit, improved my reflexes, my toughness, and my combat intelligence in terms of seeing holes in defenses and going for them.

Thing was, I was a really lousy sparrer for a 4th degree. It was never a huge part of our school, so I'd kind of slid by for awhile. Training for this test just about killed me... we had bloody noses every training session -- 'cause once it happens once, it always happens again if you just get TOUCHED. I got nailed in the ribs and couldn't sleep on my right side for a few months -- which ended up being a benefit, because I had to switch to left-side forward, which turned out to be a better style for me. My partner fell wrong on a throw and hurt his shoulder, and had to learn how to fight without straining himself that way.

We were psyched, we were jazzed, we had our strategies -- because we were sparring at the same time, not against each other but against the same pool of people. Let the opponents tire themselves out in the first minute -- we'd been training, we could last the full three minutes no sweat. Let them get tired, and then in the second minute, open it up a bit, use what we'd seen against them. By the third minute, they'd be tired. For aggressive people, we were ready to change all that and just drill them hard and hurt them so that they wouldn't be pounding on us for three straight minutes. We were ready to hurt people, hit hard, stun them if necessary (although if we did any serious damage, we would fail the test for lacking control).

And then we got there, and our opponents included one black belt who is a short, fast sparring demon but also a good guy, one big slow guy, one thin guy who had ability but some of the same sparring issues that I had had before, and one new brown belt kid who was scared out of his mind. I'd been prepared for getting my headgear rocked by the biggest, strongest, most aggressive guys in the school, and the test itself ended up being a cakewalk compared to what I put myself through against my training buddy. For part of one round, my teacher actually said, "Okay, Mr. Weekes (me), why don't you NOT PUNCH for a minute here, and Michael, you just relax and see what you can do?"

My teachers had been watching my training buddy and I clobber each other for all those months, watching us bloody our noses and bruise our ribs and laugh and cry and bleed and lean against the wall with our bloody mouthpieces in our sweaty gloves.

For them, we actually passed our sparring test weeks before we actually took it.

-Tacky

 

[barsoomcore]

Got me to not freeze up when I got hit

That is so important it ought to be an art all itself.

Oh wait, that's boxing. Never mind.

For them, we actually passed our sparring test weeks before we actually took it.

My shodan "test" for KSR was an actual demonstration of that principle.

I don't have any interest in actually acquiring belts. I attended the kendo test because my sensei (who were also dear friends and pretty much adopted my upon arrival in Japan) assumed that I would and I couldn't bring myself to disappoint them. I'd studied at Sugino Dojo (KSR) for almost three years without attending a single test. I just wasn't interested -- I was just having fun learning how to swing a sword.

So I know the test day is coming up and I want to make sure I skip practice that day since I'm not going to test so I ask Sensei, "Is the test next week?"

Sensei's busy watching some other students practice and just growls at me, "Go practice with the bo. You still aren't doing it right."

Fine, alright, don't answer a simple question. I pick up my bo and grab a partner and run through the kata. The day passes.

At the end of the day, Sensei announces we're having a post-practice "celebration". I control the urge to bolt (thinking maybe he's been talking with my kendo dojo) and help wash the floor, bring out the tables and cushions, the beer glasses and the sake glasses, snacks and so on. Sensei sits down (he's 94 at this point), pours himself a hit of sake and lights a cigarette.

We all sit around the table and there's a few minutes of friendly chatter, pouring beer for each other and so on, and then Sensei announces that a Kori-san has been awarded his shodan. Passes the papers down to me and everyone cheers.

The little sneak. His only concern was whether or not my bo was good enough so he watched that run-through I did and decided, heck, he doesn't want to test he doesn't have to. I know how good he is.

So I got my shodan anyway.

 

[Magic Rub]

My teachers had been watching my training buddy and I clobber each other for all those months, watching us bloody our noses and bruise our ribs and laugh and cry and bleed and lean against the wall with our bloody mouthpieces in our sweaty gloves.

For them, we actually passed our sparring test weeks before we actually took it.

-Tacky

Nice job man 5th degree is a hard place to get to. And ya they always know long before your "Test", if you're ready for a new rank or not . The test is a really just a milestone, a "Demo" for everyone to see.

 

[cardinal sinister]

cardinal: Pardon the middle-class white boy, but pit fighting? Is that a specific term, or is that general underground illegal fighting stuff? I've always been a little curious about that, not because of any interest in doing it, but just because I've always been curious as to what the bad "Arena of Death" movies get right and wrong.

I mean, is having your significant other and ancient samurai sword both kidnapped and held hostage while an evil nemesis forces you to go through his personal gladiatoral circus and defeat progressively harder opponents with different ethnic themes while you slowly and despite yourself start to like the peppy guy who showed you the ropes in the gladiator cells and who's doing it to pay for an operation for his wife and to make a name for himself until he gets killed by the evil dude you're going to have to fight as the second to the last battle (the last battle, of course, being your evil nemesis) part of the official drill?

-Tacky

Pit fighting is the term, but the movies NEVER get it right...ever. It's much more of a business environment. The fights are brutal and injuries DO occur quite often, but everyone is business like and professional. Some of those retarded plots they come up with are just so sad they make my head hurt. I swear, the first time I saw Lionheart I wanted to cry.

As a side note, Kyokushinkai is one of the hardest forms there is, you learn to end a fight as quickly as possible, using the most effective means at your disposal. All sparring is full contact. It's known as the Art of Breaking.

I learned Bonsai and Shiatsu massage while I trained. It helped with the aggressive tendencies the style helps hone.