is it okay to be destroyed by a higher ranking student in karate?

Question

during kumite, this brown belt pretty much checked all my kicks and punches and knocked me out with a knee to the body. im a blue belt only. is it okay that he went really hard and goes 100% everytime we spar in full contact????

Answer 1

It is really up to the person to go hard or soft in a spar. As long as he doesn't give you serious injuries deliberately, it should be a good training for you. If he is actually destroying you and you end up all bruised after the spar, then he is using you as a sandbag. If this is the case, then your senior is at wrong, avoid sparring with him, and if he keeps coming at you then inform your sensei about it. And work hard, maybe soon you can return the favour to him

Answer 2

First of all it depends on the instructions set by your sensei in this particular case. If your sense allowed this to happen, I'd say he's out of line and you may want to consider your choice of club. Secondly, he definitely in the wrong, control is key in karate. Remeber first principles, "There is no first attack in karate." As a higher grade, he should be teaching you and encouraging you, and definitely not hurting you. As a higher grade he has responsibility.



Though when you use the word "check", that sounds exactly like what he was doing. If he "checks" your kicks and your punches, the definition is "examine so as to determine accuracy, quality, or condition". Which is exactly what he should be doing as a senior grade. I'm guessing that is not the way you are intending that word to be taken. I am guessing that you meant that he blocked all of your kicks and punches. That is a much more easy to understand use of English.



Talk to your sensei. If he doesn't do anything about it, I would seriously consider finding a better club. There is nothing to be gained from training under someone who does not care about you, and more importantly, the standards and true spirit of karate. I've seen Osaka-sensei and Tanaka-sensei, as fierce as they are in training, strip a yondan of the grade he had just passed the previous day because he lost his temper during kumite and let his control slide for just a second.



Just out of interest, I'm wondering why you let him get close enough to you to get a KNEE in. There's a reason hizageri is not a standard karate technique, and that reason is the fundamental of kumite, maai - the judging of timing and distance. To be honest if someone was careless enough to be that close to me during training kumite, I might nudge them with my knee to teach a very valuable lesson. If you're too close, you get hit.

Answer 3

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being beat by a person of higher in class. You need to ask yourself something. What did I learn from this? What could I have done differently?



Now as far as going 100%. He should not have gone 100%. He should put pressure on you. Maybe a lot of pressure. But he being a higher rank should take that into consideration and make sure he is helping you to learn while he still practices on making his techniques better. That way you and he are both learning and developing.



It is possible that he wasn't going 100%. It might have just appeared that he was.

Answer 4

No its not! While he is developing and honing his skills yours are languishing and you are probably learning and progressing very little in getting better if he does this all the time or constantly. This type of approach makes for a single good student maybe with a bunch of lesser want-a-be's instead of a group of good students. Where is the instructor during this and what approach is he taking with it?



While there should be a certain amount of contact and sparring and sometimes one student dominating another for one to be allowed to do that all the time, unchecked, hurts others and their training as well as allow students to get hurt for no reason other than for this one particular student to inflate his ego. In a good school with a good coach or instructor he should be testing himself against others of his rank and ability or ones higher instead of ones lesser.



That's how you build good students and good fighters and improve their ability, skill, and knowledge is over time with careful training and for students and fighters testing their skills against others of similar or greater ability-not against students of lesser ability. If this is common at this school then you might want to consider a different school and instructor as you will probably be in for a rough time of it as long as this continues and this guy trains there. Him going 100% out against lesser students is in some ways like him going 100% out against a ten year old; what does it prove or show except that he is a bully and can whip up on someone of lesser skill and ability.

Answer 5

I remember when I was 12 and a brown belt-- there was a 9 year old blue belt I was supposed to spar my instructor didn't even have to tell me to take it easy on her. I floored her but I made only the lightest of contacts just to show where her openings were and I personally opened myself up to let her practice finding openings.Just getting your *** handed to you isn't going to help you learn. What does your instructor say-- I can remember adult students who were lacking control and they had to spar sensei at 100% and he creamed them and made someone go whip up their blood-- he never injured them though even still he was controlled but that was always the punishment if you had control and you didn't use it when working with less advanced ranks.

Answer 6

If you are sparring "full contact", what do you expect?



Now, you say you were "knocked out". Where you really knocked out or did he just drop you?



What did your teacher do? What was his reaction?



I ask because some of these stories seem like BS coming from bored kids with nothing else to do but make up things.



"full contact" means just that! If you were told full contact and did not give it 100%, then it's your fault.



What gear were you guys wearing?



These are all relevant questions.

Answer 7

No, it's not okay. The brown belt was way out of line. You do not learn by getting your *** handed to you all the time. All that is learned is to build up flinch reactions, and as a result, the mind is not in the proper mindset for developing technique. This changes somewhat as you become more experienced. Full contact is for those who are more experienced.

Answer 8

YES.



There is no shame in being defeated by a more experienced person. In fact it would be a sad thing for a blue belt to defeat a brown belt in that the brown belt must have wasted his time.



You progress by testing your technique against higher ranking opponents.



A black belt is supposed to be 10x better than a brown belt; a brown belt 10x better than the next lower rank and so on and so forth.



It would be a sad thing for me to get easily defeated by one of my green belts or orange belts. But it is perfectly normal for me to devastate my students.



When my students begin to win against me, it is time for them to progress to a better school since they've learned everything I can teach them well.

Answer 9

blue & brown are not too far apart in our class, both are considered intermediate rank. He should only go full out if you have both consented to it, or if you come out swinging 100%. If you think it's personal talk to your instructor, but remember this isn't basket weaving it's martial arts.

Answer 10

Don't listen to the people who are saying he was out of line. Martial arts are supposed to painful, brutal, and difficult.



By going hard in training and letting you know the pain of being hurt and beaten, he is helping you out. Many martial artists have no idea what it is like to get actually hit really hard and have to work through that pain.



Trust me, after enough hits, enough beatings, you won't be as affected anymore and when you go up against someone not as good as this guy, you'll be happy they went that hard on you.

Answer 11

DUH! plus wtf what a dick you're suppose to control your power when sparring, the point is to conduct technique and flow. at least in muay thai that's what i was taught.



*DESTROY your enemies from separate gyms, never your teammates! Also respect your opponent though, I mean maybe he was naturally strong and wasn't meaning to be so hard on you but we had ***** like that at the gym I went to. 30 year old man wailing out on 17 year old girl -___- tough guy huh? He had no technique at all and just used full force which pissed me off because it was just practice to learn the correct way to execute a combo, i'm no wuss and took it like the Big Man he wasn't.



Learn the correct procedures and then learn to execute with proper force, don't be a show off, martial arts is about respect and discipline.



**ALSO practice on your breathing technique so you don't get winded, idk how it is for karate but in muay thai we breath out with a -huss- or sometimes we grunt, its to keep the air exhaled for when we get it on our stomach so we don't lose our breath and get the wind knocked out of us.

Answer 12

I got killed by a brown belt before and what's worse is, that it was my Aunt!!!! So dont feel bad.

Answer 13

Defiently not.



He should be helping you and teaching you noy destroying you.



Tell the instructor and if it continues don't partner with him again.

Answer 14

Cobra Kai never suffer defeat. You better issue a re-challenge and next time sweep the leg.

Answer 15

he is in the wrong. next time you should go full force as well. cheap shots and all

Answer 16

your a beginner and he's an expert, that's out of line. he should do 50% force only.

Answer 17

Be confident, Do More Hardwork. You can do this.

Answer 18

No