CONTROL
Out of all the aspects of Martial Arts the most difficult to master is that of CONTROL.
We’ve all heard it a million times, "Watch your control." From the first moment we are paired up to work on a technique or run a drill … control, control, control …
So, what is control? In its simplest form control means … Don’t hurt your training partner! As Sensei Cofer has stated time and time again, "We are friends, we are family, let’s not hurt one another."
But it’s Martial Arts, kicking, punching … FIGHTING!!! How am I suppose to learn how to fight if you won’t let me?
I believe I can speak for all of our instructors when I say if this is your attitude you have come to the wrong place. We don’t teach fighting …. We teach Self-Defense … and the best self-defense I know of is Don’t Fight!! This is where control truly manifests itself.
Like every other aspect of the Martial Arts control changes as you progress and gain knowledge and skill.
We learn to control our techniques, we learn to control our breathing, our emotions, our actions, and probably the hardest lesson for me, We learn to control our tongue.
A good Martial Artist must learn to control themselves before they can begin to control any situation they may encounter.
Now for the reason behind this post, first it is a compliment for all those in attendance at our last family night … I saw great progress made from top to bottom with very few lapses in control …
Secondly it is a reminder … control is not just something to be used in the ring. It’s a trait we must adopt and practice in our everyday lives.
"Watch your control"....."Use good techniques".....As students we hear these two phrases more than any others when we are sparring in front of our Senseis. Notice I used sparring rather than fighting. Our job as students is to realize our limitations and not try and use techniques that are above and beyond our abilities. You might know how to do a spinning reverse kick....but do you know how to stop it just short of it's target. You might have practiced a hatchet kick hundreds of times...but do you know how to just graze your opponent just enough to let them know how bad it COULD HAVE BEEN (like Sensei Brad does to me every time we spar together). Accidents happen and contact is going to occur. I've been hit extremely hard two times while sparring, and in both cases it was partially my fault for leaning in and not being in control of my stance. (Mike feel free to take a jab at my leaning and leading with my chin) The main thing is to keep your cool when contact happens. If it happens at one of our three dojos, I'd be willing to bet the farm that it was and accident and the person that did the hitting feels just as bad as the person that got hit. I hope that I'm able to get to more classes(especially Family Nights) now that Hunter's fall baseball season is over and I look forward to seeing, and sparring, everyone again.
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Guy's this is a very important subject with me. If you've worked with Grandmaster Mills as much as I have you'll here be nice to each other we both have to work tomorrow.
AS black belts we need to mix it up from time to time as to be able to stay on top of our game. The problem is if you're going to pick it up and go hard both partners need to know that this is going to be a hard match.
All to often one person is taking it easy and working on his technique and then the other person is fighting. The next thing that happens is tempers flare and it becomes a reel fight. Why does this happen? lack of control and communication. I can have and will fight either way, but my desire at this time of my career is training guy's like Brandon, Kevin, Wayne and Alex to fight with anyone that steps on the floor.
I go to tournaments and watch Kevin compete and as his Sensei when he wins I feel just as good as I did when I was competing. I see now that we have several up and coming fighters and I love to work with them as well as watch them in action. As instructors though it's our responsibility to teach them when to turn it on and when to turn it off.
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I am not even sure where to start on this. We are talking about control. My definition of control may differ from somebody elses, so I will briefly explain what my definition is. To me, control is being able to hit, or touch, your target with as little or as much power as you want. You are basically taking the "follow-though" out of the technique but still making some sort of contact be it soft or hard. Even when some of us are going with hard contact, we are still not following through completely with our power. If we did we would see alot more injuries than we do.
Master Mills has always said the that the most dangerous person in the room is the white belt that has never sparred before. I agree with this to a point. As a white, yellow or orange belt, the karateka are basically beginners and coming in to their own style. So starting out they tend to be a little rough around the edges with both contact and technique. As instructors, it is our job to pollish both. This takes a short amount of time with some student and considerably more with others.
Ok, that is the lower belts. Now lets talk about the black belts. One of the things I pride myself on is my control. I can punch and kick hard and fast and then pull it just before it makes too much contact, if any. That did not come overnight. I enjoy going hard with some people but not all people. I think the mark of a martial artist, at the black belt or instructor level, is to be able to spar at any level. They should be able to spar with a 7 year old white belt, a 200 pound yellow belt and any black belt that walks through the door. With all three they should have a very varied amount of control. Some people make it to black belt or the instructor level and never fully learn the aspect of control. I think with some people the aspect of hard or soft contact should be discussed . With some people it is just a given to go either hard or soft. With my students, as well as many others, they know I am open to about anything. I let them dictate how hard we go. When sparring somebody new, I will typically make the statement "you set the pace, you set the control". If they look at me funny, I then say "I'm going to hit you as hard as you hit me". Now I do believe at some point, you have to stop preaching control and slow them down one way or another.
So what makes a less than ideal martial artist in regards to control? I think it is someone who goes hard with everybody all the time. Someone you avoid if you are not "having a good night". Someone who 1) Even when told by his opponent "I don't feel right tonight, lets take it easy", they still come as hard as ever or 2) Every match has to have a winner and a loser. Those are just two examples of the mind set of someone who lacks the control they need to effectively teach or lead by example. Does this mean they should not teach other aspects? No, they should just not be allowed to spar with kyu ranks or teach sparring.
How do you want people to think about you?
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Mr.Brad wrote well... it's about learning. Mr.Greg speaks the truth, communication is most important. Mr.Allen is a shining example of controlling his tounge, and his ability makes him one of the favorite, "lets let it fly a little" teachers. When the nite is over it is good to reflect, what have I learned, who have I helped. I am so glad to be a part of THIS karate family. Thank You Mr. Mills, God Bless You, Keith
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Thank you Gentlemen for the wonderful comments … finally found a topic to generate some excitement … guess we’ve all been on the receiving end of a “stinger”.
Just a couple of redirects, Wayne, please don’t encourage Brad and his “hatchet” kick … one day if he works really hard he might just have a decent “axe” kick … Glad to see you posting!!! Gladder to see you back at class!!
Master McMahon, you’ll never convince me that tournament sparring is the way to go. We’ve had that discussion a million times, but I will concede that a happy medium is what’s best for the students.
Sensei Cofer, I rue the day that we started playing “hands” .. either I’m slowing down or you’re getting faster!!! Either way it’s always an honor to test myself with you in the ring.
And finally, Sensei Walker, remarkable control … but then again it’s easy to control something moving that sluggishly .. Just kidding … you know my feelings on your ability, you and Mike Acuff are in a class by yourselves in my book and that’s the greatest compliment I can give ….
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Mike I never said tournament sparring was the way to go. I have said that the toughest and best fighters I've ever sparred with have also been great tournament competitors and champions. Grandmasters Mills and Ogle, Gregg White, Tony Williams, John Pachivas Jr., Don Wilson each of these men have won many tournaments but they're also some of the toughest men outside the tournament seen. I think you can take Bill Wallace, Joe Lewis, Benny the Jet, Don Wilson, Alvin Prouder and many more and they'll just show you how that type sparring perfected not only their fighting skills but their training style. Is tournament sparring real fighting! No not even close, many times it builds bad habits, like always being soft, not making a correct fist. I've seen several good tournament fighters not no how to take a punch when you fight outside of their arena. I agree with you in that sense Mike because many people that I've trained with only train to fight one way. The advantage that I do believe that type sparring gives you is foot movement, the ability to read your opponnet and react to his attacks are non attacks. Plus it's a great way to stay in shape and not stay hurt. Full contact are even what we used to call semi contact (which is how we usually fight in the Dojo)is a great tool to see if you're a fighter are a poser. Brad you've known me for many years now and have fought me and watched me fight many times and should no I've never backed away from anyone whether we point fought are fought hard (SEMI CONTACT). I have fought some full contact but I can tell you in my opinion that it's stupid to train like that unless you're doing like Devan and fighting professionlly for money. What I think is ironic is how these cage fighters seem to come away with less injuries than boxers are kickboxers. Guy's if you want to fight that hard I'll watch you and support you and cheer you on but at 49 yrs old I don't want to fight that way. I've found out the hard way I don't heel up as quickly as I did at 20 or 25 are even 40. Mike I never wanted you to think that I believed tournaments was the only way because I know better. I do think that it is the way to train guy's like Kevin, Alex, Wayne and Howard. You bring these guy's in and just go all out with them from the start and then you'll have people hurt are quit are you may even get sued for hurting someone. I feel that once you make black belt thenfight anyway you want to just as long as it's with other black belts and they agree to fight that way.
Well thats just my opinion and it's just that an opinion.
Gregg
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Greg,
My bad, I didn’t mean to ruffle any feathers. The comment I made about not convincing me tournament sparring was the way to go was said tongue in cheek., (See Keith told you … got to work on my control.) We have had many discussions about it in the last couple of years and have just about always taken the opposite side, so that’s what I was joking about. Again my bad, next time I’ll put one of those smiley faces or a HaHa ….
As I conceded in my comment, I think that a happy medium is the best way to train. And please don’t misinterpret my saying “train hard” or “fight hard” as an endorsement of “full contact”. You know me better than that … as far as training goes we are not that far apart ….
As for great fighters being great tournament competitors I’ve never disputed that statement, and out of all the names you mentioned I only personally know two, Masters Mills and Ogle ,,, met Bill Wallace once at the Battle of Atlanta (Yes Brad I have been to a tournament) he fought a PKA match and destroyed his opponent, but I doubt I left any lasting impression on him … as a matter of fact I got spanked pretty good that night.
As far as Master Mills and Ogle are concerned if either one had never stepped foot in a dojo they would still rank among the toughest men I have ever met. Pete Mills is a vice … once you are foolish enough to get close and he puts a hand on you IT’S OVER, and James Ogle walked into the dojo on his first night with the ATTITUDE that has made him successful in every aspect of his life ….
I'm pretty sure you and I share the same philosophy on training … the only difference is you like tournaments and I don’t … that doesn’t make either of us right or wrong it’s just a nice topic to debate.
Guess for the rest of the group I could list my reasoning for my dislike of tournaments … might spur some more heated debate …
First and foremost is the judging … A tournament is only as good as it’s judges!!!
To many times I’ve seen inexperienced judges running a ring for political reasons while better qualified are brushed aside… also since most schools do not have a large enough pool of qualified black belts to run a tournament you are stuck with whoever happens to show up ….
Second is targeting … tournaments because of safety issues severely limit available target areas to head and front torso, and most inexperienced judges will call a sloppy smack to the head before they call a well executed body shot thus creating “head-hunters”.
That being said I am in no way telling anyone who is interested in tournaments not to pursue it … by all means go for it … but just be aware that you are actually competing against your opponent and the judges … you have to commit yourself to learn as much about your judges as you do your opponent … what techniques they call, how much contact do they allow, etc. Plus it’s great P.R. for our school!!!
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Mike I'll agree with you on how tournaments are scored. It's really tough when you have very few qualified judges at a tournament. I don't like the fact that some tournaments allow Sho-dan thru San-dans to run rings when you have Master instructors in that same ring. For the most part the promoter should if possible have the head judges already in place and not allow this. The lower ranking black belts should have more respect than to take center ring when a higher ranking person is in the same ring.
AS for fighting in the tournaments, you have to learn to move your judges around. Thats where experience comes in, the more you fight the more you get to know where and how to place the judges when you attempt to score.
Thats why I say it's just a game and not a real fight, but it's a fun game. Boxing isn't a real fight but if you've ever boxed you'll see it sure is fun and thats why they call it the sweet science. I wouldn't call any combat sport a real fight because it isn't but those that are good and become champions can back it up in a street fight to. Thats what I meant in my other post, all those men have been great tournament competitors but will fight you anywhere and anyhow you want to fight. Now saying that I've always said that if Karate is a mile tournament competition is only an inch.
GREGG
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Yep I certainly have done some boxing, that’s where I got what little bit of hand speed I have left, but “fun” isn’t the first word that came to mind. I’m lucky to have a retired Olympic boxing coach that goes to my church and have been able to pick his brain from time to time …
“The Sweet Science” was a phrase coined by Pierce Egan in the book Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism describing the geometry involved in the fight game … anyone who has ever fought knows how hard it can be to land that good solid punch … that’s why we in isshinryu stress an angled attack as opposed to straight on ….
I guess it’s a chicken or egg thing … which comes first … and in training all I am saying is that I prefer to train for self-defense and situations that I might encounter on the street … as I’m sure most of the men you mentioned did …. Just my opinion ….
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