So you know it is stupid and you continue to do so? The blind leading the blind.
Well played Bruno, I walked straight into that one huh? Guess that's what I get for having half formed ideas in my head, a mental dictation that's too fast for my typing and not enough time at work to proof read before I hit submit reply! That'll learn me!
In response to your reply, what I
meant to write was that it's stupid for us to run to the Sensei for advice on protective gear etc (at least in our newbie heads) when it's something we are doing quite separately from our normal training and of our own accord. We should have the common sense to know what we need to do to protect ourselves without needing to drag the Sensei into it for every thing. The reason I mentioned our Kyu levels was to illustrate that we are only drilling the absolute basics, things that we have been over several times in class and not trying to invent our own moves or responses to anything. That being said we do try increase the pace/intensity where we can. I don't personally think our training itself is stupid and I'll explain how we train to get your opinion on it after wards.
With regards to the comment of the blind leading the blind, I'd prefer to think of it as the vision impaired leading the other vision impaired lol. Before we meet up to do any training we have a quick chat on the phone or send a couple of txts back and forth to establish what it is we are training. If it is traditional weaponry, we have our original training weapons which are foam padded and quite safe for hard contact (if a little stingy on the skin) and we use those. If we are using wooden weaponry then we use the same control as we would in the dojo but then train impact against a kick pad that the other person holds at various heights/angles to replicate body targets. The kick pad itself runs from shoulder to hip so offers quite a wide surface should the strike be off. This lets the person doing the cut/strike get a sense of impacting something hard and lets the person holding the pad experience a taste of what it might feel like against the body.
If we train modern defenses/traditional unarmed, it's usually groin guard and in my case knee and ankle braces thanks to a motorbike accident a couple of years ago which mean my legs aren't as stable as I would like and a mouth guard. We are both looking into purchasing a head guard with a face grill to enable full contact hits to the head/face but for the moment we work on grappling defences in the street, kicking defences and striking defences with care taken if going for the face. We don't own body armour per se but then neither of us are generating enough power to cause lasting damage. When it comes to techniques that could result in a trip to the ER (stomping the opponents foot to shatter an ankle while applying a muso dori for example) we simulate the stomp and release the muso dori at the point of broken balance and step behind while grabbing the shoulder so they still get taken down hard. We train in the park usually where the ground is a little harder than the dojo floors. Same deal for ukemi, we practice our dive rolls on that surface using any available obstacles to give us a height target as well as any breakfalls. Safer than rolling on concrete, harder than at the dojo.
I have approached our Sensei with regards to possibly incorporating some of the intensity into class and he suggested that it might not be everyone's cup of tea but he was happy to take us through a private class if we wished. Now we are both full time students who work part time with not a lot of disposable income so we need to save to buy the protective gear needed for a full blown street session, not to mention the cost of the private lesson itself. In the meantime, we make do with this.
Now if you (or anyone else reading this really) still thinks the way we train is stupid or inadvisable, please feel free to let me know as any and all constructive criticisms and feedback is much appreciated!
