8 Ways Point Karate Improves Your Fighting

there is often a big divide between those who enjoy tournament style Point fighting versus continuous medium to full contact sparring hey look I get it one is a glorified game ATT tag and the other is a more realistic approach to what real fighting might be like but what if I told you that glorified game ATT tag could actually prove even the hardest of full contact bouts yes even MMA well here are eight ways it could do just that and if you hang with us for just a few minutes I'm going to show you a badass upcoming tournament that you're going to be soon hearing about and trust me you don't want to sleep on this one okay so let's start with the obvious the first person to get the hit gets the point that's the whole Crux of Point sparring is that it is a game of tag whoever gets their first gets the point now if you take this tactic and you apply it to other forms of sparring like for example normally I am a continuous fighter I like continuous sparring and I am sometimes willing to take a hit if it gets me closer to pull off a combination I've got the body mass to do it I've got the size actually a lot of the guys I spar with they call me the wall because I can take the hits and absorb them and I'm willing to do that if it puts me in a favorable position that won't work in point sparring because if I do that obviously that first point was is going to go to my opponent so I've recently started competing again and I'll get back to that but getting back to the tournament mindset has actually sharpened my fighting because now I have to break out of my defensive my normal defensive fighting I am now putting myself forward being a little bit more assertive because I got to get that first point point and I've seen the difference it's made me more effective of a fighter I've had people come up to me tell me that they're noticing that I'm landing more shots than normal so by forcing myself out of my comfort zone and trying to be the first one to strike it's actually improved my sparring so yes even though it's just points it does develop your offensive fighting tactics because first one who gets there is the first one who gets the point so it better be you so this one is actually tied to the previous point before you can strike first you have to commit to something and as a TV director I once worked for told me a long time ago in regards to camera movements don't be tentative he told me either do the shot or don't do the shot same thing here in sparring you you have to choose an action and you have to follow through on that action and when it comes to tournaments you know being aggressive and getting that that first strike and you you got to commit to something and sometimes you can sell a strike if you commit so confidence and commitment plays well in sparring and also too when it comes to whether it's MMA a cage match a street fight sparring it doesn't matter you don't have time to second guess yourself self-defense and martial arts gives you tiny micro Windows to act and if you miss that window you have to move on and do something else don't be tentative commit a big criticism of traditional martial arts is a lot of people say when it comes to the actual sparring it just looks like crappy kickboxing well it can I mean it's easy to get in there and just start throwing punches and kicks because your mind switches from an analytical mind it's more of an action-based responsive mind um but sparring is a good opportunity to use this as a Sandbox there's no reason why you can't look at your Boon Kai or your self-defense techniques and take portions of them and actually put them to the test and if stuff doesn't work right off hands analyze it and ask yourself well how would it work you can usually modify a lot of things you know I come from a background in Kempo and I use Kempo all the time in sparring you know I don't just go out there and throw punches and kicks mindlessly and anything from the basics leg checks and particular strikes and blocks and foot Maneuvers all the way up to actual techniques I've used several of our techniques in sparring even recently I pulled off a technique called Circles of protection I honestly didn't think it was going to work I was experimenting in my head was like what happens if I do this I actually got the block applied I got the counter grab I did the whole circle I did the whole check I did everything except I hesitated on that last move because I was kind of surprised it worked and I hesitated for that last strike that my opponent was able to back up and get out of the way had I committed see commit had I gone through the technique I would have landed that shot this is not a street fight this is sparring is part of practice so it's a good time to take your techniques and put them to the test and see what you have to modify and see what works for you now the thing about Point sparring is it might look like a game of tag but can actually be a much bigger workout than it seems like it would be you know traditionally I do continue sparring and I can go anywhere from 3 to 7 Minutes depending on how how intense we're going but when I point Spar and we do a 2-minute round I almost feel like I've gotten the same workout and it's mainly because it's so much Start stop quick burst start stop quick burst it's all about that intensity it's all about getting there first the focus is different that after two minutes of that it feels like the same workout as a 3 to five minute you know 3 to seven minute sparring session and even recently know like I said I've been competing recently and we do sparring in class and after we did maybe a couple hours of Point sparring totally wiped out totally exhausted did another two hours of regular continuous sparring and it felt much more relaxed it was much more was sailing I was lasting longer I even found I had more energy and it's it's just interesting to realize that how much effort and compacted energy you put into a point sparring match and that's actually a really good way to get your workout on and since you're going to be sweating so much you're also going to want to have a change of clothes which is why I heavily recommend you visit our website at Art of doo.com and pick up one of our sweet sweet shirts we have shirts that commemorate the different martial arts and the martial arts Masters so be sure to go grab your shirt don't think about it don't hesitate commit don't be tentative in point sparring it's a very common occurrence that the judging might not always be accurate there's several times where you might land a shot that the judges don't see or they count something that didn't land on you it happens they're human and in very many cases they're volunteers so you got to have to realize there's some margin of error there which is why you need to make sure that your techniques are sharp yeah you might score Point by going in with a flurry but you're much more likely to score point if it's clear and defined as a strike and this is something that um I experienced recently um I'm going to get back to the story on the competition that I had experienced with this but sometimes you might land a shot that isn't seen so it is up to you to commit you know dedicate that first strike and show a clean sharp technique you make every Point [Music] undeniable so we talked about the offense now let's talk about how Point sparring can fect your defensive game you know in a tournament fight you're not going to want to just stand there and just deflect a whole flurry of attacks coming at you you're going to want to move around because even if they throw five six seven strikes at you and you manage to block them all from a judge's point of view they might see one get in or think they see one gets in they're also seeing one person just standing there doing deflection while the other one's committing and going in for the strikes you might lose some points that way even if you do block them all in a tournament as much as a real fight you don't want to just stand there you want to be very Dynamic you want to move around control distance if you see an opening get in there get that strike and then move around position yourself for your next strike so in a tournament in or real fight block what you have to but don't just stand there and keep blocking act on it either move or move in and advance so this is a great chance to work on your defensive game as well best way to avoid punch no be [Music] there this seems like a weird one to put on the list because everyone knows you're supposed to breathe but it's surprisingly easy to forget to do when you're in the Heat of the Moment doing that effort one helps you commit two um if you do a strong kyi in a tournament you might actually help sell a point because the judges are going to see your effort and you might even possibly even intimidate your opponent not always but it might be a factor in there but you want to keep that breath going you want that oxygen in your blood you want to be able to be relaxed you want to be able to move and also to in in the real altercation be noisy you know if someone's really trying to fight you be noisy you might be able to attract attention that way maybe help can arrive yes you are in a controlled setting yes you're in a ring with a referee that does not mean your environment doesn't play a factor there are still boundaries there are still Vantage points there is still an environment that you can utilize in many tournaments there's rules that talk about going out of bounds if you go out too many times it might cost you a point also typically if you're outside the bounds you can't score a point but they can score on you so use that to your advantage flip that around utilize the fight try to position position your opponent CU if they can get if you can get them outside the ring you can hit them usually and they can't hit you who's going to get the point even if they land stuff on you they can't squar a point use that to your advantage additionally you've got Vantage points of the judges you might have one judge you might have three you might have five you don't know what they can see so you might want to position yourself for certain techniques where the head judge or the lead ref can see clean techniques that you're delivering or maybe face away from a judge if they're kind of doing a FLIR at you where it's harder to see you still have an environment in play use your surroundings even it's simple as it is as a mat with lines on the ground you can still use that to your advantage the environment is still very much a factor speaking of awareness I want to bring up an awesome tournament that's coming this November you don't want to miss it because it's shapen up to be one of the largest if not the largest tournament SL expos in the country and it's being held right here in sunny South Florida come out and meet some of the biggest martial arts Legends and compete for a high stakes grand prize yes this prize is not an accumulation of all the prizes some people will actually be going home with this amount now the team hosting this event and putting it together is a kle group but it's open to all styles if you can stand and you can fight you are invited so if you are a kle guy and you want to prove that yes it is as effective and badass as we already know it is we'll come on out and show it and if you don't think the keo's effective well then if you think your Art's better well you're invited to come out and prove that as well and who knows I myself May throw my hat into the ring it's going to be an awesome event Battle of the martial arts you can find a link in the description below everything from Rules registration to nominations it's all there definitely check it out now of course it's very important to distinguish Point sparring from a real fight you know in the real fight there are no points there's no more free and there's no time buzzer but you can always still practice and work technique and sharpen skills that could help you in a real situation now I recently just started competing again uh I haven't competed since I was 29 I am now 45 so this year is the first time in 16 years I've been to a tournament it's one of those things I'm getting older I'm feeling I'm starting to feel my age I'm like you know what I don't want to be 10 years from now wishing I had done this so while I can still do it I'm doing it and it's been a great experience so far um as of this episode I have um competed into two tournaments and they were smaller but they were perfect for me getting my feet wet and each tournament you know I came down to me and one other guy and I won second place for both of them but I don't feel bad actually I feel great because the first tournament it was me and this other man half my age much better shaped than I was and he's been competing all this time he won 6 to 5 I came close I really happy that I made him work for it I even landed Some solid shots on him so I walked away feeling great that first time in 16 years I I did that I felt great and then the second one was a couple weeks later again it came down to me and this other man half my age competitive tournament fighter at least a foot taller than I was and he won five to four and this is where we're talking about judging I don't usually like the badmouth judging but I do feel like I was kind of robbed on this one because there were several times where I scored a point and four out of five judges would give it to me and sener ref goes oh well that's not enough typically when you get the majority of the judges it should be a point to you and there's even one judge I had four judges point to me and the fifth judge just kind of stood there blankly and they asked him and they asked him and he goes and he pointed to me the senator ref goes okay that's not enough so there were at least three points that I know I know I landed that were not counted so the score probably should have been closer to five uh 75 but you know what honestly like I said you've got to commit they are human it was my job to be clear and concise and make it undeniable I didn't do that so I take the responsibility onto myself and it's something I learned now going forward is you have to have that that clean technique you have to make it undeniable so that is definitely something to learn and take from from a tournament experience so I'm definitely planning to compete some more just so that I know that I put myself out there and that while I can still do it I tried and I went out there and I pushed my boundaries and besides who knows maybe I'll end up seeing one of you guys on the mats one day and since I'm using age as my motivation to train and to compete that brings up a very good question [Music]