Regulation of Practice/Training

I am a firm believer that a person must regulate the intensity of practice to learn and encode. I remember the first time I was asked to spar in the dojo. I was nervous naturally and a bit apprehensive. I was already capable. My apprehension and nervousness were due to a high desire to "make karate work."

My Sensei would not allow anyone to spar or fight until at least the green belt level. The proficiency not only in waza but also in kata, etc. was important. During the stages from white to green only Sensei and me would spar. It started out so slow that he gave my mind the time to see the attack, think of the appropriate technique in response, and then actually allowed me to apply it. This gave me time to see, feel, hear, and experience a modicum of reality to what we were doing at the moment.

He began with the upper and lower fundamental/basic waza then forced us to work them as necessary or random. As progression came then he would increase the intensity and the randomness of the type and form of the attack. He refused to just throw us in the mix and hope that things worked themselves out. He regulated the sparring practice to allow time for us to learn and encode.

Regulation and intensity with randomness thrown in as appropriate seemed to be a way to learn karate. Not just a couple of semi-karateish combinations to win trophies and tournaments. Actually pull out and use karate waza, etc. We won't even attempt to add in the principles here since those, in 1972, were assumed a lot.

My feelings are regulation of training and practice provides a way to learn karate or any martial art. I can only present the example of a blog post on a Rory Miller seminar. Mr. Miller showed an approach to reality training that allowed power with out injury - mostly. Use full power - slowly. You have to read the entire post and take his seminar to get the full picture. It just spoke to me that regulating is another important tool for learning, training, and practicing.