Sensei would
explain, when I was a beginner, that Kumite on Okinawa, was full contact and
done wearing Bogu Armor. That meant those full contact strikes would not injure
the fighters, instead kumite would continue until one of them was knocked to
the ground.
When he returned home to the states
kumite developed in a different way, no armor was work, no gear was worn, it
became contact to the body and no contact to the face. Contact to the head
could draw a warning or if too hard –
disqualification.
He explained in
the Bogu Armor very quickly in a fight breathing became quite difficult. You
could only see before you with tunnel vision and nothing could be seen to the
side.
When someone
asked you to fight, the others in the dojo would just continue training. Then
you would fight till one of you was knocked down, to then doff the bogu armor
and return to other training.
Note:
When the dojo in Agena was open training was most often left to the individuals.
There were only group classes for the new students. People trained as they
wished. Shimabuku Sensei would sit off to the side observing, and when he saw
one made progress he would enter the floor to show them the next piece of the
kata or the beginning of the next kata, and then only three times.
One thing that
was also different was that when the Okinawan students fought, they would throw
their front kicks striking with their heel, obviously generating more power to knock the
opponent down.
1 comment:
Vic, my memory is it was called Kendo gear.
We fought for points like in the US. Not for knockdowns.
And we fought from forward stances and used front kicks and punches because you couldn't fight from a side stance and see out of the Kendo mask.
Hope that helps.
Charles Murray
Post a Comment