I was sparring with one of my Instructor’s other students. I almost never get to spar with his other students because my schedule doesn’t match up with his other student’s schedules much. This student is not bad by any metric, they have been training for over 6 years with my Instructor. They even have trained Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu at other schools at times. This was really our first time sparring, and I kind of surprised him with the number of strikes that I threw. It didn’t feel like a huge number to me, but then my Instructor said that it was actually common with Karate schools (and any styles with ties to Karate like Kempo) to throw lots of strikes in rapid succession. Apparently many sparring sessions that happen at other gyms don’t throw nearly the number of strikes that we do at Karate Schools. My Instructor is used to sparring with me and people from Karate schools, so he didn’t think to warn his student about it. But I guess it kinda overwhelmed him.

I’ve been thinking about this recently and why this is. I don’t think that it is bad to throw a smaller number of strikes, as my Instructor said one of the things that happens to someone throwing lots of strikes is their opponent will throw a wild strike out of desperation that hits the person throwing lots of strikes. Throwing a smaller number of strikes uses less energy, and if you can land a strike with good form on a good target you should be able to bring your opponent down. But having trained for almost 20 years in Tae Kwon Do and Kempo and these arts that encouraged me to throw lots of strikes and I think that I can speak to the reasoning behind it. 

I guess the first reason is the obvious reason, I threw a lot of strikes against an opponent who wasn’t expecting it and it overwhelmed them, not allowing them to throw many strikes in return. My Instructor compared it to waves on the ocean in the winter months, when you fall off while surfing the waves come in fast with not a lot of time between giving little time to breathe before getting shoved under the water again. 

Next I would say that this pace tired my opponent out quickly. I’m used to moving at this pace so I didn’t feel tired at all, but my opponent got tired quickly. They don’t have time to catch their breath and think before my next strike is on its way, and they are moving at a pace that is higher than what is normal for them. This combination leads to a tired opponent, and I often say this to my students, “If you tire out first, it doesn’t matter your rank, your opponent will start to win just because you’re too tired to defend and strike back.” Fitness can’t make up for everything, but fatigue can cancel out some or most of your training.

Maybe the most important reason is that we don’t assume that our first strike that hits will finish the fight. I used to teach Middle School and the moment that kids learned that I did Martial Arts they would say, “Mister, I’d fight you, and I’d drop you in one punch, Bop!” as they threw a huge slow Hook Punch. I’d always giggle and roll my eyes, because of course they’d throw the slowest punch (with bad form I might add) and think that an adult who had been training longer than they had been alive couldn’t block one punch. I think we all get these fantasies in our head from the movies and Fight Highlights where it looks like someone goes down after one good shot. But the truth is the movies are fake, and the highlights don’t show the 40 other strikes that landed to set that one up (with a few exceptions that are honestly just luck). The human body has weaknesses for sure and sometimes people get hit just right and it’s lights out, but those weaknesses are well guarded (usually). If you don’t hit someone just right, it’s NOT lights out. The movies and fight highlights are showing people who are truly experts in hitting people in just the right way to make their opponent go lights out. For any NON Experts out there (i.e. anyone who doesn’t train to fight for hours a day, let’s say), don’t be so arrogant to think that you will end a fight in one shot. Karate Instructors know this and when their students spar they often say the phrase, “Yeah good, AND THEN WHAT?”

Oftentimes people throw one or two strikes and then back off of their opponent. Most people (including beginners) can block one strike. Most people could even block two strikes in a row, and even if they didn’t block the second one they would probably instinctively turn away from the strike enough to prevent a knock out. I think it is even likely that an average person could block 3 in a row or at least prevent serious harm for the first 3. Maybe that’s generous, but when people get ganged up on and fall into the fetal position they can take quite a few strikes before getting knocked out. Also add that they will probably also back up on each strike trying to get away from the strike, and I think 3 in a row is a pretty good estimate for the number of strikes an average person to block or get hit by without taking serious damage. This is why your instructor may say “And then what?”. Just because you don’t land a strike after 3 in a row, doesn’t mean you should give up. In fact, you have more than likely overwhelmed your opponent and know they will make a mistake on your 4th, 5th or 6th strike that follows. Making it more likely that your opponent exposes one of the body’s weak points and you can finally land that fight ending shot. 

An added bonus to training students this way is that when both people throw lots of strikes in their combos it can be incredible for learning how to handle pressure. Instead of panicking and getting overwhelmed by a flurry of strikes, you will start to stay calm, make good decisions in blocking and dodging and then find an opening for you to throw a good counter strike. So the next time you are sparring and throw a combo of a few strikes, I want you to ask yourself, “And then what?” Could you have extended the combo a few more strikes and delivered what would have been a fight ender? Did your combo actually end the fight or would they have defended enough that they would be able to attack back?

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