drDalek

I recently had the opportunity to duel with a friend of mine who practices a kick / punch martial art. Overall it was quite interesting and I also got my ass kicked.

Why he beat me:

1) Speed advantage, even though his kicks are nowhere near as fast as they would have been in a "real" situation and even though he was pulling them all the way, my tai-sabaki(?) is not quick enough to evade them yet. I keep resorting to blocking with my arms which means that there is a certain amount of "reset" before I can deliver atemi-waza.

2) Maintaining Ma-ai: He kept his distance (about the reach of his side-kick) so that any Irimi that I might try would be easily intercepted by him, I also could not manage to make him "chase" me, as soon as I did this, he would shrug his shoulders and walk away which is not conductive to learning and experimenting - and also very frustrating.

3) No dangling punches or kicks, expecting a fighter to punch and leave his arm out there for you to snag is pretty silly and this guy definatly did not do it, because he was pulling his punches, maintaining ma-ai and refusing to chase me, he never truly committed an attack.

What I learned:

1) Dont tell your dueling partner what martial art you do, its much harder to make him play "your" game then and you might end up playing his.

2) Evading kicks and punches are hard, loads harder than blocking them but I still believe it is the best way to evade them, it places you in a favourable position to atemi-waza or apply a technique with no "reset" cost.

3) I either need to do a lot of speed training or I need to adopt a lighter stance to get the movement initiative over him.

4) If you keep circling a kicker, they will have a harder time kicking you.

5) A kick/punch guy with 6 months of practice destroyed an aikidoka (me) with 6 months of practice.

6) I am nowhere near as good as I hoped I would be by now, hopefully experiences like this will eventually kill my ego and I wont feel the need to prove myself anymore.