An admonition from my previous Sensei that has stuck with me even after all these years is:<\/p>\n
What this means is that, even — make that, especially<\/em> — while “just practicing”, you should never perform a technique in a sloppy way. Instead, you should perform every single technique that you throw as though it were real, although obviously this needs to be adjusted to fit the circumstance when training with a partner.<\/p>\n There are several reasons to never throw a half-assed technique:<\/p>\n 1) Teaching your body bad habits.<\/strong> The most obvious is that the point of doing techniques over and over is to train your body to do them automatically. If you throw sloppy techniques day in and day out in the dojo, you are not suddenly going to perform them properly if you ever need them. <\/p>\n 2) It’s not fair to your partner.<\/strong> Exercises like paired walking basics, renzoku kumite, and kakomi kumite allow two or more students to practice both strikes and blocks with real contact under controlled conditions. This serves several purposes, including working on accuracy, speed, and timing, as well as providing the sensation of what actually blocking an attack feels like. It also contributes to conditioning (e.g., of the forearms when used to block). If you throw weak punches, don’t aim for the actual target (for example, you already direct your punch away from the opponent before he or she even has a chance to block it), or don’t perform a strong block, you do yourself and your partner<\/em> a disservice.<\/p>\n 3) You could get hurt.<\/strong> If you practice sloppy techniques during walking basics, you will probably do the same when you hit shields or heavy bags. See here<\/a> for why this can lead to significant ouchies.
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