Asking Supergroup Lots of Questions

This is part of a conversation that I'm having with Supergroup on her blog. I wanted to include this part because it shows my feelings for the differences between BJJ and karate.

Do you wear any special gear when you spar? In my old dojo, we had foam helmets, gloves, and "shoes" to protect us when we spar. Sometimes, we wouldn't use gear. Do you like sparing? Do you use focus mitts and free standing bags as part of your training?

That would be so cool to have four to five hours of training three times a week. However, that would be pretty hard with BJJ because one would get tired. I train for three hours for three days a week.

What does your training consist of? In my old dojo, we would work on basics, kata, stances, transitions to different stances, and bunkai. We had a set number of bunkai for every kata. Does your kata have set number? Is this what your training consist of? Are there different things that you train in too?

What does your ground fighting consist of? I'm assuming that it will look like a MMA style of fight on the ground. That's how my old dojo taught me. With BJJ, there's isn't any striking involved. Do you work on any joint locks and chokes while on the ground or do you just work on striking? Do you work on different positions on the ground like mount, guard, side mount, and the back? Do you practice any takedowns?

How come you chose Kyokushin over Shotokan? It sounds like that Kyokushin is a better style. I'm all for full contact. I disagree with a non contact style. One will develop more control if they are taught to hit a person. Plus, people need to learn how to react from getting hit. They'll either freeze and panic or get angry. Most people will panic if they get rocked. Probably, I'll freeze because I haven't been hit really hard while sparring. I've been hit in the face a couple times.

Which kyu and belt are you in Kyokushin? How long have you been training in this art now? What's your feelings about kata and how it applies in the real world. I know that you love kata. However, there are people out there say that kata is useless. My old Sensei taught me that kata taught how to move the body and do a certain techniques correctly. He said that kata teaches one to over emphasize techniques like pulling into chamber. Then when one has to use it, one can modify it shorten it because the memory is already there. However, one still needs to practice not over emphasizing the real techniques while doing the real thing.

What's your feelings about Bunkai and the application of kata? I know that Bunkai teaches one cool applications. However, I don't know if one can use that in real life. It's cool to practice it without resistance and moves in a set way, however what happens if your training partner resists or moves very differently? This is why I love BJJ. We spar all the time with full resistance. We need to learn how to apply the techniques and drills that we did on a non-resistant partner to a partner who's trying to submit too.

I know that in my evil dojo, they didn't apply anything to the real world at all. My old dojo was much better at it. Now I think that BJJ is the best at it because we have to apply to what we have learned. If not, we will get submitted ourselves.

Probably, one could say that BJJ is unrealistic because it doesn't have any strikes and that it teaches one certain positions that will get ones block knocked off in the real world. I don't know how to fully answer that yet, but one can see it worked during the early stages of UFC. I think that it's really beneficial to know how to strike too along with BJJ.

How do you feel about MMA and UFC? I know that there is a lot of people who do MMA think that TMA is a bunch of crap. I know that my current Sensei thinks that BJJ is a better martial art than karate. I sort of agree with him because of the practicality.

I wish I had more knowledge about BJJ compared with my knowledge about Goju-Ryu Karate. My path has just began in BJJ because I've only trained in it for a few months. I've trained in Goju-Ryu for a few years. Right now, I'm a yellow belt. I remember looking at the yellow and orange belts in my old dojo. I remember seeing that their techniques were off or not as fast and fluid. I feel with that way with BJJ now because I don't know much. My Sensei says I need to be more patient. I cannot get frustrated with myself. How did you feel when you started training in Kyokushin?

Can you elaborate more about the differences between Bunkai and Oyo?