I agree with Hedge. While we often practice in street clothes, we choose not to grab clothing too often (shirts rip real easy.....trust me).

We do occasionally go for wrist grabs or kick catches, etc. Definitely adds a new element to your sparring when someone tries to grab a hand that you were just trying to hit with.

Hello all,

I agree with Hedge and Matt for the most the part. And as a bow to Sanchin31 and Mr. Smith, I will give an example of how a chamber is used in our style, with kibadachi (horse stance). Again, our style does not recommend chambering for punches against an active opponent in front of you nor would it rocommend a kibadachi aganist standing opponents.

OK, let's give this the best case scenario:

You are sparring and you get to a position behind your opponent. You knock your opponent down from behind with a kick to one of his legs; therefore, he starts to slide down and in order to control his fall while maintaing your balance, you go into a kibadachi or modified kibadachi with your back straight so he can't reach up and pull you over.

Ok, with that done, in the worst case for the opponent, you just plopped the back of his head down onto your knee for what amounts to a counter knee strike, though you are not lifing your knee here. In sparring, if you get to this point, you can place the opponent's head on the inside of your thigh, close to, but not on the knee.

Let's just say, for argument's sake, that he landed on your left thigh (and again, you are in kibadachi). Just as he lands, you have to chamber your right hand since the distance is now to close to allow energy to come into the punch from any other means...and then you can punch to the temple or behind the ear. The left hand would be controling the head of your opponent acting as the already extended hand when doing chambering practice. Ta...dah...Chambered punch.

-B

Holy S! Good one, Butterfly!

It occurs to me that at close range (say, clinch), that if you are throwing hooks to the body they are essentially coming out of the trad "chamber" position. Huh. How about that!

Uh oh.....Room spinning......woozy.....

*faints*

Yes, MattJ,

I feinted to!

Pragmatic AKK MattJ does chamber in close range...and, as mentioned previously about reverse elbows, I seem to remember AKK basics having quite a few reverse elbows in them. Essentially, a chambered punch.

-B

Post deleted by SANCHIN31

Sanchin?....Petju?....Oh good. It's just Sanchin31.

The funny thing is, no matter how you play it down, there are actually people who post this way. Gotta love it!
-B

Long derailing rant

In the style of Karate I do we have a really high chamber. The main reason for this is to build up muscles (holding arm in a high chamber all the time can be quite tough :P) and so we don't telegraph out moves so much. According to my sensai anyways Just wondering if many styles use a high chamber like Goju?

Off topic.

Bullfrog,
I used to do the high chamber,but ound it to be more practical to use it closer to your center sometimes.High for building strength and lower and centerd for more control when your opponent is to your side.