RANDORI AND BOGU - Understanding the purpose of each and its uses

Randori is a term often heard of in martial arts that have an emphasis on throwing and grappling. It is an exercise in which two people train back and forth to perfect a technique. It is not about seeing who can pin or throw who at all. Today most dojo have lost their way when teaching Randori and they perform it as a competition within the dojo. Randori is about seeking perfect execution of a technique and then honoring their training partner by allowing them to seek the same. In the beginning stages of development a student will practice their technique against zero tolerance. As their understanding increases their partner will add resistance at appropriate levels. We typically begin at 0% and increase in levels of 25%, 50% to 100%. At no time should a beginner ever go above the 25% mark as this will definitely lead to serious injury to either their own self or their training partner.

BOGU KUMITE - The real deal...

Bogu Kumite is perhaps the very first method that was trained to understand if it was even possible for two martial artists to safely and realistically add sparring to the martial arts. In Bogu Kumite each participant will wear heavily padded equipment which limits their movements but adds a high level of ability to withstand strikes and kicks.

Bogu Kumite is never taken lightly and it is not done for fun or points. The entire purpose of Bogu Kumite is to seek one strike to end the match. There is very little wasted movement and quite often it resembles a real fight because everything is done at 100% speed and power. In the beginning days many people would be severely injured when they achieved this level of Kumite training. Today certain rules have been applied and some techniques removed to avoid sending people to the hospital, or worse. In Bogu Kumite the objective is to quickly, effectively and harshly end the match.

Only the most advanced black belt level students will ever participate in Bogu Kumite at a good dojo. As we have said before, Bogu Kumite is not playing around and there is no room for error or students who are not serious in their studies.