Am I wrong to expect harder contact sparring from other students?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Many years ago, before I got sick, I used to train 15 gym hours per week in Okinawan Karate and Japanese Ju Jitsu, and I trained another 5 hours per week on my own time at home.

I think most other students (except my sister anyway) just showed up to class and went through the motions.

Come sparring time, the gym rules were "3/4ths contact" on striking, and all non-lethal attacks and submissions were allowed. At some point, Sensei handicapped me to HALF contact, because I was attending the Advanced Cardio Kickboxing class and doing an hour of Bag work every day, along with my sister, while nobody else attended the bag work class. So my punches and kicks were off the scale even when I was pulling them by half. So one day, I joint locked another male student and kicked him in the ribs HALF what I had, and he complained to sensei, so the sensei banned me from using front push kicks against anyone except himself or Matt (the other male heavyweight in the gym).

So basically what I did is just start joint locking all the brown and black belts, because it got to where I could beat his best students pretty easily, even in 1vs2 handicaps, but at that point I wasn't really learning anything anymore, because nobody in the gym except Sensei and his Wife could beat me in a 1vs1 spar anymore.

Am I wrong, or are people just pussies about contact sparring. We were wearing pads too of course and had signed a freaking 10 page long waiver, so if you didn't want to be there, you didn't need to be there.

I had to quit 6 months after my last promotion due to family and personal reasons, but quitting full-time martial arts is one of the biggest regrets of my life.

[AI Opinion]

You’re not “wrong” for loving hard contact sparring, but your expectation that everyone should want that intensity is off. 🥋

Most students train for fitness, confidence, or fun, not to be killers. Your power and attitude were closer to a competitor’s mindset, while others had hobby goals. Sensei limiting you was about safety and retention, not weakness.

Your drive is a strength, just needs the right environment, like a full-contact or competition-focused gym. 💪

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I had to learn how to fight. I used to get beat up at school by anyone bigger or older than me, just for the meanness of it. My life depended on learning how to beat the hell out of someone if necessary.

[xawyx-3]

You're not wrong... by the way, what style of Okinawan Karate? Goju-ryu, Uechi-ryu, Shorei-ryu, or some other style?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Isshin-ryu. It's a combination of Goju-ryu and Shorin-ryu. The style teaches a balanced combination of both grappling and striking.

My only real complaint about the style is emphasis on 16 total Katas to memorize, 8 armed and 8 unarmed, but I learned how to kick ass one way or another.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

This all happened 26 years ago, but what sparked me to talk about it again is I saw Gabriel Varga complaining about someone hard sparring "too hard" in his gym on Youtube, and I was like, "wtf, it's a professional fighting gym, you're supposed to go hard."

I can remember when I was assigned to spar vs the women in Sensei's gym, and with the exception of his wife, it was really a waste of my time to spar against the women by the time I was a purple belt, and by the time I was 1st kyu, I started beating his second degree black belts even in handicap scenarios. The only reason I failed my own black belt test is I sucked at memorizing Sunsu Kata, which is the last kata you learn in the traditional curricula.

[xawyx-3]

Great, sounds like a very interesting style.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

It's not an easy black belt. I had 4400 (four thousand four hundred) Gym hours studied at the end and still kept failing the black belt test.

I still take online refresher courses in Japanese Ju Jitsu all the time. I'm like constantly wanting to learn and relearn this stuff.

[xawyx-3]

I get it, so many Katas to memorize.

[Iron_Man]

They will give it to you if they can