Welcome to Gaia! ::

My next grading is about 10 months away, so I have a bit of time to work on this.

Due to working commitments, I can not get into the dojo nearly as much as I would love to. When I do get in there, it's the "slow" nights, so when around 5 to 8 students show. I can not make the other nights.

On these slow nights, all we work on is kata and ippon kumite grading syllabus. With ippon kumite, even though it's translated as one step sparring, it's the same set movements every single time.

Ok, so what I'm getting at... I can not train for sparring. I rarely have the opportunity to spar with someone to be able to maintain and improve my kumite. It is going downhill and it is going fast. I fought the other night and I didn't get a single hit in, or even block the attacks coming at me.

So because I don't have someone to train with, and I don't have a bag, how can I train for kumite??

Equipment I do own are weights, skipping rope, bo and sai. That is it. Soon to also have an elastic band/tyre tube.

At the other club I attend, they will soon have a bag up and give me a key to the dojo to train in my own time. But they've been saying that for 6 months now. And this club I can't fully train for sparring because I am the only student who is NOT a beginner there.

(I do have a bag, but I have no where to hang it)

Um, yeah.

But how can a person train to fight if they don't have someone else attacking them and defending their attacks??

Shadow box: I already try that (not often enough though), but I feel very uncoordinated because I'm trying to imagine someone there and lets jusay that I'm not very imaginative. Does shadow boxing really work??

During water break: At the place where I'm the only non-beginner is acceptable. The place where I'm grading, it's not.

No I don't. Myself and another guy will be the only ones grading for this rank. He lives nearly three hours away from me. I live 2hr away from the dojo, he lives 45 min away in the opposite direction.

The instructors know about my circumstances (having to move for work), but they recognise the dedication by going to train each fortnight and doing a lot of work at home. They're starting to become iffy about the sparring too.

Even though they say that the females aren't grading on their sparring ability as much as the guys are (it's full body contact with little or no padding), I still want to do the best I'm able to.

I'm hoping to have a chat with them next time I get down there in a few days about if I could spend half the session doing group work and the other half sparring individually with an instructor. But I'm not sure how they will react to that.

Only alowd if there is a shodan or higher present (and willing) to supervise.

i can kind of see why they have it. No one wants to be responsible for someone getting hurt because of poor supervision. At the same time, if you're going to be tested on something they're going to have to give you a chance to practice it

You can try the halfassed drunk way and provoke a random idiot into sparring with you... just kidding. uh best way I figure is go around your dojo and spar with the best beginner on your own times. That might not work but then again. also shadow boxing or boxing in front of a mirror are somewhat effective. can't well beat someone else if you can't beat yourself.

Shadow boxing is quite effective. As long as you practice simple combinations that work with your body type, you should do fine in sparring. It's all about movement and perfect execution, you should know that from training. Take what you learn in class and do it over and over outside of the dojo. Practice makes perfect.