FEAR OF CONTACT – Many students are scared of being hit, of accidentally hitting somebody else, of losing control. Dan DiVito believes in rigorous physical conditioning and a kind of warm gradualism that begins with slow-motion drills

Excerpt:

Many beginners in the martial arts are secretly uncertain whether they will ever be able to deliver or accept kicksKarate-Illustrated-April-1983-Vol-14-No-4-Fear-of-Contact_Hadith-Lundell and punches in either combat or sparring without flinching. Many mid-level students are held back from true progress by their fears of being hit, while others are deathly afraid of injuring someone one through a lack of self-control. Naturally enough, there are others who enroll with boxing or streetfighting experience, all too eager to hit. Dan DiVito, Hollywood tae kwon do teacher, believes that to become a truly skilled martial artist is to develop simultaneously in mind and spirit and body.

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Mike Replogle delivers a side kick to DiVito’s abdomen to drill contact training

Contact, DiVito believes, is necessary for the martial arts student before he can come to a necessary appreciation of the levels of force. A mastery of technique is only half the battle, he maintains. A conquest or subjugation of fears is essential before the student can learn to feel and move with an opponent’s reactions. How ought a student to prepare for contact then?
DiVito calls for both education and conditioning.

Under the guise of education, DiVito would introduce the topic of chi or ki, not, he recognizes, a universally acceptable topic among all martial artists. Chi, says DiVito, is the quality of energy emanating from the human spirit, an energy that has different qualities at different times.

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Mike Replogle lands a full-power side kick to DiVito’s ribs during a contract training drill

 

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“Fear of Contact”, by Hadith Lundell, Karate Illustrated April 1983 Vol 14 No 4