Maai Training Playbook

Mat Manual companion guide to "Out of Range: The Distance Problem in Kumite." Print it, keep it in your training bag, and work it with a partner in class. Solo measurement drills marked Solo can be done at home. Everything with a partner belongs in the dojo, with an instructor present.

Safety First

• Partner work in this playbook is class work. Do it in the dojo, with an instructor present, and with control and target distance agreed before the first rep.
• No-contact means no contact. For kyu grades, a scoring technique in these drills stops a fist width short of the target, about 10 cm, and both partners call that distance honestly. A technique that touches is a technique that was too close, and the round stops and resets. Do not grade your own near misses as scores.
• If your school trains with light contact to the body, that is your instructor's call, made in class, not a setting you change with a partner on your own. Head contact is never part of these drills at kyu level.
• Speed ladders climb only when control holds at the current rung. If contact happens, if techniques land long or short and nobody calls it, or if either partner starts bracing, drop back one rung. Dropping back is part of the drill, not a failure of it.
• Stop partner work at once for a bloody nose, a twisted ankle, dizziness, or any hit harder than agreed. Report injuries to your instructor before you leave the floor that day.
• Clear your solo space. Two stance lengths in front of you, a stance length on each side, nothing breakable inside that box.
• Tape lines go on a clean, dry floor. Check the tape has not curled before you slide over it. Bare feet for floor work. Socks slip under a sliding entry.