If your pop was hurting you he wasn't playing fair and you should have hurt him back. Instead you withheld and let him hurt you. Karate moves are meant to hurt and when you play fight with someone you know and like then you can not use the moves as they were intended without hurting that person. If you hold back the moves don't work and you end up in a sparring match giving your opponent time to counter. Most people don't understand this part and think if you know Karate it's magic and you won't get hurt and you don't have to hurt someone. Nothing could be further from the truth. You fight you will get hurt and you will have to hurt someone back worse than they hurt you in order to end the fight. If your attacker is not hurt they do not stop and moreover if they see you trying to fight back the fight escalates resulting in you getting hurt even more. When you can understand this and are willing to hurt enough so a fight stop rather than escalates that's when you understand self defense.

Personally I think that if someone hurts you without reason even if you know them you have a right to hurt them back. It is not fun and games hurting someone.

When someone is hurting you, you are not obligated to hold back. If he hits you full force, you can hit back just as hard. Fair is fair. Next time he pulls a stun like this, you deck him.





A 70 year old man has no business sparring full contact with a young person.

Karate training is nothing compared to Hokuto shinken's training method! =0

You were wise to see that open area. you were patient and your pop sounds like he needs to learn some constraint. Disciplines like martial arts is not for attacking, its for defending and learning self-control.

Are you at least having fun? If not just quit. You have to enjoy yourself to be good at a sport.

Not long ago I was sparring with my seventy year old pop. He was going to rough for sparring and actually hurting me, I felt so helpless and belittled he was saying the moves he made on me could easily stop the fight but when I striked an open area I saw I could have ended the fight like snapping his knee but he thought different. I felt like I knew nothing like everything I learnt at karate has been for nothing that I'm not cut out for it. Am I cut out for it? Please help.