randori

1 9.9

A free practice fight in martial arts to test skills against opponents who try to stop you

noun
/rænˈdɔːri/

Jargon

: randori

In the dojo, the instructor emphasized the importance of randori for developing real-world sparring skills.

Examples

After warming up, the martial artists engaged in randori, facing off against multiple opponents in a dynamic practice.
I believe slow and steady is where it's at, particularly in randori.

Blog text (26)
Judo pedagogy emphasizes randori literally taking chaos, but meaning free practice.
During the training session, the students paired up to practice randori and test their techniques against each other.

Synonyms

sparring

vsrandori

21 4.5

Practice of boxing with a partner to improve skills

is broader martial arts practice testing many techniques and attackers than only fist work

spar

vsrandori

1 7.2

A short practice fight between boxers to improve skills

is a freer martial arts practice testing varied techniques sometimes against multiple attackers

How Realistic

competition

579 2.3

randori

Jargon

1 9.9

sparring

21 4.5

to drill

40 2.9

kata

Jargon

4 8.5

Surface Forms

randori singular

randoris plural

Etymology

Randori comes from Japanese parts ran ('chaos' or 'random') and dori ('to take' or 'to grab'). It was used for a kind of practice where you 'take' techniques in a free, messy way, often against several attackers, and that's why randori today means free, realistic sparring.