“Aliveness” is the element that is missing from most traditional martial arts (including karate). Practicing against an actively resisting non-predictable opponent is what is going to let you develop the skills necessary to be effective. All the martial arts that have combat effective students (eg BJJ, Boxing, Mauy Thai, MMA, Judo etc) incorporate some form of live drills into their training.

Learn the relevant template(s), but then practice them in a such a way so as the uke is actively trying to achieve their own goals, which usually mean trying to prevent you achieve yours.

It is important to get away from drills where the attacker throws a single technique and then the defender does 5 or 6 moves well the attacker stands there as a dojo dummy.  You can be passive on the first few attempts well someone gets the technique but then you have to move on from this.

When you only have passive partners or depend on solo drills like kata you have a potentially inaccurate sense of what will work or not. Even if you can make moves work you do not learn when to use movements against an opponent. Sometimes knowing when to do something is as vital as knowing how to do it.

A basic drill for this would be to have an attacker throw a swinging punch.   The defender wraps the arm of the attacker and strikes.   But the person throwing the punch does not allow the arm to be wrapped or rips it out as soon as it is wrapped.   This forces the defender to wrap the arm effectively and strike fast and then adapt to whatever happens next. ffffffffffff

“The only reliable indicator of a fighters success in MMA is quality of the fighters around them.” – The fighters mind.