Word for pulling a punch in karate


During karate training my (English) karate teacher uses a word that sounds
like "son dame". He says that this describes the action of stopping your punch
just before making contact with the opponent.

I cannot find this word or any variant spelling of it on any English language
karate site. Nor can I find any Japanese equivalent on any Japanese site. I've
tried そんだめ, そんだめい, そんだめえ. I tried replacing そん with ぞん, すん, ずん etc.

I'm sure half of these English-Japanese karate words are made up. Anyone have
any ideas?




I think it's 「[寸止]{すんど}め」 （＾＾）

<https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%B8%E6%AD%A2%E3%82%81>




It’s 寸止め (すんどめ), from 寸 (a very short distance) and 止める (to stop)

