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?