Our dojo always placed great importance on sparring. So much so that we branched off and now run kickboxing classes for those who are really serious about getting on a fight card.
As for sparring, people have to realize it is an exercise. That means the instructor has to point it out and the students facing each other must approach it as such. In an exercise you are not out to injure your partner.
If you are in against someone who is a better fighter than you, you can focus on controlling your fear, moving, and attacking. If your sparring partner has less experience and less at home with fighting, practice your defence. Cover up, move around, watch for openings. Sure, keep them honest by throwing a few punches their way, but it's no great accomplishment to knock someone around the ring when you've got them intimidated.
I always take first timers in myself. I tell them I'm not going to hurt them, and all I want them to do is get comfortable hitting someone.
You see it has been my experience that the hardest thing to get the hang of is trying to hit another human being. Oh lots of tuffys say they would just love the chance, but when it comes down to it the arm goes rubbery. Maybe they don't want to hurt or maybe they are afraid of retaliation.
So I go in, cover up, move alot and every now and then just stand there, elbows in, hands covering my head and practice my body conditioning.
Make sure before you get into a sparring match you know where your partners head(mind) is. You don't want to be sparring with someone who is out to make themselves feel superior by pounding someone who has less sparring talent than they, male or female.
As time and practice pass you will be able to go in against anyone, male or female, and take care of yourself.
Keep your head up
Gilbert.
sparring
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Gilbert MacIntyre
- Posts: 191
- Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2000 6:01 am
- Location: Sydney, NS, Canada
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Jake Steinmann
- Posts: 1184
- Joined: Fri Apr 30, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Newton, MA
- Contact:
sparring
On getting wacked: "If you're going to go swimming, you're going to get wet" - Dan Inosanto (or Bruce Lee...I've heard conflicte reports).
In any case, the source of the quote is less relevant than the quote itself. I heard it a number of years ago, but didn't really get it until recently.
Sadly, the invincible, unhittable master a la Jet Li movies does not exist (except for rare cases of extreme disparity in skill...). This is life.
Re: Sparring as Self-Defense
For me, I actually found my sparring much improved once I stopped trying to think of it as an attempt at self-defense training. While sparring develops attributes that can be useful in a self-defense situation, the two are really vastly different.
Try sparring just for the experience of sparring. Don't worry about winning (in many of the schools I trained at, there wasn't even a defined way to win...yet I still tried...makes it very frustrating). Use it as a time to try out strategies, play with a concept...feel what it's like to get hit. Anything. Just experience it, and then move on.
My two coins of appropriate denomination...
Jake
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Defeat is worse than death. You have to live with defeat - Seal Team Slogan
In any case, the source of the quote is less relevant than the quote itself. I heard it a number of years ago, but didn't really get it until recently.
Sadly, the invincible, unhittable master a la Jet Li movies does not exist (except for rare cases of extreme disparity in skill...). This is life.
Re: Sparring as Self-Defense
For me, I actually found my sparring much improved once I stopped trying to think of it as an attempt at self-defense training. While sparring develops attributes that can be useful in a self-defense situation, the two are really vastly different.
Try sparring just for the experience of sparring. Don't worry about winning (in many of the schools I trained at, there wasn't even a defined way to win...yet I still tried...makes it very frustrating). Use it as a time to try out strategies, play with a concept...feel what it's like to get hit. Anything. Just experience it, and then move on.
My two coins of appropriate denomination...
Jake
------------------
Defeat is worse than death. You have to live with defeat - Seal Team Slogan
sparring
Quote from Jake:
For me, I actually found my sparring much improved once I stopped trying to think of it as an attempt at self-defense training.
endquote
I totally agree that the two are different.
Jake's statement reminded me of my
own mental progession in free sparring.
What made the connection for me was bridging the gap between one-step sparring and free sparring.
I was very confortable in one step sparring drill long before I got the butterflies out of my stomach in sparring. My reasoning was that in one-step drills I "knew" what was going to happen. At least in theory, our one-step drills are pre-arranged. My epiphany was when I realized that even in free sparring I knew what was going to happen. I realized that I'd seen enough punches & kicks & other kinds of strikes to be able to identify what was coming my way. I also felt comfortable that I knew at least a couple ways to block all those attacks.
What I hadn't realized was that through the one-step training I already had the abilitiy to block & counter. I just hadn't done it continuously. Once I looked on free sparring as a never ending one-step drill, my sparring abilities rose quite a bit.
I still have a long way to go in terms of developing combinations, etc. But I sure enjoy sparring a whole lot more than I used to.
That was my big "ah-ha!". It took me about 3 years to reach it.
Dana Sheets
For me, I actually found my sparring much improved once I stopped trying to think of it as an attempt at self-defense training.
endquote
I totally agree that the two are different.
Jake's statement reminded me of my
own mental progession in free sparring.
What made the connection for me was bridging the gap between one-step sparring and free sparring.
I was very confortable in one step sparring drill long before I got the butterflies out of my stomach in sparring. My reasoning was that in one-step drills I "knew" what was going to happen. At least in theory, our one-step drills are pre-arranged. My epiphany was when I realized that even in free sparring I knew what was going to happen. I realized that I'd seen enough punches & kicks & other kinds of strikes to be able to identify what was coming my way. I also felt comfortable that I knew at least a couple ways to block all those attacks.
What I hadn't realized was that through the one-step training I already had the abilitiy to block & counter. I just hadn't done it continuously. Once I looked on free sparring as a never ending one-step drill, my sparring abilities rose quite a bit.
I still have a long way to go in terms of developing combinations, etc. But I sure enjoy sparring a whole lot more than I used to.
That was my big "ah-ha!". It took me about 3 years to reach it.
Dana Sheets
sparring
Dana:
Thank you!
That's an Aha! that hadn't yet happened to me!
Of course, doing primarily TKD, our one steps are against punch attacks and our primary sparring weapons are kicks...but it's an interesting concept nonetheless....
Sigh.
More training....
student
Thank you!
That's an Aha! that hadn't yet happened to me!
Of course, doing primarily TKD, our one steps are against punch attacks and our primary sparring weapons are kicks...but it's an interesting concept nonetheless....
Sigh.
More training....
student
