hertao

These are great ideas that many people struggle with. In my experience, teaching full time for nearly 10 years, starting with limited sparring from the first day forward works best. On the first day you can spar with one attack and one defense with little intensity, adding a single technique and defense to the mix and increasing intensity as the practitioners get more comfortable. I've had little difficulty getting people effectively sparring stand up all the way to ground in 6 months with a basic boxing, kickboxing, clinch, ground progression. I've got a short video and sparring progression here: http://www.hertao.com/selfdefense/training.html The problem with the sport style sparring above is that it doesn't work well for people with a significant size or strength difference. The larger and/or stronger practitioner will need to hold back. For self defense, the important thing is to add eye jabs, groin kicks and slaps, etc., to the mix. BUT, I find that people are much better able to apply the "dirty tactics" once they're no longer scared of basic punches, clinch, throws, and basic ground fighting. The good thing about the above progression is that people get comfortable being punched and kicked, and actually punching and kicking another person. I totally agree with you guys, that after someone can practice the above, they can then move on to "reality sparring", or whatever you want to call it. There's no doubt that a sport style sparring match is significantly different from a quick, give it all you got engagement. David

A head wrench or twist. You can't do any more than breaking someone's neck.