What rules do you spar under in class?

[parkerlineage]

For white belt (9th kyu), we do drills only.

For yellow belt (8th kyu), we begin to mix in a little freesparring with very limited contact to body only.

For orange and purple (7th and 6th kyu), freesparring is the norm, with light to medium body contact, and very light contact to the groin and side of the head.

From blue to probably second brown (5th to 2nd kyu), medium to strong contact to the body, light to medium contact to the side of the head, light contact to the groin, no back contact, no sweeps.

For first brown and above (1st kyu-Dan levels), anything goes. And when I say anything, I mean no breaks, eye strikes, elbows or knees to the face, and stop if there's blood, but other than that, anything. We also try to shy away from back to front sweeps (back of your leg to the front of your opponent's leg) because of the damage it can do to knees.

[bushido_man96]

For white belt (9th kyu), we do drills only.

For yellow belt (8th kyu), we begin to mix in a little freesparring with very limited contact to body only.

For orange and purple (7th and 6th kyu), freesparring is the norm, with light to medium body contact, and very light contact to the groin and side of the head.

From blue to probably second brown (5th to 2nd kyu), medium to strong contact to the body, light to medium contact to the side of the head, light contact to the groin, no back contact, no sweeps.

For first brown and above (1st kyu-Dan levels), anything goes. And when I say anything, I mean no breaks, eye strikes, elbows or knees to the face, and stop if there's blood, but other than that, anything. We also try to shy away from back to front sweeps (back of your leg to the front of your opponent's leg) because of the damage it can do to knees.

I like the progression of the rules through the ranks here. Very nice. I also like the high rank rules. May have to try them out!

[parkerlineage]

I like the progression of the rules through the ranks here. Very nice. I also like the high rank rules. May have to try them out!

If we started out full contact on yellow belts, we'd have no orange belts!!

You may want to keep in mind that we wear point sparring gear, so the "anything goes" is a little more kosher than "anything goes and you'll likely bleed all over my mat". The lack of restriction is fun, though - you don't have to continually pause and go, "Wait, am I allowed to do that?" like I continually have to remind myself in TKD tournaments (not bashing TKD! I love it! Seriously!).

Haha...I felt so bad for this poor guy I lost to in my first black belt TKD match...he kept kicking high, and my instructor is really big on groin shots when the opponent hits high - and the guy wasn't wearing a cup. I almost got disqualified, and he won partially because he was better than me, partially becaue I felt so sorry for kicking him in the crotch three times, and paritally because my errors gave him two points.

Random tangent...sorry...

[bushido_man96]

I like the progression of the rules through the ranks here. Very nice. I also like the high rank rules. May have to try them out!

If we started out full contact on yellow belts, we'd have no orange belts!!

You may want to keep in mind that we wear point sparring gear, so the "anything goes" is a little more kosher than "anything goes and you'll likely bleed all over my mat". The lack of restriction is fun, though - you don't have to continually pause and go, "Wait, am I allowed to do that?" like I continually have to remind myself in TKD tournaments (not bashing TKD! I love it! Seriously!).

Haha...I felt so bad for this poor guy I lost to in my first black belt TKD match...he kept kicking high, and my instructor is really big on groin shots when the opponent hits high - and the guy wasn't wearing a cup. I almost got disqualified, and he won partially because he was better than me, partially becaue I felt so sorry for kicking him in the crotch three times, and paritally because my errors gave him two points.

Random tangent...sorry...

I hear you on all of this here. Gotta bring the low ranks along easy. And, I understand your TKD story. Sometimes hard to change to a different rules style. If it would have been me, I would have started blocking. But, I tend to block more than counter, anyways.

[parkerlineage]

Not so much into blocking, myself. I'll parry if I have to, but I usually just like to move so I'm not there while countering or getting ready to counter. That's rather uncharacteristic of AK, though, so don't base any stereotypes off of that.

[Jiffy]

We train in Shotokan.

The level of contact will vary depending on the level of experience of the practitioners.

For the more experienced guys, I expect the lightest of taps to the head (no red marks) or to the spine, no contact to the groin, throat or joints.

Ribs, stomach, chest and outer back are all fair game for contact (provided it's within the limits of what the person can handle).

For the less experienced, it's lighter contact and for the real beginners, none at all.

[wolfen]

I train in toushi kan, but my organisation has several styles.

we allow sparring at 7th kyu (out of 8 kyu) (except for sample sparring with the sensei which happens 1 time after about 5 classes)

we highly encourage sparring at 6th

to advance past 5th you must spar to your sensei's satisfaction

to advance to 2nd and higher ranks you must meet the requirements of the panel of sensei(s) (9 sensei(s) all 3rd dan or higher, i believe the highest was 7th dan in shotokan and a 5th dan in toushi kan (one of shigeki umemoto's own students)). This requirement is not bad when you have a rather strict sensei.

the rules for basic sparring (for 7th through 5th) are as follows:

pads are mandatory

a fitted mouthpiece is mandatory

kicks & punches to the body score +1

kicks & puches within an inch of the head score +1

kicks that hit the head are penalised -1

throws and sweeps are not allowed.

flurries are unscored (as if they happen, it is the result of both people ignoring defense).

for 4th kyu - 2nd dan (as high as my organization tests) the rules go:

same as above except throws, locks, and sweeps are allowed (if they are controlled and followed up by a punch).

and flurries stop happening unless one person entirely outclasses another at which point the stronger would take it easy to teach the weaker.

i find this gives much better control and snap on techniques even though it was designed to prevent injury to young students (of which there are quite a few until 5th/4th kyu).