sparring

[dete]

What is some of the biggest differences you have noticed when sparring a Karateka and a practitioner of another style?

[marie curie]

Hmmm...Great Idea~

Well, TKD/TSD people have a tendency to have strong kicks, but if you get passed their kicks they are at a loss because their hands are slower and not as practiced.

Specifically Olympic TKD people train for tourny's where they can keep their hands down, so they often do. Also they don't generally rechamber their kicks quickly, so if you are playing mma rules, you can catch the foot and roll or push them to the floor.

Karateka's have a tendency (again because of the type of tourny they train for) to attack in individual moves or small combos- 2 or 3 strikes, moving in and out.

Kung fu people are strange to fight when you are used to the others, less because of their attacks and more because as they move around your body, they do so in circular motions instead of directly at you... once you catch on its not terribly effective for them, but if you only have 2 mins to fight or something, it can totally throw you off your game.

Judoka's have a tendency to stand high, allowing them to be thrown more easily (because leaning over too far is a stalling penalty), but they have lots of take downs and will usually move from one to another to another (if they are more experienced).

Muay Thai is awesome and brutal. As far as fighting them (in kick boxing tourny's) watch out for those thai kicks (ouch to the shins) but you can make use of their movement because there isn't much. They will use a hard block instead of evasion techniques, which is not only tiring for them, but also keeps them pretty stationary in relation to you.

Wrestlers suck. They are really hard to throw because of their defenses, and if they get on top of you, you are stuck. However, if you get on top of them, where a Judoka or BJJer can often get out, they have a tendency to panic and not be particularly technical. Also, they generally are really weird about fighting girls for some reason.

BJJers... well I haven't competed against any except one, but I'd say that in grappling they are the tops. If you do BJJ and Wrestle, or BJJ and Judo, great, but if you do anything that doesn't include it, and fight a BJJ person... watch out

Note: I don't consider myself truly a BJJer due to my emphatically white belt.

Edited November 20, 2007 by marie curie

[bushido_man96]

I haven't had much experience fighting anyone of a different style. We just don't have much around here, and I don't get to a lot of tournaments.

I think that the TKDers that Marie refers to tend to be more like the Olympic stylists. I keep my hands up to protect myself, and I like to get in close and punch. It will really depend on how the person likes to fight.

[ps1]

I agree with Marie Curie on all of that. Having direct experience training in Karate, Kung Fu, and BJJ, everything she noticed is valid! Nice observations!

[bushido_man96]

I have never enjoyed working with Wrestlers. I just have no knack for it. However, knowing what I know now, I would have stuck with Wrestling throughout my high school years.

[dete]

Thanx for your detailed response Marie Curie,

you just made this thread.

as for my own response,

I'm going to exclude grappling for a moment,

I have to go with what Bruce Lee mentioned in his Tao of JKD.

He said something like, western arts are way too risky (because of

the sport aspect, gloves, rules, refs.) & eastern arts are way too

defensive (self-defense aspect).

When I spar in Thaiboxing, they are in your face, trading shots, fighting for the clinch, organs get hammered, I see stars, my jaw gets sore, etc.

When I spar with traditional martial art guys generally whether it be out of

respect or they are not use to it or whatever, there is much less commitment. And we start striking each others defense, so now we got shots to the bone, lots of forearm shots, joints, the outer surface, and it hurts in a totally different way.

this of course is just generally speaking of my own experiences.

[marie curie]

When I spar in Thaiboxing, they are in your face, trading shots, fighting for the clinch, organs get hammered, I see stars, my jaw gets sore, etc.

Good call I forgot Muay Thai... I'm going to edit my post above to include it.

I think that the TKDers that Marie refers to tend to be more like the Olympic stylists.

Yeh, I'm pretty sure most of the TKDists around here that compete in adult competitions are Olympic stylists because that's what Pitt teaches.

[AikiGuy]

I've sparred against a few different styles. My opinions would be similar to those already mentioned so I will skip them. The only one I can add is boxing.

When I sparred (boxed) with a boxer, I noticed they do not "block" like we do. Instead they "cover". It was very interesting to see the differences in our techniques. I was surprised at how good he was at covering up his face whenever I would punch. I got a couple head shots past his defenses, but most of them just landed on his gloves. I pulled off a few more body shots though. He seemed equally surprised that my "blocking" was effective. Boxers are not used to seeing their punches stopped half way to their targets. I seemed to do this well out of reflex. Although a few good shots did get through to my head. We seemed to be fairly even at "hands" only combat even though I had more years of training. I think we would have to include kicking for me to have any sort of advantage. Boxers are also some of the best conditioned fighters you will find. I do regular aerobics, so I lasted the whole fight, but I was a bit more tired than he was.

[Brian S]

Hi dete! Good questions.

Note: My replies are based solely on my own experiences are are not swept in the same pile of every stylist.

TKD- The TKD guys I have sparred rely on their kicking way too much,it gets them off balance more than not and leaves them open to counters. The no-head contact TKD'ers leave their guard down and are basically always open for a shot to the face/head.

Kempo/Gung-fu- These guys tended to flail and all technique went out the window when we sparred. ??? I think it was just the school.

Kung-fu- Not sure which style it was,but the guy was a self proclaimed "grandmaster",lol. I was able to evade and intercept his attack and put him to the mat several times.

JUDO- I currently train at a judo school as well. Judo guys assume they can just grab you and is effective,but more so just in the confinement of their own rules.

[bushido_man96]

My brother and I decided to have a sparring match once where we used our TKD rules (which included hand contact to the head), but also allowed takedowns and throws, however we could pull them off. I pretty much had my way with him striking, although he did get some good shots on me. Where he dominated was in the throwing and takedown department. He had some Wrestling experience in high school, and he was much heavier than me. The problem I had was that when I got in close with my strikes, if he could defend a few of them, he could get a hold of me and basically throw me across the room. It was a good time, for sure, and showed me some of my weaknesses.