Anyone else upset over the common perception of SemiContact?

[123321]

It seems that there's a very common perception of semi-contact tournaments that I personally find very upsetting. It is viewed as a few "tiers" lower than your typical MMA or Boxing match. I've seen that most think of it as a match where every limb imaginable is padded with protection gear, and a whistle is blown and everyone pauses whenever someone 'barely' touches the other. I understand that there's "haters" for every sport (please don't turn this into a discussion over the term "sport," note that I'm referring to tournaments), same as you can always find someone who mocks soccer by calling it a bunch of skinny guys kicking around a leather ball filled with air.

What's your take on this? Obviously semi-contact isn't just a run down 'family-version' of full contact, but still, how do you feel about this?

Edited February 18, 2009 by 123321

[JusticeZero]

Well, quite frankly, the majority of Karate and Taekwondo schools ARE "a daycare center for moms to drop their kids at". To discover a Karate or TKD school that uses any sort of realistic training method and which aims it's membership at adults rather than small children is so rare as to be a shock and a surprise on the rare occasion that one discovers it. So, nobody expects much of anything from those schools.

[joesteph]

So this isn't a reference to light contact with protective gear? It's one way to get adults who want non-contact for whatever reason to try it in their dojang, then, I guess, see how it goes if a tournament is held. I wonder if calling it semi-contact is a sales pitch for tournament promotion.

With teens, it could be that they're enrolled in a non-contact school because of a parental decision, and it may be the only way to open up light contact to them.

Half a loaf . . . ?

[DWx]

Semi-contact is a very loose term... We fight "semi-contact" but it still involves being hit (quite hard in most cases):

But you can get other styles that use a "tap" for contact. I think it all depends on what you're wanting from the sport side of it.. Personally it doesn't bother me all that much, to me "semi-contact" just means somewhere between full contact and no contact.

[bushido_man96]

I think the problem is that the term light-contact goes around a lot, and semi-contact I think tends to get lumped in with it. I think that maybe use of the term "contact sparring" would be more helpful.

[ps1]

Please define semi-contact. How does it differ from a light contact tourney?

[granitemiller]

I disagree with the statement that karate schools and TKD schools are just aimed at children, there are many that are adult oriented.

[JusticeZero]

I didn't say that ALL Karate and TKD schools were aimed at children. Only that MOST were. The median TKD student is a child.

[bushido_man96]

You could say the same about Wrestling, too. There are a lot of kid's Wrestling programs out there. Its a different style, for sure, but they are both based in combative systems.

I don't know that TKD and Karate schools are "aimed" at children, but the curriculum of these styles lend themselves well to teaching children. They naturally gravitate to it.

[ShoriKid]

A lot more of the bad reputation that "semi-contact" tournament fighters get is from the bad habits that it sometimes breeds. Reflexively stopping after contact, carrying your hands low(almost every fighter in the Youtube link carried their hands low, at least until they got hit), turning away from hits if your being over whelmed. Not all "semi-contact" fighters get these habits. But, until you give a tighter definition of "semi-contact", almost everyone is thinking your average, stop action TKD or Karate tourny.

If I say I'm a full contact karate fighter, that means something. Or a boxer, or an mma fighter. People understand that. If I say I'm sem-contact fighter, I think of light contact, stop when points are scored tournys. Bigger transition there to fighting skill. Combine that with the braggarts that have told how many trophies they have at home from fighting only to get killed at school when they ran their mouth too much and you get a bad reputation.