Sparing - hard to full contact

[The BB of C]

I see where you're coming from and I've seen it done before. As a personal matter I'm likely to put lesser experienced students with slightly more experienced students based on overall skill of the two people. I also don't really see myself as an exception seeing as there's plenty more people just like me.

[bushido_man96]

There are times when hard sparring is good and when it isn't. You don't want to go blasting a new students who may have never even been in a conflict. This is a way to drive a good student away. New martial artist will become frustated and overwelmed very easily.

There are times to spar lightly. Such as learning to put combos together under distress, adding new technique to your fight game. And teaching new people to look for opening in there opponents guard.

I belive that more seasoned students should able to spar full speed and at any contact leavel nessecrey.

I agree. I think that if you throw first-timers to the wolves, its a good way to limit the types of students you get early on and keep. I think that if you bring the students around the right way, you can even get the more timid, less physical students to enjoy sparring, and become proficient at it.

The key word here is "first-timer." As one can notice in the BB of C's post, you will at times run into those who have prior experience in MAs or fighting in general, or those who just don't mind a higher level of contact. Then, you can throw them in with higher ranks sooner rather than later, and get them up to the level they want to be at.

[Rateh]

I agree with bushido

I actually didn't start sparring till about a year and a half after I started training. At this point I was a green belt, and had moved and started at a new school.

They threw me right into sparring, and I was a very timid person (at the time I had progressed from kiaping at a soundless whisper to a quite speaking voice)

I didn't give up, but I really sucked. As I was preparing for my black belt test, I trained in sparring every week, and watched the kids sparring class too.

I still sucked. Though at the black belt test I somehow pulled it out.

Why did I suck? Because I was intimidated. No one eased me into sparring. No one took the shy girl who couldn't even look someone in the eye, and thought "hmmm....maybe we should start her off real light and easy".

It is only in recent years that I have even begun to enjoy it.

So I am VERY big on easying the lower ranks into it, unless they show a disire for harder contact.

Once the student has become comfortable in the sparing environment, then I think the contact should be gradually increased, until like pittbull said, the student can spar at any contact level.

[BKHowell]

Being considered a beginner, I have mostly sparred with brown and black belts. With that said, I have been told that we do light to medium contact. If we hit hard and our opponent doesn't care for it, we lighten up. If we don't, our opponent has the permission from the instructer to nail us as hard as they want. Hasn't happened yet, but the offer is there.

As far as sparring females, they get the same treatment as the men as far as rules goes. Contact is typically light though.

[Grego]

We do hard contact body sparring, not contact to the head (though it happens at times)

We generally don't wear padding, and miraculously, we've been able to avoid any bad injuries

[Traymond]

If Im sparring with someone thats atleast a green belt I go as hard as I can. And I usually win. With lower ranks such as White and Yellow belt I go easy on them, im not gonna send them flying with a full powered front kick...that wouldn't be nice, now would it...run them off before they are a green belt haha.

I tend to go to hard sometimes at tournaments, like I knocked a 30 year old black belt out at one time, because he was picking on a younger black belt (Like 15 or so). So he came running at me and I just threw my foot up like I was doing an Axe kick, and brought it down right on top of hid head...luckily he was wearing head gear...

But yes i love the full contact stuff, its extremely fun, and it truly demonstrated your skill level.

[joesteph]

We do hard contact body sparring, not contact to the head (though it happens at times)

We generally don't wear padding, and miraculously, we've been able to avoid any bad injuries

Sounds like a well-run dojo/dojang, where there's mutual consideration, mutual respect. Your teacher must be running a tight ship and setting a good example.

[Kuma]

We do hard contact body sparring, not contact to the head (though it happens at times)

We generally don't wear padding, and miraculously, we've been able to avoid any bad injuries

Same with us. We do anywhere from light to hard contact, but kicks and knees to the head are always light. When we put on gloves and incorporate head shots, it's usually light to medium as well.

[bushido_man96]

We do hard contact body sparring, not contact to the head (though it happens at times)

We generally don't wear padding, and miraculously, we've been able to avoid any bad injuries

Sounds like a well-run dojo/dojang, where there's mutual consideration, mutual respect. Your teacher must be running a tight ship and setting a good example.

We can have things like this happen at our school at times. It tends to happen a lot when we do lighter contact, and we pull our kicks off so as not to hurt anyone. Well, what happens is, the student doesn't respect the kick; in other words, they don't realize that a high-rank could have really nailed them, but when pulling the contact, they don't realize it. So, they walk right through the kick, and continue on like it didn't happen. So the next time, they may get tagged with that kick....

[sensei8]

Depends on the rank/experience that I'm sparring with. When I spar my Sensei/Dai-Soke, I spar as though my life depends on it because he goes hard/fast with his senior students. When I spar beginners, I don't hit at all. I end my techniques just before target, ending as close as I can without them walking into it, but, it's still techniques with NO hip/follow. Intermediate students, I lightly tap, just to let them know that I'm there, while all the time, still no hip/follow. Advanced students, I make medium contact with very little hip/follow. Godan to Shichidan....I hit with 3/4 hip/follow...but with my fellow Hachidan's...I hit with full hip/follow...and not trying to toot my own horn, but, I hit extremely hard, the harder the better for me...I love the contact...besides, with my fellow Hachidan's I will get a turn...trust me. With my fellow Hachidan's; sparring is more like a tennis game, going back and forth, sometimes it's a draw and sometimes one has to deliver an Ace on the serve.

All in all...working on solid, effective techniques is paramount over who won and who lost, knowledge is what I want my students to learn.

Edited March 18, 2009 by sensei8