Students who hate fighting

[Himokiri Karate]

I have no words of wisdom or advice to add here except to say I can totally understand the situation.

Sparring was never my favorite activity in martial arts class. I've always preferred doing forms. The reason was that in sparring one is expected to "keep it real" without actually hurting your classmate.

In a real situation, if I felt that my life was in danger, I feel confident that I could do my best to defend myself regardless of the outcome. One goes into survival mode, I suppose. But that would involve hurting the attacker. If I do not feel my life is threatened, I could not hurt an innocent person.

That's the reason I found it extremely difficult, even at Dan level, to find a middle ground in sparring class - keeping it realistic - while not hurting my fellow student and avoiding getting myself hurt as well. "It's real, but it's not real"....does that make sense?

So that's why sparring was never my favorite exercise in class.

Not really, sparring is great for self-control and controling the situation, if your looking at it in terms of "I am in danger, time for berserker mode Then two things will happen in a self-defense situation:

1.You lose control due to rage and end up looking like some type of animal or blood thirsty thug among witnesses.

2.You will lose your balance due to becoming hotheaded and your motor-skills will go down in ground.

But if you learn sparring you will learn the following:

Taking a hit

Learning to counter

Maintaining a proper balance on uneven surfaces.

Understanding the rythem of back and forth.

Having mental clarity

Finding order out of chaos or finding the light in the darkness

Sparring is the heart of martial art, if people want to take up a hobbie in martial arts but dont want to spar then...its time for a new hobbie otherwise we are just downgrading the quality of martial arts and giving birth to mcdojos.

There is a reason why kyokushin karate is one of the most respected styles of karate despite being newer style of karate. It has a no-nonsense attitude and its the type of karate style/oganization that upholds its reputation by providing quality teaching instead of quantity students.

[bushido_man96]

Sparring and fighting aren't always the same, and the feeling one has when sparring and fighting aren't always the same, either. Berserker mode can actually work well for some people, as long as they rein it in when the bad guy goes down.

[Himokiri Karate]

Sparring and fighting aren't always the same, and the feeling one has when sparring and fighting aren't always the same, either. Berserker mode can actually work well for some people, as long as they rein it in when the bad guy goes down.

I disagree with the berserker mode thing, the problem is in todays day and age we have uneven surface such as sidewalks as well as people with cell-phones.

So in these situations when you lose control two things will happen:

1. You will go crazy and destroy the guy and if a witness can get it on camera then your gonna have to explain to the court your blood thirsty behaviour and not to mention the fact that you used ZERO martial arts since its impossible to do so in that mental frame of mind

2.If you go crazy and start swinging then you may lose your footing or trip and end up seriously hurting yourself.

But if you learn how to spar then you will get a better understanding of what fights outside look like. Now as a boxing practioner Im not gonna pertend its a boxing match, if the guy is bigger then me I will forsure punch him in the knee cap or the johnsons

Basicly it doesnt really matter what I say, people who dont spar will close there eyes/look down on the ground. This may work for judokas but if your in striking arts then this is not right.

[Zaine]

Basicly it doesnt really matter what I say, people who dont spar will close there eyes/look down on the ground.

What do you mean by this? Where are you getting this info?

[Himokiri Karate]

Basicly it doesnt really matter what I say, people who dont spar will close there eyes/look down on the ground.

What do you mean by this? Where are you getting this info?

Every single person that was a newbie in sparring has exhibited this type of behaviour.

As soon as they get hit, they either close there eyes or look down on the ground and start brawling.

Lets look at karo parisyan who was a judoka in mma, he never had any striking skills, so when he got hit he would clinch up with people and take them down. But if your a karate man or a striker then sparring is mandatory.

After talking to group of kyokushin karatekas as well as being involved in boxing, we came to a conclusion that without sparring there is no bonding exprience.

Sparring is great, it really helped me identify and address the problems I had with conditioning,technique and habits as well as making a connection with sparring partners and learning from them and there style and habits as well.

[kanoner]

In my experience one of two things usually happens when a person is afraid of sparring:

1. They quit when freesparring is introduced.

2. They endure and everybody I know who have done that get over their fear. They might still not enjoy it, but they all challenge them self from time to time.

Usually those who endure, enjoy other aspects of the art (like kata in karate). I use that and introduce bunkai as kumite base. This strangely enough often help.

[Zaine]

Basicly it doesnt really matter what I say, people who dont spar will close there eyes/look down on the ground.

What do you mean by this? Where are you getting this info?

As soon as they get hit, they either close there eyes or look down on the ground and start brawling.

Thanks for the clarification. This is more or less true. We go our whole live with the basic notion that getting hit sucks and it isn't something that we want to deal with so when we are hit in the early months of Martial Art training we do tend to freeze up.

Every single person that was a newbie in sparring has exhibited this type of behavior

It is usually in my dojo as well, but there are a few exceptions who, without prior experience in Martial Arts, didn't do this. We had a student one time who was fine with getting hit, but felt awkward hitting.

[Lupin1]

It is usually in my dojo as well, but there are a few exceptions who, without prior experience in Martial Arts, didn't do this. We had a student one time who was fine with getting hit, but felt awkward hitting.

That's me. I got punched in the nose once in middle school and, rather than freezing or going bezerko on the guy who hit me, I started laughing through two fist-fulls of blood. I'm fine with getting hit. It just takes a lot to get me to hit back.

[bushido_man96]

Sparring and fighting aren't always the same, and the feeling one has when sparring and fighting aren't always the same, either. Berserker mode can actually work well for some people, as long as they rein it in when the bad guy goes down.

I disagree with the berserker mode thing, the problem is in todays day and age we have uneven surface such as sidewalks as well as people with cell-phones.

So in these situations when you lose control two things will happen:

1. You will go crazy and destroy the guy and if a witness can get it on camera then your gonna have to explain to the court your blood thirsty behaviour and not to mention the fact that you used ZERO martial arts since its impossible to do so in that mental frame of mind

I find it difficult to believe that there can be a "fight" with no "Martial Arts" in it. Not every person trains in the Martial Arts, but they can still end up being in a fight for their life at some point. Just because one does not train in Martial Arts doesn't change the fact that fighting is a Martial act. Someone can still be a good fighter without having trained in any Martial Art. Not every fight is going to be a refined sparring match or demonstration of bunkai. Fighting is chaotic, and it gets ugly. You do what you have to do to survive. If that means summoning some inner strength and boosting your own morale with a blood-curdling war yell, then so be it. Everyone needs to learn when to stop, but between start and stop points, holding back can get you hurt or killed.

2.If you go crazy and start swinging then you may lose your footing or trip and end up seriously hurting yourself.

To me, berserker mode doesn't necessarily flailing around. Everyone in the fight has to be concerned with their surroundings. Sparring in a dojo, in bare feet, with no obstructions except walls, doesn't really teach this.