Full contact, semi-contact or non-contact?

[Dobbersky]

.................

How can anyone consider anything else when there is a very high quality Matsubayashi school in the area.

http://www.matsubayashi-ryu.com.au/

Do I hint a little bit of favouritism and bias there Ueshiro-san hehehe

[Dobbersky]

Apologies, still learning this phone, OSU

[evergrey]

Kyokushin is a great option. Am I biased? Oh yes. But Kyokushin is also well-respected... and a lot of dojos do, contraty to popular belief, also train with controlled head punches. Mine sure does, haha! It really toughens you up, and has alive sparring that is a lot more realistic than point sparring, or sparring where you are wrapped in a ton of bubble-wrap. We just wear mouthguards in my dojo. Some people use shin guards, but most don't. If we are doing face and head punches, we wear MMA gloves.

I only know some Kyokushin folks in Queensland, pretty sure.

[BarbedTerror]

Thanks, I will soon be checking out some muay thai and kyokushin classes Hopefully I find these classes useful and wish to continue

[yamesu]

Kyokushin!

http://www.actkyokushin.com.au/instructors/boreham.htm

and

http://www.fieldkyokushin.com/our-club.html

OSU!

[Liver Punch]

If you're serious about learning to defend yourself, you need some realistic biofeedback. Very few people are inherently tough, and even those need realistic training to learn real skill. The rest of us need the experience to toughen us up. Martial skill is not learned by choosing to remain a delicate flower.

I'll second this, and I think that toughness in this context is really just a "manly" way of saying discipline. Contact martial arts, from technique to conditioning, is just a big exercise in discipline. Being disciplined enough to learn the technique is step one. Being disciplined enough to get your body into really good shape might be step two. The final step is being and learning how to be disciplined enough to apply that technique through conditioning.

A lot of guys look good on the pads, bags, and shadowboxing - and a lot of guys can take a big shot and keep going. The goal of sparring with more realistic contact, is to reach the stage when getting hit results in legitimate technique and intelligent counters as opposed to angry hay-makers.

A group of civilian competitive target shooters can out-shoot most military platoons, but which one would you rather walk into a war zone with?

[Dobbersky]

If you're serious about learning to defend yourself, you need some realistic biofeedback. Very few people are inherently tough, and even those need realistic training to learn real skill. The rest of us need the experience to toughen us up. Martial skill is not learned by choosing to remain a delicate flower.

I'll second this, and I think that toughness in this context is really just a "manly" way of saying discipline. Contact martial arts, from technique to conditioning, is just a big exercise in discipline. Being disciplined enough to learn the technique is step one. Being disciplined enough to get your body into really good shape might be step two. The final step is being and learning how to be disciplined enough to apply that technique through conditioning.

A lot of guys look good on the pads, bags, and shadowboxing - and a lot of guys can take a big shot and keep going. The goal of sparring with more realistic contact, is to reach the stage when getting hit results in legitimate technique and intelligent counters as opposed to angry hay-makers.

A group of civilian competitive target shooters can out-shoot most military platoons, but which one would you rather walk into a war zone with?

I too second this, I've spoken to many "Champions" and Black Belts who've frozen the first time they got hit by someone on the street because they'd never experienced it within the "safe" confinments of the Dojo.

OSU!!!!

[Groinstrike]

If you're serious about learning to defend yourself, you need some realistic biofeedback. Very few people are inherently tough, and even those need realistic training to learn real skill. The rest of us need the experience to toughen us up. Martial skill is not learned by choosing to remain a delicate flower.

I'll second this, and I think that toughness in this context is really just a "manly" way of saying discipline. Contact martial arts, from technique to conditioning, is just a big exercise in discipline. Being disciplined enough to learn the technique is step one. Being disciplined enough to get your body into really good shape might be step two. The final step is being and learning how to be disciplined enough to apply that technique through conditioning.

A lot of guys look good on the pads, bags, and shadowboxing - and a lot of guys can take a big shot and keep going. The goal of sparring with more realistic contact, is to reach the stage when getting hit results in legitimate technique and intelligent counters as opposed to angry hay-makers.

A group of civilian competitive target shooters can out-shoot most military platoons, but which one would you rather walk into a war zone with?

Good points, I will throw myself into the category of the people who after they get rocked with a punch, resort to looping punches and white hot rage. Which i suppose is better than turning away from the threat and conceding the fight.

[tallgeese]

I think some sort of contact sparring is important to martial development. Mainly for just about every point made. The first time you deal with contact can not be when it is for real.

Now, that does not mean one should train at a pace all the time that gets them hurt. That actually impedes progress. But one does need from time to time to pick it up to build an acclimatization with contact.

It's part of building that "pre-combat veteran" that Grossman talks about in "On Combat". We need to prep ourselves to already have experienced those physiological effects of combat BEFORE dealing with them for real.

[GeterDone]

I initially started in Goju-Ryu karate, which had no contact sparring rules. My Sensei also trained in Kyukoshin and with the agreement of other students, he scheduled classes for only Kyukoshin training and sparring. Using shin pads and gloves is up to the people sparring and whether the Sensei will allow it for those people. We have the rule that if it's a Goju-Ryu class, then it's Goju-Ryu rules. The only 2 exceptions, first, semi-contact if the sparring partners agree and the Sensei approves. Second, we use a point-time hybrid system, meaning points are counted by at least 2 people on the side but there's no stoppage until the allotted time is reached, someone is too injured or too tired to continue.