omnifinite Posted October 18, 2002 Posted October 18, 2002 I have a question about training full contact, and I'm not really sure how to ask it without sounding antagonistic, which isn't my intent at all. Just trust that it's an honest, humble question to those who have some insight. What I'm wondering is... how do people train and spar "full contact" and not kill each other? It seems to me that for your martial art to be truly effective in real-life combat, your techniques will be pretty deadly. You wouldn't have the luxury of simply bruising a person up... you'd have to make sure whatever you hit tore or broke and you'd have to do it quickly. You could lower the severity of your responses if you were confident you were in no danger of being killed (and even then, you could be very wrong), but I'm not sure how many street situations that applies to. So how is training full contact possible? Is it selective contact? Is it restrained? I understand the benefits of learning how to take a hit of course, but if it's selective/restrained... aren't there still issues of not truly knowing if what you're doing works, or whether or not you're doing it right? I think if I were to use what I've learned in a truly full contact sparring session... I'd feel very discouraged and betrayed by my teaching if the person came out of it just a little bruised and bloodied and said, "Good session... see you next week." If I gave it my all and that was the result I'd get demolished in a real-life encounter. I would find a new instructor and/or art then and there. I'm not advocating genuinely harming your peers ... I'd never do that or train in a place that allowed it. But maybe I'm just not clear on the definition of "full contact". I'm having trouble understanding how very rough but restrained sparring in the dojo, aside from the pain-conditioning and psychological benefits, are really so much more effective than point sparring (with some imagination)? What makes it so much better? Is it simply closer to an impossible form of practice? Maybe if people explained how full contact sparring is handled in their training I'd have a better idea of what the term encompasses? Thanks for your input. 1st Dan HapkidoColored belts in Kempo and Jujitsu
Thai_Kick Posted October 18, 2002 Posted October 18, 2002 Full Contact... mmm... where to start... Every Martial Art has it's own style or idea of full contact sparring/fighting; Taekwondo implies the use of punches and kicks to the face and body as full contact, but knees, elbows, leg kicks and grappling is not used or allowed, Kyokushin Karate uses kicks, punches, and knees, but their is no contact to the face, punches and knees must be to the body and kick are allowed to the head, but no grappling and elbows. Muay Thai allows punches, kicks, knees, and elbows to all parts of the body in full contact but no grappling. Now these are only a few examples and of coarse every school or teacher is different and they may or may not train the way I stated also their is a question of full intent, are they punching or kicking as hard and fast as they can? If not then is it still full contact? Now why are some techniques not allowed or used in "their" version of full contact? Even MMA (mixed martial arts) as rules! This could be the result of many reasons, One they want to protect their student/fighters from getting hurt, some techniques are not practiced or taught therefore not used, or it's too dangers, the list can go on and on but it all comes down to protecting the students/fighters and keeping everyone safe. I myself train in Muay Thai and JKD, when we fight our version of full contact is under modified MMA rules; punches, kicks to any part of the body (except groin), knees only to the body, grappling (strikes to the body only when grappling), no elbows, eye contact, head butts, small joint manipulation, hair pulling, contact to the groin and biting. Now somthings we bleed and get welts, brusies, Yet we know we can take a hit and deliver one back with a smile and thats the way we like it. In conclusion everyone does train full contact, BUT in their own way, sure other styles or events allow more use of techniques freely attempting to make it more realistic, yet the only true full contact we will every see is on the streets. Limits Are Not Accepted. They Are Elbowed, Kicked And Punched.
Karateka_latino Posted October 19, 2002 Posted October 19, 2002 Just condition your body and wear protective gear...
kenpo4life Posted October 20, 2002 Posted October 20, 2002 Full contact does not mean full force. In my family we go sabaki style. Only we palm to the face only. We go 80% full power to the body, about 65 percent to the body with kicks. We throw knees leg kicks the whole 9 yards. It is all about realistic training. If my survival means your total destruction, then so be it.
G95champ Posted October 21, 2002 Posted October 21, 2002 When we do (full contact) we treat it like this. If you think you land a shot that could hurt you buddy stop and pull back. We call it SHOCK. Again like the poster said above full contact is not full force. When we go full contact we may thorw leg kicks as hard as we can but we would never try and punch someone between the eyes as hard as we could. When we do what we call full contact it pretty much means go hard but don't try and hurt each other. (General George S. Patton Jr.) "It's the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory."
kenpo4life Posted October 21, 2002 Posted October 21, 2002 G95, What style do you practice? I am kinda curious how many other people out there go full contact like I do. If my survival means your total destruction, then so be it.
Punchdrunk Posted November 11, 2002 Posted November 11, 2002 It depends on who I'm training with. From shadow sparring with much older or weaker patners to vale tudo style punching kicking grappling etc. with peers. No, I will never practice the "deadly" art of biting, eye gouging or groin kicking with full force against any of my training partners. But I sure as heck am training to be in the right position to deal them out if my life ever depends on it. Not doing those sorts of "high damage" low skill techniques in training keeps my partners intact so we can work on being more proficient at defending against being on the receiving end. If you can't punch me in the head when you have me pinned on the ground you are probably going to have a hard time poking me in the eye with an all powerful finger jab. Because smiling through some bruises or a bloody nose and saying "good session" is exactly what keeps me coming back week after week. One cannot choose to be passive without the option to be aggressive.
Punchdrunk Posted November 11, 2002 Posted November 11, 2002 Good response Thai_kick One cannot choose to be passive without the option to be aggressive.
Molson style Posted December 26, 2002 Posted December 26, 2002 different styls do it differently, some have more/less padding, rules, etc. and u just learn to take punches by tighting up at the right moment, body control, etc.
matt Posted January 3, 2003 Posted January 3, 2003 hey im matt,new to the forum, i study bjj, we go full force every class sparring, just something to think about
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