Sparring in your dojo

[bushido_man96]

I decided to do point sparring last night. It was the first time ever since I opened that we do point sparring, as we have always done continuous sparring. Went well, everybody seem to enjoy the change, it also had a larger affect then I had thought, on the students trying not to get hit. And continuous barring a lot of them are toff and just take the hits keep coming , in point sparring it's more important to not get hit so I found this is a valuable lesson.

People bash point sparring, and sometimes for good reasons. But, it definitely has its place. The problem with it is when it's the only goal of sparring/type of sparring. Sparring needs to be varied. It reminds me of when my uncle was taking TKD - everyone in the dojo, including senior instructors were telling him he shouldn't throw punches, because "punches don't score points." This wasn't during competition training either. His response: "I'm not here to score points." After several months of it he walked away.

Its really too bad to hear that. Competition is a good thing, and it can be a great way to motivate training, but I'm against it being the only thing, but some schools are just that way.

When I spar in my school, I make it a point to get in close to all the really fast youngsters we have and really punch on them.

[bushido_man96]

We have the sparring we do in class, which is usually padded in the Olympic style, using Olympic rules, but I would say we tend to have more of a traditional flair to our style. The rules for scoring are typically a body displacement to render a point. Typical of many TKD styles, head kicks are allowed, but not head punching (I know the ITF is excluded in this matter).

We also have testing sparring, which is not padded when done, and usually has a bit less contact levels, but its important for the person sparring to "defend their rank" when they do so, and demonstrate blocking ability, mobility, footwork, and combinations in attacking.

Here is a clip of me testing sparring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD7WSCcX3SE

I'm the "stocky" guy...

[bushido_man96]

I find full contact can mask or compensate for bad technique too. Just by reducing the contact level down it makes it easier to concentrate on the technical aspects rather than just powering through the movement.

I agree with this, too. Lighter contact tends to lend itself to a different strategy, and I find it favors faster, lighter fighters, too.

[hammer]

I find full contact can mask or compensate for bad technique too. Just by reducing the contact level down it makes it easier to concentrate on the technical aspects rather than just powering through the movement.

I agree with this, too. Lighter contact tends to lend itself to a different strategy, and I find it favors faster, lighter fighters, too.

The kyokushin dojo I train at does continuous sparring (no hand techniques to the face) but most times we try to keep the contact light. We do ramp up the contact on occasion and for testing we do go harder, but going light gives us more opportunities to work on strategy, technique and combinations. Don't think we will ever try any kind of point sparring though...just not part of what we are taught.

I have sparred against students from other Kyokushin schools that must emphasize more full contact...good experience to learn how to deal with it, but I did notice that their technique wasn't quite up to what our Sempai is trying to train us to.

[Luther unleashed]

We have the sparring we do in class, which is usually padded in the Olympic style, using Olympic rules, but I would say we tend to have more of a traditional flair to our style. The rules for scoring are typically a body displacement to render a point. Typical of many TKD styles, head kicks are allowed, but not head punching (I know the ITF is excluded in this matter).

We also have testing sparring, which is not padded when done, and usually has a bit less contact levels, but its important for the person sparring to "defend their rank" when they do so, and demonstrate blocking ability, mobility, footwork, and combinations in attacking.

Here is a clip of me testing sparring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD7WSCcX3SE

I'm the "stocky" guy...

Very cool, i have never sparred in this way, without padding. Looks pretty fun. Nice kicks btw.

[DWx]

We have the sparring we do in class, which is usually padded in the Olympic style, using Olympic rules, but I would say we tend to have more of a traditional flair to our style. The rules for scoring are typically a body displacement to render a point. Typical of many TKD styles, head kicks are allowed, but not head punching (I know the ITF is excluded in this matter).

We also have testing sparring, which is not padded when done, and usually has a bit less contact levels, but its important for the person sparring to "defend their rank" when they do so, and demonstrate blocking ability, mobility, footwork, and combinations in attacking.

Here is a clip of me testing sparring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD7WSCcX3SE

I'm the "stocky" guy...

Thanks for sharing the link Brian. I always find it interesting how different associations and even countries evolve their own style and flair to sparring even though they share the same base and rulesets.

[bushido_man96]

We have the sparring we do in class, which is usually padded in the Olympic style, using Olympic rules, but I would say we tend to have more of a traditional flair to our style. The rules for scoring are typically a body displacement to render a point. Typical of many TKD styles, head kicks are allowed, but not head punching (I know the ITF is excluded in this matter).

We also have testing sparring, which is not padded when done, and usually has a bit less contact levels, but its important for the person sparring to "defend their rank" when they do so, and demonstrate blocking ability, mobility, footwork, and combinations in attacking.

Here is a clip of me testing sparring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD7WSCcX3SE

I'm the "stocky" guy...

Thanks for sharing the link Brian. I always find it interesting how different associations and even countries evolve their own style and flair to sparring even though they share the same base and rulesets.

Thanks, Danielle. I do wish we could change things up from time to time, and do some strikes to the head with perhaps some different padding or something. It really changes the strategy, and opens up things for students.

[bushido_man96]

We have the sparring we do in class, which is usually padded in the Olympic style, using Olympic rules, but I would say we tend to have more of a traditional flair to our style. The rules for scoring are typically a body displacement to render a point. Typical of many TKD styles, head kicks are allowed, but not head punching (I know the ITF is excluded in this matter).

We also have testing sparring, which is not padded when done, and usually has a bit less contact levels, but its important for the person sparring to "defend their rank" when they do so, and demonstrate blocking ability, mobility, footwork, and combinations in attacking.

Here is a clip of me testing sparring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD7WSCcX3SE

I'm the "stocky" guy...

Very cool, i have never sparred in this way, without padding. Looks pretty fun. Nice kicks btw.

Thank you. Depending on who is sparring, sometimes the contact can get a bit more intense. We just gauge it off who we are sparring with at the time. At testing, though, the judges will usually keep our control under wraps.

The kyokushin dojo I train at does continuous sparring (no hand techniques to the face) but most times we try to keep the contact light. We do ramp up the contact on occasion and for testing we do go harder, but going light gives us more opportunities to work on strategy, technique and combinations. Don't think we will ever try any kind of point sparring though...just not part of what we are taught.

When we spar in class, we spar continuously, and if there is a significant point scored, we usually just acknowledge it to each other with a glove tap and keep going.

I have sparred against students from other Kyokushin schools that must emphasize more full contact...good experience to learn how to deal with it, but I did notice that their technique wasn't quite up to what our Sempai is trying to train us to.

In our defensive tactics club this summer, I padded up in Boxing gloves, thick head gear, and shin pads, and did full body, harder contact sparring, including punching to the head. Lots of fun, and a real eye-opener.

[DWx]

We have the sparring we do in class, which is usually padded in the Olympic style, using Olympic rules, but I would say we tend to have more of a traditional flair to our style. The rules for scoring are typically a body displacement to render a point. Typical of many TKD styles, head kicks are allowed, but not head punching (I know the ITF is excluded in this matter).

We also have testing sparring, which is not padded when done, and usually has a bit less contact levels, but its important for the person sparring to "defend their rank" when they do so, and demonstrate blocking ability, mobility, footwork, and combinations in attacking.

Here is a clip of me testing sparring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD7WSCcX3SE

I'm the "stocky" guy...

Thanks for sharing the link Brian. I always find it interesting how different associations and even countries evolve their own style and flair to sparring even though they share the same base and rulesets.

Thanks, Danielle. I do wish we could change things up from time to time, and do some strikes to the head with perhaps some different padding or something. It really changes the strategy, and opens up things for students.

I'd agree the strategy does change. Even though we do head shots, we're limited too, no hooks or uppercuts, straight shots only in tournament. Of course we do train them from time to time but when our sport sparring excludes it, we don't tend to focus on it much.

For comparison, here's some of me (I'm with red gear):

https://youtu.be/qwweN3PR-NE

[sensei8]

We have the sparring we do in class, which is usually padded in the Olympic style, using Olympic rules, but I would say we tend to have more of a traditional flair to our style. The rules for scoring are typically a body displacement to render a point. Typical of many TKD styles, head kicks are allowed, but not head punching (I know the ITF is excluded in this matter).

We also have testing sparring, which is not padded when done, and usually has a bit less contact levels, but its important for the person sparring to "defend their rank" when they do so, and demonstrate blocking ability, mobility, footwork, and combinations in attacking.

Here is a clip of me testing sparring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD7WSCcX3SE

I'm the "stocky" guy...

Thanks for sharing the link Brian. I always find it interesting how different associations and even countries evolve their own style and flair to sparring even though they share the same base and rulesets.

Thanks, Danielle. I do wish we could change things up from time to time, and do some strikes to the head with perhaps some different padding or something. It really changes the strategy, and opens up things for students.

I'd agree the strategy does change. Even though we do head shots, we're limited too, no hooks or uppercuts, straight shots only in tournament. Of course we do train them from time to time but when our sport sparring excludes it, we don't tend to focus on it much.

For comparison, here's some of me (I'm with red gear):

https://youtu.be/qwweN3PR-NE

Yeah, you got skills, Danielle! I like how you constantly pressed her; she's a runner...that's for sure!!

Because you weren't wearing headgear, I'm thinking that headgear wasn't mandatory!!