Sparring

[pineapple head]

Question for you all;
How often do you recomend that a martial arts student spars?
Personally i think it should be done at least one class per week or even the 1st 10 mins of each class.
What do you think?

 

[Zepp]

Can't speak for Kenpo, but the TKD philosophy is that you should spar every class. Our class averages about 10-15 minutes at the end of every class. I don't know about sparring in the beginning of class. I'd think that you'd want everyone nice and loosened up so that they can give it their all.

 

[Ender]

We had a strong emphasis on sparring so we did a little bit each class. When a tournament was nearing, we would spar constantly a few weeks prior. After a tournament we then place emphasis on techniques for about two weeks. So it just depends for us.

 

[roryneil]

I don't know about the *first* 10 minutes. You should probably finish with sparring, or you won't have a very productive class!!
Once a week should be good though.

 

[satans.barber]

If I'm taking the class, I usually try to get at least some in each lesson. Sometimes I have very light sparring as a warm up, or some a bit longer and heavier later on in the class.

As something new, we're going to make the first Monday of every month an entire sparring night, hopefully with guidance, opportunity to watch and join in etc.. The problem I forsee is that some people hate sparring (I do keep giving them the Bruce Lee quote about learning to swim without getting in the water.. ) and simply won't come on that night!

Do any of you guys run entire sparring classes, and if so do you have any tips?

Thanks,

Ian.

 

[jdmills]

The last studio that I attended had sparring classes on Wednesday night and Saturday. The Wednesday night class was much more hard core.

 

[tonbo]

"A" days and "B" days at our school.

"A" day focus is on techniques and applications (sometimes forms, etc.). "B" day focus is on a brief review of the "A" day material, and sparring.

Then there's the BB class, which spars for half the class period, each and every class. Thank goodness I'm in there....when the sparring content in my blood gets low, I start to get grumpy...

Peace--