Sparring

[Klondike93]

I don't know if this has been talked about or not, but here goes.

Sparring - Do you spar or not? I have seen a couple of schools that do not spar and got to wondering about this.
If so, what kind of sparring do you do? Tournament point fighting, continous fighting, full contact, etc...
Any thoughts?

:asian:

 

[Blindside]

Yup, we spar every week.

Most of it would be considered a "controlled continuous" where the rules are basically standing only, groin to head are open areas, nobody keeps track of points. Just acknowledge your partners good shots.

Through unspoken agreement, the upperbelts will often shift to more of an anything goes/harder contact system, this will sometimes result in more of a grappling situation between those of us who know that range. Generally the rule is "we'll go as hard as you want to go." Alot of people are afraid of getting hurt, but I've gotten away pretty clean after doing this for several years (nerve damage to my leg, several black eyes, sore jaw, a couple of standing TKO's). I got more beaten up doing grappling in BJJ with a couple guys who slapped on locks just a hair too quick.

We do point sparring if we're gearing up for a tournament, usually before we host ours in May.

I can't really imagine doing martial arts without sparring, or some facsimile of "attack with intent."

Lamont

 

[GouRonin]

Sparring is fun. It has it's place. It should be done. People should spar with different people and different systems to learn as well as their own.
:asian:

 

[Klondike93]

I like sparring because you learn how to take a hit. If you don't know what it feels like to get hit how can you expect to deal with it for real? The school I'm at now doen't sparr for a variety of reasons, but the biggest is the instructor doesn't care for point fighting (just too unrealistic). There is some hitting when you form a techinque line, but nothing hard at all, don't want to hurt any one. I also have a friend taking ninpo and they don't sparr at all either. That reason killed me, "we train not to be there" I was told. Isn't that what we are all doing? I say sparr and sparr hard if you can.
I also agree with another Parker quote:
He who hesitates meditates in a horizontal position

How true.

:asian:

 

[AvPKenpo]

Originally posted by Klondike93
I don't know if this has been talked about or not, but here goes.

Sparring - Do you spar or not? I have seen a couple of schools that do not spar and got to wondering about this.
If so, what kind of sparring do you do? Tournament point fighting, continous fighting, full contact, etc...
Any thoughts?

:asian:

We mix it up quite a bit, changing from point fighting if we are getting ready for a tournament, or continous when we are working techniques. But three times a week we have a grappling class for some outsiders and for upperbelts, in there we sometimes do ground and pound, which is full contact with some control.

Michael

 

[WilliamTLear]

I was under the impression that sparring (or freestyle) is to be considered 1/3rd of a practitioner's education in Ed Parker's Kenpo (The three divisions of the art = Basics, Self-Defense, & Freestyle). That being the case I can't imagine a studio that doesn't incorprate this into it's curriculum.

As far as what we do out here in Pasadena... plenty of point fighting, some limited contact, and of course we do get a once in a while opportunity to participate in the occasional street fight.

Billy Lear :asian:

 

[Goldendragon7]

At some time in your Kenpo career you need to spar ........ As Billy stated it is widely considered 1/3 of our Art.

Gou also pointed out that it is fun and in his earlier post said that you should spar when possible different people from different arts.

I totally agree. Not always is that easy to find but the benefits of how different schools and instructors teach is worthwhile for a number of reasons.