I know bundling up kids (and adults) head to toe in foam is the TKD way, but I personally feel this is a negative when it comes to MA. First off, IMO, novices should not be engaged in freestyle sparring. There are other activities that take priority like technique, self-defense scenarios, control and form. When over-padded, these skills cannot be well developed. Additionally, it instills the idea that they can get punched and kicked without danger or pain, so defensive skills seem to be unnecessary. This is a poor mindset if the student gets in a real fight.
I'd suggest you hold off on the sparring the first 6 months sticking to target striking then gradually phase in sparring and equipment, step by step, as the beginner rule set becomes less restrictive and do the rest of their protective equipment purchasing a few months later. This will reduce sticker shock. In the meantime, you can recommend target pads and foam clubs to the parents to practice with their kids at home (getting them directly involved) to bring in some inexpensive sales up front - each month suggest a different piece of practice equipment.
Before black belt my only equipment was a cup. After black belt I invested in a mouthguard for competition.
I'd have to respectfully disagree. I think the introduction of sparring (including freestyle) is put off for too long in many schools. Having come up "the TKD way" myself, I wish we'd begun freestyle sooner. You're not "dressed from head to toe in foam." You're sensibly equipped to begin experiencing the chaos of an unscripted exchange with a committed opponent.
What are they committed TO? That's a fair question. Not to taking your head off your shoulders certainly. Not for the most part. (I certainly had a few sparring partners who were more committed to that notion in ITF Taekwondo.) But to putting you physically and mentally under pressure. And I think that's the real value of sparring at that level. How do you cognitively deal with the unexpected and aggressive?
I don't buy for one moment that protective gear results in complacency. Take fencing for instance. When I studied fencing, we were sparring on Day 1. Were we complacent about getting hit because we were wearing masks and vests? Because we weren't getting skewered with a real sword? No, of course not. We still wanted to hit without being hit. Because that's the objective that's internalised in fencing.
I grant that the result of not being actually killed with a sword is sometimes that people are happy enough to have exchanges in which, in real life, both participants would die. Leading to rules like "right of way" in foil fencing. And I do think that mindset should be guarded against, depending on your goals in training. (If your goal is to master foil fencing without larger implications, then follow your bliss.)
Technique is important, but I'm not convinced that you can really master technique outside of application. And I've seen many, many practitioners who have brilliant technique when practicing forms or shadowboxing, then it all goes to seed when they're under the pressure of facing an opponent. What use is technique then?
Usually this is the point at which someone brings up the fact that the padding alters your technique for the worse. And that point isn't lost on me. But the fact is that most of us--lucky sods that we are--won't ever experience a scenario in which a lot of these techniques are deployed in reality. The vast majority of our experience will be an abstraction. We can talk about how many deadly techniques are contained in our forms, our drills, etc. But most of us will happily never gouge a person's eyes or gut anyone with a knife.
Instead, what we're going to do is engage with as many different abstractions as possible, abstracting as many different angles of this thing as possible. And--somewhere in the middle--hopefully we find some sense of "proof of concept."
Sparring isn't reality. Of course it isn't. But there are valuable lessons to be learned around timing, distancing, angling, flow, etc. that are better learned early on in the process. I vastly prefer that to seeing someone cognitively dismantling years of practice during sparring because what they're experiencing doesn't synch up at all with what they've experienced and visualised through years and years of uncontested drills.
I very clearly remember feeling I was getting quite good at taekwondo, then sparring and being hopelessly overwhelmed, then taking a very dim view of my own abilities. It takes a mental shift that you get from having someone come at you to really feel like a technique belongs to you. There are plenty of variations on sparring (e.g., intensity, range of technique, etc.) to keep someone developing. But at least introduce the idea of pressure, adrenaline, etc. early. Get them used to being "in the pocket."
Get them in gear early. Explain what sparring is and (more importantly) what it isn't. Let their technique improve in situ as well as in the drills, forms, etc.
