Kensai said:
At the risk of you feeling "ganged up on" WCL, I still think that sparring is only a training aid. Sparring is not fighting. No-one in a street fight will necessarily give their opponent a margin for error, or, control their aggression, so even sparring has a limited use.
If it is used as an aid with which to practice various moves, combinations, then all well and good. I'd like to see if we can "bridge the gap" (did you like the WC euphemism there?) between the main points being raised here,
1. Sparring is important, but different people will want to train to different levels, based on time/natural ability/inclination.
2. Sparring is simply a training aid, neither the only way to train nor the best.
3. Sparring does give any MA practitioner the ability with which to try out moves and combo's, but again, still limited to the extent to which one can "attack" an opponent, or utilise the full repetoire.
I would advocate precisely what I have in my class, sparring on a cyclical basis, to practive moves learnt over a couple of weeks, either with gloves, or bare knuckle, and learning to control yourself under such conditions. Our sifu used to make us do continual pad work, week in, week out. Before long, my knuckles were in shreds, and I was slightly bored. He now varies the contents of a lesson more, and its fun. I do get slightly nervy when he announces a sparring sesh, but I find it concentrates the mind wonderfully. Although it is inevitably done bare knuckle, we will control attacks more if fighting someone of weaker strength/ability etc. My sifu also makes us spar with a variety of people, and also includes padded sparring to enable us to "go at it" a lot more. I come home with bruises on my arms, legs, sometimes face, shoulders, chest... I have a few moves that I "like", and train up a lot, and to me, it gives me as much confidence knowing those, than sparring and knowing what it's like to be punched in the face. I can tell you that for free. "It 'urts". Just my tuppence.
I totally agree that the middle path is "possibly" the best way to proceed. A mixture of sparring and general training is always good, as is retaining an open mind, form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Kensai, I believe we are actually in agreement over this issue.
Sparring is a training aid in the same sense that a drill is a training aid. It is a relevant part of training: the trick is using it correctly in your favour. You will never do enough sparring, for the very same reason that you will never do enough pad work or shadow boxing.
It certainly is not fighting, we can agree with that. But it is as close to a real experience as your average student will get, and for that reason alone it is invaluable - how else would a student learn how to control his adrenalin surge or his fight or fight reflex, other than with lots of sparring practice? There is no other way, other than picking up fights. Something which I, for one, do not advocate.
Also, even people who have been into real fights can learn a lot in the controlled environment provided by a sparring exercise. Depending on the rules you adopt, sparring can get pretty damn close to a real fight, and you can therefore use your own brain to fill in the gaps created by the rules. This will result in a better fighter.
As for your three points, I would say all three are essentially correct. Sparring is just a tool. You do not discard, overuse or under utilize a tool - you use it when you need to.
And sparring on a cyclical basis is precisely what good schools do. For instance, my roundkicks currently suck: my coach has kept me out of sparring for a couple of weeks, training those, because he wants me to get good at roundkicks.
When I finally "get it" (hopefully this week!), he will put me back in the ring, so I can practice what I learned against someone who wants to kick my *** into next week.
If I do not use my roundkick well during my sparring match, itĀ“s back to the drawing board again - probably two more weeks going cold turkey until I learn to kick decently! If I do well, we will work on something else, but he will put me back into regular sparring practice so I can practice my roundkicks in the meantime.
This is what I call "cyclical" use of sparring. This, I believe, is how sparring should be done. It should be used for a specific goal, in a certain context. Going at it with no goal other than to "learn by experience, w00t!" is certainly a good way to get some bruises while getting little in return.
PS: when you spar bareknuckle, do you actually make contact with the face? How hard (nosebleeds, lost teeth, broken noses?)? I ask you because I never tried bareknuckle sparring with contact to the face, so I am genuinely curious. I mean, your girlfriend will certainly not like it!
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