Earl Weiss
Senior Master
Continuous sparring, controlled contact. Punches to head and face are allowed. Illegal targets are neck, back, and below the waist.
Kids and head contact.
- Thread starter NPTKD
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Continuous sparring, controlled contact. Punches to head and face are allowed. Illegal targets are neck, back, and below the waist.
Earl Weiss
Senior Master
I think the instructor has a responsibility to monitor intensity levels between Juniors and seniors as well as the larger and smaller people.
Even a good female Black Belt who is 5'2" tall and 105lbs can get banged around by a decent high color belt male who is 5'10" and 175 lbs and knows how to use his size / reach.
Even a good female Black Belt who is 5'2" tall and 105lbs can get banged around by a decent high color belt male who is 5'10" and 175 lbs and knows how to use his size / reach.
Twin Fist
Grandmaster
i not only encourage head shots, i demand them.
I tell them to lay off the face tho.
till brown belt anyway, after that? dont suck and you wont have anything to worry about.
but remember, my school is NOT a competition school, we are a fighting school, with NO tourny's. just self defense
contact is mandatory and required
I tell them to lay off the face tho.
till brown belt anyway, after that? dont suck and you wont have anything to worry about.
but remember, my school is NOT a competition school, we are a fighting school, with NO tourny's. just self defense
contact is mandatory and required
ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
sounds like my school. Head shots are encouraged as is hard contact. We dont spar for points , competitions , trophys etc and as such we are taught that if you make contact make it forceful. Because of this we keep our guard up , punches are heavily encouraged (not to face) and therefore our sparring looks more "realistic" than the olympic stuff. These rules go for all ages , but students cant spar till 6th gup. We can wear headgear if we choose but its not compulsory and very few students wear it.
We are the same, we don't do competitions as such, the adults fight MMA. We are full contact which is why I won't allow four year olds to have head shots, their punches may not be hard to us but to a smaller four year old they could be too hard. Contact is introduced slowly and sensibly, then head strikes are allowed. We don't use headguards, body shields or shin/foor pads, just groin guards and gum shields, fighting is full contact so introducing children to it slowly is the best way forward.
Up to seven years old though the martial arts are for fun and basic learning not fighting though they do spar with minimum contact.
I have seen competitions where five year olds were punching each other in the face and kicking to the head, I've seen five year olds noses splattered and gushing blood. I've seen young kids winded with stomach punches (they didn't have body shields) being berating by parents for being wimps, I've seen little kids with black eyes and cut lips and while I believe in full contact, I've fought it in karate myself, I don't believe it's necessary for very young children. I don't believe you have to 'condition' very young children to take head shots. Then if you have six year old 2nd Dan blackbelts I guess you can't expect a lot from that school/club whatever.
dancingalone
Grandmaster
Yes, I always wondered what the point of no head sparring or even no-contact sparring was. Seems to me that most people on the street will punch to the face, so you'd best start getting used to defending that spot early and often.
I do and the comments as such about kids wasn't directed at you TF.
I take children from 2-7 in a separate class for a reason, they are service children and their fathers ( and mothers) go away on deployment so we all do what we can to make the kids feel secure and safe. You can say that martial arts isn't for taking the children off mums hands for an hour or so a week but in this case I would disagree with you, you cannot replace a parent when they are away fighting for their country but you can help that child through physical disciplined activities have some time to enjoy themselves and learn something useful. We are regarded by the Army as a Garrison facility for this reason.
The children do get a lot out of the classes, the adult MMAers will come in whenever they can to 'fight' with the kids, the boys especially miss the rough and tumble with their dads so enjoy 'beating' the 'cage fighters' up, the mums appreciate the release of energy this gives.The children can be disruptive and even the teachers have said we help settle many of them. Out chief instructor often is asked to have a little word with the child who is playing up at home, because we are also ex services with children we know exactly what it's like.
and no we don't make any money, thats why we are a martial arts club in a barracks.
You can all say that's not what martial arts is for but these children live in a martial atmosphere, many fathers have just come back after being away in Canada training for 8 weeks, it's the start of Afghan training, most of the garrison will start being deployed there from November onwards so as a community we all do what we can. A couple of weeks ago two of their schoolmates buried their father killed out there. It makes for intense feelings in a close knit place, like a very big village. Service people reading this will now exactly what I mean.
so while we continue to be a fighting club for those old enough I will not be allowing head contact for the young ones. They are quite scary enough without it lol!
Tez, I think this is a wonderful example of exactly what martial arts for kids IS for, at least in some cases.
We all pursue our arts for different reasons: some for self defense, some for internal peace, some for sport, some for artistic expression, some for exercise....and on and on. In my opinion, there's room in MA for all of these motivations, and all of these styles and philosophies. Kudos to you for doing something great for those kids.
Well being honest it's far from one sided, we get a great deal of fun and enjoyment with the kids. if you ever want to go back to your childhoood without people laughing teach kids! the kids have traveled a lot, lived abroad and are a bit more mature than most kids their age so offer back as much as they take. We do have two American brothers who's dad is on an exchange posting, they have another year here then I'll be posting up looking for somewhere for them to train when they know where in the States they are going back to.
Thanks for doing this...I am X-Military...It is needed and under appreciated...Great work!!!!
Thank you. I've been thinking too that perhaps if anyone who teaches children would like to 'twin' with us, I'm not sure how we could work it out but I'm sure it could be done?
