Sparring rules: "through vs pull back"

[drop bear]

I’m a big fan of Tom Hardy. I didn’t know he trained in Jits. That just makes me enjoy his performances even more.

I’m also a big fan of actor Ed O’ Neill. He’s a great MA story in my opinion.

There is quite a few now.

 

[Fungus]

If you heel kick me hard in the head. We are on for reals.

You can work out how to manage that yourself.

I didn't mean suggesting conditioning yourself to eat head kicks (that is just stupid), but what I like to practice, is to block power kicks to the head.. When doing this, you agree beforehand, and you wnat to make sure you are not catching your partner off guard, but that your partner WILL block it. So the sparrning purpose is not to "win" it is to practice with power.

 

[matrim13]

It seems to me those rules makes sense for any point-based competition system, and sparring associated to those styles as the point then is not to deliver pain or damage?

I think this is the heart of it. In my experience not all tournament rules or dojos have a clear delineation between sparring for "scoring points" or "sport" vs sparring for fight training.

Stop short -> kiss to the head and groin. Kiss -> moderate penetration to the body (slight penetration in the dojo). These were the days before gloves and pads.

The point was not to deliver pain or damage, but to show it could have delivered damage if the attacker had wished to do so. Consider a punch to the head stopping 1 inch away with the punching arm extended 85%. This would be a point since if the attacker had fully extended, a solid hit would have resulted (he would still have to be balanced). Now if the arm was fully extended and still an inch away the attack would have had no chance of landing a solid hit and so no point would be awarded. This is how the system was originally set up.

Yes, this is what I remember from my childhood dojo/tournaments. We didn't have chest or head gear. The points were contactless (or very light incidental contact) but demonstrated that the potential for damage was possible - control was the focus. I'd even submit that adding chest & head protection does less to actually protect people and likely encourages less control & more injury (I've had my ribs cracked through the chest protector and nobody blinked).