Sparring with advanced?
- Thread starter Goldleaf
- Start date
Fungus
Black Belt
I don't do the exact same as you though, I do kyokushin. But we go hard on the body bare knuckle, so feeling pain is what I pay for. We do headkicks, but in sparring we dont apply full force. ie we dont knock each other out with head kicks in sparring. its A sparring session without any pain is a dissapointement. I want to avoid injury, not totally avoid pain or bruises. Once you manage the pain or some brusing, you have overcome the first fear I think.
For me part of high contact sparring is "body conditining" and and metal pain handling, the rest is training techniques and timiing.
I actually wouldn't mind trying fighting with head punches it would be fun, but I dont because I think repeated blows to the head isnt healthy. The skull is hard, but the brain is not. Also wearing bulky gloves blurs the striking area. I like bare knuckle better, it gives more control to focus on knuckles. I sometimes use think gloves when I ripped the knuckle skin on the heavy bag, to avoid getting blood on my opponents Gi's. Then gloves is more a question of hygiene for me.
Ive been doing this for just 3 years, so i consider myself a beginner.
Fungus
Black Belt
I started to attend sparring classes after 1 year. In our club beginners white or orange belts aren't allowed in fighting class. The reason is that the risk of injury is higher if people start to fight with non-existent control.
Once you engage in the sparring class, you also have a responsibility to not cause injury to someone else.
Right now, there are techniques I can do, that I train on heavy bag at full power, but that I used with great care in sparring because I am well ware that my own control is not perfect yet. It would be extremely embarassing to hurt your partner, especielly as I know I have alot of power begind my techniques, but the control does not match my power yet.
Wing Woo Gar
Senior Master
Never too old. I’m 53. Recovery time and previous injuries are the biggest hurdles of age so far.
Waow, so much respect. Why are you training so mucnin extreme and with bare knuckles also?
I am doing it because i grew up in fear at home.
So, in my mind is like in a fight if i get punch(es) i will die or there will be damg which is irreversibel.
So, because of that i had few confrontation, and i couldn't do anything. That person laughed at me, the last one. I decided to join classes to get that fear out of
me.
I think u can call yourself an mid-intermediate after years and bare knuckles full contact body included
I know what you mean by beginner, but u are mid intermediate
Fungus
Black Belt
For me this has nothing to do with that I feel a need to defend myself. It never occured to me before that I couldn't. I am not the kind of person that tend to end up in fights anway.
I am attracted to the philosophy and abilities of MA and combat arts. For it is more the intellectual satisfaction of unifying my body and my mind in a hypothetical combat situation that hope and think wont happen.
I practiced "mental control" of superficial emotions, before I even started with MA, so this part I think had already in progress before I started. Partly because I had some chronic pain conditions, and then mental pain management can work. I also experimented with spike mats; it's a way also to direct the attention from the chronic pain, to the.
Also all this gets me some "exercise" that I need, but couldn't otherwise motivate me to. Going to gym and doing meaningless excercises is boring, but fighting class is always fun!! (even at 50+)
Last edited:
Fungus
Black Belt
I find it hard to compete with speed and cardiovascular conditioning against a trained younger person; that also have no back issues etc. But then you get an extra challenge to cope with that, and it costs no extra
Also there is a difference if you want to compete, full contact, with both risking getting knocked out yourself, as well as the risking of bearing the moral responsibility of permanently damaging another person (that is not even your enemy, but just a fellow competitor).I guess the body heals slower when y ou get older as well, and as some point your bones may get more brittle, but so far I have nothing nothing of that.
I would not want to compete, I would probably be just worred of damaging someone else, than as getting myself damaged. And this in itself does not resonate with my view on combat philosophy.
Had I been attached and forced to fight for real, I would probably have not problems to put my fear of damaging someone else aside and use all I know. But I wouldnt want to do that just for the purpose of a game.
Fungus
Black Belt
If I ever end up in a sitution where I need to fight, it is highly unlikely that I will have gloves. So I want to learn how to use my fist safely without gloves. I tried boxing gloves and but feels totally whacked that you cant form a proper fist in them. Very awkward.
sorry to hear this.
This you can probably overcome! Much of this sounds like mental pain.
Sparring should be training to apply fighting techniques/skills taught to you and building confidence, not necessarily fighting to win. A MA school has a certain amount of responsibility in doing that.
What marvin8 said above is really something to keep in mind. Routine sparring is about learning- there's a reason it's called a sparring partner and not sparring opponent (mostly). Good sparring partners will help you get over the things you're worried about and get better at it, not just beat on you until you learn (mostly). And there's a good chance you'll really like it and have a lot of fun.
99% of the test won't allow you to open your books during testing.
If your sparring partner
- gives you opportunity, that's "developing/learning".
- doesn't give you opportunity, that's "testing".
I don't like to mix "developing" and "testing". You sparring partner may help you to develop fake confidence. IMO, it's better to separate "testing" away from "developing".
This is "developing".
This is "testing".
Last edited:
Haruhiko
Green Belt
In TKD I wasn't allowed to spar with seniors until my coach said I was ready. Took about eight years to be invited to that fight squad.
After my first class it became apparent to me why that was the case. It was faster, more powerful, and exhausting. It's dangerous for beginners and wasted time for seniors if he didn't have those rules in place. Completely different atmosphere.
Don't be too keen to get bruised up, it can make you quit training altogether.
Unless there was some issue with your training, 8 years sounds like way too long for that. The earlier you start fighting with the advanced students, the earlier you can adapt to it and improve yourself.
Haruhiko
Green Belt
The senior class consisted of the Commonwealth and Olympic fight squads. Including the Marton sisters.
You can start sparring on day one by letting 1 person to play offense and 1 person to play defense. There will be no risk for beginners there.
When beginners realize that they have no skills in attacking or in defending, when you teach them the combat skill, they will pay attention.
Last edited:
That makes sense then lol
drop bear
Sr. Grandmaster
Opens up a whole can of worms whether the competition guys should mix in with the regular class.
Which i think they should.
Wing Woo Gar
Senior Master
It was about 2-3 years for me to be invited to the advanced class where the hard sparring was.
