Switch or stay?

[drop bear]

Absolutely I've seen it plenty of times and the guys have won more than they've lost I never sparred before my first mma fight just pads and drills and I'd been out for about 3 years before that fight so I know it's not essential

fair enough.

 

[Headhunter]

fair enough.

I'm not saying sparring is useless because it's not its got its place but it's also something that you 100% must do or you won't be able to fight I mean look at street thugs they can fight people and I'm pretty sure they don't spar or even train so if even if you just did forms and shaddow boxing you'd still have advantage over them. To me sparrings a cardio thing that's the main benefit of It

 

[oftheherd1]

I'm not saying sparring is useless because it's not its got its place but it's also something that you 100% must do or you won't be able to fight I mean look at street thugs they can fight people and I'm pretty sure they don't spar or even train so if even if you just did forms and shaddow boxing you'd still have advantage over them. To me sparrings a cardio thing that's the main benefit of It

I'm a little confused by your first sentence. I am not sure what you are trying to say here, and in your previous post. Is sparring a useful training training tool or not? Or as you say, is cardio just cardio for you?

 

[WaterGal]

I'm not saying sparring is useless because it's not its got its place but it's also something that you 100% must do or you won't be able to fight I mean look at street thugs they can fight people and I'm pretty sure they don't spar or even train so if even if you just did forms and shaddow boxing you'd still have advantage over them. To me sparrings a cardio thing that's the main benefit of It

Some people ("street thugs", for example) are just more accustomed to violence than others, because of the environment they came from or their personality/morality or whatever. And many people who aren't used to violence (and some who are) will panic and freeze up or make bad choices when someone goes to hit them or things don't go as they expect. So I think sparring can be useful in helping people overcome that panic instinct.

 

[Dong xiao hu]

The nature fist is from what I know of it is a complete TCMA. It has empty hand forms qi gong, weapons forms, two man forms body conditioning, and two man fight drills. It also includes free sparring. Just have to stick around long enough. It sometimes will depend on the instructor if your teacher likes to fight or has an eye for application you may get to it faster than a teacher who practices for other reasons.

Sent from my Z797C using Tapatalk

 

[WaterGal]

A few months ago I joined a kung-fu school teaching "nature fist style." The instructors are good and the classes are relatively fun but I'm concerned because I've only been learning forms, they are interesting and of course look cool and unique but I don't feel like I'm any more capable of defending myself than when I started. We don't spar either, the closest we got to doing that were choreographed techniques for a show and even then we used kickboxing. I wasn't bothered by this until my friend sent me a video of him sparring with someone and I thought to myself could i even hold my own in a friendly sparring match? Even if what I'm learning is legitimate kung-fu it doesn't seem like we are being taught how to use or apply it. I have actually seen people spar using kung-fu before (no not in movies, actual sparring). There is another place nearby that teaches taekwondo and I'm wondering if it would be better to join there because they do more training with bags and with sparring and it seems like I could get more out of their classes. Because of where I live I can't afford to be picky about what style I want to train in, but I want some sort of legitimate martial arts and combat experience and I honestly feel like I'm wasting my time and money at these classes. Any advice on this?

If you're not getting what you're looking for out of your classes, it wouldn't hurt to go check out the other place. But I'd also recommend talking to your instructor, as others have said. Many martial arts teachers want students to wait until they have some degree of skill and control before they do free sparring, so it's possible that your teacher will have you spar later and is just holding off for now. It's also possible that your teacher won't, I don't know.

Does your friend go to the Taekwondo school? If so, what does he/she say about the classes there?

 

[Langenschwert]

If your only goal is to be able to "handle yourself" in a fistfight, then maybe boxing might be a better choice. Remember that Self Defence =/= Martial Arts. As a general rule, few TKD schools with teach you how to deal with a hypothetical "real fight" either. If that's your goal (and it doesn't have to be) then you need to be able to do some kind of boxing and some kind of wrestling in the broadest possible sense. Could be Judo and Muay Thai or BJJ and Bareknuckle boxing, or Catch Wrestling and modern boxing. Doesn't hurt to be have a few kicks in your arsenal either. That will do you just fine.

Or stay where you're at for the long haul. Ask what the progression is.

 

[Punchy]

You've only been at it a few months. Perhaps the way they do things in this particular school/system requires laying a foundation through forms training before they turn you loose sparring each other.
Talk to your instructor and ask what you can expect in the months and years to come.
In the meantime, find some buddies who train at other schools and start doing a little sparring outside of class...you may even find some of your fellow classmates would be interested in this.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

In my high school Kung Fu class, we didn't spar in the regular class. It didn't prevent us from sparring after the class was over and the teacher was gone (the class was 5pm - 7pm).

Besides sparring in a drawing circle, we even dodge tennis balls throwing when you stay in a circle. I believe not too many MA schools still train "how to dodge throwing rocks in street fight".

I'm the 5th one from the right in the front row (this picture was taken 54 years ago).

 

[Midnight-shadow]

There is a big difference between learning a Martial Arts system and learning how to fight with it. It seems that your school is teaching you the system, but not necessarily how to fight. Is that a problem? Depends on your point of view and your goals. The only thing that would worry me is if the school claims to teach you how to fight but then only focuses on forms. That is a huge red flag to my mind and I would bring it up with your instructor. As others have said, just doing forms isn't going to make you a good fighter, and by claiming that it does puts you in a very dangerous situation. After all, if you get into a fight out on the street, full of confidence that you can defend yourself, and then start trying to do your forms, you will get seriously injured. That's not to say forms are useless, but in order to fight you need to know how to apply the techniques you are learning and have a chance to practice them in a controlled environment (i.e. sparring in class).

As to the style itself, I have never heard of it but looking at the video Tames D linked, it looks like a very generic southern Chinese Martial Art, nothing really that special.

Looking at this video though, I'm a little concerned with the footwork, specifically crossing the legs over when very close to your opponent. This puts you in a very precarious position and makes you vulnerable to leg sweeps. Of course, this is just my opinion of what I see in this video, not on the style as a whole.