hong kong fooey
Black Belt
I was wondering which kind of sparring is better full contact or no contact my old class praticed no contact and my new class has full contact
which is beter full contack sparing or no contact?
- Thread starter hong kong fooey
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Disclaimer: Not a TKDer's opinion.
I'd go with full contact. No contact has advantages, like allowing you to gain better control over your movements since you have to stop before impact, but full contact is a better real-situation simulator. You get used to dealing with pain, pressure and more agression. This is of course assuming you're into reality-based fighting.
I'd go with full contact. No contact has advantages, like allowing you to gain better control over your movements since you have to stop before impact, but full contact is a better real-situation simulator. You get used to dealing with pain, pressure and more agression. This is of course assuming you're into reality-based fighting.
Though contact is necessary at some point, I'll assume you mean the rule, not the exception. As a rule, we do no contact. I already know what it's like to break a bone, get knocked silly, take a hit and stay focused, etc. etc. etc. It gets me nothing to do it week in and week out except injured. And even no contact with the newer practitioners hardly means no contact anyway. We found early on that constant contact sparring never taught practitioners control. Something you can never get too good at. Always room for improvement.
INDYFIGHTER
Purple Belt
At my school we have two sparring sessons a week. The level of contact is left mostly up to the individuals. I might ask a guy with a big wieght advantage over me to spar but I make sure he understands we're only going go 50% not full contact. There is always a instructor watching what's going on and I've had nights when I was going with someone larger than I ( I'm not very big) and they've come over and asked the other guy to lighten up even though I thought things were going well. I might spar with someone and go full contact for one round than turn around and work real light contact the next with the same guy rather than just sitting out a round to catch our breaths. I think you get more out of it because if I'm dropping my guard I'm going to know about it. After taking the same shot a few times I be like "Ok STOP! What am I doing wrong that you keep hitting me there?" However if you go full contact than be ready to nurse your bumps and bruises.
INDYFIGHTER
Purple Belt
I should add that I my self only spar while boxing. Our sparring nights are open to boxers as well as kick boxers since our school trains both. The kickboxers even spar the boxers they just remember not to kick!
AdrenalineJunky
Black Belt
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Non TKD opinion: Both. I'll explain if you like.
AdrenalineJunky said:
I'd be interested in hearing your explaination. And I do agree. I think you need both. Let's hear more on your opinion AD.
Solidman82
Purple Belt
Non-contact sparring is essential but not ultimate. it taught me a nast habit of stopping before I hit a face in sparring which unfortunately brings forth only annoyance and disrespect in a boxing ring.
Solidman82
Purple Belt
Non-contact sparring is essential but not ultimate. it taught me a nasty habit of stopping before I hit a face in sparring which unfortunately brings forth only annoyance and disrespect in a boxing ring.
AdrenalineJunky
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Sil Lum TigerLady said:
Shadow sparring involves little or no contact, so it gives you the freedom to explore things, to see how they would work without really getting hurt as a result of attempting something that might not work. It keeps people trying new things. New strategies, new combinations, strikes they don't normally use, etc., whereas they would not do that in full contact sparring. Without full contact sparring, one never gets to experience being hit. For example, nobody really wants their bell-rung, but in a fight, if you get your bell-rung and have no experience with the disruption of vision and disorientation that occurs as a result, you will not know how to fight through it. This is what I tell the guys I train:
- first, you must realize that, if you want to fight, you are going to get hit
- once you've come to grips with the fact that you are going to get hit, you mitigate that damage by conditioning your body to block/evade/take those hits without interrupting your offensive strategy
- then you can learn to counter
I think that one needs to do both. With no contact, one can focus on targets that would truly take out your opponent. With contact sparring what can get a feeling for taking and giving a hit. With all sparring, its important to be safe no matter what one does.
I feel the same way regarding sparring. There can be different levels of "contact" from light to heavy but at some point there has to be some sort of contact. As far as "no contact", I would rather use slow sparring to train finding and creating openings and developing strategy, than sparring at speed and pulling strikes. When I think of no contact I tend to think of slow sparring, but I don't think that's what hong kong fooey meant by no contact.AdrenalineJunky said:Most people, once they get hit, realize that the fear of getting hit is much worse than getting hit. . .well, sometimes, anyway.
- first, you must realize that, if you want to fight, you are going to get hit
- once you've come to grips with the fact that you are going to get hit, you mitigate that damage by conditioning your body to block/evade/take those hits without interrupting your offensive strategy
- then you can learn to counter
AdrenalineJunky
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Sil Lum TigerLady said:
Shadow sparring, we usually start out slow. The only problem is that Muay Thai is rarely, no, scratch that, never slow. Fast striking, fast reactions, short windows of opportunity. We basically spar full speed, in shadow sparring, we just make very light contact. This is useful to keep people mindful of where and how they open themselves up when they strike, so they can pay more attention it in a few minutes, when we do the real thing.
I'd go with moderate contact. full contact to the head leads to problems, many times, later in life. No contact leads to pulling your techniques many times
I think all types of contact lead to both negative and positive results. Full contact negates learning in that it puts you in a win lose situation and you are not so much improving but surviving. No contact can lead to a lot of mislead Martial Masters and and five year old black belts. I think the solution is to limit contact to a martial artist level of training. As they develop control and conditioning turn it up, by all means. White belts shouldn't be the meat your upperbelts practice having no control with. They are your schools bread and butter. I wouldn't spend them so cheaply.
Sean
Sean
Laborn
Blue Belt
You fight how you train, so my dojang trains us in full contact. In my eyes full contact is better then no contact.
Laborn said:
How does one train a full contact strike to the eyes, throat, groin and/or knees? Going for these targest requires safety equipment and control and it requires low to no contact. The sparring that one would do would still help with instinctual response.
Though I would agree that each way, as everything else, has positives and negatives. That's why either one in and of itself will leave you wanting. And I would agree that contact should be limited based on skill level, but for exactly the opposite reasons you mentioned. As I've said before, I experience considerably more contact from the earlier belts than I do from the more senior belts simply due to their lack of control. Not the other way around. My contact to them is usually light at best. When I spar with the other senior students or the sabumnim, contact is considered failure for lack of control. Much harder to achieve than wacking away at each other. Maybe there's a difference in what is meant by no contact. No contact is still full speed, full power, but the stop point is an inch or two away from the target as apposed to in the target.Touch Of Death said:
Well you have to have both in my personal opinion, one cannot exsist without the other.
Terry
Terry
AdrenalineJunky said:Shadow sparring, we usually start out slow. The only problem is that Muay Thai is rarely, no, scratch that, never slow. Fast striking, fast reactions, short windows of opportunity. We basically spar full speed, in shadow sparring, we just make very light contact. This is useful to keep people mindful of where and how they open themselves up when they strike, so they can pay more attention it in a few minutes, when we do the real thing.
Yes, that makes sense. Definitely have to take into account the style as there are so many variables.
