Training Full (ish) Contact With A Kickboxer - Yay Or Nay?

[Archibald]

Hi guys....a friend of mine who does kickboxing and myself have agreed to spar once a week full contact, though with only light punches or slaps to the face (neither of us wants ot walk around with black eyes etc).

For him its a chance to keep up his practise - his club moved so he doesn't train as often now

For me its a chance to get some practise at doing my Jujitsu techniques in a full resitance environment to someone who really knows how to fight...

What does everyone think? Will it improve my skill or develop bad habits?

[Slindsay]

Originally Posted by Archibald

Hi guys....a friend of mine who does kickboxing and myself have agreed to spar once a week full contact, though with only light punches or slaps to the face (neither of us wants ot walk around with black eyes etc).

For him its a chance to keep up his practise - his club moved so he doesn't train as often now

For me its a chance to get some practise at doing my Jujitsu techniques in a full resitance environment to someone who really knows how to fight...

What does everyone think? Will it improve my skill or develop bad habits?

Why would it develop bad habits?

[Jutsuka]

Man thats a great opportunity. Use it to get to know not only how to better use your skills when the heat is on but its your chance to learn about muay thai fighters. how muay thai fighters move. Of course every fighter will be different. But have fun a see what Jujitsu can do.

Train Hard man.

[Kwajman]

Why not do it? It'd be great experience for you.

[TheMadhoose]

Myself and my cousin went thru a spell where he had a desire to have some "scrapping Sessions" with me.He has had no martial art training but gave in to his pestering and its amazing how well non martial artists can fight. He was able to stand his ground with me as long as i didnt kick too much.Basicaly it was fun and gives you a taste of how hard you gotta go in to neutralise a non ma oponent.go for it says i.

[Jesh]

I think you should certainly do it. it's a good experience as you said yourself...

Jut out of curiosity:

Do you get to take him down and play on the ground ???

[TheMadhoose]

Nah like i said my cousin wasnt MA trained ground work wasnt realy the point of what he wanted. it was all about fisticuffs

[Jutsuka]

One thing I find with JuiJitsu, is that because there aren't any strict forms in terms of striking techniques, it is a very adaptive art.

My style incoporates everything I have learnt from Karate, TKD and JJ. In my opinion JJ embodies Bruce Lee's philosophy of adaptation. Spar with as many different style fighters as you can. And sparring non-MA dudes is good because they are less predictable.

[Yukimushu]

Give it a try and see how it goes; If you both really enjoy it then continue to do spar. Obviously keep it under control though; never worth breaking a friend just because you lose your temper.

[Archibald]

Hehe, so Yay then. Thanks guys

I don't know why it would develop bad habits...i just wanted to know if there was a downside to it, lol.

aha of course i getto take him to the ground! So far its my only way of gaining an advantage over him...his striking is too good for me to beat him standing up. Plus we want to make it as realistic as possible....we're both doing it for the same reason after all.

And yea don't worry, we've discussed it and we agree that while its important that we're fighting 'properly', we can't lose our cool and start trying to kill each other...thats not how the training works.

Thanks for the answers guys, i'm looking forward to some productive training

[Shrfu_Eric]

Spar and spar some more .. the more the marrier ... Have fun and learn from mistakes.

Let us know what happens !!!

Eric

[hux]

I think as long as you are both wearing some safety gear(gum shields and cups bare minimum, I would recommend more) and it's controlled you could both stand to learn a lot.

[Dropbear]

Have you thought about how well the KB'er is going to be able to take Ukemi? He is probably not used to being locked up in joint/wrist locks, or being thrown (if you manage to get a good one in).

On the plus side, it's going to help your Tai Sabaki out of sight.

[Ghost Frog]

Go for it!! I always used to enjoy sparring with people from other styles and I learnt the most against kickboxers. As long as you keep it fairly good humoured and don't go mad and injure each other you could learn huge amounts. Its important to leave your comfort zone on a regular basis if you're going to improve.

You could start off just doing semi contact sparring, which will improve your stand-up. Then you could move on to incorporating throws and takedowns. If he can't breakfall, you could just go into position for a throw or takedown and then just do it slowly or stop. Either way your timing will improve remarkably.

[Archibald]

We're in the same drama class at school and so for the past 3 years we've almways managed to get fight scenes into our plays...he's inadvertantly learnt to breakfall, lol.

But even so i obviously won't be slamming him into the ground as though he is a seasoned breakfaller.

One thing i do need to drill into his head is to tap when he feels his joints, or even his air supply, cant take anymore - he has a habit of trying to break free of them, which is fine but there comes a point where if its on properly (happened a few times so far) any kind of struggle will just damage your joint.

Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated it is. I'll report back in a few weeks and let you know how its going