Making proper contact durring sparring.

When ever you are sparring with someone, do you hit them or just graze them? I was recently sparring with a black belt I had just met. At the start we were dancing around throwing out jabs and front kicks just feeling each other out, I was throwing a few cresent kicks out just barely grazing his face. And then I got caught with a pretty good hook in the eye. Not enough to bruise but more contact than Im used to sparring. So then I started making contact a little harder, not that I minded at all, but it was enough contact to get people to stop and watch. When we were in the changing room to go home he said that until I actually made decent contact with my cresents, he said he really didnt think I could hit him and thats why he popped me after it missed. I have ran into this problem with lower ranks late punching me or catching my leg after Im polite enough to stop it at their face instead of hitting them. SO do you think while sparring you should pop them pretty good so they know it was there? Not real hard but enough to leave a red mark. Or use control and stop it as close as you can?

 

I say hit them

 

control????


FULL CONTACT!!!

can i get an amen? anyone? ag?

 

Im ok with full contact, but I take karate, not kickboxing. My instructor would not like full contact sparring going on in his gym. Plus I think its disrespectfull to hit someone full contact while sparring, unless your in the ring I dont think full contact should be allowed.

 

in the Dojang, 3/4 power

at the tournament 150% (knock his butt out)
thats what your there for right?

 

You're supposed to train as hard as you can. You're supposed to hit with full force when sparring. Isnt that what equipment is for? Going too light just means bad conditioning for both yourself and your opponent. He will not be used to getting hit, and therefore will enter a state of extreme shock should it ever happen, and likewise, your body will be conditioned to hit opponents weakly. Neither of these is good.

 

Untrue.

It's not disrespectful, your supposed to be training at your best not holding back, in fact holding back is sometimes a sign of disrespectfulness that you don't trust the other person to take the hit

If your class does semi contact go by it, level of contact should be agreed over. But don't think full contact is'nt necessarry/useful or that it is disrespectful

|Cain|

 

Hmmmmm, I thought Goju was all about conditioning and full contact. Most Karate Do-jo's I go to are only full contact (Traditonal Do-jo's). Oh well........

 

Yeah.....first time I am hearing of karate being semi contact...it would depend I suppose.

|Cain|

 

What about agreeing on beforehand, taking a few shots to "calibrate"? That will eliminate any causes for misunderstanding.

 

Depends on who I am sparring regardless of "grades".

I generally tend to stop short if a person is totally defenceless, usually lower grades, I mean after all what am I proving by hammerring a lower grade? The contact adjusts with the person more capable "seasoned" fighter get more contact I would expect the same.

There is a fine line between sparring for yourself and sparring to educate someone. Remember sometimes sparring is a learning exercise for your partner, not just for you

 

Its about respect and understanding the level in which you and your opponent can and want to operate.

After all you dont spar with kids the same way you spar with someone the same age as you (ie if your in your twenties).

 

Yeah I agree. ^

Also If you are much better than you can attempt things that you would not usually do- jumping back spinning kick etc.

If you are worse then you learn about how could your defence is and can also pick up on what the other does that is effective.

 

FULL CONTACT AND FULL POWER IS NOT THE SAME THING, I say hit him enough to let them know there was an opening. In training we use 60 to 85 % force when sparring denpending on grade and body part. TORSO gets hit much harder than head. It is training and there should be control and heavy bags to work on more power. Be able to spar longer and consistantly requires less injuries. I will also say that for the 14 - 20 year olds I doubt any upper belt adult has ever hit you full force. I know that the chest will swell and there will be posts bout bloody mats and broken bones I say " YEAH RIGHT" your instructors insurance will close his doors if he allowed it. Even PRO FIGHTERS do not go 100% force 100% of the time, UFC/K1/PRIDE included.

 

I second that full contact does not mean the same thing as full power. We're a slow sparring school. 80% of the sparring we do is moving at what most would consider half speed. When we make contact, we go to full extension. Our Sifu has drilled into us that pulling techniques only trains bad self defense behavior.

The other benefit to slow sparring is it allows people to experiement without worrying that if they screw up their head is being knocked to Guam. Plus it just gets you more comfortable with sparring in any context. I will say that after five years of slow sparring I have no problem going very heavy contact without gear with most people.

- Matt

 

Most of my training involves only light or near full contact. I've never been able to spar at full contact except at tournaments. It does make sparring difficult at times.

 

Try lower less risky kicks

Front kick is good and side is as well as the range is there but it can be a little slow (for me anyhow).

Lower kicks are leave you less exposed provided you keep your hands up which is often the key with people.

They kick and the guard goes down or missing in some cases. Perhaps that might be it. Even video your next few sparing rounds?

 

Levels of sparring

This is something I posted in the TKD section about sparring that I think applies here as well:

We use many levels of sparring in class... ranging from no contact to heavy contact. We also wear various levels of pads. Our main concern is with what we want to gain from each session of sparring... e.g.

(1) Do we want to work footwork and some new combinations? light or no contact

(2) Are we trying to build confidence in new skills or break in new guys? light or no contact

(3) Do we want to work on speed and control, while not making our people unafraid of getting hit? light contact

(4) Do we want them to respect a bit of the power that can be applied? medium w/o pads or heavy with pads

(5) Are we practicing self defence applications and/or low kicks and/or head/face strikes? light to medium contact

(6) Are we gearing up for a full tournament? Some with medium contact to practice techniques and some with full to practice like a tournament.

It all really depends what the purpose of your training is. The old argument of "no or light contact sparring can't cut it on the street" is partly bull. You do need to train with various degrees of speed and power so that you can effectively use them where ever and when ever you need to. It would be like saying shadow boxing is bad for boxers...

 

Try lower less risky kicks

remember , knees break very easy

 

I believe that NOT hitting people hard shows more disrespect for their toughness and skill than focusing on full contact.