Well , sparring is another tool to practise your fighting skills , but depends on your goals , schools ,style... for example : if you are training into muay thai to learn how to fight (sparring is essential)...if you train tai chi for relaxion and good balance (no need to spar! heh). But sparring is another way to try out what you learn't and see if it really works , so you can prepare yourself and impoove your skills
if u r training in taichi chuan then u need to learn fighting too tai chi =supreme ultimate tai chi chuan = supreme ultimate boxing now wat u learning?? i m doing boxing... -TkdWarrior-
Yes, but, as myusername said, it depends on the person's goals. Someone who's only training to get in shape or for health reasons doesn't need to spar to get those benefits. Theoretically, someone could train in Muay Thai just to get in shape. If they're doing that, then they have no reason to spar; they should really be in a Tae Bo class, not a Muay Thai class, but I'm being hypothetical here. Or, another side to it is this: I took my first Tai Chi class last week. I'm out of town now, but I'm going to be taking Tai Chi twice a week when I get back home from my trip. I got to the class early and met the instructor. He asked about my background and I told him I'd been involved in martial arts for nearly 24 years and had trained in and been exposed to a pretty wide variety of stuff. He said, "You should really go train with my instructor. I've only been doing Tai Chi for seven years and had no martial arts before that. My instructor's been doing it for 30 years. He can really show you the fighting aspects of the art." I said, "Well, you've got seven years of Tai Chi on me. I can definitely learn from you. And since my goal is the health aspects, I'm not really concerned about the fighting side of the art. If you want to bring things out, great. But that's not my purpose here. And, really, with my background, if I want to find fighting aspects, I can extrapolate them from the forms. Besides, your class schedule is convenient for me. His isn't." So, I don't need to spar in Tai Chi. The Tai Chi will definitely influence me and it'll come out when I'm sparring. But I don't need to specifically spar in the Tai Chi class. And the rest of the class (mostly older folks) have no interest in fighting. They're there solely for the health aspects. If you want to learn how to fight, though, sparring is an absolute necessity. And, really, you should do many types of sparring. You should spar slowly and analyze ranges, tools, etc. You should spar light (but full speed) to help develop timing and get a feel for what you may or may not be able to pull off. You should spar full speed/full contact to develop an understanding of what it's like to hit and get hit and what full blast timing is like, and for pressure testing your skills/abilities. You should do isolation sparring to develop specific tools (isolation sparring means, for instance, that you can only use a couple of techniques, or maybe only one hand). You should spar in all different ranges, with and without weapons. I know, some people say, "Yeah, but I don't train with weapons." Fine. But if you really want to learn to fight, then you should get used to facing weapons. There are lessons that the weapons can teach you in 10 minutes that could take years to learn otherwise, if they could be learned at all. You should do environmental sparring. Spar in the woods, in mud, in snow and ice, in rain, in sand. Any environment you can find and use, you should experiment in. Every environment will teach you different things about the functionality of your tools. But for people who are only looking to get in shape or for health aspects, there's no reason for them to spar unless they just want to. Of course, if someone is only interested in fitness/health, then there are options other than martial arts which may suit them better. Mike
Sparing? Funny phrase! I teach people how to protect themselves and to avoid the I do 2 punches now your turn type sparing. I teach people how to win. This covers all aspects and most weapons, I want to be confident that when I award a Dan grade, they are gonna put on a good performance for anyone who attacks them. Just luck the people I have taught have wanted to learn the real self defence and not to be a thug. Also I choose who I teach. Sparing is good for defence and attack. Just dont fall into a routene or obvious rythem. Many people do! SONSHU
