Hi all, First time poster here I have recently started Kickboxing at the right old age of 30 having a great need to get fit for various reasons. I have attended a few lessons at a small club which combined KB with some grappling etc all of which I enjoyed very much. However sadly the timing of the lessons mean that I cannot attend regularly. Therefore I am joining a new gym/club ths week that I can attend regularly. After speaking with the sensai, he told me that initially there is no sparring ( I like sparring even if I get beaten) and then it will be point sparring before contact sparring. Basically I am trying to find out if this is the standard form for clubs etc. How long would it normally be before I could expect to spar. Also, what kind of competions are available in the UK. I dont expect to be in any kind of championships etc but eventually I would like to test my abilities in competition. I know I could probably learn most of this info from the club itself, but I do not want to spend my first few sessions asking question after question but I hope some of you guys can give me a basic idea of UK KB. Cheers Bob
I think a few clubs operate in this way i.e. you do some point sparring before contact etc. Its mainly so that new people don't get hurt in sparring IMO. It also builds you into it gradually and point sparring tends to let you become more comfortable with techniques as you can try them out without fear of getting hammered by someone else
Some schools have their reasons not to include sparring from day one. It's not only for safety of the beginner in question but also for the other person. Beginners tend to take some time to adjust to the rules etc. I myself was taught this way, I was'nt allowed to spar till I could do partner drills properly which was like sparring but with set moves. Ok so it was'nt sparring But I admit I was damn impatient to kick some serious a$$ in class |Cain|
Never heard of no sparring! but there is only one Kickboxing instructor in Cork, Ireland and he does sparring all the time. Thought the UK might have been well ahead of us, but i guess every instructor is different. I myself am crap at Sparring ha!
does ne1 here find sparing in a club useful for street fighting? i find it useful for competitions, but i dont want to compete i want to defend my freinds and myself and i find sparing is little help for this, does ne1 else share this view? is so/not then y?
leo - little tip: don't combine the words "street fighting" and txt style posts if you want anyone to take you seriously - it only takes a few seconds to type it properly, so kindly do so as some people find such abbreviations difficult to read. Secondly, you sound very eager to learn to fight - unless you have been in a fight, how do you know how useful sparring has been in preparing you - even if you have, how can you know how you would have faired had you not had that practice?
im not eager to fight, i try to avoid them at all costs, but if i do get into a fight i am usually outnumber about 15 to one and obviously dont win but come out ok and do fight back. but in one to one fights i find the scenario very very different to sparing. also one of my down falls is i dont practice grappaling, i still always win at grappaling and i do grapple with my mates all the time, but its not like judo type grappaling, but upagainst a judo or jui jitsu opponent i might be at a slight disadvantage. but generally i think there are too many rules in sparring, and ofcourse u cant hit hard which is really how u win street fights, it might just be the rules of sparring at the clubs i have been to, but generally i think they limit the moves you can do too much, please tell me the rules in sparring at your clubs thnkyou
Hi Bob, Welcome to MAP! When I Thai boxed in my youth, it was sparring from day 1. Having returned to kickboxing (at an older age than you!) I found it was no sparring until orange belt (the third rank). So I guess your club in question is not unusual. Hope this helps. By the way, where are you based in the UK?
I live near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire and train KB in Halifax. At the moment it looks like the Kickboxing is going to be replaced by Tae Kwon-Do as the KB class finishes too late. Bob
we will only allow sparring when you have all your gear, also begginers must learn the basics before they spar,then only with someone that knows what they are doing,never begginers together as someone will get hurt
slight? I studied judo off the internet and me and my mates wrestled all the time. first judo lesson, I got my ass handed to me on a plate for about 2 hours by people of all different sizes and levels of skill. if at all possible even a small amount of grappling knowledge will help you a huge amount. rules are different everywhere. I find a lot of schools are too restrictive in their rulesets as well. where I train muay thai its contact anywhere except the groin, throat and eyes. (although its nigh impossible to hit someones throat anyway except by accident) full contact to the body, usually medium-heavy to the face. knees, fists, shins, feet, are all allowed at full power, but usually elbows are either not allowed or used only at medium power (dont want to send people home too ugly ) We usually start people off sparring after around 3 months of training (regular training, not just casual once a week people) so they are used to giving and recieving punches without going nuts, and so the coach can see if they are going to be a danger to others or not.
I've been doing kickboxing for 5 months, throughout which I learnt 1 step sparring, which progressed onto slow sparring. This month I have been doing sparring, but only light contact as there is still much to learn. Don't worry about having to wait to spar, when you do it, you'll realise that everything you have learnt has a purpose.
There is no point in sparing until you have a least a good basic knowledge of offense and defense. I start my people sparing after about a month of training. Then I have them spar with the more experienced fighters as they can control the pace and contact better. Then as their skill progress the intensity of the sparing goes up. Good luck and have fun.
in my kb club we were sparring from day 1, and i found this useful as the sparring environment pressure tested all of my techniques, putting them through a steep learning curve and making me learn to use them effectively
I spent my first 6 months in front of a mirror , shadow boxing (as mutch as I could anyway)... I dont think that there is better or worce way.. Sparring day 1 : You learn the teqniques more practicly but not as teqnically correct as without sparring cause you pay more attension in the teqnique itself not the result . sparring later :More civilised training , you've had a chance to learn teqniques right in theory but you dont do MA until the day you spar tho.. But as i said I dont think one is better than the other , just different.
