There's a likelehood that in this sceanario you will end up in a fight with your attacker. If you are suckered - you just have to eat a shot, and sparring helps you get conditioned to taking blows. with "one step" partner work this rarely occurs - and when a scenario is allowed to develop and free response is factored in plus contact , guess what - it basically becomes sparring.. its a simulation, the best we can use. to decry it or talk of "poison" is just being short sighted in my opinion.
"He was your training partner"--ironically, this is why competition is so important. Competition to win is one effective way of suppressing the gentlemanly urge to be cooperative with a training partner. Plus, when you compete in a tournament, you're now honing your fighting skills against someone you don't know, who doesn't know you, and who is going to attack you with as much intensity as the rules allow. I'm really curious what sort of sparring you've been exposed to if you think sparring does NOT include fakes, combinations, or intent. And while sparring is not "reality," neither is kata. Both are abstractions. The only question is what abstractions you find helpful. Anyway, I'm off to go mug Evander Holyfield, Wanderlei Silva, and Midori Kenji. I have on good authority that they'll be helpless babies in a street fight. Wish me luck, boys!
An interesting discussion on sparring took place a while back in this thread: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84393 Note that while TKDMitch and jwt don't particularly like sparring, they still note the importance of working techniques in a resistant and unpredictable environment. EDIT: The words highlighted in red are not highlighted for emphasise, but because I found the thread by searching those words.
ok, i´ve skimmed the thread, and feel the need to make a few points 1: obviously griffin, you´ve never sparred someone who was even moderately good at proper karate. not even a single bruise after sparring is a sign that the sparring wasn´t optimal (bear in mind i share your opinion of "shiai" kumite, which is a game). you also seem to have a very erroneous concept of the term sparring. 2: the founders sparred alright. just look up mabuni (in fact, go to the last page in the old masters thread, i posted some stuff about him there, iirc) 3: where the bloody <beep> did you get the idea that karate is "funakoshi's great art"??? i seriously resent that statement, and you will find that shotokan (which is not even funakoshi's karate, but the bits and pieces of it that he taught, and were later heavily modified beyond all recognition by gigo and nakayama) not only is completely different from 90% of karate, but is also typically lacking a good amount of concepts and training methods present in most of karate. There's a reason why okinawan karate and japanese karate are talked about as if they were two different arts.
We get a few TMA'rs joining the gym from time to time. Karate, Jujitsu etc: The first thing we notice if they haven't sparred before (and this is in basic partner work not even in sparring) but on the whole they are so slow as to not even react to a punch. They don't even see it, let alone try to parry. I'm talking B/B's here, or so they say. I know one was, My wife invited her from the local JJJ school. Wouldn't even let them near sparring in that condition. On the plus side my wife got messed up boxing with the North West area champion and my son got his nose popped. Happy days!
To the O/P. You mentioned your daughter and keeping her safe. I think women have to have a different outlook towards self defence and think all girls should be taught BBJ (Maybe a modified version) from a young age. Undoubtedly the best defence for rape there is.
Funakoshi's opposition to sparring seems to have been on the grounds of: 1. safety 2. reality However, in Karate Jutsu he stressed that he did not believe in ranking in karate, because if ranking was to be assigned it should be on the ability to fight effectively using Karate techniques, and at the present time that was not possible to do safely. He was most likely not a fan of the type of kumite that became popular because it did not represent the karate fighting style as such. "with continuing research it is not unfeasible that as in Judo and Kendo our karate, too, might incorporate a grading system through the adoption of protective gear and the banning of attacks to vital points." Gichin Funakoshi, 1935. Protective Gear that allows striking to the majority of vital points is now available.
Out of interest JWT. Do you have ex or current full contact fighters at your place? Is there a difference to someone who has never fought? If so what?
I think you're reading it backwards mate. What I'm saying is that if you go down, there is no one to stop your opponent from stomping your head in to mush as seems to be the trend these days.
I think the idea is simply to accept the outcome of the situation, whatever that outcome will be. Instead of fretting about the consequences, your loved ones, the fact that you didn't want this confrontation or whatever, you free your mind to simply focus on the task in hand. I think buddhists would call it 'living in the moment'. I can say from personal experience that accepting that whatever will happen will happen, does allow you to give the present moment your undivided attention. By contrast, I've known martial artists with skill greater than mine (at the time) freeze in situations that I would have taken in my stride - simply because their minds were stuck and unable to focus on the task in hand. Mike
Hi Moi, sadly not. My 'open door' evening clubs down here are quite new, very small and not well known, only the older after school club for teenagers is thriving. What I can say is that of the students I've met round the country (both mine and those I teach at seminars with no MA experience), those who enjoy contact sports such as Rugby have no problem getting stuck into full contact brawling, whereas those that don't find it much harder.
lol... well... duh But really... not much to be done if you're out numbered. The first proper fight I ever got in was me and 2 mates, all of us around 16 vs 7-8 20+ year olds, we were in a dead end door way in a big shopping complex, me and the other guy froze in the doorway so only got a frontal assault from around 3 guys, just bruising. Our one friend who was outside the doorway got mashed. Broken nose, ribs, concussion and cracked vertebrate = 3-4 days hospital stay, and he was pretty lucky. His blood was splattered on the walls and at one point there was a guy jumping up and down on his head. This is the reality of things. "Not an option" is all good and well, but its not gonna do anything for you. But, I guess you were joking..
- Its not about mind, its about training your body. Its about muscle memory. - Yep, just like men. And if they don't learn to hunt when they're young their prey is more than a match for them. - Definitely!
Sparring improves your: Reflexes Intent Resilience Fitness Ability to take a punch Distancing Confidence Practising a variety of sparring methods including boxing, Thai boxing, grappling(from the knees and from standing), sticky hands, point sparring(yep!), full MMA sparring (the best and most demanding) etc etc will make you a better fighter. Sparring isn't a poison, it's a tonic.
- I'd say its about both. In humans, if the mind is not ready, no amount of muscle memory will do. - Animals (healthy ones) are strong and deadly regardless where or how they were brought up. Try putting any animal in a corner and ****ing it off, even a kitten. Their instinct (mind) is what makes it. - Eye of the kitten?
OMG Are you people serious... Now you question my involvment in sparring itself!! I have written my acceptance of all your views and experiences, and enjoyed sharing your knowledge. However, its becoming a little childish, soon we will be posting our best footage to prove this and that.... Not what i expected. Perhaps at this point you's will allow me to "tap" LOL, My mistake was in the use of the word sparring, too broad a term, anyway thanx all for sharing cheers
