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  • Sparring

    I have been wondering lately how important sparring is for street fight situations. The younger people think it is the most important thing that you can do, almost to the exclusion of everything else. The older people seem to see sparring as just one more excersise to be done. What limited number of "street fights" I have been in have never seemed to equate with any sparring I have done. After having trained in the Martial Arts for over 20 years I am beginning to think that while sparring is important it may not be as important as I thought it was 10 years ago. Or it could be I'm just getting tired of being punched in the face. Anyway, any thoughts.

  • #2
    From my limited experience, sparring can help because:

    1. it gets your heart rate up
    2. there's a danger of being possibly hurt
    3. you learn timing, proper distance, spontaneous response
    4. broken rhythm
    5. no set pattern
    6. unpredictability
    7. and many more!

    (but it's safer than fighting for real!)

    I believe these will occur or be experienced in a real altercation.

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    • #3
      RE:

      Perhaps you should revise how you spar or go somewhere else like a JKD school (if you dont already) and try to treat it like a real fight. You say that the street fights you've had never equate to any sparring you've done, that is like saying you only use what martial arts you know during sparring but use something different in the street. I'm not sure how good you really are in a street situation but I know sparring does work especially full contact sparring. What martial art/s do you take?

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      • #4
        Jeyel, the only one of the things you wrote that I can't seem to train without sparring is range or as you said proper distance but since almost all of my fights have gone to headbutting range almost instantly that is a minor concern. You also said the danger of being hurt. I'm guessing you mean fear. I have never been as afraid in a fight as I have been sparring with someone that I knew had a higher degree of skill than I have and was trying to tear my head off. Anger tends to turn off the fear switch. But since there is no anger when sparring or at least there shouldn't
        be, all you have is fear. Thanks, Ash

        dwoolman, the problem with revising my sparring is tying to duplicate street fight conditions. Just a couple of examples of things that have happened to me, having a bottle thrown at me a split second before the kick landed, my head being bounced off the inside wall of a trailor I was unloading, pulling a guy into the guard and he instantly reached down and tried to rip my balls off (that never happened in BJJ class). I do use different things in a fight than I do when I spar. I spit, thumb eyes, rip ears, break fingers, headbutt, elbow, kick shins, and stomp feet. ( I always wear boots). I would not do these things when I spar. As far as how good I am on the street depends on who I am fighting, if they are not very experienced I do pretty well, if they are experienced I win some and I loose some. My training is in boxing, wrestling, Karate, TKD, Okinawa-te, and Jun Fan/JKD Concepts and the other arts that are in the Inosanto system. I have also helped train a pro heavyweight Thai boxer and was a state licenced professional second. Thanks, Ash

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        • #5
          Ash, where's pikachu??????

          LOL sorry that was pretty lame.

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          • #6
            RE:

            Yes I know what you mean ash. I'm sure you know it already but as the great Bruce Lee said "The more training you have the better prepared you are for a real confrontation".
            As almost any experienced martial artist will tell you nothing can prepare you for the street except the street, in other words any sort of normal training can never be like a street fight.

            I've had only 2 street fights in my entire life (I'm only 18) and I was the one left standing each time, they never got near enough to touch me. In one of the fights the guy never came in headbutting range as you called it but instead got a powerful sidekick in his solar plexus. The other fight came upon me before I knew it but my Judo skills got the better of him in a instant, while he lay incapacitated on the floor I left him.
            Anyway the bottom line is I think sparring works......especially the sort of sparring that is involved in Jun Fan or Boxing.

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            • #7
              For "street" oriented training you can't beat scenario training. Sucker punch drills, mass attacks, improvised weapons and other forms of abuse all add up to a good time. With proper equipment you can get pretty close to a "real" fight situation.

              I do think you would be better served to keep this type of training to a small percentage of your training time though, as the chance for injuries increases as things go "live". I'd rather spend twenty hours sparring Muay Thai rules and limit myself to two hours of scenario training. I know from experience if I spend twenty hours doing scenario training injuries will occur.

              -Paul Sharp

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