Sparring club?

[darrianation]

Has anyone ever tried to start a sparring club or fight club?

I did. I have talked to many people in my small town that either currently involved in MA or have had MA training but no longer do it for various reasons. Of course I am always on the lookout to recruit new students for our Shotokan School. Most people I run into either say yea sounds great I’ll be there and never show, or they say I did JKD (or some other style/system) for 4 years and have no interest in shotokan.

Well I had what I thought was a great idea. I talked to my sensei about starting a sparring club at his school. It would be informal no gees or belts just sweats or what ever you wanted to wear, no bowing or ceremony. It would be open to anyone who wanted to come and spar. They could decide on their own rules (the two sparring participants would agree on there own rules before they began to spar) with in reason of course. We even had wrestling mats for those grapplers who wanted to grapple. There would be no instructor up in front teaching, just sparring, and a totally non-denominational (open style) club.

My sensei liked the idea and he gave me the go ahead. I placed fliers, an add in the local paper, and told every one I met about it. I know all the MA people in town and went to the boxing club and invited them, I went to the Uechi Dojo and invited them, and I went the Aikido guys and invited them. All seemed very interested in it and swore up and down that they would come.

We did it every Wednesday evening 6:30-7:30 pm, free of charge (can you believe it no fees!) and we supplied all the sparring gear. We have head gear, boxing gloves and MMA gloves, foot protection, Shin pads, Chest/belly protectors, you name it we have it. You could wear what you wanted too or go bare knuckled if you wanted too.

The universal rules were: no biting, no intentional strikes to the groin, eyes, throat, back of head, or spine. No head buts, light contact with elbows and knees only. Protective equipment is optional unless going full speed and power or head contact is being made. We would have one moderator assigned (taking turns) that would go around making sure no real fights were breaking out and people were not being to excessive. Grapplers had to stop immediately if one were tap out or call a time out.

I wanted the Shotokan students as well as all participants to get exposure to other styles and martial arts. I thought this would be a good experience and improve our over all fighting skills.

Well in the end no one ever came. A person here or there but mainly it was my instructor, another Shotokan student and I. After 5 months we finally stopped doing it for lack of anyone showing interest.

Has anyone ever attempted to do this, or have been involved in this? What are some of the things you have found that makes it successful? What could I have done differently to get more people to come and keep coming? We were not trying to recruit students for shotokan. We just wanted to have fun while improving skills.

[Thai Bri]

Sounds like a body odour issue to me.

In all seriousness, I think this is a dangerous idea. At least get organised and insured. And insist on a third party to "referee" such sessions. With all these different clubs that could attend (ok didn't) the egos would wreak havoc and carnage could result from the people who have trained effectively.

[darrianation]

Sounds like a body odour issue to me.

In all seriousness, I think this is a dangerous idea. At least get organised and insured. And insist on a third party to "referee" such sessions. With all these different clubs that could attend (ok didn't) the egos would wreak havoc and carnage could result from the people who have trained effectively.

My sensei does have insurance and it's done at his school they did have to sign up as if it were an actual Karate class but no fees were paid, totally free.

"Insist on a third party to "referee" such sessions" We would have some one doing that sort of but it was a mute point since no one came. My instructor or I would watch the various sparring matches taking place and stop them if things got out of hand but it never did.

Dangerous yes it definitely had the potential to be but as far as the different styles involved take our Shotokan class for example: My instructor has also trained in Shito ryu and Arnis, I have trained in several different MAs, We have two students that have trained previously in TKD, one in Uechi. So we already have a mix without any problems.

One person who came a friend of mine of many years who has many years training in kickboxing and Kenpo came, we had a guy who had done Kali for 8 years came once (I met him at a party at a friends house) none had any problems. It was all very friendly.

The most we had on any given day was 5 people and 3 were from the shotokan class. So it was a big disappointment.

As for the under arm problem I was wearing “hi karate” cologne I swear.

[jukado1]

open sparring.

Darrianation: you have a great idea, once upon a time there was a regular workout circuit in southern California, many of the TOP tournament fighters would train, one night at Chuck Norris's Redondo beach school, another at the Ed Parker school in west L. A. and so on, later every Wednesday night Steve Fisher's had open sparring, some of the people who showed included, Steve (Nasty) Anderson, Bill Wallace, Ross Scott, Demetrius (Golden Greek) Havanas, and many more. the one thing they all have in common was a desire to be the best, and wouldn't let there ego get in their way. the best place to find people who really want to improve, would be to talk to some of the fighters at tournaments, and explain what your doing, if they want to improve they might just show up. p. s. Thai Bri does have a good point about insurance, make sure your covered for guest fighters.
I wish i lived in your area so i could take advantage of such a great opportunity.
good luck.

[m.artist]

im totally suprised that noone would take advantage of such a opportunity! that's insane. apparently u went to places where the people aren't real interested in real life application. it's sad. i hope things change. and i should ask my instructor if we can do something similar. it was a great idea btw

[darrianation]

Yea TB has a good point, even though my instructor has insurance I’m not really sure if it would cover if someone got hurt under these circumstances but he thought it would.

I still think it could be done and done safely. There would have to be concrete rules and someone watching each match and enforcing the rules. Maybe if we had enough people who came it would be easier to organize and make things a little professional.

We just want a place that allows people from different back grounds and training to have a place to go and have a good time while learning from each other and improve their skills.

I don’t know if we will ever try it again I hope so but who knows. The insurance thing needs to be looked at that’s for sure.

[jukado1]

sparring.

Darrination: nothing worthwhile ever comes easily, i ran a similar program a few years ago at a friends school, we charged $10.00 a session, one Saturday a month from 2:00 P.M. through 4:30/5:00 p.m. the fighter could come in starting at 1:30 and warm up on their own, then we would have a half hour session where we would cover some sparring principles or techniques, it was their option whether or not they would work with the group. then start the sparring session, if the fighters wanted i would critique them, if they did not i would not disturb them. they could decide how hard they wanted to fight, but were told that the first time they stopped sparring and started fighting they were gone, we only banned 1 person in 4 months.
what your trying to do is worthwhile for your students and karate in general, you might want to give it another chance.

[Lizard]

That is a good idea.

I was thinking about doing something similar but with no qualifications or insurance it was never going to be a reality.

Hmmm im surprised that so few people would turn up, but keep trying, it could be great (provided you think you can handle the legal and moral implications )

[kengar]

I think you have a great idea. It's a shame you can't get more people interested, though I'd say keep at it and you may start roping people in.