Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring?

Posted by: Nurb

Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/26/06 09:33 PM

Curious about the other forum members karate instruction

1) what is your stle of Karate
2) does your dojo have sparring
3) if yes, to what degree
Posted by: MattJ

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/26/06 09:41 PM

Posted by: student_of_life

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/26/06 09:42 PM

1) I pratice traditional shotokan

2) Yes we spar, and we love it

3) there are different levels of sparing, all the way from announced attacked and defence to free kumite. all in all i prefer the kumite drills where we alpy the kata movements at different speeds, i don't think im comfortable with free sparing yet, i'm feel too blocky and linear.
Posted by: JasonM

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/26/06 10:54 PM

hmm, little confused How do ya spar with no contact?
Posted by: jc4199

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/26/06 11:04 PM

We spar in our system some times its point sparing with no contact some times its light contact with no pads. We are getting ready to do full contact padded sparing. When we roll at around 50% most of the time for now as most of us are still learning. And Kickboxing well its all out all the time.
Posted by: Steel91

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/26/06 11:40 PM

1) Shotokan
2) yes
3) Medium contact and sometimes sensei lets us throw in some takedowns and grappling along with letting us spar using our own kata bunkai to test it out and see if what we have come up with works. (not all of the bunkai of course because some of it would be too dangerous, so then we practice it on a partner slowly if our bunkai has dangerous joint locks.)
Posted by: Ives

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/27/06 06:29 AM

1) Ryounkai (Nippon Bogu Karatedo)

2) We do some sparring at our school

3) Full contact with Bogu protectors - (Only head and chest, no fist, shin or feet protection) - Sparring starts at 4th kyu level
Posted by: motobusmonkey

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/27/06 11:57 AM

At my dojo we only do bunkai and yakosuko kumite, the contact used is decided through "mutual agreement". There is no free sparring, and the only pads there are thin forearm guards(optional). Every once in a while we do "slow motion sparring", both attacks/counters are done in slow motion.

-Jeff
Posted by: Shorinjiryumike

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/28/06 01:18 AM

Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate see www.toronto-koshiki.com go to video. Yes we spar, full contact, bogu and men
Posted by: Ives

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/28/06 06:27 AM

Quote:

Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate see www.toronto-koshiki.com go to video. Yes we spar, full contact, bogu and men



Don't feel offended, but a bogu usually consists of 'do' and 'men' (a 'kin-ate' or groin-protection is also used most of the time.)
Posted by: Shorinjiryumike

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/28/06 10:20 AM

Thanx for that. We are not kendo players and have always refered to the bogu ( do ) as chest protector and the men as head protector. Bogu to us refers only to the chest protector.

Respectfully
Posted by: Ives

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/28/06 12:48 PM

Quote:

Thanx for that. We are not kendo players and have always refered to the bogu ( do ) as chest protector and the men as head protector. Bogu to us refers only to the chest protector.

Respectfully




We tend to do so aswell back in my dojo, but for others it might be better understandeble to use these terms.
Otherwise they might think we use full kendo gear.

Posted by: Shorinjiryumike

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/28/06 10:57 PM

Where do you train?
Posted by: pepto_bismol

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/28/06 11:43 PM

1) Shorin Ryu Karate
2) Yes
3) It is pretty much full contact, it's point sparring so hitting as hard as you can isn't really usefull. We all show control.
Any belt under brown wears head, stomache, foot, shin, and hand gear. You lose the shin gear when u feel like it, you lose the stomache gear at brown belt, and lose the head gear at black.
Posted by: monkeyhead

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/29/06 12:27 AM

1. Also Shorin ryu

2. Yup. Sunday is the day for sparring, but it is interwoven into the other days depending on who is teaching and who is learning.

3. As I'm assuming we're talking about free sparring here, the level of contact is set by the lower belt. I don't mind some contact to my chest, but I'd be less than thrilled if I was hit that hard in the head. Usually, the only protection is a cup. I think the key words to remember are "mutual respect."
Posted by: Hiyoshimaru

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/29/06 11:08 PM

1) Shorin Ryu
2) Yes
3) Light to Medium, however, my sensei was trained in a school where black belts were aloud to do full contact, I don't know what his policy is on that, because we only have one black belt in the school.
Posted by: Nurb

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/30/06 04:57 PM

Ok, now that we've gotten some good responses, what do you guys think about the kyokushin styles emphasis on padless full contact sparring, only rule being no fist-to-head strikes (kicks and knees legal)?

do pads and point sparring take away from conditioning and effective use of what you've learned?

I bring up this threat because most of my family has trained in shotokan and shorin ryu, but I'm planning on the kyokushin route (daido juku once it comes to the US). We had a conversation about the sparring and the fact the shotokan dojo they've trained it only had point sparring and very few of them have gotten really hit. Not that I'm calling it a mcdojo, its got a legit lineage and free of the other warning signs, but I don't agree with endless kata and no realistic application. So I wanted to get an idea of what others train in and their opinions.
Posted by: haze

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/30/06 05:29 PM

Light to medium depending on who and why. Protection, AAU type hand pads and ............that's about it. The rest is optional, mouthpiece, cup, headgear
Posted by: srv

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/30/06 08:54 PM

Style is based on Goju-Ryu.
Yes we do free sparring regularly and we start doing it from white belt level. The protective gear we use are hand and feet protectors - light pads - mouth guards and cups for the guys. Contact is something mutually agreed upon by the 2 people sparring, usually determined byt the lower ranks. Generally the white belts and some of the girls will prefer very little contact but when 2 black belts or 2 testosterone driven men of any rank - go at it it's pretty well full contact. Having said that, most of the girls go at it just as hard as the guys.
Posted by: Neko456

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/30/06 11:39 PM

Quote:

Curious about the other forum members karate instruction

1) what is your stle of Karate
2) does your dojo have sparring
3) if yes, to what degree




1.) Many our base style if Goju-ryu
2.) Yes we have 5 levles of sparring.
a. Level 1 point tourney mid contact padded take down/sweeps starting at 7th kyu - BB.
b. Level 2 no pads, hand wraps and shin guards full contact to body, light head. I want them to feel the real techniques.
1a. Ippon waza 5th kyu - Black belt
2b. Three point " " - " "
3.) Combination sparring padded sweep, throws, takedown, knees, Leg kicks, groundfight 3 seconds 4thkyu-1st kyu. full contact body, light to head.
4.) Combination sparring, elbows, knees, throws, ground fighting 1 minute max, padded. Elbows to the head improvised. Self defense counters to holds are used.
5.) Combinations sparring ...., ground fighting depends on where you want to fight 3-4 minute max or zero if you can stay up.

3.) We start at white belt 7th Kyu - Master grade.
Posted by: Ives

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/31/06 09:29 AM

Quote:

Where do you train?




It's all there...
Posted by: budobrubbie

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/31/06 06:29 PM

1) Shorin-ryu karate (Shorinkan).
2)Yes, we do both free-sparring (jiyu kumite) and agreement sparring (yakusoku kumite). In free sparring, gloves and mouthpieces are mandatory, headgear is required for students under the age of 18.
3)Frequency - Agreement sparring, every class. Free sparring, about one to two classes per week. Intensity - Most agreement sparring is quite intense. Free sparring is of moderate intensity, but dan level participants can go as hard as they want to as long as both agree.
Posted by: Subedei

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/01/06 12:27 AM

Quote:

hmm, little confused How do ya spar with no contact?




Easy, stop all of your strikes before they make contact with your opponent. It's a good introduction to combat for beginners who might feel intimidated by the prospect of actually being hit. They can work on distance, timing, agnle and all of that good stuff. Additionally, you might want to have them attack the space directly in front of their opponent instead of stopping the attack before it hits, this is good for those students that haven't developed enough control.

If you have children in your classes, no contact sparring is probably a good idea.
Posted by: shoshinkan

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/01/06 03:54 AM

Yep we spar, many different forms -

1. tegumi, standup wrestling practise, compromised and then non compromised.

2. randori, no pads, controlled contact/pace sparring.

3. bogu kumite, heavy contact, full head gear, light body armour and groin cup. developing this right now.

We of course also have many drills including grab release, hold release, evasion, bunkai practise (develops into 'free' attacks), 2 on one randori etc etc

I have absolutly no concept of how non contact karate can be of much use for any form of application.
Posted by: Nurb

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/03/06 05:47 AM

since I've been lookin i'm suprised how many use body armor or point sparring. If needed to be used in reality, getting hit for the first time out of class would be a shock. Body conditioning and taking a hit is as important as giving one
Posted by: shoshinkan

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/03/06 06:30 AM

The use of body armour and head gear allows for heavy contact sparring with no hand or foot pads, its a development tool.

also the armour is light and still very much hurts! It allows the students to expierience 'shock' withoubt serious injury.

It is simply part of the 'kumite' we practise, randori (as I call it) involves no pads and you work to the level of contact you both wish, ie progressivly harder.

I agree that conditioning excersises are most usefull as are tai sabaki methods, and again we use both for overall development.
Posted by: Victor Smith

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/03/06 08:10 AM

nurb,

Part of the reason body armour is becoming a standard is simply most cannot have a school without insurance, either to protect the school owner or the landlord, and the insurance industry is making use of body armour mandatory or suffering loss of insurance.

Then there are humanitarian concerns for student safety, being able to defend onself flat out is very different from getting wasted training.

I came from the pre safety gear days with very strong body contact and light taps to the head mandatory for scoring, but have gone through many layers of what works.

The best instructor I ever trained with, and the best 'sparrer' bar none I've ever experienced never included any sort of kumite within his classes, but his skills and his students came from superior drills and othe techniques.

After years of thought I moved my program away from a heavy sparring diet, and today only use it for advanced students where it makes sense in their training program. A far cry from the days students started sparring their first night.

It's interesting having the student spend years developing skills first actually makes for better sparring because they have technique that works.

But as sparring is such a minor aspect of where I see karate as going, it is only done in limited context.

pleasantly,
Posted by: skeeterzirra

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/04/06 10:55 PM

Yes, at coloered belt levels, and with increasing intensities as we advance. When I started, padding was available but discouraged. I used them but frankly it was a crutch.

My last school went into heavy contact. You knew when you were hit. I was lifted off the floor with a strike at least once in every sparring session. The shock of that kind of blow altered my training from the fundamentals on.

What Ive learned and incorporated is to have my combinations aimed with a follow-up using each recoil of a strike. For practice, I use a heavy bag, hung so its center of gravity mimics mine. When I strike, the bag rotates around that center of G, and this recoil dictates where and when my next strike is aimed.

Body armor was what gave me freedom to learn this without broken bones. Waiting and losing three months training while waiting for a rib to knit, and then building back to make up for lost time hindered training. This is also when I overcame my fear of hits and where I learned the proper use of armor. This is a great improvement over the old days.
Posted by: GiriStudent

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/06/06 02:23 PM

1) Shorin Ryu Karate Jutsu
2) Yes
3) LIght contact from white to yellow medium: green andpurple Heavy: Brown Black
We use mouthguard, hand gear and footgear
Posted by: TimS

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/06/06 02:58 PM

Style: Wado Ryu
Sparring: Yes.
Type of sparring: medium contact Shiai and Ji Yu Kumite (the latter we use techniques not permitted in contest Shiai.)

Tim
Posted by: schanne

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/11/06 10:18 AM

Our school is divided, we have the traditional American Goju which was tought to my Shihan and passed down to the traditional practioners. The other half are the hardcore fighters that compete in MMA and Jujitsu competitions...our dojo is a full contact. Personally I'm getting tired of seeing all the new holes in the sheet rock from people getting slammed, time to ask Shihan to get the walls padded about four feet up through out the entire dojo....... you youuuuu roughkin's!!!
Posted by: frizzbee

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/11/06 07:16 PM

1) what is your stle of Karate - Matsamura Seito
2) does your dojo have sparring - Yes
3) if yes, to what degree - I'm not sure - you don't start sparring until you reach blue belt, intermediate level, and I just joined the intermediate class. But we do spar. Our instructor will tell us to what intensity to spar (ie "go at 50%") but we do use full padding when sparring.
Posted by: Stormdragon

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/15/06 10:35 PM

1. Style- LATF (ITF) Tae Kwon Do/boxing/jujutsu
2.Sparring/Grappling-yes
3.Some times we do full contact boxing and kickboxing with boxing gloves (16 oz) and full face sheilds/headgear for 2 minute rounds or until a guy gets hit too hard to keep going in that 4round, sometimes we do light contact free sparring and point fighting with head gear, foot gear and hand pads, we also practice live full force BJJ/wrestling
Posted by: Dobbersky

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/18/06 11:40 AM

Good Poll, and Excellent responses

1) Style of Karate is Ashihara Karate and WadoRyu
2) Yes both dojo's have sparring
3) Full Contact in Ashihara and Light/Medium contact in Wado Ryu

Posted by: onenall

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 09/02/06 02:42 PM

My karate practice is manifested in naihanchi, passai, kusanku, gojushiho, chinto, tensho, sanchin and seinchin.
We do practice sparing at all different levels. We also do numerous other drills designed to build a variety of skill sets.
IMHO sparring is useful at any level. I have trained in no- contact sparring all the way to full- contact kyokushin style and have benefitted from every level of sparing. I agree with Victor Sensei that the best skills do come from superior drills and not from "sparrring". Sparring is useful and fun but it does reinforce a "dual" mentality. If you study bunkai of traditional kata, many of them include strategy for fighting numerous opponents in numerous scenarios. They do work in the sparring ring as well (no matter what McArthy sensei says). At least the shorin bunkai that I have seen includes practical and natural footwork utilized against multiple opponents.
Kyokushin style sparring has limitations as well. You can't punch or elbow to the head, minimal grappling and no direct kicks against joints. All of these may crop up in a "real" encounter.
Also, using a bogu or other protection is a reality when insurance is involved. Its true it doesn't have the same feel if you take a shot to the gut, but even kyokushin, Ashihara, Enshin etc. stylists cannot take a knife to the gut. I don't care how good your sanchin is. So you need tai sabaki skills as well.
At the end of it all, you have to enjoy your training. As I continue in my 19th year of karate training, I find that kata practiced medium speed in a flow manner and kahkie drills work amazingly well. And, it works for me in sparring matches as well.
Enjoy your training!!
Posted by: Dereck

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 09/02/06 02:44 PM

Quote:

1) what is your stle of Karate
2) does your dojo have sparring
3) if yes, to what degree




1. Korean Karate ... TKD

2. Yes, sparring of course is a part of the curriculum. This includes Olympic style sparring (WTF), grappling (starting from kneeling and stand up), full stand up to takedown to grappling and ground n' pound. Also may include clinch, knees and elbows.

3. Sparring is full contact for Olympic sparring. Other training will be a combination of full contact, medium contact to light contact depending on what equipment worn (or not) or who your partner is (some go light so you go light; some go hard so you go hard). Elbows, punches to the face and ground n' pound should only be about 30% so light though this can get out of hand depending on your opponent but mostly just light and controlled.
Posted by: migo

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 09/03/06 06:24 AM

This isn't really current, but when I did Shotokan Karate, we had limited sparring, and it was no contact. It was a Shotokan Karate of America branch.
Posted by: P.A.L

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 09/09/06 09:53 PM

1-shorin ryu
2-yes we spar
3-I Only spar with my sensei , around 2-3 times a year in full contact and rest of the year accusing each other of cheap shotting and it gets pretty ugly, at least for me, as for Kyukoshin style sparing, it's good but not realistic, i get knock down or lose balance almost always by direct punch to the face , the chance of getting hit by punch to the face is not less than kick to the head if not more,
Posted by: underdog

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 09/10/06 03:09 PM

My style is American-Te which is a kenpo derivative. We spar- not a lot, but we spar. There are things that are better taught with sparring. Adults spar generally light to medium contact with either no equipment or just gloves. Kids spar light to medium contact with booties gloves and helmets.
Posted by: kokoro

what is full contact? - 09/16/06 05:29 PM

Full contact in my Seido offshoot has always meant something approximating Kyokushin rules: no padding, full contact to body, moderate contact to face (broken nose is ok, broken eye socket is too hard) That said, we wear feet and hands and use full contact to body and light to head. This is what I called moderate contact, because if you are padded, that neither uke nor tori is experiencing full contact
Posted by: Lambornima

Re: what is full contact? - 09/24/06 08:04 PM

I practice Wado Ryu at the Toronto Wado Kai Karate club. contact depends on age and rank.

at my level (junior shodan) we have medium contact. we do not have full contact.
Posted by: Gogo

Re: what is full contact? - 10/03/06 01:43 PM


HI
We also do numerous drills and sets designed to build a variety of skills.
We are a mix art of kempo-ju jitsu, kali-silat. While we will play with the idea of the tourny classic "tag your it" it is more ment for timeing and distance work, as many of the tourys in the new england area lack that full contact method anyway. We tend to lean away from teaching full contact. The truth is many of the student have real jobs where they cant go in with a busted nose, at least not weekly. I would say that less than 10% of the year is spent with full contact but we bang back and forth with count less combos and ju jitsu play 60% and forms the other 30.
Sensei say "Some pain, some gain,... all pain, then you stop the train."
Posted by: Mark Hill

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 10/10/06 07:28 AM

Quote:

Then there are humanitarian concerns for student safety

pleasantly,




A strange and frightening concept. Does not compute.

Say, you have students who come back?

Forgive the tongue in cheek, I've seen some very outdated ideas in practice, such dehydration is good for you because it teaches discipline.

Now Sensei Smith, repeat after me, "dehydration IS good for you".

We spar and we do it all, except for weapons sparring ala competitive Escrima. Sparring isn't everything though.
Posted by: Jfirearrow

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 11/04/06 01:30 AM

Yes we spar and often "free" i have to admit that though I have learned alot I with our sparring was more controled and less "free" we have had quite a few injuries and fewer people are comfortable sparring.
Posted by: TeK9

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 11/04/06 08:21 AM

1. Korean karate (Tae Kwon Do)
2. Yes
3. Full Contact Sparring

-Tek
Posted by: Stormdragon

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 11/07/06 05:57 PM

Won't your skills be very limited an much less effective in real fighting if oyu don't spar, randori or go live in some way? Thats why boxers, wrestlers, kyokushin, MT, etc. regularly spar hard and live.
Posted by: senseihonor

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 11/17/06 10:48 PM

Hi -

Style - Kempo
Spar? - Yes - yellow belt and up
Full Contact? - Controlled contact. Head shots must be light
Frequency - Not often enough. Mostly when a student asks if we can spar @ an upcoming class
Equipment - optional during class, but mouth guard is mandatory. Full gear must be worn during a grading
Posted by: Ukraine

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 11/18/06 10:34 PM

Chitoru
Posted by: MarkW

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 12/16/06 06:27 AM

1) Kyukoshin
2) Yes - Melbourne Martial Arts Centre
3) The Dojo's sparring ranges from light to full contact. It's up to the student if they want to do full contact or not.

By the way I'm a new member, I just found the site and its great.
Posted by: Pryde

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 01/05/07 12:30 PM


Style: Urban Goju
Do we spar: Yes, we wear head gear and gloves and pretty much dont hold back to much. Focus alot too the head so we get some guys with some teary eyes or just plain swollen. Its all in good fun though and everybody enjoys it. Our Sensei doesnt like us to pull punches alot also.
Posted by: olga

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 01/05/07 02:18 PM

1) Aiki Bujutsu
2) Not really.
3) We only have to fight the Black Belt instructors for our 2 Kyu and for the Shodan. It's pretty rough when the hits connect, so that means full contact, right? I had to do it once so far and it was scary.
Posted by: AdventWeasel

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 02/11/07 12:46 AM

No contact is not only possibly the most worthless thing a teacher could give to his students, but it detracts from their learning, and teaches EXTREMELY bad habits.
Posted by: l947

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 02/16/07 06:47 PM

not as much as we use to
now mostly under belts
Posted by: dojorat

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 02/26/07 03:49 PM

1 shotokan
2 yes every day in one way or another
sometimes its point sparring,sometimes its free sparring ,sometimes its partner drills ,we cant get enough.
Posted by: Yuushi

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 02/27/07 10:19 AM

1) Green Mountain Goju
2) Yes, we have light contact sparring
3) We spend 30 mins once every 2 weeks on sparring, so its not really a large focus in my dojo.

In my dojo we stress traditional kata more than anything. We rarely do breaking and only do the sparring so often.
Posted by: Curly

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 03/01/07 01:17 PM

1) Shorin-Ryu
2) Yes
3) Most of the sparring we do is traditional Kumite, but we do occasionally have special free-sparring classes on friday nights.
Posted by: webby

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 03/03/07 07:51 AM

1)shotokan
2)yes we do sparring
3)we do medium contact point stop and continuies full contacrt
Posted by: ShawnJ

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 03/10/07 11:40 PM

Quote:

Curious about the other forum members karate instruction

1) what is your stle of Karate
2) does your dojo have sparring
3) if yes, to what degree




1. Shorin-Ryu USA
2. Not free-form
3. We have mainly pre-arranged kumite. So there is little or light contact. We also have three-point arm training.
Posted by: jliu

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 03/15/07 08:08 PM

i used to study isshinryu

we had sparring, yup. it was medium-contact, you could say. but if the instructor wasn't watching, we would up it to full contact =P
Posted by: jliu

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 03/15/07 08:12 PM

i'm sorry but, what does "WTF?" stand for? just curious.

i'm pretty sure its not "what the f-bomb" =P
Posted by: mwmanvt

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 03/22/07 04:27 PM

1. Kyokushin (Global budo Karate)

2. Yes. We spar for every belt. You have to fight progressivly more opponents in a gamment to get you rnext belt.

3. Medium with pads for practice. Full with pads for belts.

Any style that does not spar at all does not prepare you for what it is like to actually have to attack and defend in real time. PUNCHING BAGS DON'T HIT BACK.
Posted by: Shinkei

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 03/27/07 08:52 PM

1) Okinawan GoJu Ryu

2) Some sparing, nothing too much

3) As for contact, it all depends on who you are training with. some friends I have been training with going on about nine years,we all use full contact on each other, others we do not... but we know we can take it.
Posted by: Kimira

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 04/04/07 01:17 AM

The dojo that I go to teaches mixed styles but the emphasis in on goju ryu.

As for sparing we do a few different styles depending on the class level starting with slow single exchange then moving to medium contact sparing and newly started is a type of fighting that is focused solely on defense and take downs. Where it is an attacker vs. a defender, which is different from normal sparing where there can be two attackers or two defenders.

Cheers
Kimira
Posted by: harlan

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 04/04/07 08:59 AM

1) what is your style of Karate

Goju

2) does your dojo have sparring

No...only light (kiso) kumite drills

3) if yes, to what degree

n/a
Posted by: whitney

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 05/16/07 05:56 PM

Shorinji Ryu is the type of karate i study
We have sparring and contact is based on mutal agreement except for there is no groin contacet.
Posted by: oversteve

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 05/21/07 08:40 PM

My style is American Kenpo.

Yes, we spar.

Medium contact.

I went to a boxing gym for a while, not long but enough to say this.

While being punched by guys full contact wearing boxing gloves I recieved a trickle of a nose bleed and was knocked down to one knee once before quitting that gym(I got married and had to quit everything that involved me... for a while.)

Anyway, while sparring medium power I have had my nose broken once and almost twice. The same thing happened both times. I juked my head into the punch that had terrific control behind it but as I drove my face into a head on collision with his fist my face got blasted harder than it did in the boxing ring.

Sure over the long haul boxers get the worst of it but with our minimal medium power gloves I got bloodied more in the dojo.

Hence, full power with those little gloves Century sells for light sparring would seem to me a peculiar thing to do.

Oh and how about that feeling between right after you get blasted in the nose and when blood gushes out. Your holding your face calling, "Break! Break!" Just trying not to get blood all over the mat. Then at work the next day with my two black eyes I answer all inquiries by saying, "Do not endeavor to understand me mortal!" LOL
Posted by: MattJ

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 05/21/07 10:54 PM

Hey Steve, I did AKK for a while, too. Sounds similar!

Although I actually got far more banged-up from SD technique practice than I ever did in sparring.
Posted by: chunky_chicken

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 05/28/07 02:19 PM

1.)
ryukyu kempo

2.)
yes

3.)
all ranges from slow light contact sparing in classes to full on contact in acctual kumite classes
Posted by: feral00

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 06/28/07 10:48 PM

1.) Hap Ki Do

2.) yes, all the time

3.) it depends on the teacher and the opponent, but mostly medium to heavy contact.
Posted by: Ice

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/08/07 01:02 PM

1. Ryukyu kempo / Modern - Combat arnis
2. YES
3. Medium - Full contact

In the beginning we do medium contact, later, after 5.kyu we progress to full contanct. Since our style includes head butts, knees, elbows, eye jabs, ear smashes, biting,foot trapping,... we must use kind of ''restraint'' in sparring and try to be somewhere between the life protecting situation and the LA LA land even its not realism which we always strive torward, sparring is very important, since if you have never been kicked or punched in a ''chaos'' situation of a sparring, never been punched with full force, no cool or ''advanced'' street, kyusho or whatever techniques will ever help you. Bulid guts and balls first, rest comes naturally later... still, we try not to overdo sparring, since one can easly fall into a sport mode, which is not what we are looking for in the martial arts.

We do empty hand, stick, knife (usually with markers), kama - with padded blades , bo, nunchaku, empty handed against weapons sparring (yeah, u loose most of the time ,... Sometimes we'd progress from stick - knife - empty hands (kick - punch - grapple - ground)...We also create scenarios, where we add different HAPV in the middle of sparring...
We also do 1:2, 1:3, ... or mass fights 20:20 or more. Now this is lots of fun. Look at the end of the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzvIkycXe0

This video shows a little bit of how we train, kata, knife, stick, kyusho-tuite, full contact kata applications,... wasnt intended to show our sparring but more of general work...still some can be seen in the beggining and at the end.

We use little to no protection gear. Mouth piece in mandatory, everything else by choice, depends on the grade of course. Few advanced students like protection gear. Otherwise we have face shield head guard,body protectors, shin guards, elbow, knee and groin guards... classical Ryukyu kempo or FMA sparring protection gear.
Posted by: grogling

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/19/07 05:26 AM

1. Zen Shin Do Karate
2. Yes. For me, sparing is an essential part of the club.
3. Contact and rules vary according to who is teaching. Normally light contact with a set of rules but sometimes medium with very few rules. Occasionally we do 'anything goes' where you are allowed to attack any person in the dojo who is fighting. This is great for teaching about peripheral vision.
Posted by: IsshinryuFanatic

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/02/07 01:16 AM

1. Isshinryu Karate
2. Yes, differant degrees of sparring are used for belt tests
3. We do what we call "Tag Sparring" Which is an open hand just touch and go sparring all the way up to medium to hard contact but never full where we whip out the pads and go to town.
Posted by: TEARNEYpupil

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/26/07 07:32 PM

1. Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karate
2. YES
3. Full contact with good control at all times
Posted by: Burnsie

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/28/07 02:52 PM

Shorinjiryu Kenkokan.

Full contact with Bogu & Men. No other protection.
Some light rendori with light contact occaisionally (maybe for a quick warm up).
Posted by: Sempeirobot

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 09/11/07 06:02 PM

Greetings to everyone on this fine site I just found!

1. Kishi Karate

2. Sparring - Yes...we call it Kumite

"Hard" Kumite is full contact sparring, which occurs at the end of most classes.

There are no pads, groin protectors, headgear, mouthguard, or any other foreign objects, except a gi and a belt to hold it together. Sometimes, however, unpadded leather gloves are used, if one's hand has an open cut, to keep from negligently spreading blood over the gi of ones opponent (which is considered disrespectful).

During "Hard" kumite, each student tries to not hit the head, groin or knees, which happens every now and then unintentionally.

New students start kumite early on. The nature of "Hard" kumite is that junior goes against senior. Senior tries to not hit junior harder than junior has been hit before, plus just a little more force to give junior the opportunity to grow (get stronger by being able to take heavier and heavier blows).

Junior, on the other hand, is expected to hit senior as hard as he or she possibly can, while still maintaining proper form.

As junior grows, senior grows as well, since he or she is taking much more punishment than he or she is giving.

There is also "slow kumite", every once in a while, which is slow motion with light contact.

Nurb, you may want to consider training Kishi Karate...it sounds right up your alley...

Unfortunately, there are only three Kishi Karate dojos in the world, Shinjo, Japan; NYC; or, Millbrook, New York.

There's probably less than two dozen students in the World who train Kishi Karate.

I live near San Francisco; so, if Nurb, or anyone else who is interested, wants to practice some of what I have learned in this style, I'd be happy to train again (haven't, since moving away from the Dojo).

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share.

Sincerely,

SempaiRobot
Posted by: stac3y

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 12/31/08 10:27 AM

1) American Karate
2) Yes; it starts about 3 weeks into each 3 month session.
3) Officially, we're light contact only, but as rank goes up, it gets more toward medium. If you want to go full on, most of the black belts are happy to comply. Control is heavily emphasized. We use head guards (required up to brown belt in class; up to black belt in tournaments), hand and foot pads. Face shields are required up to brown belt in tournaments. Groin and face are legal target areas, in addition to all the other usual ones.

Stac3y (purple belt, American Karate--testing for brown in February if my stupid ankle heals!)
Posted by: pdryan005

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/01/09 02:33 PM


Hi, I also practise SHOTOKAN (iskf) AND i AGREE WITH YOU.
Posted by: Nevinyrral

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/17/10 05:25 AM

I do shotokan and we have sparring on WKF rules
Posted by: ninpopo

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 07/19/10 07:07 AM

1) Goju Kai
2) Yes
3) Full Contact (bare fists, no protection)
Posted by: kenposan

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/05/10 10:08 PM

Okinawa Kenpo

Yes

In my last dojo, boxing head gear, chest protector, gloves, and foot gear were required. Most of us opted for shin guards as well. Contact was medium, but if you wanted to take it up a notch, most people didn't complain. Control was emphasized and a lack of control was usually met with a "lesson".
Posted by: Brusashi

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 09/03/10 10:51 PM

1) American Kenpo Karate
2) Yes! but it is some what infrequent
3) Medium mostly. I did full contact with my Sensei a couple of times....boy did I hurt!

I really like sparring, as we all know, sparring is what helps us sharpen and hone our skills! One needs sparring as well as technique work, foot work, and time allotted for forms/kata. It really shows in your karate if you don't devote sufficient amount of time doing either one of these.

Watch out for Mcdojos if you mention the S word (sparring) it will make most "Masters" take another S word (not sparring) in their pants.
Posted by: shujika

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 03/07/11 09:26 AM


Wow, just quickly scanning the responses, it appears that most DO spar (in some form). I Teach RyuTe, though the system (and the majority of schools within it) does do sparring, it's (usually) of the Bogu type (full body protection, Head, gloves, chest protection). Strikes are full power, and “points” are only scored if/when the recipient is sufficiently “rocked” and/or knocked down.
I don't include sparring in my own classes though. What I teach is limited to “self-protection”, which “sparring” would be counter-productive to. Though many would disagree, I don't feel that sparring adds anything to learning to protect one's self. The argument of learning to “take a punch” is BS. Sparring is a sport, there is no correlation to reality contained within it. When I was younger I enjoyed participating in it, but I had no illusions about it being anything but “playing”. Sparring has NO similarities to a Real confrontation. For “us”(in RyuTe), it doesn't allow for 90% of the technique's we practice, and actually trains the participant to perform actions contradictory to what RyuTe endorses.
Although I don't condone student participation in sparring, I don't restrict it either. I've never encountered any discernible advantage obtained by those student's that do (participate in sparring), but I have (regularly) found that those student's (who do) have a more difficult time with the technique's and methodologies that we practice. Sparring, is a sport, that's all fine and good, but it has nothing to do with reality. To fall into the belief that it does, is delusional and miss-leading. As I stated, if you participate in it for the “sport”(entertainment) aspect, that's fine (and it is “fun”, LOL). But to believe it necessary to learning to protect one's self is “silly”.
Posted by: Enshin4Life

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/25/11 12:02 AM

Enshin Karate
You can't learn Enshin without contact. It just wouldn't work. Kind of like non contact BJJ...FAIL!
Full contact sparring. No head punches. Shin guards compulsory, grappling gloves, cup and mouth guard optional. Chest guard compulsory for the girls. Enshin is different to other styles, in that there is a lot of grabbing and takedowns. Doing drills is great for learning the techniques, but it's not until you apply it at full speed and power do you learn how to really apply it. Coming from a background in a style that is very linear, and going to Enshin which is very angular, I've found that in sparring I tend to revert back to linear fighting. Sparring is allowing me to work through that. I do the drills perfectly, but go back to my old ways in sparring. Sparring is helping me improve that, and helping me to adjust to the speed at which you must react to make it work. Your skill isn't tested until it has been put against an uncooperative opponent who is fighting back with full speed and power.
Posted by: Dobbersky

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 08/26/11 12:10 PM

Originally Posted By: Enshin4Life
Enshin Karate
You can't learn Enshin without contact. It just wouldn't work. Kind of like non contact BJJ...FAIL!
Full contact sparring. No head punches. Shin guards compulsory, grappling gloves, cup and mouth guard optional. Chest guard compulsory for the girls. Enshin is different to other styles, in that there is a lot of grabbing and takedowns. Doing drills is great for learning the techniques, but it's not until you apply it at full speed and power do you learn how to really apply it. Coming from a background in a style that is very linear, and going to Enshin which is very angular, I've found that in sparring I tend to revert back to linear fighting. Sparring is allowing me to work through that. I do the drills perfectly, but go back to my old ways in sparring. Sparring is helping me improve that, and helping me to adjust to the speed at which you must react to make it work. Your skill isn't tested until it has been put against an uncooperative opponent who is fighting back with full speed and power.


Excellent to chat to another Knockdown Karate stylist. Welcome to the Forum

You forget Ashihara Karate, there are a few of us on here!

Note without Ashihara Karate, Enshin would not exist, Kancho Ashihara was Kancho Ninomiya's Sensei

OSU!!!

Maybe when you chatting about styles do as I do and mention all 3 Knockdown styles (Kyokushin, Ashihara & Enshin) as we all fight a similar way, we are closely related and we all enter competitions held by the each other Organisations.

Osu!
Posted by: Mr White Belt

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 10/22/11 07:21 PM

Style-Kyokushin
Sparring-Non-Contact
My rank-white belt 1 red stripe
Posted by: Ives

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 10/24/11 05:44 AM

Originally Posted By: shujika

Bogu type (full body protection, Head, gloves, chest protection). Strikes are full power, and points are only scored if/when the recipient is sufficiently rocked and/or knocked down.
[...]

Bogu is what we do aswell. Although we don't use gloves. We use the Anzen-Bogu as developed by Hisataka (founder of Koshiki - Shorinjiryu Kenkokan).

Originally Posted By: shujika

What I teach is limited to self-protection, which sparring would be counter-productive to. Though many would disagree, I don't feel that sparring adds anything to learning to protect one's self. The argument of learning to take a punch is BS. Sparring is a sport, there is no correlation to reality contained within it.
[...]

I do agree that most sparring is sport. However there are certain parts of bogu-kumite that can be beneficial to self-defense.
For example the coping with high adrenalin levels because you know your opponent in bogu-kumite is striking full-power, even to the face.
The fact that you try to hit an opponent in a dynamic setting, unlike in most yakusoku-kumite.
Hitting your opponent with bare fists and feet on a hard surface (the bogu surface is quite hard, especially the faceshield) conditions your 'weapons'; hand and feet. Bad techniques get punished by the hard surfaces of the bogu-equipement.

Originally Posted By: shujika

Sparring has NO similarities to a Real confrontation.
[...]

Dealing with high adrenalin levels and being in a dynamic 'fight' are similar to a real confrontation. (It isn't copy-paste of a real confrontation, but can get close to it.)

Originally Posted By: shujika

Sparring, is a sport, that's all fine and good, but it has nothing to do with reality. To fall into the belief that it does, is delusional and miss-leading. As I stated, if you participate in it for the "sport"entertainment aspect, that's fine (and it is "fun", LOL). But to believe it necessary to learning to protect one's self is silly.

Fun: can be, I find it so.
Necessary: no.
Needed: a propper mindset. In my mind, during kumite, my opponent is trying to end me. It's up to me, to beat him to it.

My fists and feet are toughend by the bogu-kumite we practice. I know I can depend on them and my techniques in a real confrontation, where I might hit a hard part on my opponents body. (In contrast; some boxing champs made news with the ill-effects of always using boxing mitts.)

So my conclusion reads: Sparring can aid in dealing with real confrontations. It depends on how you train, both physically and mentally.
Posted by: Ronin1966

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 01/15/17 03:18 PM

Ancient thread, why not...

1) Unimportant really. Shorin-ryu heritage sufficient?
2) Yup, begins ONLY at intermediate ranks... not before then. Throw people into a meat grinder, they survive not learn good technique.
3) Excellent choice of words. Actual words, must be used between all partners. You want to go harder say so. You feel in danger because I'm too intense SAY so. You can practice technique within reason. Too intense, or dangerously intense, you must speak up. And the instructor must intervene when/if necessary.
Posted by: cxt

Re: Little survey: Does your dojo have sparring? - 01/16/17 08:02 PM

Light sparring, light gloves. Up to heavy sparring with the full bogu.

Results seem to be, no pun intended "hit and miss" I notice that the guys that practice the bogu the most often tend to ignore shots that will really hurt as they are "used to" the bogu catching it.

I to note people dropping out due to sparring incidents that didn't need to happen. And wouldn't have with better communication.