Recently i've been reading alot of posts, and noticing that there seems to be alot of general resentment towards sparring as a device for learning. It seems that many feel that there is no place in TKD for sparring, since it has not practical purpose within the art. I beg to strongly disagree, with one exception, sparring as a sport demands that one pulls their punches so to speak, and many moves that one would use for self defense are not used, since obviously they are intended to severally injure the attacker.

All these reasons aside, sparring teaches one thing that self defense training alone will not teach. Sparring teaches to watch you to move fast, to respond to counter. I've been in a few street fighting situations (No im not a gunslinger looking for trouble, I am a medic and run into alot of situations where we find oureselves in bad parts of town, in bad situations), and i know how fast things begin and end, in just a matter of seconds, having that skill of moving fast and responding and defending, i think is very helpful. Sparring teaches skill, accuracy, and responding to an attacker.

Does this general resentment towards sparring exist all across the board?

hi
I enjoy sparing. The problem is that everytime i spar i have to spar the black belts due to my size. I find myself being countered when i do pretty much every kick. Is there anything i can do to remerdy this?

I spar with pads, full contact, Olympic rules, 2 x per week, usually 3-3-4 min rounds, with higher belts. It makes a big difference. You learn application of techniques, footwork, distancing, timing, courage, controlled aggression. It gives you a way to think about applying what you learn in regular TKD class. Sparring is similar to drilling in the military. You fight like you train. When its on--you're ready.

I think sparring is the best way to train for real world fights, so long as you do it right. My school, for instance, uses thin shin and nuckle guards and is full contact (except there's no punching to the face or kicking the groin), and that seems to work very well.

JesusTheNinja-

You have the best username I've seen thus far. I think you deserve a prize.

I'll seccond that FoolsGold.

Chris

Haha. This is the fourth fourm I've been to that's said that.

Sparring teaches us how to conduct the many techniques we've learnt on a movng opponent. From sparring we gain the nessecary range skills.

Sparring is also a very good workout, if done properly.

Unfortunately in drilling 'sport' skills such as pulling punches and kicks, they don't become the gross motor skills that we need to rely on in a real fight situation.

For instance, my fastest and prefered technique when sparring is a front leg hooking kick. In fact I've won most of my titles using that technique. However, all this technique would do on the street is make my opponent more agressive.

I know a lot of TKD'ers that think that sparring enhances peripheral vision, but anyone in a fight situation will tell you that the adrenaline dump causes tunnel vision.

Also remember that sparring is conducted by two consenting individuals sticking to the same rules. In the street it doesn't happen that way.

Sparring is good, but it's not for the 'street arena'.

You have to ask yourself why you study TKD. If it's for sport and art, then TKD's got everything. If it's for street combat, then you need to think again - you will need to change your training to include pressure tests and tweak your techniques accordingly.

Atb,

Gaffer.

[This message has been edited by Gaffer (edited 10-16-2004).]

I think Gaffer as it about right, sparring is a good training device for may skills but it is not fighting in a true sence as you are not in danger (I hope not anyway!) of being badly injured if you slip up. Also rules for safety and fair play reduce your need to be ready for good fighting techniques which are not allowed. I have seen this many times when students from different schools or styles spar and come up against new things and are generally unable to handle these due to their habits developed in training. An eye gouged out or a joint dislocation a very effective ways to end a fight but are not nice to the victim and rightfully banned from sparring.