Greetings all!
Because of scheduling difficulties, I am no longer able to continue practicing BJJ (for now). After some research and lurking, I found a KM place nearby, which, fortunately, is something I'm able to do on regular basis without conflict.

Here's the question: what kind of sparring is involved in a KM class and at what level of intensity? The one thing I especially like about BJJ is sparring against a resisting opponent. I understand you can only go so far (barring eye gouging, biting, etc..) but I'm very curious to know what's involved in KM sparring.

Thanks in advance!

No offense, but the best way to answer that question is trying a class. Usually, schools offer the first class free and that will give you a better idea if that is what you are looking for. However, being a newbie, they might not have you spar right away. But the training intensity is quite high. Our school is relatively new, and we don't do sparring yet. But when working self defense, the intensity is high and as close to reality as possible without hurting each other too bad..:)

Hi. I don't know what other Krav places do, but our Krav facility has sparring for yellow belts (level 2) and up. Our fight classes incorporate both stand up fighting and groundfighting. Please take into account the fact that I'm pretty new to fight class, so my perceptions of our classes may not be completely accurate.

Intensity-- Each drill is at a different level of intensity depending on what we are working on. Some times we work on drills to learn how to read punches, block, or bob and weave, and for those, we start slow, and then speed up. When we spar at the end of fight class, we are supposed to spar at 60% or 80% (or something I forget). It is hard to gauge the intensity when you are just beginning. I think skill at that will come with experience.

If people hit too hard or get too aggressive, the instructor tells them to tone it down, and the students will also tell each other how much intensity they want.

For the ground fighting, it is the same. Both people are resisting as much as possible without truly hurting their partners.

We also do scenarios to incorporate stand up and ground fighting.

Hope this helps.

Thank you both, that's good to hear and I'll be signing up for my intro sometime next week (the club is closed for religious obligations). I appreciate your thoughts.

As an aside, I have been intrigued about KM sometime ago when Sandy Holt did a muay thai seminar at our academy and in attendance was a guy who had been practicing KM for almost a year. Eventually, we broke into pairs for pad training and the KM guy had some heavy strikes. His standup was spot-on.

In my class the sparring is done in a tempo set by the pair doing the sparring. We're allowed to bite!!!

I havn't personally done KM but I will commence soon. From what I hear the intensity is pretty high, ranging from boxing level intesity with various distractions such as blowhorns and whistles to train you to fight the stress factor and stay focused. Again if this seems wierd format or misplaced i am sorry for i just made an account.