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| Sparring Drills |
| This section addresses the following core issues: |
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This guide is not meant to be the ultimate word on sparring. It has been designed to be used in conjunction with on-going hands-on training. Any questions that are raised for you after reading this section should be discussed with your Instructor.
Given the information following, with regular technical, tactical and talent training, sparring can become a fun and challenging endeavor, rather than the sometimes frightening drill that it appears to beginners.
Sparring is fighting limited by certain restrictions that are designed to protect participants from injury. The purpose of Sparring is to improve one's general fighting capabilities.
Limitations and restrictions to fighting that make it "Sparring" include:
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Protective Equipment |
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Mutually Agreed Engagement (Desire, Time & Location) |
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Timed Rounds |
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Off-Limits Targets |
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Point Scoring Systems |
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Limited Range of Permissible Techniques |
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Referees |
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Safety Considerations for Opponent |
Other factors that make Sparring different from real combat (unlimited fighting) include:
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Opponent reaction to technique is not the same |
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(Because of protective equipment) |
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Mental State in Sparring is not the same |
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(More emotional in real fight) |
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After effects are not the same |
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(Real fighting can result in permanent injuries or loss of life) |
So with all these differences to real fighting, why do we spar to improve our fighting?
When you first learnt to swim, it is possible that you may have been instructed to practice the techniques of Breast-Stroke, Back-Stroke, Freestyle, Butterfly, Side-Stroke and Dog-Paddle on dry land before entering a pool to practice them for real. Chances are, however, that this was a very short lived phase of your swimming instruction, and rather quickly you were encouraged to enter the water and try out the "strokes" in the pool (under supervision, of course). While practicing strokes on dry land might be considered a necessary first step by some Instructors, no one would consider this kind of training effective for producing swimmers on its own. It is necessary to enter the water if one is going to learn how to really swim, and not just perform simulated swimming (or a "swimming dance.") Fighting is like swimming, one must get wet in order to be able to perform it effectively. For a martial artist, the best way to get wet, short of knocking over a few patrons' beers at the local tavern (not advised), is to spar.
Sparring, like swimming, can take many forms. You can swim in the baby's pool, Olympic pool, diving pool, surf, local river or tributary, in the middle of the ocean, or in an aquarium at Sea World. Likewise, you can spar with or without protective equipment; light, semi or full contact; with heavy restrictions on technique, or with few; with defined roles (of attacker or defender), or no roles; against a set number of attacks, (like Karate's famous one, two and three step sparring), or with no restrictions on the number of attacks, just time constraints; alone or in teams; in a training uniform or in street clothes; in a ring or in a simulated street environment.
Even with all these different forms however, Sparring is not real combat. Sparring is not real combat in the same way that any form of recreational swimming or swimming training, is not the same as swimming for your life while caught in a rip at the beach. However, Sparring is the training activity that comes closest to real unlimited fighting, and this is its primary benefit for the aspiring martial artist.
Sparring, because it is a limited kind of fighting, develops many of the skills you will need for real unlimited combat. There are some skills such as timing, distancing, balance recovery, mobility, adaptability to unforeseen and challenging circumstances, and hitting moving (uncooperative) targets, that remain constant whether fighting is limited (as is the case with Sparring) or unlimited (as is the case with real combat). Therefore, although Sparring is not real combat, it will help you to improve your real combat capabilities.
A final reason for making Sparring drills the focus of martial arts training arises around the issue of cooperation between participants. While most martial art training exercises in traditional Dojos involve little or lots of cooperation between participants, Sparring simulates real fighting by offering much greater degrees of non-cooperative, even competitive opportunities that tax each participants' abilities to perform skillfully. Sparring drills enhance a student's ability to adapt to new circumstances - a necessity for real fighting capability. It is for this reason that Sparring is an essential practice for martial artists who don't only want to look good, but also want to be good.
Because the development of protective equipment has only been a relatively recent phenomenon, many of our martial arts predecessors had restricted opportunities to spar. There have been four main traditional solutions to the problem of being unable to Spar.
Firstly, martial artists would challenge practitioners from other styles or traditions to actual combat. In such contests, the winner was usually the survivor, unless the opponent submitted. (Such a training method is not recommended, and certainly saw Dojo numbers decline…)
A second solution involved the development of training exercises that were sufficiently non-cooperative to allow for some feeling of limited fighting. The "sticking hands" exercises of Southern Chinese Kung-Fu systems are such an exercise. They allow for the development of contact reflex for close quarters fighting, but are range limited, and thus don't support unlimited fighting in its entirety.
A third solution was the development of wooden man dummies (also a Kung-Fu invention), which could be struck as if a real opponent. Short of your Instructor or training partner moving the man around, this method really offered conditioning of the body, as opposed to training in "free fighting."
The final solution was to spar "without contact." While this method of sparring allowed our martial art predecessors to practice some non-cooperative fighting skills, as a method, it can see the development in a practitioner of poor distancing and timing habits which can be exploited by more experienced fighters, and conditions them to "pull short" in real situations. Although it can be useful for practicing techniques impossible to perform while wearing the mandatory equipment required for safe full contact sparring, non-contact sparring should only be used as part of a much greater program involving "full contact," and "semi-contact" Sparring drills. Alone, non-contact training will not produce the responsiveness to a real opponent that is necessary for street survival.
Full Contact Sparring also offers another important advantage over its non-contact predecessor, it assists the martial artist to become calm and relaxed about being hit. The shock of being hit for the martial artist who has only trained in non-contact methods, can offer an opponent a deadly advantage in a real situation. By experiencing full contact blows (through protective equipment) during contact Sparring, the practitioner overcomes any tendency to enter into shock when being struck by a blow on the street. Thus, while our Academy may use non-contact sparring drills for the development of speed reactions, or the simulation of techniques impossible to apply through Sparring equipment, it does so only as part of an integrated training system that places the majority of emphasis on contact non-cooperative sparring drills.
As has been already discussed, there are differences between Sparring and the experience of real fighting. Sparring is a fighting activity limited by certain internally and externally imposed conditions. Real fighting never has the same restrictions. (Although some individuals may have moral beliefs or cognitive & affective conflicts that result in internal restrictions on their expression of their fighting skills).
At our Academy, students are moved through a series of sparring drills which act as scaffolds. According to Wood, Bruner & Ross (1976:90) "scaffolding consists essentially of the adult controlling those elements of the task that are intially beyond the learner's capacity, thus permitting him [sic] to concentrate upon and complete only those elements that are within his range of competence." While the martial artist desires to be a fully competent "fighter," s/he - as a beginner - will be unable to manage it in its entirety. Thus, in Combat Kungfu training the teacher will scaffold "fighting" by having the students spar under very limited conditions. As they improve and progress, restrictive conditions are lifted, and Sparring becomes relatively more unlimited.
Training at the Combat Kungfu Academy goes beyond the limitations of specific "styles" of martial art ("style" being a preference for certain tools, techniques, talents, ranges or tactics), by offering instruction - and Sparring experiences - in all four ranges of unarmed combat, and all four tactical sets. By working with these fundamentals, and encouraging free exploration, the student is encouraged to become a martial artist (and strategist) who is capable of generating an appropriate response for any self-protection situation they may find themselves in.
Throughout their training, students will experience three kinds of sparring drills:
Isolation Drills
Opponents are limited to single attacks,
single strategies,
or single fighting ranges.
Integration Drills
Opponents use all available ranges
and all combat tactics.
Simulation Drills
Opponents spar under a range of conditions
based on manipulating the variables of:
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Ten - Heaven
Climatic (Weather) Conditions
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Chi - Earth
Environmental (Surface & Space) Conditions
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Jin - Man
Number of Opponents
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This means that under restricted "non-cooperative" conditions, each person has the opportunity to improve their technical and tactical proficiency. During simulations, students must apply their fundamental technical and tactical capabilities in new and demanding situations.
In order to make the best use of your Sparring sessions, it is necessary to cover a few important areas of physical preparation. Good physical preparation will minimize injury and maximize benefit. It should include:
Fitness & Endurance Training
Endurance is the capability of the body to resist fatigue while performing a prolonged, relatively strenuous activity. Sparring is obviously an activity that demands endurance. There are two types of endurance that concern martial arts: muscular and aerobic. To improve muscular endurance, martial artists should practice any exercise that increases their ability to persist in localized muscle group activities (related to striking, kicking or grappling) for long periods of time. For aerobic endurance (cardio-vascular respiratory fitness), defined as the body's ability to absorb and assimilate oxygen to meet energy requirements while under excessive physical loads, it is necessary to raise the heart beat to sixty percent of its maximum level, for a period of twenty-five minutes, three times per week.
The perfect exercise for developing both muscular and aerobic endurance is shadowboxing. By shadowboxing to timed rounds, perhaps with light hand-held weights, the martial artist is able to persist in a specific localized muscular activity (Kickboxing) while developing cardio-vascular respiratory fitness. The martial artist might also like to add speed ball, floor-to-ceiling ball, and heavy bag work into the routine for greater gains and more variety. Additionally, isometric simulations of grappling holds on a wooden dummy can help develop fitness for grappling encounters. Fitness stops many injuries from occurring, and aids in quick recovery if they do occur. You must be fit if you want to spar safely.
| Flexibility Development |
Flexibility may be defined as the ability of a joint to operate through its full range of motion, determined by the level s of relaxation or tension in the muscle tissues connected to the joint. Flexibility reduces the incidence of soft tissue injuries, muscle soreness, and improves performance. Flexibility is best developed by static and/or PNF stretching methods.
Static Stretching means gently extending a muscle to the point where resistance is felt, then maintaining this position for thirty seconds, which triggers adaptive mechanisms (to make this new range of motion the joint's "norm.")
PNF Stretching is a more sophisticated stretching technique, and is often performed with a partner for good effect. In a PNF stretch, you extend a muscle to its point of resistance, then isometrically contract the muscle (tense it) for a few seconds. This is followed by relaxing the muscle, then stretching it a little further, to the next point of resistance. At this second point of resistance, the stretch is held for around ten seconds then released. This method of stretching has been found to produce the greatest gains in flexibility due to its ability to use natural muscle reflexes to trick the system into relaxing and adapting to greater ranges of motion.
It is important to take it easy when stretching. Flexibility needs to be developed at a safe pace. Since it involves muscles adapting to new ranges of motion, it cannot be forced. Never, never, NEVER use ballistic or bouncing methods to stretch muscles. Ballistic methods often force the muscle being stretched beyond its limits, triggering muscle reflexes that actually contract and shorten the muscle in order to protect it from injury. Thus, ballistic methods limit rather than increase your range of motion in associated muscle groups. Additionally, inflexible scar tissue may form if a muscle tears from over extension. To avoid this problem, only stretch when warmed up. (This is one reason for leaving serious stretching till the end of class. A second reason for doing so is that it helps circulation, and thus reduces the muscle soreness that can result from hard training, as lactic acids and tissue wastes are transported away).
| Impact Conditioning |
There are two basic types of IMPACT that can be received in any fight.
A Shocking Impact occurs when a technique is snapped out and back, and is not allowed to fully penetrate a target. This may occur deliberately as a result of "pulling" the blow, or undesirably as the result of your opponent backing away or rolling with the blow, not allowing its full force to be transmitted.
A Breaking Impact occurs as the result of a follow-through motion after a strike connects with a target. It will either knock the opponent's body away, or cause the opponent's body to move only slightly as it collapses as a result of internal injuries (broken bones or crushed tissues).
Good fighters often use snapping strikes to shock the opponent, and breaking strikes to finish them off.
When a person gets hit in a fight for the first time, the impact sends shock waves through their nervous system, and the brain responds by telling the body to give up, to stop this punishment. If on the other hand, a person's body is accustomed to impact, then it is not as big a deal to get hit. In other words, you won't go into a coma every time you're slapped.
Impact Conditioning is the use of partner "punishment" drills, or muscular development (& breath control) programs such as "Stone Warrior" or "Iron Shirt" to assist you in developing resistance to the "shocking" effects of impact. Besides adding to your ability to see a fight through to the defeat of your opponent, Impact Conditioning also allows you to maintain a "poker face" should you be hit hard, masking the pain or injury you received from the preying eyes of your opponent. This stops him from being able to formulate tactics that seek to progressively work you down through pain (because he will now feel he can't hurt you), or take advantage of your injuries by attempting to hurt you further.
The type of impact you create with a specific tool or technique can vary (both in Sparring and real combat) because of a number of factors:
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the constitution of the object being struck |
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the appropriateness of your delivery system (power dynamics) |
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and body tool for the target, and the results desired |
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your attitude and "mental focusing" ability |
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the movement of the target toward or away from the blow |
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the material you are wearing on your hands or feet (gloves, pads, shoes, etc.) |
| Tool Sharpening |
Your fighting techniques (punches, kicks, chokes, throws, locks, limb-destructions, etc.) should be looked upon as your combat "tools," in much the same way as a carpenter uses a saw and plane as his tools.
Just as a carpenter doesn't use a blunt saw, so you should aim to use only techniques that you've sharpened through continual practice. Only by continually practicing and improving your techniques - regardless of your rank - will they stay "sharp."
Tool sharpening can include shadowboxing; partner attack, defence, and counterattack drills; heavy bag work; focus mitt work; contact and eye reflex drills; and supplementary body strengthening and conditioning methods (such as Weight Lifting or External Iron Shirt Dynamic Tension Sets).
This section has been adapted from Charles A. Selberg (1976) Foil. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, pp105-108.
It becomes evident to anyone who engages in sparring, that one may know how and when to execute a specific action, but to actually effect it against a real and uncooperative adversary is a far different matter. When practicing a specific action such as a block or strike in a noncompetitive training exercise, technique is easy to perform. However, when confronted with an aggressive sparring situation the simplest movements are suddenly transformed into clumsy, awkward gestures that can hardly be identified. The reason for this frustrating experience is simple. Every beginning martial artist hates to be scored against out of a fear of losing or humiliation. In a frantic effort not to lose, emotions take over, causing the individual to overreact and become rigid. In this state of nervous excitement, relaxed, fluid, economic movement is not possible.
The first major reality the student must accept is that winning is not a central issue in sparring. It is the distaste for losing which prevents well-executed technique even in low-pressured recreational sparring circumstances. The beginning martial artist must learn to temper ego involvement. Hits against oneself must be accepted as part of the learning experience if sparring practice is to be a genuinely constructive experience.
When sparring, it is of paramount importance that the fighter learn to control his or her mental disposition, preventing overreactions to the aggressive demands of the opponent. Otherwise he or she will enter into a frenzy of panic-stricken strikes which abandon all sensible approaches to a real combat advantage. Or the opposite reaction may result: one may withdraw into a defensive shell, rooted to the floor in a state of near shock, where the most rudimentary techniques become impossible to perform. Regardless of whether a compulsive reaction is offensive or defensive, it will mean certain defeat when sparring against an opponent who maintains true mental balance.
Everyone who spars has experienced this initial reaction to the unique competitive pressure that sparring creates. It is by overcoming the tendency to overreact that the fighter discovers a path to skilled execution of techniques which produce satisfactory scoring results. The fighter is ultimately training to achieve a mental balance under pressure, where a free use of offensive and defensive strategies becomes possible. Mental Balance provides the only means by which the fighter can effectively respond to the lightning-fast offensive and defensive demands of a skilled opponent. It is from mental balance that the fighter gains the capability to release at a split-second notice a totally aggressive or totally defensive answer to an opponent's intentions. This balanced view is not victimized by its own aggressive or defensive energy but rather uses these energy polarities freely, according to the dictates of a given situation. In other words, the fighter learns to control his or her energy, releasing it only when it appears to be an effective means to a scoring advantage. Failing to do so wastes energy, leaving the fighter exhausted, frustrated, and defeated after only a few minutes of sparring.
Sparring sessions offer the conscientious fighter the best opportunity to practice mental balance, control of energy, and perfection of technique while actually engaging in fighting practice. If one's mental state is too defensive, one will overreact to the adversary's slightest offensive movements, while attacks will be difficult to perform and at best ill-timed. If one's mental state is overly aggressive, one's blocks will be heavy-handed and insensitive, while the attacks will waste energy, lack point control, and score on everything but the desired target. Each fighter must use the sparring session as a means to fighting self-discovery. It is here that negative habits and technique are exposed and corrected for tactical advantage.
The changing nature of sparring interaction demands that the mental disposition of each fighter be flexible and ready to formulate new tactics at a moment's notice. With each scoring hit the strategy of the bout changes, for it is unlikely that one may score against an aware opponent twice in succession with the same action. For this reason, fixed ideas and preformulated strategies are of little value. Technique which may be effective one moment is virtually guaranteed not to work the next. In many instances, particularly when the fear of losing is in the back of one's mind, there is the danger that one may read strengths into the adversary's game that may in fact be nonexistent. The fighter may well find himself or herself sparring against a projection of personal imagination instead of the opponent, who is really there and who will happily take advantage of any misunderstanding. Conversely, having scored a hit or two, the fighter may read weaknesses into the opponent's game, assuming that victory is a foregone conclusion. Armed with this preconceived "victory" the fighter may underestimate the adversary's strength and ability to change. This syndrome is well known and is frequently the reason for a fighter's starting off strongly and finishing in defeat.
One's sparring partner should be used as an educational tool, serving as a reality check to one's fighting development. A good sparring partner is always alert and ready to let one know where one's weaknesses lie. It is strongly recommended that one spar a wide variety of fighters each sparring session. The broader the variety of sparring experience one can gain, the faster one's capabilities will mature.
Safety equipment that protects participants from injury during sparring sessions is mandatory. Protective equipment reduces the impact shock each combatant has to face, stopping many injuries which would otherwise occur even in light sparring.
From the first stage of their training, students are required to have:
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Mouth Guard
Boxing Gloves (10 or 12 Ounce Recommended)
Shin & Instep Guards
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Other optional equipment includes:
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Groin Guard (Men)
Chest Protector (Women)
Head Guard
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Sparring equipment is available from sports and martial arts supply shops or through the Academy, and should be purchased at a student's earliest convenience.
The Combat Kungfu Academy usually has spare gloves available for new recruits, however, for hygiene reasons it is requested that all other students bring their own equipment to classes.