Striking "alive"

**Ke?poFist** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 12:15am

Originally Posted by j416to

You could buy some head gear with either a full face mask or a clear plastic shield. That would give them the experience of being punched in the face, without the nasty side effects of a bloody nose or black eyes.

Oh there's an idea. I forgot that some of those point sparring headgears can come with faceshields. I'm gonna have to put an order in for a few of those. Thanks!

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 12:16am

Originally Posted by j416to

You could buy some head gear with either a full face mask or a clear plastic shield. That would give them the experience of being punched in the face, without the nasty side effects of a bloody nose or black eyes.

ya know, in all the zillions of times I've sparred I've only had two occassions of a bruised face, and I bruise rather easily. I've only ever had a very minor nose bleed from sparring. My legs look beat to hell, but that's not really a big deal.

Really, people who are into martial arts need to stop being such major fucking wusses. Sparring isn't even all that "hard core".

**Ke?poFist** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 12:21am

Originally Posted by Kidspatula

ya know, in all the zillions of times I've sparred I've only had two occassions of a bruised face, and I bruise rather easily. I've only ever had a very minor nose bleed from sparring. My legs look beat to hell, but that's not really a big deal.

Really, people who are into martial arts need to stop being such major fucking wusses. Sparring isn't even all that "hard core".

Hey, we've become a nation of wusses (assuming you live in the US...I didn't check your location before I started typing and it's too late to turn back now). Personally I don't feel like wasting my time teaching them, but for now the money's good and I get a nice clean padded place to train or fight whenever I want for free.

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 12:23am

Originally Posted by KempoFist

Hey, we've become a nation of wusses (assuming you live in the US...I didn't check your location before I started typing and it's too late to turn back now). Personally I don't feel like wasting my time teaching them, but for now the money's good and I get a nice clean padded place to train or fight whenever I want for free.

well, if they're not willing to do it right, I wouldn't waste my time trying to come up with ways to substitute sparring with some sort of alive-esque drill.

EDIT: and yes, I do realize the horrible state of the martial hobbiest. Even in my muay thai class we have people who've been coming for a good part of a year and refuse to spar. I personally think sparring should be a requirement of the class, but whatever, I'm not trying to run a business.

**Ke?poFist** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 1:02am

Originally Posted by Kidspatula

well, if they're not willing to do it right, I wouldn't waste my time trying to come up with ways to substitute sparring with some sort of alive-esque drill.

EDIT: and yes, I do realize the horrible state of the martial hobbiest. Even in my muay thai class we have people who've been coming for a good part of a year and refuse to spar. I personally think sparring should be a requirement of the class, but whatever, I'm not trying to run a business.

Wow...I've never trained in Muay Thai or known anyone that's actually done it at a real school....I always kinda figured that bagwork and sparring was all there was to those classes. What else do they do? Hold hands and dance?

***Cassius*** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 1:08am

Originally Posted by KempoFist

Wow...I've never trained in Muay Thai or known anyone that's actually done it at a real school....I always kinda figured that bagwork and sparring was all there was to those classes. What else do they do? Hold hands and dance?

Well, there's that whole learning techniques stuff . . . Learning the clinch game, how to do the myriad knees properly, learning how to throw proper punches, kicks, combinations, etc.

Beyond that, there's massive amounts of strategy to be learned.

**Ke?poFist** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 1:17am

Originally Posted by Garbanzo Bean

Well, there's that whole learning techniques stuff . . . Learning the clinch game, how to do the myriad knees properly, learning how to throw proper punches, kicks, combinations, etc.

Beyond that, there's massive amounts of strategy to be learned.

:5oops:

...alright I worded that wrong. I didn't mean that there was nothing else to learn. I just figured that learning all of those techniques was done mostly in sparring or on bags when they first learn them. I figured that after at least the first week you had to start fighting like it or not.

**SunTzu** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 1:24am

You can't substitute anything in place of good sparring in my opinion. The gym I'm at often puts new guys in immediately, although in the beginning classes the contact level isn't too high. I would think it's impossible to develop the proper timing and footwork without actually exercising those attributes.

**Astrosmurf** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 2:03am

I agree with what most people are syaing: It is usually best for noobs to spar first with quite experienced partners. Let them build up confidence in that they wont get seriously hurt and increase the level of contact/speed etc as their confidence and abilities grow. The only thing that will make someone get to terms with a dislike to get hit in the face is to get hit in the face with a gradual build up of contact. (I remeber when I was a noob my instructor sometimes just put his glove in my face and kept it there chasing me around the room as I ineptly tried to move away)

**Astrosmurf** · Posted On: 2/01/2006 2:12am

And I think you should stay away from face guards, they will only drag out the process. (Sometimes its fun with full headgear if you want to elbow, headbutt, knee etc to the head with full power and high speed. Peripheral vision usually gets fucked though so standing fighting becomes a little strange.)