Not all chinese martial artists want to spar.

**bobyclumsyninja** · Posted On: 6/09/2007 2:24pm

Originally Posted by new2bjj

There is a large segment of people who get into martial arts because they didn't know how to fight effectively, myself included. Those people run up against the other segment, that could fight, and then, the hard reality sets in, that there is no magic bullet (except for a real bullet!) and that those guys that were naturally athletic, stronger or faster, still dominate them.The only solution is hard work and training- that's no fun, and also, the wimpy guy, has to put all out effort to keep pace with the athlete, who is coasting. Imagine the shock when, after all those years of training in TKD or Wado or JJJ, and some guy just throws a well placed combo and floor them. Back to the Chi balls! There must be a better way/system, and I just didn't practice hard enough, etc. The truth is, there are only a few ways to become proficient, and they all involve hard work and pain.

man, that describes me well. I took ugly punches today from 3 very tough and talented people. I gave a little out to 3 others kickboxing. Good form and control is stressed all the time in class, and so I have to be willing to "get decked" by some of the senior students, to aquire skill. It's the hardest thing in the world to keep a cool head, and good control after a couple of good hooks/uppercuts to the mellon. I don't judge the success of sparring class by how much I hurt the others, but what I confronted during the echanges in order to better myself, and toughen up.

**hurricane88** · Posted On: 6/11/2007 6:32am

I think that the most important things from sparring are: overcoming the fear of getting hit, gaining the composure to purposefully hit someone (even if that person is your 10 year best bud), and learning how to be more observant to how your opponent moves and thinks in reaction to you. However, once this threshold is past, I don't think that sparring is completely essential for self-defense. Just my thoughts though, which are of the guy who has been out of the martial arts for a year due to an injury and desperately wants to get back to it. :)

**EmetShamash** · Posted On: 6/11/2007 9:28am

In order to learn to fight, you must fight. When learning anything that is in relation to fighting, in order to learn it properly, you must be able to perform said skills against a non-compliant, fully resisting opponent. You don't have to spar every day to be good at fighting, but if you don't use a skill for a long time...

btw- What does the 88 in your name mean to you?