So, I need some advice from the Bullshido community. This post will be long, for which I apologize in advance.
Background first. I've been studying Taiji for a bit over a year at the Jing Institute for Chinese Martial Arts and Culture (http://www.jinginstitute.com). Yes, yes, I know it's a goofy wushu school that leases space to a Bujinkan dojo and some wing chun guys. It's also the nicest studio around, has a great big lovely mat space, and boasts one of the best organized Taiji programs I could find. No, I don't think I'm learning teh deadly. If your only comment is "that wushu school is ghey" then go find another thread to shit up.
I also do Aikido (yes, I know, another point of wussiness, I don't care if you think Aikido is ghey either), fight SCA occasionally (medieval full-contact re-enactment), and (thanks to the good advice from other Bullshidoka) I attend kickboxing and BJJ classes at North County Fight Club (http://www.ncfightclub.com) whenever I'm in town long enough. The instructors at Jing know all this. The program manager at Jing has begun what he is calling a "san shou" class, on a rotating schedule, where people get together, put on headgear/booties/gloves, and do point sparring.
Here's the deal. They have invited me to join them, with no additional tuition, even though the only thing I do at the school is Taiji. Now, please understand -- I'm not all that tough. I'm a 5'3" thirty-something 140-lb woman. But because I'm a US Marine and I come to class with bruises occasionally, they all have this grand image of me as some kind of deadly chick fighter. It's bunk. I'm a crappy kickboxer who gets her ass royally handed to her on a regular basis (when I can make it to class at all) and my ground game is only slightly better than "complete suck" if the guy is close to my size and feels like being nice.
But. I have a lot of respect for the instructor who is teaching the san shou classes, and he tried hard to talk me into coming. Several of the students, with whom I am friends, have asked me "when I'm going to grace them" with my presence. There's really only been one or two girls (high-school age) who I have seen be brave enough to attend the sparring classes and one of them practically begged me to come out sometime. Not to say that I'd be any kind of super female martial arts role model or anything, but if I were to just get out there it might encourage some of the other girls to think they might be able to come out too, and I think that would not be a bad thing (since it's likely that none of them is ever going to go find a real MA school).
I spent some time watching a class. It looked to be a lot of random flailing, point sparring, lots of "watch your power" and the instructor interrupting the fights every ten seconds. No kicks below the waist, no elbows, no knees, head shots frowned on, only sweep takedowns allowed "for now" but the instructor says he hopes to work up to full-on shoots and takedowns.
I've never done point sparring in my life and I'm afraid that a) I'll kick someone too hard or in the wrong target area because I'm still too new at fighting to have any control or b) I'll sabotage my own Muay Thai-style kickboxing training by learning tippy-tap techniques. If I do train with them, I a) have the chance to learn timing and fight presence and b) hey, it's sparring outside of my comfort zone, any alive training is good training, right?
My questions for the experts at Bullshido, especially those who have done point sparring in any form:
1. I don't know shit about CMA beyond the communist-era Taiji I've been studying. Will attending a CMA-style point sparring class without any CMA background be a problem? I don't care about getting beat up or defeated -- I'd be there to learn, and from what I saw nobody is going to hit me half as hard as the dudes at NCFC. I am a little worried about learning bad technique or bad habits doing point sparring. Is there a way to avoid that?
2. Am I going to run into power/control problems? Am I going to piss them off by pulling a Muay Thai kick out of muscle memory if some big guy presses me too hard? Again, I'm NOT saying that I'm going to whup up on anyone -- what would probably happen is I'd end up in the middle of the pack, neither better nor worse than anyone else. But I don't want to piss off a training partner by not being able to stay in the box.
3. What do you think about the whole situation? I'm NOT an experienced martial artist and I'm curious what people who do have more experience have to say about this. What I really want to hear are comments pro and con about crappy point sparring vs. encouraging LARPers to spar at all.
This is a new thing for this school. They've been a wushu forms group for years and years, but I think the san shou instructor is trying to bring a sense of reality and aliveness to all his pretty gymnasts, and I have to applaud that. I just don't know for sure if the significant adjustment to my schedule that attending these classes would require would be worth it.
Intelligent comments welcome. Idiotic trolls are respectfully requested to go fuck themselves and die.
~yanta
Background first. I've been studying Taiji for a bit over a year at the Jing Institute for Chinese Martial Arts and Culture (http://www.jinginstitute.com). Yes, yes, I know it's a goofy wushu school that leases space to a Bujinkan dojo and some wing chun guys. It's also the nicest studio around, has a great big lovely mat space, and boasts one of the best organized Taiji programs I could find. No, I don't think I'm learning teh deadly. If your only comment is "that wushu school is ghey" then go find another thread to shit up.
I also do Aikido (yes, I know, another point of wussiness, I don't care if you think Aikido is ghey either), fight SCA occasionally (medieval full-contact re-enactment), and (thanks to the good advice from other Bullshidoka) I attend kickboxing and BJJ classes at North County Fight Club (http://www.ncfightclub.com) whenever I'm in town long enough. The instructors at Jing know all this. The program manager at Jing has begun what he is calling a "san shou" class, on a rotating schedule, where people get together, put on headgear/booties/gloves, and do point sparring.
Here's the deal. They have invited me to join them, with no additional tuition, even though the only thing I do at the school is Taiji. Now, please understand -- I'm not all that tough. I'm a 5'3" thirty-something 140-lb woman. But because I'm a US Marine and I come to class with bruises occasionally, they all have this grand image of me as some kind of deadly chick fighter. It's bunk. I'm a crappy kickboxer who gets her ass royally handed to her on a regular basis (when I can make it to class at all) and my ground game is only slightly better than "complete suck" if the guy is close to my size and feels like being nice.
But. I have a lot of respect for the instructor who is teaching the san shou classes, and he tried hard to talk me into coming. Several of the students, with whom I am friends, have asked me "when I'm going to grace them" with my presence. There's really only been one or two girls (high-school age) who I have seen be brave enough to attend the sparring classes and one of them practically begged me to come out sometime. Not to say that I'd be any kind of super female martial arts role model or anything, but if I were to just get out there it might encourage some of the other girls to think they might be able to come out too, and I think that would not be a bad thing (since it's likely that none of them is ever going to go find a real MA school).
I spent some time watching a class. It looked to be a lot of random flailing, point sparring, lots of "watch your power" and the instructor interrupting the fights every ten seconds. No kicks below the waist, no elbows, no knees, head shots frowned on, only sweep takedowns allowed "for now" but the instructor says he hopes to work up to full-on shoots and takedowns.
I've never done point sparring in my life and I'm afraid that a) I'll kick someone too hard or in the wrong target area because I'm still too new at fighting to have any control or b) I'll sabotage my own Muay Thai-style kickboxing training by learning tippy-tap techniques. If I do train with them, I a) have the chance to learn timing and fight presence and b) hey, it's sparring outside of my comfort zone, any alive training is good training, right?
My questions for the experts at Bullshido, especially those who have done point sparring in any form:
1. I don't know shit about CMA beyond the communist-era Taiji I've been studying. Will attending a CMA-style point sparring class without any CMA background be a problem? I don't care about getting beat up or defeated -- I'd be there to learn, and from what I saw nobody is going to hit me half as hard as the dudes at NCFC. I am a little worried about learning bad technique or bad habits doing point sparring. Is there a way to avoid that?
2. Am I going to run into power/control problems? Am I going to piss them off by pulling a Muay Thai kick out of muscle memory if some big guy presses me too hard? Again, I'm NOT saying that I'm going to whup up on anyone -- what would probably happen is I'd end up in the middle of the pack, neither better nor worse than anyone else. But I don't want to piss off a training partner by not being able to stay in the box.
3. What do you think about the whole situation? I'm NOT an experienced martial artist and I'm curious what people who do have more experience have to say about this. What I really want to hear are comments pro and con about crappy point sparring vs. encouraging LARPers to spar at all.
This is a new thing for this school. They've been a wushu forms group for years and years, but I think the san shou instructor is trying to bring a sense of reality and aliveness to all his pretty gymnasts, and I have to applaud that. I just don't know for sure if the significant adjustment to my schedule that attending these classes would require would be worth it.
Intelligent comments welcome. Idiotic trolls are respectfully requested to go fuck themselves and die.
~yanta
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