Hard sparring vs light for beginners

[RedRebel]

If you do hard sparring with beginners the drop out rate will be huge. i personally only do light sparring 95% of the time and every once and a while to a bit harder and i've been doing kickboxing on and off for 6 or 7 years

So true. Beginners need to feel encouraged not get feel like a failure by being beat up.

[ccamara]

I think it depends if we are talking about a sport or a martial art and also dependent of the student. Is he a competitor or is he there for fun? I like to teach my students individualy, as one may be a cop and another just an office guy who wants to get fit. I like them to spar from day one.

At the beginning we use protections as gloves ( we do okinawan Karate) but after is no gloves and body contact can be at a medium intensity, but no hard contact on the head. Most people do not have control at an early stage so we can put a masked helmet. Then I gradually make them practice what they learn and try to make it full speed and more intense helping them in the sparring and helping them gain control so in time they can spar with high intensity but not break their noses or any other typical accident. I dont want people to try to knock each other out, even if they are wearing a mask, cause we wear no gloves or MMA gloves so you have to bear in mind that punches, elbows,are too intense even with head gear.

If they spar with other students, the they have to go light on the head, or use a mask, and preferably no gloves.

So my aproach will be gradually, dependant on the student and using protections or skilled control.