Good points. Sparring has a lot of value but still not the same as a real fight. Teaches to read body language, take a hit without freaking out, learn distance and timing.
As ever, I really appreciate the deep level of thinking that you share in your content - and that’s answered a ‘feeling’ I’ve had for years, without having verbalised the question. Along with the cross-training aspect you’ve shared, a secondary benefit our RBSD instructor shared is that it’s like training with weapons - the more you understand about how to use a weapon, the better equipped you are to defend against it… - most people have no idea just how freakin’ ‘hard’ a real full contact Thai boxer is, or what a pro’ heavyweight boxer can do with his gloves off - so by sparring against properly trained opponents in a controlled environment- it can help you to appreciate why it’s so important to preempt an attack, and get in first!
This is a great question - all the MA classes I've done have pushed sparring as a way of training but none of the instructors have really talked about its strengths and limiations
IMO Sparring is vital for combatives, although not the be all and end all . In my experience those who spar will perform better., having said we train in combatives and traditional systems side by side and the spaing is in the traditional systems side .
I use some little parameters like a sumo drill, got to get the other guy out of the circle, anything goes (with control). That way, people don't get into a trading dynamic. The bigger goal ensures that technique only supports purpose. Can use other simple parameters like hula hoops on the floor, trying to off-balance each other etc. So long as the objective is not to trade shots for victory, you start to see exchanges that look more like self protection.
Love Combatives and what it stands for but I do like to spar , grapple bull …it goes back to Geoff Thompsons Animal Day training ..Sparring can teach you timing, movement , also it’s good for fitness and conditioning. . Also if you do blitz him and he’s still there what do you do it can become a two way fight no matter how good you are . My opinion is cross train as Lee says …BJJ , Boxing I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it 💯👍🏻
@@punasurf4697 Agreed but also agree that sparring is not the same as a real fight. in Sparring you are not fighting for your life or trying to hurt anyone but it still has a lot of value.
@@timlinator That's why we only spar one a month at our dojo. Sifu doesn't want us to go into spar mode when attacked. Our Kajukenbo dojo focuses on the street.
A combatives practitioner who also trains and spars full contact/resistance in Boxing/Muay Thai/Judo/Sambo/Wrestling/BJJ etc etc Trumps someone solely training combatives alone. Likewise with strength & conditioning. It all has it's place and benefits.
Very interesting thinking. If we look at animals, it seems that sparring is very interesting to improve your combative skills, and can be done by "more evolved" animals (i.e. mammals compared to insects). Praying mantis and spider are deadly, still they do not practice sparring. But what they do is basic, their set of tactics is not very important, but they are very very fast. At the same time, mammals like lions, panthers... practice sparring (and perhaps tactics ?). I think sparring is very interesting to automate reactions in a variety of different positioning, and being able to be powerful and counter react if you are out of balance for example, which is more difficult if you do not spar. At the same time every deadly animals or insects I have cited generally try to obtain the best position/balance before attacking, and that's it, it's over, and they are not out of balance. Sparring is also very interesting fo a real battle (I think of knights in middle age that were deadly and sparred from childhood) not to lose. I always find fascinating to see MMA practiced in Eastern Europe with multiple opponents: every time only one practitioner is knocked out, then the battle is lost very quickly, because the balance between the two teams is lost. But as said, practicing combative or being a spider, you try to end things from the very beginning of the fight. Last, if you want to end a fight quickly but do not succeed to do so, you may end in a balance situation, and then sparring is very interesting (I think of a fight I have seen on TV between a mongoose and a snake, which the mongoose would have liked to end quickly, but the fight ended like a kind of sparring, which the mongoose finally won).
Sparring can be counterproductive because it gets you in the habit of pulling your punches, whereas self protection training involves full commitment in the face of a level -10 threat, which we always have to train for
Agreed! We spar every day in our tactical Krav Maga but it becomes more of getting good at boxing, which has its place. Knowing what getting hit is like, managing your breathing etc but we go at 50% so we pull punches to some degree and of course it builds muscle memory so will I revert to punching vs palm heel strikes in a real conflict? Will I pull those punches some? I struggle w/ this very question and way of training.
@@phxdubr Knowing what getting hit is like? You don't have to be shot in order to learn how to shoot a criminal assailant. Are you training for surviving a possible criminal violent assault or are you training for athletic contests? One will interfere with the other and vice versa. Also, punching with any effective power will injure your hands.
@@rodvan-zeller6360 agree to an extent, we spar w/ MMA gloves and headgear w/ optional cages. Cages mandatory for when we are throwing elbows and going 90-100%. We spar punching at no more than 70% power or so, no risk of hurting your hands. There is no guarantee in any fight that 5-10 seconds of an all out offense on someone will end the fight. Sparring (and yes getting hit) allows us to work on head movement, slipping, body position, defenses etc. We want to train for a worse case scenario, not a best case. We fight on the ground, standing up, we have an entire house built in our facility so you may be attacked laying in a bed and have to fight from that position, going up stairs, it can be 2 on 1, it can be dark and the lights off. Last night I had to fight in a bathroom and had a sink in my back while being rushed by a 240lb aggressor. We try to cover any scenario you may be in and sparring and getting attacked is the best way to learn to be as calm as possible and think under stress. When someone grabs you from behind and throws you to the ground, you need to think quick and react. You can only do these things by being put in realistic situations.
@rodvan-zeller6360 if you are expecting it, you can take several punches before you die but it only takes one bullet most of the time. Punches at close range are hard to evade or block, you will be hit but gun fighting at 15m or a further distance? People miss and if you were expecting it you are un cover.
@kevinhart46 How do you know I am not wearing body armor? Are you training for athletic contests or for decommissioning criminal assailants? Not the same training.
Sparring is necessary, because anyone can hit pads perfectly. Wait until it becomes another person with different (possibly better) skills! It's absolutely necessary on the ground, which is why it takes around 5 years to reach blue belt from white in BJJ (if you go all the time).
You have to in some form. You need to pressure test against resisting opponents. Even if it’s only technical work. Box, kick box, grapple, to work in your tool development. Then gear up and do full throttle scenario training like quarterly. Try to get it as close to an assault level of activity that you can with the gear on.
Legend. Course you can spar just go to muy Thai and practice the UC Moves apart from a few like brain stem strike and eye gauge and balls you can get a good practice in the spar and sparring is amazing at honing all hand to hand combat skills because if you f up the blitzkrieg then it's on anyway and if you know what your doing I say a yr plus of muay Thai your be pretty handy
I asked Dan Inosanto why you don’t see The Fence and dialogue / defusion in JKD or Jun Fan Kung Fu as Bruce Lee was supposed to be all street fighting. His response was you will never see it in those arts because those are separate and passed down like Bruce taught. JKD Guys like Rick Young studied the fence and trained with Geoff T but again you won’t see it taught in his classes I assume if you want to train it you can but no classes taught cover this. UC is same as explained here, UC = Combatives, cross training additions are your choice…….boxing, grappling or Thai boxing, judo. Add in conditioning you basically make your own cake and combatives is the icing on top.
Sparring is preparation for a pre arranged bout with rules. Rules are the luxury of sport fighting. When defending life or property, there is no such luxury. From sparring, like pad work and application, you will gain some attributes that can assist you, providing you have trained your mind to employ those skills in the appropriate manner.
Its hard to see how someone who doesnt regularly go against full resistance and unpredictability as in full contact could cope if their preemtive stike doesnt work or they themselves are pre empted.I totally see the goal of self protection but things go wrong regularly and real fighting athletes will be able to cope with that.
Yeah no I get it. You got to learn to stand before you learn to walk, you got to learn to walk, before you learn to run. Sparing in the roots. The point of UC is everyone needs to know when to run and how to run. Then to crash into someone. And walk away.
Totally agree, sparring is ok but in moderation, and done in a way that you understand the limitations of what your are doing. I used to train with a Blue Belt BJJ guy, very effective martial art. However, almost every time he had an opening, I could have punched his face in, stuck a knife in him. I get to tap out, but he bleeds out...... sport vs criminality/real violence
Do you have any instructional on videos??? Beyond you tube for sell? Could you consider recommend some books? Videos? Videos with pukes attacking and the many ways of attacking is good to know. Books can give someone instruction, identifying the different type of person and the best way to deal with these types. There's sucker punchers, Haymarket, overhand rights are very common, then there is those that come in swinging fast and hard with repetitive hard, fast powerful strikes just pure viciousness. But regardless of the style, there's different types where some you can make something good, smooth things over, etc., etc. Where it'd be good to identify such types. Where it'd make a good book,which with Mr. Lee's years of experience, I'd suspect he could tell the types and possibly how some can be deescalated, others, you're going to have to give your all.
People absolutely put sparring on a pedestal. They will demand that a good system always has sparring, and then proceed to essentially play tag with each other and lie to themselves that it's like real fighting. I've also seen people hitting each other rather hard, but in a completely predictable and "i go, then you go" taking turns kind of manner. Also not realistic for other reasons. Not all sparring is created equal and I think if people sparred 100% we'd all be chewed up in 5-10 years with injuries and brain damage. I look at it like maxing out with weights...it's something you do to test yourself, not to develop yourself. Could be wrong there but I dont think so.
most will never understand the level of violence it took to be this gentle, another good video brother!!!
@godfather9253, Your level of @ss kissing is cringe inducing, for real.
Good points. Sparring has a lot of value but still not the same as a real fight. Teaches to read body language, take a hit without freaking out, learn distance and timing.
As ever, I really appreciate the deep level of thinking that you share in your content - and that’s answered a ‘feeling’ I’ve had for years, without having verbalised the question.
Along with the cross-training aspect you’ve shared, a secondary benefit our RBSD instructor shared is that it’s like training with weapons - the more you understand about how to use a weapon, the better equipped you are to defend against it…
- most people have no idea just how freakin’ ‘hard’ a real full contact Thai boxer is, or what a pro’ heavyweight boxer can do with his gloves off - so by sparring against properly trained opponents in a controlled environment- it can help you to appreciate why it’s so important to preempt an attack, and get in first!
Self defense must be a non reciprocal exchange. - Great quote!
This is a great question - all the MA classes I've done have pushed sparring as a way of training but none of the instructors have really talked about its strengths and limiations
thanks for this talk.............................................
Very good explanation! 🙏🏻
Great video Lee as usual. Loved the blood and snott comment
IMO Sparring is vital for combatives, although not the be all and end all . In my experience those who spar will perform better., having said we train in combatives and traditional systems side by side and the spaing is in the traditional systems side .
I use some little parameters like a sumo drill, got to get the other guy out of the circle, anything goes (with control). That way, people don't get into a trading dynamic. The bigger goal ensures that technique only supports purpose. Can use other simple parameters like hula hoops on the floor, trying to off-balance each other etc. So long as the objective is not to trade shots for victory, you start to see exchanges that look more like self protection.
Love Combatives and what it stands for but I do like to spar , grapple bull …it goes back to Geoff Thompsons Animal Day training ..Sparring can teach you timing, movement , also it’s good for fitness and conditioning. . Also if you do blitz him and he’s still there what do you do it can become a two way fight no matter how good you are . My opinion is cross train as Lee says …BJJ , Boxing I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it 💯👍🏻
Sparing is good for learning how to handle the adrenaline rush of a fight. It also teaches you how to take a hit and not freak out.
@@punasurf4697 Agreed but also agree that sparring is not the same as a real fight. in Sparring you are not fighting for your life or trying to hurt anyone but it still has a lot of value.
@@timlinator That's why we only spar one a month at our dojo. Sifu doesn't want us to go into spar mode when attacked. Our Kajukenbo dojo focuses on the street.
@@punasurf4697 definitely 👍🏻
A combatives practitioner who also trains and spars full contact/resistance in Boxing/Muay Thai/Judo/Sambo/Wrestling/BJJ etc etc
Trumps someone solely training combatives alone.
Likewise with strength & conditioning.
It all has it's place and benefits.
Very interesting thinking. If we look at animals, it seems that sparring is very interesting to improve your combative skills, and can be done by "more evolved" animals (i.e. mammals compared to insects). Praying mantis and spider are deadly, still they do not practice sparring. But what they do is basic, their set of tactics is not very important, but they are very very fast. At the same time, mammals like lions, panthers... practice sparring (and perhaps tactics ?). I think sparring is very interesting to automate reactions in a variety of different positioning, and being able to be powerful and counter react if you are out of balance for example, which is more difficult if you do not spar. At the same time every deadly animals or insects I have cited generally try to obtain the best position/balance before attacking, and that's it, it's over, and they are not out of balance. Sparring is also very interesting fo a real battle (I think of knights in middle age that were deadly and sparred from childhood) not to lose. I always find fascinating to see MMA practiced in Eastern Europe with multiple opponents: every time only one practitioner is knocked out, then the battle is lost very quickly, because the balance between the two teams is lost. But as said, practicing combative or being a spider, you try to end things from the very beginning of the fight. Last, if you want to end a fight quickly but do not succeed to do so, you may end in a balance situation, and then sparring is very interesting (I think of a fight I have seen on TV between a mongoose and a snake, which the mongoose would have liked to end quickly, but the fight ended like a kind of sparring, which the mongoose finally won).
Great comment!
Very true advice , but getting a little painful now at 61 years of age don’t think my head and ribs could take much more hard blows and recover
Sparring can be counterproductive because it gets you in the habit of pulling your punches, whereas self protection training involves full commitment in the face of a level -10 threat, which we always have to train for
Agreed! We spar every day in our tactical Krav Maga but it becomes more of getting good at boxing, which has its place. Knowing what getting hit is like, managing your breathing etc but we go at 50% so we pull punches to some degree and of course it builds muscle memory so will I revert to punching vs palm heel strikes in a real conflict? Will I pull those punches some? I struggle w/ this very question and way of training.
@@phxdubr Knowing what getting hit is like? You don't have to be shot in order to learn how to shoot a criminal assailant.
Are you training for surviving a possible criminal violent assault or are you training for athletic contests? One will interfere with the other and vice versa. Also, punching with any effective power will injure your hands.
@@rodvan-zeller6360 agree to an extent, we spar w/ MMA gloves and headgear w/ optional cages. Cages mandatory for when we are throwing elbows and going 90-100%. We spar punching at no more than 70% power or so, no risk of hurting your hands. There is no guarantee in any fight that 5-10 seconds of an all out offense on someone will end the fight. Sparring (and yes getting hit) allows us to work on head movement, slipping, body position, defenses etc. We want to train for a worse case scenario, not a best case. We fight on the ground, standing up, we have an entire house built in our facility so you may be attacked laying in a bed and have to fight from that position, going up stairs, it can be 2 on 1, it can be dark and the lights off. Last night I had to fight in a bathroom and had a sink in my back while being rushed by a 240lb aggressor. We try to cover any scenario you may be in and sparring and getting attacked is the best way to learn to be as calm as possible and think under stress. When someone grabs you from behind and throws you to the ground, you need to think quick and react. You can only do these things by being put in realistic situations.
@rodvan-zeller6360 if you are expecting it, you can take several punches before you die but it only takes one bullet most of the time. Punches at close range are hard to evade or block, you will be hit but gun fighting at 15m or a further distance? People miss and if you were expecting it you are un cover.
@kevinhart46 How do you know I am not wearing body armor? Are you training for athletic contests or for decommissioning criminal assailants? Not the same training.
Très intéressant, merci
Sparring is necessary, because anyone can hit pads perfectly. Wait until it becomes another person with different (possibly better) skills! It's absolutely necessary on the ground, which is why it takes around 5 years to reach blue belt from white in BJJ (if you go all the time).
You have to in some form. You need to pressure test against resisting opponents. Even if it’s only technical work. Box, kick box, grapple, to work in your tool development. Then gear up and do full throttle scenario training like quarterly. Try to get it as close to an assault level of activity that you can with the gear on.
great !!!
For asymmeterical violence:
Combatives
For symmetrical violence:
Rapid Assoult Tactics (to turn it into asymmetrical violence)
Street fighting is about how fast your reactions are and your ability to think differently.
Very good response. Sparring helps work on your stamina and skill but it is not an end all.
Legend. Course you can spar just go to muy Thai and practice the UC Moves apart from a few like brain stem strike and eye gauge and balls you can get a good practice in the spar and sparring is amazing at honing all hand to hand combat skills because if you f up the blitzkrieg then it's on anyway and if you know what your doing I say a yr plus of muay Thai your be pretty handy
Fairly and excellently put.
I asked Dan Inosanto why you don’t see The Fence and dialogue / defusion in JKD or Jun Fan Kung Fu as Bruce Lee was supposed to be all street fighting.
His response was you will never see it in those arts because those are separate and passed down like Bruce taught.
JKD Guys like Rick Young studied the fence and trained with Geoff T but again you won’t see it taught in his classes I assume if you want to train it you can but no classes taught cover this.
UC is same as explained here, UC = Combatives, cross training additions are your choice…….boxing, grappling or Thai boxing, judo. Add in conditioning you basically make your own cake and combatives is the icing on top.
Sparring is preparation for a pre arranged bout with rules. Rules are the luxury of sport fighting. When defending life or property, there is no such luxury. From sparring, like pad work and application, you will gain some attributes that can assist you, providing you have trained your mind to employ those skills in the appropriate manner.
Its hard to see how someone who doesnt regularly go against full resistance and unpredictability as in full contact could cope if their preemtive stike doesnt work or they themselves are pre empted.I totally see the goal of self protection but things go wrong regularly and real fighting athletes will be able to cope with that.
Yeah no I get it. You got to learn to stand before you learn to walk, you got to learn to walk, before you learn to run. Sparing in the roots. The point of UC is everyone needs to know when to run and how to run. Then to crash into someone. And walk away.
sparring with heavy protective gear so you can go 70 to 80%
Totally agree, sparring is ok but in moderation, and done in a way that you understand the limitations of what your are doing. I used to train with a Blue Belt BJJ guy, very effective martial art. However, almost every time he had an opening, I could have punched his face in, stuck a knife in him. I get to tap out, but he bleeds out...... sport vs criminality/real violence
🤙🏻🤜
🎉
Do you have any instructional on videos??? Beyond you tube for sell?
Could you consider recommend some books? Videos? Videos with pukes attacking and the many ways of attacking is good to know. Books can give someone instruction, identifying the different type of person and the best way to deal with these types. There's sucker punchers, Haymarket, overhand rights are very common, then there is those that come in swinging fast and hard with repetitive hard, fast powerful strikes just pure viciousness. But regardless of the style, there's different types where some you can make something good, smooth things over, etc., etc. Where it'd be good to identify such types. Where it'd make a good book,which with Mr. Lee's years of experience, I'd suspect he could tell the types and possibly how some can be deescalated, others, you're going to have to give your all.
check out the webstore at www.urbancombatives.com where there are many videos and books for sale
People absolutely put sparring on a pedestal. They will demand that a good system always has sparring, and then proceed to essentially play tag with each other and lie to themselves that it's like real fighting. I've also seen people hitting each other rather hard, but in a completely predictable and "i go, then you go" taking turns kind of manner. Also not realistic for other reasons. Not all sparring is created equal and I think if people sparred 100% we'd all be chewed up in 5-10 years with injuries and brain damage. I look at it like maxing out with weights...it's something you do to test yourself, not to develop yourself. Could be wrong there but I dont think so.
😢
Needs a glass roof up there.