Well Ray, redofthenorth was asking for opinions and advice regarding integrating gear into his sparring program, and people were just responding with suggestions from different points of view, no big party foul there.
redofthenorth; you might want to contact Brent Hamby from EMB Kung Fu / Oakland SanShou. He is also a former student of Wong Jack Man and teaches out of Oakland. He runs one of the best sanshou programs in the country and also teaches traditional and he may be able to offer a good perspective on how to balance sparring with gear using your style of kungfu without compromising too much.
Boxers hit extremely hard and have been known to break their hands when fighting without hand protection. However, who would you rather be, the guy who hits so hard he breaks his hand on his opponent’s face, or the opponent, whose face was just hit hard enought to break the boxer’s hand?
hjt, I don’t want to name a school in particular because that could be in poor taist. But I’ve played with Hung Gar and Wing Chun guys from Chinatown – several from the Free Mason’s association – as well as a few from Long Island. But this was at least 3 years ago. I don’t really have much interest in fighting Kung Fu at this moment.
I find playing BJJ, MMA type fighters more interesting right now, just because it’s new to me. The fights themselves are more technical and rewarding.
actually in shooto they spar without equipment or gloves (often at least) and go in various intensity levels. Its a good practise. I actually think going lgiht or medium contact with gloves or not is the best cause you cant learn when someone is trying to take your head off and your in there to survive rather than actually learn how to use defense and offense effectively. My mt coach would always get mad at people whos tarted sparring too hard especially if theyw er ebiggeners or were facing biggeners. He would point out that even in thailand they go very light and often with no equipment.
sifu ross, so basically what your saying is llama kung fu is superior to sanda but nobody has the patience and dedication to master it so sanda is superior to most people but the few who master llama could kick anyone’s ass? If so do you belong to the few group who can fight using those traditional techniques or do you belong to the group that ends up looking like a kickboxer throwing sanda style kicks and boxing style punches and using western style footwork?
the amount of false information circulated regarding how people in Thailand supposedly train is staggering… it’s as if it’s a fantasy land where you can assert anything you want happens, the reality is quite different. Anyone who has trained in Thailand will tell you that they do use gear in training, including shin guards and head gear. They are VERY concerned about injury because to fight is to make a living, you can’t fight, you don’t get paid, you can’t eat…
the guy who told me this (my teacher at the time) practically lives in thailand. His name is Bob Chaney. He is like a celebrity there. He would say there is no point of hurting your training partners cause nobody will wnat to spar with you. We all generally sparred light, and every wednesday. On other days sometimes we would do just leg sparring or other drills if not the standard stuff. ALso it really depends on the camp in thailand, they all train differently.
by the way any of you heard of slap boxing? I heard its popular in many inner cities and prisons as a training tool similar to sparring but without risk of injury. I also hear they slap kickbox at the chute boxe academy as a part of training.
slap boxing is merely play fighting… like boxing with an open hand - so your hits are only slaps, hence the name. We used to do it all the time when I was a kid.
gear=good especially if you engage in full contact sparring.
you can ensure that less injury is sustained and you can recycle your training partners and you can continue to spar at that level and degree once or twice a week.
no gear in my opinion is foolishness. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. It’s easier to get hurt. At the very very least wear a cup and a mouth guard and have courtesy when striking to the head.
But if you really want to do it proper to the highest level of realism, it is only good sense to wear head gear, gloves (mma or boxing are fine) a cup, a mouthguard, shins (if you really want to, i personally don’t see these as a necessity but for some guys they are). and some times it is also a preference to wear the chest armour.
now, if you are in the ring fighting for money, I would still recommend a cup a mouthguard and gloves. That’s standard.
