Wing Chun is known for it’s lack of sparring. Whilst I would agree that sparring shouldn’t feature from day one, what about 2 years down the line? Wouldn’t it help some?
Sparring is necessary if you want to spar with your attacker. But if you want to end the attacker’s means of harming you. You do wing chun on him and hopeful after that he won’t want to spar with you. Seriously, sparring can be enlightening but it takes foundation first to be good in sparring.
Bao
Wing Chun is known for it’s lack of sparring.
Known by whom? Our school has four weekly sparring slots, not counting the extra some people do outside of class.
IMO you need some form of soft free flowing practice fighting to develop flow and effective application of technique, and harder contact with appropriate protection for tempering and learning to continue to operate effectively while being hit and under pressure.
i have heard that wing chun was known for lots of things, but “lack of sparring”? that is the first time i heard that one…
Sparring is useful so you can see if you can apply what you learned… down the road, not at first.
Re: Is sparring necessary?
Originally posted by kieofwoo
Wing Chun is known for it’s lack of sparring.
Originally posted by anerlich
Our school has four weekly sparring slots, not counting the extra some people do outside of class.
Originally posted by Mr. Bao
Sparring is necessary if you want to spar with your attacker
As illustrated above, sparring has little to do with style, but everything to do with school of thought. No traditionalist would condone sparring - at any point in training.
define sparring first
It might be helpful if we define “sparring” first. Maybe the reason why people can’t agree whether WC practice sparring or not, is because they have different ideas on what sparring is.
When sparring, do you use any techniques even if it is not necessarily WC? or do you stick to WC techniques?
Who do you spar? WC students from your own club/school? or WC students from other clubs/schools? or other martials artists from different styles and from different schools?
How far do you go with sparring? light contact? no holds barred?
Is sparring necessary?
Yes.
No traditionalist would condone sparring - at any point in training.
Not in training, but in testing!
Sparring is not Chi Sau
Hi Everyone,
For the sake of arguments can we all agree that chi sau is not sparring?
Assuming that is out of the way, I believe it boils down to belief systems and the goals of the practitioner involved. I myself do not advocate sparring per say…I don’t see the point of it (for myself that is). I don’t seek trophies nor do I feel the need to validate what I have been taught in what I view to be “a laboratory environment”. Regardless of what transpires in the sparring session in my opinion it is a skewed result due to the fact that there are rules in place. If you add gloves, shin guards, elbow pads, head gear, etc., etc., the situation is further compounded to render it so far beyond the scope of reality that it is, IMHO, an effort in futility. I do see the value in the examination of principles and the overall integrity of one’s structure during such a sparring session (meaning assessment by one’s teacher afterwards), but as far as true judgement of a person’s “fighting ability” I find such experiments to be lacking in realism.
What do you guys think?
Just some thoughts
Sparring becomes an essential part of training which helps to develop many different things.
Alot of different ways of doing it though.
Agreed
Mun Hung,
I agree that it can be a very useful gauge for checking certain factors when assessing one’s weaknesses while utilizing their structure against a “live” opponent. I just think people are deluding themselves at times when thinking that a sparring session is indicative of the results they would attain in “jumped” at the “corner store” by a band of thugs.
Regards,
Mithrandir
Thanks for all the opinion guys/gals.
So to sum up so far
Sparring?:
I would define sparring as 2 people attacking each other in the controlled environment of a class.
Hopefully, they would be trying to apply the skills that they have learnt.
Is it Necessary?:
“No traditionalist would condone sparring”
“Sparring becomes an essential part of training”
Huh?
I’ve noticed that some “modern” WC styles such as WT, have no sparring ever.
So basically I’m still confused :rolleyes:
OK, so how about I rephrase the question:
Do you need to have sparred to be able to use WC to defend yourself in real life?
Or to put it another way, does sparring help in the application of WC?
Mithrandir - I agree.
kieofwoo - No to the first, and yes to the second.
As illustrated above, sparring has little to do with style, but everything to do with school of thought. No traditionalist would condone sparring - at any point in training.
If you are implying I’m not a traditionalist, you’re right. Thanks!
A real traditionalist wouldn’t learn the 6.5 point pole because it came in late, and would probably frown on teaching WC to males because Ng Mui only taught Yim Wing Chun.
I’ve yet to understand how a tradition would help in escaping the aforementioned tooled up crackhead.
Originally posted by mun hung
kieofwoo - No to the first, and yes to the second.
So what you’re saying that that you don’t need to spar but it helps?
That’s makes least sense of all!!
If it helps, why do so many people ignore it?
That would suggest that it’s helps very little, or that many people aren’t realising their potential in WC!
Which takes us back to my original question, is sparring necessary???
Re: Re: Is sparring necessary?
Originally posted by EnterTheWhip
No traditionalist would condone sparring - at any point in training.
Why not?
IMO, sparring can help train a few things. Closing the gap, reactions against the unexpected etc.
It has it’s downsides & often results in unrealistic techniques best on the rules, equipment & general situation. However, if you keep an awareness of it’s possible problems, it can be valuable. There are other alternatives to regular sparring that are worth doing which give more of the premise of a fight. Especially when you keep in mind the participants’ differing goals.
Personally I only ‘spar’ against non-WC people. There are too many other useful things to practice within one’s own school.
Re: Re: Re: Is sparring necessary?
Originally posted by Enter The Whip
No traditionalist would condone sparring - at any point in training.
Originally posted by kieofwoo
Why not?
Sparring has the potential to promote bad habits. One needs to remember that while sparring comes closer to a real fight than doing forms or chi sao, it still is not a real fight with the same levels of adrenaline. Each person also has an idea of what the other fighter is about - which usually never happens in a real fight.
I think that sparring can be a useful tool in determining what you may need more work on as long as you don’t gauge your actual performance in a fight with the results from sparring.
Spending that time on forms however allows you to refine your movements and make them precise. In a real fight, the levels of andrenaline tend to slow your motor skills and precision. The work that you do on the forms will help to make your techniques AS PRECISE AS POSSIBLE.
If you are sparring with shoddy basics then you run the risk of incorporating errors into your technique or delivery. This time would be better spent on the forms and chi sao.
The key is to recognize what is not working in sparring and work on your weaknesses. The hard part is knowing whether your technique actually worked or if you just got lucky. If you just got lucky, then there is no guarantee it will work for you in the future.
Keep in mind that Enter The Whip never said that they were a traditionalist. You asked if sparring helped with WC. It may or may not. It can help OR hurt you. All that was being said is that traditionalists would not support sparring. This means that sparring is not based on the style or art, but the individual and whether they feel they need it or not.
Kevin
Is sparring necessary?
Originally posted by kieofwoo
Why not?
Because sparring has NOTHING to do with what Wing Chun is for. If you need to spar to test your Wing Chun, your priorities misaligned, and your concept of Wing Chun distorted.
Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m asking these question to clear issues in my mind.
I happen to have chosen a school with no sparring period.
I never expected or wished to spar.
[u]Spectre[/u] - you probably missed the start of the thread but the question was would sparring be of help in the later stages of training?, I said “2 years down the line”.
Obviously with a system like WC, it would be stupid to spar from day one.
[u]Everyone[/u] -
What I was curious about was whether people with more experience of the system than myself thought that sparring could be of use once the basics had been developed. Not even necessarily as part of a class but in your own private time.
The main reason being that I have various friends that train in other systems. They have suggested we get together and spar sometime, as a means to helping each other improve. Call it a form of cross training if you like, but the idea is definitely a positive one.
I have already said no way until I get to a stage where I am comftable in mind and body with the WC system, and have a solid grasp of the basics. But what then? Would it hurt? Would it help?
Just thought I’d test the water before I start sticking body parts in 
Kie
Re: Is sparring necessary?
Originally posted by EnterTheWhip
Because sparring has NOTHING to do with what Wing Chun is for. If you need to spar to test your Wing Chun, your priorities misaligned, and your concept of Wing Chun distorted.
Mr Whip,
Whilst I understand that sparring is unecessary to develop Wing Chun, I am wondering whether there are lessons to be learnt from outside our walls.
Perhaps I am young and yet to be jaded by the bright lights of the ‘other systems’ promising treats they cannot deliver - but somewhere in my heart is the notion that I can look without being drawn into the pretty but burning fire.
Again maybe my foolishness stems from my experience, maybe I am just greedy, but I believe that one day I will be able to withdraw my hand before it gets too hot.
Yours With Youth’s Endeavour,
A Young Grasshopper