So it’s a given that in order to learn how to fight, you have to fight. Nowadays, sparring (or any version of sparring) can be done relatively safely due to modern equipment and gear, pads, etc. But what about way back when. How did people train fighting 300 years ago or more? Thick cloth around the fist in lieu of a punching glove? sack filled with cloth/wheat instead of kick pads or focus mitts? My personal take on it is that things were more rough and tumble back then and people simply roughhoused during training, and if you sprained a knee or lost a tooth, so be it. What do you guys think?
They had all sorts of stuff to train with…but to be honest, I really don’t think about how the oldsters used to do it. I think about what the heck am I gonna do at the moment. lol, Then when I am sparring, I try not to think at all and just be there. 
I can just imagine it:
You step into the ring wearing your gloves, headgear, mouthguard, kick pads, etc. You square off with your partner, bow and touch gloves.
Then it hits you: how did they spar back before they invented foam rubber?
Then something else hits you. 
My Sifu told me how they sparred before…
Bare knuckle…? They didnt go all out, mind you. They didnt want to kill each other. If they hit to the head, it would be extremely controlled, etc. Its possible to fight without pads We have drills like that, actually. Forces you to use good control, or the guy you hit is going to be ****ED.
Also gives you the added sense of danger, so you tend to focus on defending yourself more.
Then again, if you’re sparring its much better to use pads. Then you can go all out a bit more, and get a better feel of how you’re going to fight on the streets.
Anyway, to answer your question…No, they didnt “roughhouse”. The fought all sme-art like.
Sorry I can’t help on your sparring question but interestingly I heard that the samurai used to practise their sword techs on prisoners.
Also in England, pre Jack Broughton they used to spar Bare knuckle, Jack was a poineer in that he introduced mufflers(gloves) for sparring so that the Gentry of the time would participate this was around 1750.
back in the day they didn’t just have to deal with broken bones, and bruises and all that, they also had to deal with burns from all the Qi balls being thrown around. Fortunately today people just don’t have the time to devote to throwing Qi balls cause there is really no safe way to practice them with a live resisting opponent.
Carefully.
They did alot of forms work and some two man dynaminc drills like chi sau. That is why they were able to kill so many people and why the traditional arts are so deadly now a days.
yep carefully. You also have to remember that in the “olden” day, when one is practicing martial arts at a school, or under a master, or family member, medicine is as important to the cirriculum as is punching and kicking. When someone got hurt due to a sparring related incident, the proper external herbal rubs and internal herbal pills were used in combination with acupressure, acupuncture, massage and moxibustion. Injuries were dealt with more care then they are today. This gave the practitioners the advantage to be able to go heavier on each other.
Just think back to how many times you or a fellow student shrugged off a sprain. This NEVER happened back in the day. Injuries were ALWAYS seen to imediately with precision and accuracy, and with the best possible outcome in mind. This is of course “case by case” as not everyone studied in a single invironment. But for the most part this is how sparring was handled.
Even the smallest bruise was treaded accordingly, as a bruise is looked at as a stagnation of blood, wich is driven by the qi, (shut up red) which in turn is stagnated. This stagnation, no matter the size, is viewed as an obstruction in practice and must be treated daily.
In my Sifu’s “days” (Hong Kong circa 1960’s) they used to fight with weight lifting gloves and a cup.
That was it.
I just got made fun of by my Sifu last Friday for wearing sparring gear. :o 
:rolleyes:
Just think back to how many times you or a fellow student shrugged off a sprain. This NEVER happened back in the day. Injuries were ALWAYS seen to imediately with precision and accuracy, and with the best possible outcome in mind. This is of course “case by case” as not everyone studied in a single invironment. But for the most part this is how sparring was handled.
How do you know this?
Even the smallest bruise was treaded accordingly, as a bruise is looked at as a stagnation of blood, wich is driven by the qi, (shut up red) which in turn is stagnated. This stagnation, no matter the size, is viewed as an obstruction in practice and must be treated daily.
I just got made fun of by my Sifu last Friday for wearing sparring gear.
No way! Fu Pow being made fun of for being a sissy girl?! I cna’t imagine it! :eek:
not everyone sparred back then. In japan and okinawa, it was frowned upon. They preferred drilling. even in the 1900’s, it was still frowned upon by many, one notable was funakoshi.
I’m not sure what the thought on it was in china, but with chi sao, two man forms, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did more drilling than sparring as well.
Lot of reading based around chinese medicine. When people learn chinese medicine who are previously CMA they will learn traditions passed down from teacher to teacher.
This is also of course using the term “sparring” very loosley. More often they are what we would call fights. Exabition matches between rival schools, not with the intent on killing or maiming but with the intent of proving one to have a superior style. This often ended in minor injuries.
From the looks of most martial arts it looks like no one sparred 300 years ago
This is a rediculous notion.
like anything they started with the basics. they jsut didnt jump right into it. they probably started with lots of drilling and conditioning. then more advanced techniques. sparring is really a drill too if you think about it. then when it came time to sparring they could go with a little speed and power and not worrying about having to hit too much. pretty easy. good schools still do it like this.
No, with japanese styles is simply wasn’t done - with the possible exception of a few jujutsu schools. The notion was that the techniques they trained were meant to kill - you couldn’t practice them safely - which was true. Kano removed those techniques when he created judo - That’s why he caught so much flak when he introduced randori to his style and that’s why karate styles were so reluctant to adopt it.
This could be different between schools. But usually there were 2 stages sparring back then.
Stage 1 - One direction sparring - One person plays offense and one person play defense. The defense guy cannot hit back and can only block, dodge, or run away.
Stage 2 - Bi-direction sparring - Both persons can fight back but in control environment,
Both stages require both persons to stay in a drawing circle (or a close door room). Fight stop if one person step out of the circle (same as tap out in today’s term). Usually the teacher would not allow any other students watching. This way the students don’t have any pressure and don’t have to worry about how graceful they look during sparring.
In this kind of control sparring environment, you won’t get much satisfaction from striking. You would use more throwing instead of striking. Because the satisfaction of throwing someone over your head is more exciting then pulling a punch from someone’s face and not knowing if you can really knock your opponent out by that punch or not.
I had used the Japanese Kendo armor and face mask in sparing before. Since no force can go into that thick bamboo armor, nobody bother to block any body punches and that could build up some bad habit same as “control punch”.
Depending on the style, I know that Kenjitsu practitioners sparred constantly. Using wooden swords (boken).
And still to this day this is continued. This is the type of practice we do when training dualy with japanese fencing. Otherwise it is strictly solo practice with a blade, or wood.
I’ve never heard that… since they use either a bokken or a live blade, sparring isn’t safe - in kendo, you have armor and the shinai isn’t as hard as a bokken, so the armor will protect you more. Also, kenjutsu emphasizes strikes to areas not beyond those covered by armor… at least that’s what I’ve always thought - I know that they do have partner kata though.