[QUOTE=MasterKiller;1259231]… Thus, proper sparring leads to not sparring.[/QUOTE]
thus, practise your forms more…
[QUOTE=SavvySavage;1259269]Do you do any grappling? You will suffer less injuries if you include grappling sparring into your training.[/QUOTE]
Not fer nuthin but I’ve had more injuries from grappling than sparring.
[QUOTE=ShaolinDan;1259272]@GoldenBrain: Thanks man, good tips. I’m 5’8", between 135-140lbs…before starting kung fu and getting mabu thighs, I weighed 125 lbs for years. BTW I do smile a lot when sparring, it’s a game after all. 
@everyone: Thanks. Seems like iron body conditioning is a must…but that’s going to take some time to make a difference, so any other suggestions to keep going in the meantime are appreciated.
I know there’s been a thread on sparring gear before…When I spar I usually just wear cup, mouthguard, light shin pads and mma gloves (or nothing for light sparring). Sometimes I will wear boxing gloves for heavier hitting. Any thoughts on chest guards? Would have saved my ribs this last time, but I hate the lack of mobility. I also want to know when I get hit.[/QUOTE]
You’re not that small at 5’8", but you are light and probably quick so use that to your advantage. Dance around, wait for the openings and capitalize. I use hard blocking like elbows to top of feet and ankles when people kick to high towards my mid section. It’s easy to just drop an elbow and check that kick. In friendly sparring I don’t block low kicks with my knees very often, so as to keep from causing the kind of injury that what we just saw in the UFC but that is always on the table for those who are trying to hurt you. I will sometimes put my knee pads on just to work on that, but normally I just try to block kicks with kicks or soak them up on my shins. I also strike at points on the arms as people throw punches. The top of the forearm at the top of the radius and the inside of the wrist at the bottom of the radius as well as the inside of the biceps at the brachial are favorite targets. This usually slows down my opponents and gives them pause for thought before throwing the next strike.
I think you’ll be surprised at how fast you’ll see results from iron body training. I’d say if you’re consistent you’ll start seeing results within just a few weeks. And, from there it just gets better and better. Iron hand conditioning is the same. I found my striking was much harder, to the point that I had to pull back more of my power, after only a few weeks of the conditioning. I’m sure you’ve seen warnings from other members on this forum about doing this kind of conditioning incorrectly so keep that in mind.
I only use a custom fitted by a dentist mouth guard, various types of gloves and the nicest cup/compression shorts combo I could find. I used to wear light weight shin guards but now my shins are like diamonds so I haven’t bothered with that in years. We wear mat shoes so only the bare footed students have to wear foot pads. This is really only to protect our feet. We don’t have that many injuries in our school other than bruises and nose bleeds because we absolutely live by the motto of fight to the lesser opponents ability. Sometimes though, as careful as we are there are some rude injuries, but that’s mostly on the higher level belt test. I do bang it out with some of my MMA buddies but I don’t think I’d recommend anybody roll with the heavy hitters like that outside of their school until they have reached a high level of skill or hit a plateau in their own school. It’s great experience to spar with people outside of your school but if you are still being challenged by your teacher or others of higher rank then what’s the point. Stay in the relatively safe environment that you know.
[QUOTE=ShaolinDan;1259272]Any thoughts on chest guards? Would have saved my ribs this last time, but I hate the lack of mobility. I also want to know when I get hit.[/QUOTE]
i think if you wear the taekwondo ones then your mobility will be ****
maybe something like this would be better:
i’ve only used a cheap 60rmb chest protector before, it had good mobility and you could still feel the hits it just took the edge off really 
and at least i never broke a rib :eek:
edit: well, the one i posted is apprently a TKD one too, only looked at the pic haha looks lighter than others though
[QUOTE=ShaolinDan;1259209]Kind of an aside to the “Sparring without Instructor” thread.
I find that when I spar with medium or heavier contact, I frequently get injured. Right now I’m nearly recovered from a frustrating month with a badly bruised rib.
Light sparring is fun and fine, and what I usually do, but lacks the feel of “reality.”
For those of you who spar hard on a regular basis, what do you do to avoid injuries?[/QUOTE]
I think I would wait until fully recovered before doing any more sparring. I think most people use head and hand gear to sort of reduce injuries, but you will not likely escape that all together. I used to watch a small group from my apt window as they trained in a small back patio. They never sparred at all, but did a great number of forms. They would make up forms and practice them. One day I asked one of the students if they sparred and he said no, because sooner or later someone would be injured. This is why they did lots of forms and make believe fighting. They could get serious without injuring anyone.
And when I was a young man I asked about it to my father, and he told me that same thing. Kung fu has to be used with intent. You have to apply it like you mean it or it is pretty much useless. And if you are doing it with a partner you stand a good chance of injury as well as your partner. I really don’t think you are going to get too far away from injury if you continue to spar. Just gots to be real careful and hope your partner is.
[QUOTE=Lee Chiang Po;1259614]I think I would wait until fully recovered before doing any more sparring. I think most people use head and hand gear to sort of reduce injuries, but you will not likely escape that all together. I used to watch a small group from my apt window as they trained in a small back patio. They never sparred at all, but did a great number of forms. They would make up forms and practice them. One day I asked one of the students if they sparred and he said no, because sooner or later someone would be injured. This is why they did lots of forms and make believe fighting. They could get serious without injuring anyone.
And when I was a young man I asked about it to my father, and he told me that same thing. Kung fu has to be used with intent. You have to apply it like you mean it or it is pretty much useless. And if you are doing it with a partner you stand a good chance of injury as well as your partner. I really don’t think you are going to get too far away from injury if you continue to spar. Just gots to be real careful and hope your partner is.[/QUOTE]
Thanks Lee. Nice to see you posting again. After that long hiatus I was afraid you weren’t with us anymore…Hope you’re holding up OK now.
I understand it’s not possible to spar (or train, or play any sport at all) without injury…just looking for ways to reduce the frequency of injury. Speaking of which, I’m embarrassed to say it, but yesterday I jammed three fingers on my right hand trying to catch a kick.
Not even sparring, just a defense drill. Just when my ribs were almost better. I guess there’s no cure for being an uncoordinated putz. 
Pretty swollen today, but they look straight.
As far as not sparring or doing partner work to avoid injury… Well, I actually have no problem with people training that way, but it’s not for me (not this decade anyway). While I agree that sparring has a different mind set than real combat, sparring seems to be the only way to test/develop my ability to apply what I practice…short of becoming a mob street enforcer 
… which I imagine has its own risks and injuries.
Good topic.
First, ask ourself and have a clear understanding of what you are going to do. That is what is the goal of sparring? What the rules are?
Second, is there sufficient prevention of injury, like wearing protection gears?
Third, besides the skills of sparring, is the ethics of the students good enough?
Lastly, I would like to refer to an opinion on sparring from Bruce Lee - do not take part in such training too often, one or two sessions per week will be top. It coincides with the point made by another forum member in his post. The logic lies in the Law of Average. The more we spar, the more injury will likely be accumulated by us. So give our mind and body some rest. Take care!
Regards,
KC
Hong Kong
1 safety rules.
2 use protective gears
3 a third person to intervene or ref
4 common sense
–
I hate to use gloves. However, they prevent scratching from nails.
If point sparring, touch or dab with powder or color paint instead of a heavy strike.
If throw, you are on the ground, you lose.
etc etc
I favor drilling a lot with people; if in moderate sparring someone works something on me enough, then I drill defenses to this with them so that I can work the defense against the attack as it works, and they improve that tech in kind, thus making me improve the defense. Then, they are also drilled on my defense and come up with responses. From the drills, we sort of inoculate each other to each others’ responses so that the overall sparring is safer(relatively speaking). Especially because we become intimately familiar with the repercussions of not shutting down tech x, so we recognize failure instead of being unaware of it until hard sparring.
If I’m sparring hard with someone whose responses I’m unfamiliar with and who is unfamiliar with mine, I’m asking to be hurt or to hurt them. If, however, we spar at a moderate pace and drill what we learn from this, we improve a lot more, imo.
To learn from hard sparring is important, but to learn from it what can be learned from more moderate sparring and drills is not very smart. Hard sparring is for learning the lessons that only apply at that level. Sparring hard without drills and shadowboxing extensively first is a waste of time. People stick with their strongest points and don’t learn their weaknesses then. They depend on the other person being shut down by a limited repertoire rather than using the practice to expand their ideas, imo.
If someone works something on me in sparring, and I don’t take the opportunity to figure out good counters and drill them with the person who makes the move work, then what am I training for?
[QUOTE=Faux Newbie;1259885]I favor drilling a lot with people; if in moderate sparring someone works something on me enough, then I drill defenses to this with them so that I can work the defense against the attack as it works, and they improve that tech in kind, thus making me improve the defense. Then, they are also drilled on my defense and come up with responses. From the drills, we sort of inoculate each other to each others’ responses so that the overall sparring is safer(relatively speaking). Especially because we become intimately familiar with the repercussions of not shutting down tech x, so we recognize failure instead of being unaware of it until hard sparring.
If I’m sparring hard with someone whose responses I’m unfamiliar with and who is unfamiliar with mine, I’m asking to be hurt or to hurt them. If, however, we spar at a moderate pace and drill what we learn from this, we improve a lot more, imo.
To learn from hard sparring is important, but to learn from it what can be learned from more moderate sparring and drills is not very smart. Hard sparring is for learning the lessons that only apply at that level. Sparring hard without drills and shadowboxing extensively first is a waste of time. People stick with their strongest points and don’t learn their weaknesses then. They depend on the other person being shut down by a limited repertoire rather than using the practice to expand their ideas, imo.
If someone works something on me in sparring, and I don’t take the opportunity to figure out good counters and drill them with the person who makes the move work, then what am I training for?[/QUOTE]
APPLAUSE
This is a great method that I totally agree with. Good stuff there Faux Newbie!
Yes. Excellent post there, FN.
[QUOTE=ShaolinDan;1259906]Yes. Excellent post there, FN.[/QUOTE]
It’s clearly what Tom Cruise used to save the samurai.
When I’m injured, at my age, I play it safe. I spend my training time maintaining my strengths, and working new techniques in through things like shadowboxing, heavy bag work (where it doesn’t aggravate the injury), etc. I do footwork, left, right, back, forward, diagonal, and incorporate the new techniques I’m trying to make second nature from each step in each direction, and work it in shadow boxing, making sure the shadow boxing makes sense, where I’m doing in close moves when the footwork would have brought me in close or when my assumption is the opponent moved in, training doing my moves for a reason, not trying to show off the form for each move, doing this light. Then, when I’m healed, I’m a different fighter, and I can get in and see where my ideas were on, where they were off, and how my training partners adapt and force me to adapt again.
Sometimes investing in loss has made me a much better martial artist. When one can’t spar, one can drill what one was putting off drilling, anyway.
Also, beer.
Let me use an example of mine on the point of student’s ethics in sparring. Two months ago, I did not attack much when I sparred with a classmate. In fact, there was not much engagement. I did not know exactly why at the time. But I knew why on the next day - the classmate does not mind hurting the other side to the degree that I regards as unnecessary for good training purpose. Yep, that was what I felt. This coincides with the theory that fighting is very much done by sensation. I felt he was attacking too strong. Sure, I did not think that he would inflict serious injury on the other side, but that does not mean it is alright. He was not wearing gloves, not any protection gear at all. And he struck at the same spot on his opponent more than twice in a sparring session. No wonder another classmate was hurt by him during sparring.
Regards,
KC
Hong Kong