What can I gain from my bullshitting?

That’s not bullshit. Please read up about PD and I guarantee you will get a shock out of your life how PD can affect you in young/old age. At least consult a doctor about PD, ask the doctor if a head injury can cause PD and the potential risk of getting PD and the chances of getting it if you have got a head injury.

Check it out. It is for your own good!

Even if it is true, will you pay me money? I gain nothing but I just want to share what I’ve found out.

Good luck.

Anonymous-san,

Sparring was created for sports. Sparring, as we know it today, with all its lack of finesse, did not exist in the time of the founders of most of today’s karate systems. The Japanese term “jiyu kumite” translates to “freestyle meeting of hands”, descriptive of a match in a sporting context only. Nothing wrong with sparring if that’s what you like to do.

In this blog entry, we are pointing out that quite often the sporting aspect escapes the participants, and injuries – severe, life-threatening, even fatal – occur. Some are long-term slow-acting injuries that return to haunt the injured person years later, though by then the origin of the “illness” is untraceable or indeterminate. All for sports. Is it worth it?

The Chinese knew this when they determined Dim Mak. There are, actually, similar long-term-effect strikes in almost all martial arts systems, they just have be pointed out to the practitioners. You might be shaocked to find so many in your own system (what system do you practice?). You might hold back on some techniques in “sparring” after you discover the long-range medical implications of some of the strikes you presently so freely give and take in your youthful enthusiasm to “win”.

“Sparring” wasn’t done 100 or more years ago. An entirely different method, purpose, and philosophy for honing and maintaining fighting skills was practiced that is largely forgotten today.

What was that method? Good question for you to research, eh? You could ask your teacher’s teacher’s teacher, or go back to the source of your system and ask the old folks about their predecessors.

Good luck.

Regards,

Seizan

I think it is an extremely rare for a martial artist or any body for that matter to have precision and control whenever there is an adrenalin rush (read fear). It is only the gross motor skills (like elbows, knees, palm pushes) which are reflexive in nature will be used. IMHO Precision skills are propagated by movies and anecdotes about great masters. Gross motor skills and great mental control (fear control) are the facts accepted by practical fighters.

Further, for some people (called T-types), fight instinct comes naturally. Since, they already have good adrenalin management system, they fight without fear. But generalizing this to every body is not correct.

I do not know how many people are like you, who can engage in fighting without fear. For most of us (including me) fear is the motive for learning martial arts. If I am not afraid,I would not have taken up martial arts.

“..Another factor is age. When a person gets older, he will have better control of his fear. This is eminet especially a person´s martial arts skills develop along their age.”
Again this is questionable. How do we test it? only through..
“..Develop good breaking skills, pain threshold, presence of mind to thwart the attacks, good communication skills(surprising?)etc.” Is it not breaking skills development of techniques? But my bet is only on gross motor skills. Not breaking with finger tips .

“The last factor is the involvement in real-life situation.”
This precisely is my point. The way you train is the way react . If you practice without real life stimulus how do you know you can react to a situation when it arises? either rehearse it mentally or simulate it physically. Sparring is one way to create physical simulation.

I am neither against styles which believe in no sparring or which advocate sparring, but I embrace which is more practical for me. Still I strongly believe fear control is the ultimate martial achievement.

Thanks for disagreement. It keeps our brains active.

I fought two guys in the training camp when I was having my military training when I was 18. That was my first fight and I did not fear at all. This January, I fought a girl who was bigger than me and that was my second fight. Both fights have the same characteristic: 1.) My safety and well-being was in great danger. 2.) I was helpless in both situation. Admittedly, the 2nd fight occureed in a karate dojo and not as dangerous as the first one. You can read about it here.

In my first experience, if not having martial arts training since childhood, I could have been raped! I was in critically dangerous situation. My martial arts training in childhood and the combat training in the military has saved me.

Many great masters do not involve in a fight and many of them never have. But they still are able to defend themselve in dangerous situation. How? Their decades of hard training with immense knowledge that builds their confidence.

Martial arts training is not to get involve in a fight. But when circumstances require a martial artist to do so, first, the martial artist will do at their best to avoid a fight and move away from the scene. Run for your life if you can. The martial arts training is the only last resort to save yourself and your loved ones if you can´t run away.

Another factor is age. When a person gets older, he will have better control of his fear. This is eminet especially a person´s martial arts skills develop along their age.

The last factor is the involvement in real-life situation. I have seen many masters with great skills who have survived the post WW2 era in China. These great masters, including Adrian´s grand master of Uechi-Ryu Zankia, have fought with their life in order to survive during the post WW2 era. During that time, it was really hard to survive on the street where robbery, rape and murder infested every corner of the country. These include my grand father and my father. Both of them have protected our family from harms way otherwise I would not be able to write this post today.

I partly agree that bad practice of so called free fighting (sparring) introduces false confidence and bad habits. On the other hand, even though it has been taught by my sensei to practice kata like free fighting and fight as if doing kata says every thing about kata practice and its merits, it can not induce the dose of fear, if we are not doing jiyu kumite or as we do jiyu ippon kumite.

In fact if health is the only reason for practicing martial arts then I prefer to practice yoga (which i incidentally do), which has minimum risk of injury or taichi (which I am learning now). Both of them are very good for several reasons.

But if self defense is the strong reason for martial arts, then there is reason to introduce reality. One of the easiest method to introduce the feel of reality is to do free sparring. However, ‘a punch I get a point’ style of free sparring may introduce useless skills for self defense. Similarly, masochistic styles like Thai boxing, boxing may introduce brain, musculo-skeletal related injuries and cause permanent damage, even though they give commendable skills for self defense.

The middle ground is to have benefits of both. Develop good breaking skills, pain threshold, presence of mind to thwart the attacks, good communication skills(surprising?)etc. The quality of a style of measured by 1.How long the practitioners live with good health? 2.How many fights they avoided so far? and 3.Can they really defend now?

The strong and better approach to induce reality is mental and spiritual. As I have seen only few senseis ever teach these aspects. With good mental conditioning I have seen we can transform rats to cats and vice versa, without any physical contact. However, this is another type of bad practice, since we are doing it without checking the ecology of the martial artist. If he is mentally very confident but physically not strong, same results as of free sparring will result if he engages in self defense.

But a dose of free fighting when participants have capabilities is required often to stay in touch with reality.

Even in military combat fighting drills, there is non-contact, only repetition to improve accuracy and the speed of a strike. The military combat fighting is the deadliest which is designed to neutralize an enemy in shortest time and uses less efforts. The military cannot afford losing a man during combat training.

In China, children and adolescence do not parctice free sparring. Adrian’s right about the potential risk in children. I do agree with him.