It has (rather violently) come to my attention that in the process of practicing and studying martial arts some people don’t seem to realize that sparring is a two way learning process. I’m sure this may also apply to other fighting methods, but my personal experience is in Krav Maga.
Everyone fights differently. Because of this some people mesh really well when fighting and others don’t. For those who don’t it’s often because one is less experienced or too aggressive in their approach. The worst combination is when one person is really aggressive in practice and the other is inexperienced. The latter of the two tend to get the crap beaten or choked out of them instead of actually getting a chance to practice what they’ve learned.
For example, my weakness is ground work and grappling. When our class practices this we go in an order: strengthening exercise, basic escape/defend move, secondary escape/defend move, slowly practice the full move, then sparing and switching partners.
If you have ever sparred, you know that someone will always be more knowledgeable and someone will always know less. A good partner will take into account the other’s strengths and weaknesses and adjust they’re strikes so both parties benefit from the practice. This helps the less knowledgeable person learn the technique and allows the more experienced person practice control in they’re strikes.
The first time I got punched in the face I was sparring with someone, who I knew was new to the gym. Our methods of blocking and striking were different, to say the least, and by the time I figured out they was fairly new to the concept of sparing they were attacking at full force with what was later described to me as “frantic rabbit movements”. I still don’t understand that because there was nothing soft or cuddly about the fist in my face. It hurt like a bitch, but they thankfully missed my nose. They got this absolutely horrified expression on their face and jumped back about ten feet before apologizing profusely. I told them it happens and that I was sincerely hoping to get my first black eye out of it (no such luck), but also that control was a major part of striking and their form and strength would improve along with their experience if they practiced. And it did, but I digress.
The thing everyone should avoid, no matter what, is practicing an attack at full strength the first time through. Even if the class has been practicing it for some time, you should never start off at 100%. You could:
A) injure yourself i.e. tear a muscle, break a bone, mess up a tendon or ligament (especially if you’re not properly warmed up)
B) injure your partner if they’re unfamiliar/uncertain of a move or possibly cause a fatality if they’re not braced for a strike/ ready to defend a choke move
C) both.
Going back to how I’m horrible at groundwork, we were recently working on dismounting someone who has forced you to the ground and is trying to choke you out. For most the class I was partnered with a very sweet older lady who was in her second or third class at the gym. I kid you not, she was the only one in the room I could bring to the ground and it was still not an easy feat. During the time the class was building up to sparing we corrected each other’s forms and became fairly proficient at dismounting attackers. I had a good fifty pounds on her and kept that in mind as we practice. We had no problems and got along grandly except when we were laughing too hard to practice. Once it was time for free sparring we all changed partners a couple times and practiced until the end of class. The last guy I was with I had practiced with earlier in the class and got the gut feeling that we wouldn’t match up well.
Honestly, at this point in my life I should know my gut is almost always right, but of course I didn’t listen. So off we went into the joy that is fighting and let me tell you guys I won’t go down without a fight even in practice, but this guy legit picked me up (we were both wrestling on our knees and that really shouldn’t be possible) and slammed me onto the ground; I saw stars like it was a cartoon. At that point I was like ‘oh no imma have to roll this guy off of me, now’ then, THEN this guy is lands all two hundred thirty something pounds of himself on my chest. I thought to myself as he reached to choke me ‘self, you got this’. I was wrong. I was so, so wrong. He moved forward and proceed to put all two hundred thirty something pounds on my trachea. Now, I’ve been punched in the throat before and it sucked, but this was a whole other ball park. I couldn’t even get his hands down to my collarbone much less remember to brace for a roll, so I tapped out. I let go, and physically tapped the mat to tell him I was done, we had crossed a line, I could not breath. He didn’t let go at first, it was the worst time to have a delayed reaction because it doesn’t take that long for someone to suffocate. When he did let go I gave the most horrendous gasp for air that is scared our trainer. I would not recommend being choked out.
The moral of this long post is to be mindful of your partner and yourself in sparring situations because it’s not an actual fight. It’s a learning experience.
קידה (Kida). Class dismissed.
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