Full Contact Sparring ... An Alternative! by Ralph Allison

Combat Magazine Page 37
April 2007

A lot of people shy away from joining a boxing club or a martial arts organisation – because of one reason: They don’t want to lose their day-job.
Full contact sparring gives you bruises, cut lips etc. that your boss and your customers (or clients if you’re self employed) won’t appreciate. People you come in contact with on a daily basis will immediately ask themselves why you keep running around with such injuries. It doesn’t “look professional” when, for example, a bank clerk sits opposite you with a battered face. Right?

Doing semi contact sparring doesn’t solve the problem either, since semi contact often turns into full contact due to lack of control or too much ego!

Some people turn to “White Collar” boxing. Here is another alternative if you like to incorporate kicking techniques as well.
Grandmaster Choi of Choi Kwang Do Martial Arts (CKD) came up with an alternative, which should satisfy those who would like to learn the art of fighting but also want to look “respectable” for their day-job the following morning.

In CKD we do not wear full boxing gloves; the ones we use are lighter and less thick (called “bag gloves”). The Sparring – or as we call it: Defence Drills – is performed by punching close to their classmate’s face and body. Non-contact but wearing the bag gloves just in case there is a slip; the other guy is blocking those punches.

It’s getting more serious at Gold Belt level – moving around as in a street fight with your gloves on and punching and kicking real close to the body, whilst your sparring partner is blocking what you are doing.

This kind of sparing (defence drill) teaches you focussing, angling off, targeting and “breaking someone’s defence”. All good stuff if you want to learn how to protect yourself on the street. One of my students (a shop owner) had to use our art (CKD) in a real life situation when he had to confront 3 thieves in his shop and I myself had to use it on various occasions – in other words : this kind of training works !

For a full-contact “enthusiast” this may not seem a “ perfect solution “. But isn’t that better than sitting at home not doing anything or doing full contact fighting and risking losing your job over it ?

I have a lot of high ranking martial artists (brown and black belts) who joined my club from other martial arts because they got tired of the injuries and taking time off work or not being able to continue with their training.
It doesn’t matter how good you are in the ring – you will always get injured.
In CKD we teach many “close range “ defence drills, which are also very useful if you get into a “spot of bother “ ( I’m demonstrating an elbow strike technique with a student in the photo shown ).

This article is not here to convince people not to do full contact sparring. It just gives you an alternative you may consider trying.

And an extremely good alternative I think it is !

If you wish to know more about the author Ralph Allison of CKD Martial Arts go to www.blackbeltschoolsuk.com

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