Regularly sparring w live sticks...

[Jarfi]

Regularly sparring w live sticks...

As my class (lead by myself) have not done this for very long Im interested in any input as to what level of contact, worn protection and general rules others use. We ofc want to closely mimic reality, but without getting longterm injuries.
Atm we employ WEKAF helm, but will soon get a few fencing helms from the fencing club in town. We use hard joint protection on elbows and knees and varying gloves, from full hockey gloves to very lightly padded ones.

What do you guys use (if anyone in here spar live stick regularly)?


Edit - we're quite few training. Some have many, many years of both armed and unarmed experience, some have only trained during 2006. Skill variety is thus big as are power and speed. Everyone loves the action though.

 

[Nutt]

have you seen the dog brothers stuff, google them, they have some videos and also a forum I belive

 

[Kyuktooki]

A lot of people use the Kendo gear when training. That would include gloves, helmet, and some kind of light body armor. The dog brothers often do it with nothing but the Kendo helmet, but those guys are a little bit nuts if you ask me. They want to feel the pain so they remember not to make the mistake again. That is what one of them said in their self made video clips anyhow/

 

[Jarfi]

Nutt, yes I have a few of their instructionals, some of us attended seminars by 'Lonely Dog' and half my stick fights have been under dogbrother rulesets.

Kyuktooki, We currently use WEKAF or fencing helms, any gloves we can get (hockey gloves or less..) and sometimes joint protection when we're hurt. We also feel that we need the real sting to learn well. You just keep learning wrong patterns if things doesnt hurt or scare you appropriately.



My main question still: what rulesets, general contact and protection do you guys use who spar with live sticks regularly?

 

[nekopanfan]

I have only been doing Kali for about a year, so the heaviest sparring I've done is using a rattan stick covered with a thing layer of padding. the gear is pretty much the same as what the advanced guys at my school use, namely WEKAF head gear and lacrosse gloves. no one really wears the body armor stuff, but then again we usually aren't going full strength/speed and are focused on applying technique, not taking each others heads off. and of course raquetball goggles just in case. if we are using the actionflex sticks (i think that's what it's called; they're padded and pretty stiff) we wear lighter headgear and MMA gloves.

as far as rules go.. you have to do 20 push ups for each time you drop your weapon; it makes disarms a little more interesting. no thrusts to the neck since the stick can sneak under your headgear and hit your throat. rounds range from 30-45 seconds for knife sparring to 2-3 minutes for sticks, usually two rounds with 30 sec rest in between. our instructor serves as ref, but only steps in if someone is getting too aggressive/dangerous (it's only come up once when there was sibat fighting, which is the long spear). also we don't fight on the ground, though i don't think it's totally out of the question.

that's all i can think of for now.

 

[Halls]

If you're worried about injuries, cut back on the full contact sparring with a rattan stick. Use a padded stick and WEKAF helmet and you can hit as hard as you want.
At my school we only do full contact with a stick maybe once a month because of injuries.
The only rule we have is to know when to let up off your opponent. We do 2 minute rounds and encourage stick grappling.
But we use a LAMECO padded stick and LAMECO hand and wrist guards and basically swing for the fences.
I understand that you want to train as authentic as possible but full contact stick sparring all the time, in my opinion, isn't too wise. That was the specific reason why Puyong Sulite developed his protection equipment.

 

[Jarfi]

Thx for the input guys.

I just wanted to hear if anyone did train hard contact with unpadded sticks regularly and what they did to avoid injuries, but i guess it boils down to the regular common sense in all hard contact sparring...you can't do it often

 

[skippyzippyjoe]

My instructor always tells me that the less padding, the faster and better a fighter will be. Thus, he reccommends the least amount of padding that somebody is comfortable with. Hockey gloves, knee/elbow protection, a fencing helmet, and a towel wrapped over the collar bone is standard for those going for a minimalist approach without being really "hardcore".

 

[Tricky Ninja]

From my teaching experience, it is best to start with padded sticks, especially with beginners involved. When we do have students spar with sticks in class they have protective head gear with a face cage. We use tournament style sparring helmets with detachable cages this way the students dont need to buy numerous helmets. They also use protective hand gear.
While it is always good to have some good training using it full contact with real sticks, it is ill-advised for injury sake. It is very easy to break a finger or do damage to a joint, neck, etc.
Although we do not allow the students to practice with unpadded sticks, we do let them go full speed with padded sticks and the gear described above.

Hope that helps

 

[Jarfi]

atm we do once or twice saprring with heavy rattan sticks, fencing helm, light hockey gloves and optional joint protection, rest of sparring session we go a mix of padded stick sparring and a 'special' stick made of coal fiber tube. it has no weight so it cant hurt you but it stings like a real stick.

 

[peregrine]

Go with light rattan. Meaning things finger diameter or less. 1/4" rattan is enough to hurt, though likely won't break a bone if you wear lacross gloves.
Skill is better built with padded stick and drills, just like other types of fighting. Same with sparring, hard sparring and less padding is for certain points in training, not for everyweek.

 

[Arnis_7788]

We spar with sticks in our arnis class and use rattan sticks.

 

[peregrine]

We spar with sticks in our arnis class and use rattan sticks.

uh so do we.

 

[Jarfi]

Well, we've gone on for a while now, and it works fine doing unpadded rattan w fencing helm and light gloves, as long as we only go a few rds each. ppl are still sharp mentally and physically, which means the sparring isn't getting sloppy. Afterwards we go with padded sticks for more rds, and we suually warm up sparringwise using wooden knives and our coalfiber tube-sticks.
Padded we use SMAKSTIK(tm) which are pretty much painless and more of a fun-sparring.
So far we've only broken one SMAKSTIK, and at $60(incl S&H) we hope there will be no more

 

[peregrine]

So far we've only broken one SMAKSTIK, and at $60(incl S&H) we hope there will be no more

At one of my clubs someone breaks one every week. But i think those guys are Retarded... swinging 100% with a smakstick. Haha... they're for skill building. Not war. When i go with the smakstick i use it more like a sword.

I had one broken after i had it about a year, the reason was we were doing blocking drills and the guy i was partnered with was swinging with some power. what a monkey. My stick ended by getting broken later during sparring.

They are fixable, some guy at the same club has a way to fix it by getting to the core and somehow bridging the crack/break.

Bloodsport.com has some padded rattan if you ask for them. They are great for regular sparring... they'll hold a block, have a thump thereby giving the feedback of pain to the douches that plow in cause it is a smak stick.

 

[phreedom]

go with kendo bogu...

 

[zfolwick]

I am a beginner. No formal training right now. I'd like to get some drills if you know where to find some (will probably make a thread about it).

but we use bamboo gotten for 50 cents (US$) for a 5 foot piece. Cut in half and go light.