Sparring w/different styles

[samb867]

Basically I've been training karate since I was 7 (15 years or so) and lately I've been bitten by the MMA bug pretty hard and I'm starting to train in Judo and Ju-jitsu to round things out.

Problem is, I'm currently living in a place without a local MMA gym/school and where the karate is all point-fighting, which I find too limited.

The upshot is that in fishing around for sparring partners I've found some guys who do Kung Fu (White Crane) and live really close to me, who are more than willing to train/spar together. While this isn't MMA sparring by any stretch (no gloves, just controlled contact/pulled punches etc) I would have thought that just having the opportunity to keep in touch with things like proper range-finding etc would make this worth my while for the moment.

However, I just thought I'd sound out opinions on here. Is it worth doing this somewhat restrictive sparring a few times a week or would I be better off putting my time into more conditioning/bag work etc?

Sorry that's a bit long!

 

[SAAMAG]

You can make contact without gloves. Kyokushin guys do it on a daily basis. I do that with my best friend for conditioning as well, the only thing that's pulled are punches to the head/face (we open hand slap for those).

That said, there's nothing wrong with making the best of your situation. Just make sure you aren't building bad habits and you're being honest with yourself and your performance. I mean you're doing it for the love of the activity right? So go have fun with it.

 

[samb867]

Oh, sorry, I think I'm working on a misapprehension. I always thought of pulled punches as still making contact but with reduced force. And we slap to the face a fair bit too so that's reassuring.

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Snubnoze707]

Why don't you go buy gloves and mouthpeices and do it for real?

 

[PostcardMMA]

I agree with the previous response that you can make contact with no gloves. In fact, for punches and kicks to the body and legs, I regularly go full contact, full power. It's good to mix full contact sparring in with more frequent light contact sparring. The full contact sparring lets your body get used to realistic blows and also seasons you to the pressure you face when someone is fighting hard (i.e., builds mental toughness). The light contact sparring days allow you to work your timing and distance while your body recovers from the bruises and sore muscles of the full contact days. It's also a good idea to mix in contact sparring with head shots and protective gear once in a while, but I would go light/medium contact on head shots during sparring unless you're actively competing because of the risk of brain damage.

 

[samb867]

Snubnoze: The guys I'm training with do Kung Fu and aren't up for full contact, geared up sparring. And I have no access to full contact striking other than pure boxing here. That might be an idea but at this stage I'd rather work with what I have already rather than tailor my standup to pure boxing.

Also, good news, while sparring with the Kung Fu guys, other people walked in to use the space and it turns out they train MMA, so now I have people to spar with properly! Funny how things work out really.

 

[ssullivan80]

Snubnoze: The guys I'm training with do Kung Fu and aren't up for full contact, geared up sparring. And I have no access to full contact striking other than pure boxing here. That might be an idea but at this stage I'd rather work with what I have already rather than tailor my standup to pure boxing.

Also, good news, while sparring with the Kung Fu guys, other people walked in to use the space and it turns out they train MMA, so now I have people to spar with properly! Funny how things work out really.

The kung fu and karate point type sparring can be very useful, it really helps develop the reflexive skills and range control..... so i would say keep it up. That said, if you have access to a boxing gym and really aspire to compete in MMA.... Get yo ass to the boxing gym, even more so if that is the only place to really "get after it" in sparring. Point sparring and light sparring develop good technical habits, but they also can create a sense of overconfidence and if not mixed properly with harder sparring you will develop bad habits, especially defensively! If you have a Karate background (15yrs) you wont all of a sudden lose that ability, it is like riding a bike, it will come back to you really quick. But if you have never really been hit or forced into a bad situation, you wont know how to overcome it in the ring....... If you want to learn to fight, you got to do some fighting to learn! Further, with 15yrs in Karate training, you know how to spar a karate or TMA fighter, you accustomed to doing so..... But have you ever really sparred a good boxer? Well...... then ya better learn, boxing is a significant part of most MMA training. You will find yourself in the ring with allot more guys who have boxing training than you will guys with Karate training, best learn how to use what you know to fight against them...... and the best way, GO TO THE BOXING GYM

 

[mjw1]

Snubnoze: The guys I'm training with do Kung Fu and aren't up for full contact, geared up sparring. And I have no access to full contact striking other than pure boxing here. That might be an idea but at this stage I'd rather work with what I have already rather than tailor my standup to pure boxing.

Also, good news, while sparring with the Kung Fu guys, other people walked in to use the space and it turns out they train MMA, so now I have people to spar with properly! Funny how things work out really.

Sounds good man, then work with the MMA guys and if you think there is benefit to continuing to train with the kungfu guys I'd do that as well or keep in the loop with them in case the MMA guys flake out it's always good to have options.....

In reality I put point sparring at the bottom of the barrel but everyone to their own.

 

[lucid]

i would spending your weekends in the boxing gym. You need to know how to feels to have hands coming at your face with bad intentions. How to cover and defend or just move out of the way.

If you do spar, then do neck down if you dont have gear. You can hit with 70-80% force and still be able to move around ok the next day. Your still fairly young and im sure you may move. But until then build a foundation.

Thanks to Machida, no body can knock karate anymore, but like machida you need to practice converting it to MMA.