Let me start by saying I think point sparring is for the most part retarded, but I still fn love it! The guys who win always have the weakest techniques thrown like little flicks just to get in close enough to score but would never do damage. That being said, I go to point sparring class at least three times a week and I can't get enough of it. Its a fun game I've done since I was like 5 with my dad who was a black belt before I was even born and there is so little chance of injury which means you can do it your whole life for the most part. But at the same time its so frustrating and seems to have little application in real fighting! What do you all think of point sparring? Do mma guys use it in training? Is it worthless or have some good applications? One thing I was thinking about the other day after sparring was perhaps it is "empty hand" training like most TMA for using a knife. If you had a knife in your hand or hemp with sharpened shells on your feet (as many wore from what I've learned), a point would hurt someone so badly it could not be given up. One strike would end the fight or injure your opponent so much that it was all about point sparring training, basically being an empty hands way to weapons train??
Sparring is by far the most important part of training in any contact sport. In my BJJ school, we do instruction for like 45 minutes and then we spar for like 90 minutes.
He said POINT sparring, not REAL sparring. When we spar, we train at full speed and go at maybe 25-50% total strength. Not enough to do any real damage with 16 oz. gloves on, but enough to KO with a clean shot to the button and enough to bruise the shit out of our shins even wearing shingaurds. Train like you fight, otherwise you'll be up shit creek when it comes down to it for real.
sparring is so important that most all MMA fighters use it, so yes it does amount something I should think
No, point sparring is worthless. TKD style sparring engrains bad habbits. You focus on "touching" your opponant instead of landing quality strikes. You tend to use that stupid sideways stance to avoid getting hit which makes it impossible to throw any kind of power shots and you can't defend takedowns or legkciks properly from that stance either. It gets away fromt he whole point of real sparring which is to work on you timing, distance etc.. and focusing on hook kicks, front leg side kicks and front leg backfists etc.. whcih are worthless in a real situation.
If it is fun. . . do it don't let anyone discourage you. Someone said to me once that if you can score a point in point sparring then you'll be able to pick and land heavy shots. That being said I still think point sparring is worthless if training for MMA, or as a self defense thing. But it is excercise and FUN so. . . By the way, BJJ sparring or muay thai sparring at 30%-60% is very different from point sparring which was the question of the thread.
I don't know anything about point sparring accept from what the thread starter said, but it sounds way fucking different than any sparring I've done. Shit, almost every injury I've had while training occured during intense sparring/rolling. Sparring/rolling has been the only way for me to improve for a real situation. I could kick the fuck out of a heavy bag or thai pads, and I could make my partner tap while learning the techniques of various submissions, hell I could even escape attempted submissions from my teacher when he showed me how and let me. That was my first three days of training, then I sparred and goddammit I didn't so good. The more I sparred the better I got at applying what I learned to a semi-real to real situation depending on the intensity of the practice. Sparring is the only way to get better at fighting another person. One of the best feelings I ever had was the first time I involuntarily slipped a left jab and connected perfectly with a right hook while sparring at full speed, that and the first time I checked someone's low kick before he even had his foot 3 inches from it's original stance. Muscle memory, man, only sparring can get that for you.
I wish I could go 30 % power, but no schools around me that do anything but TKD style sparring. I still like going cause its better than nothing, but really wish there was something else in my area :icon_cry2 ANyone on forum in western new york area have a suggestion? I posted before about starting my own freaking school I'm getting so frustrated!
Yea full contact to body with no threat of clinch, throws or takedowns. I did tkd for a few years and got really sick of it because it lacks the clinch or good punching. But I do know you can throw full force kicks to body in tkd but like someone else said you tend to to bad technique cause there is no threat of ground game. I want to train mma so fn bad :icon_cry2 Someone please open school in WIlliamsville with mma? Or join me, I have money and time!!
WNYguy, check out this link...... http://www.jiu-jitsu.net/cgi-bin/addacad.pl You should find a couple of places to go.
I remember talking to a guy in a locker room in a tourny. I told him I don't do point sparring, and he said i'm missing all the fun stuff. I just said I'd probably get dq'ed for excessive contact or something. If you like it, go for it and have fun. I don't see anything wrong with point sparring if you like it. If you train to be a real fighter, it's probably not the best option. The weapons point sparring is probably pretty tough though. I've seen a foamed bo snap in half and it was solid wood inside. and I remember seeing some guy get hit hard with a foamed kali stick and was holding his hand in pain.
