Wrestlers perspective ^^
You DO need full contact sparring when striking because you need to be formed by the reality of being hit, doing this as technical as possible is key. trying to knock each other out is one of those rare sparring sessions that should stay rare but is necessary if you actually want to get to a good level
Head trauma is real as fuck though
We have known about concussions and their link to brain damage for decades
As a regular joe 9-5 guy i do not want a sparring session to be a fight
I hate it. It is why i throw a spinning back kick full force to calm dudes down.
Fuck it is why i work peekaboo style because i want to avoid it
I hate walking into work with a busted nose, black eye, or hematoma
And those were from bjj
From doing boxing and muay thai i have eaten head shots that made no sense and i have to just tie the guy up and. I have had my ass kicked countless times. But i hope my gym mates also donāt go in with the intent to hurt people
But you got assholes who thrive on it
Calf kicks are the way to go with them too as you canāt really check those
Work on your footwork, develop hands and respect your head movement. Of course its gonna feel stupid and unsafe if you donāt move your head 
You need contact, yes.
Full contact, no.
Thereās a reason the pros donāt spar full contact most of the time, if at all.
Geez using English but only replying to two words in a statement. What is full contact Wasted? The full contact Iām talking about is hitting at maximum 40-50% power. Are we trying to create arguments where there is none?
What are you arguing for? Full contact going 100% is dumb as shit especially if you have a life outside the gym
Pros do not go full contact
Fuck outta here
They do not go full contact 100% regularly is the statement youāre looking for. Its rare but It happens.
Actually yeah your right NEVER go 100%, if weāre having this discussion then you should probably completely avoid it
Full contact, by definition, is FULL contact. Full, literally means that maximum, i.e. 100%. Nothing more, nothing less.
Keep your fringe definition out of here, because this thread has already had it argument about that.
What? you guys are confused
I canāt believe Iām saying this, but I am with dab00g in regards to head contact/injuries.
I have trained in contact sparring at my school, but contact to the head (in addition to the knees & groin) is not allowed. There is value in learning how to take a kick or punch to the gut (for example), and you can condition much of your body to deal with being hit, but you canāt condition your head. At the end of the day, I need to be able to go to spend time with my family and be able to financially support them. Concussions and head trauma are not to be toyed with. Once you have one concussion, you are more susceptible to subsequent ones.
The older you get, the longer it takes you to heal from (general) injuries. There will come a point in your life where you will begin to weigh the price of incurring an injury in the name of training versus the time it will take to heal & how that injury will affect other aspects of your life. Iāve had my share of fat lips, black eyes, cracked ribs, torn muscles, bruises, and other bone fractures, and they were not a big concern when I was in my 20ās and through most of my 30ās. Now though, I train somewhat differently. Those things now come with a heavy price (sometimes literally). My goals have changed, and most of us will have to make that adjustment at some point.
Concussions tho? Thereās no way to make a 100% recovery from that. Swallow your pride, protect your noggin, and make it clear that you will not tolerate contact to the head.
Iām all for not getting hit I mean itās something I teach people I spar with all the time. But if you never spar with full body contact (but no knees to head, elbows or attacking knees arenāt needed) if you avoid hitting the head or never had a spar with hard hits then youāre not getting proper fighting experience. This is why Matt Thornton strayed away from striking and has gone full bjj. The truth of the fact is in order to get complete striking skills you need to have some sessions with the freedom to attack full body at least 50% power
Iāve said what I needed to say, no pro/semi pro boxer/k1/mma/thai fighter is out there sparring hitting just the body or completely avoiding hard hits because when he steps in the ring heāll have a very horrible time realizing the reality of it.
I agree you shouldnāt do it!! But donāt say that then sign up to any fights
Being able to spar at 100% and look presentable is why I prefer grappling. 6 years of judo and the worst injury I got was a bone bruise. That said, Iām pretty sure my Achillesā is operating on borrowed time.
Itās gonna depend on the style as well.
Nobody is going to be telling Kyokushin to do head punches, after all.
We tend to avoid head strikes in our regular kung Fu sparring because we donāt advocate barehanded punching to the head. There, we think and act like we didnt have gloves on. So, a lot more backfists, body shots, lead hand slaps, etc. We still have accidents, and hard hits happen from time to time.
Itās different when training for Sanda of course, because thatās a sport where itās fair game.
Our traditional sparring is almost always 50% power to the body, light to the legs, and light to no head contact. A few bumps on the head are fine to keep people honest and aware.
Jabs are fine
But pull your punches to the face. If a hook or an uppercut is there you throw it. Just donāt try to break dudeās jaw off
You practice hard hits on mits and heavy bag not on your buddy
I do like going 100% when grappling. It is the only time i feel like i can.
Though again there are so many bjj newbs who think it is an mma fight
Like this morning dude was throwing knees from a clinch, i laughed because his knees were shit then tripped his fat ass and just crushed his ribs in scarf
I of cours had to bully dude and say this is nogi, not mma, and dude was salty because āi wasnāt doing anythingā
Making dudes tap from top control is awesome
With Judo I would say youāre in the minority when it comes to injury. Everyone at my old Judo Kai had terrible injuries. Back, Knees, Fingers, and Toes were all screwed up. I got my worst sports related injury doing Judo. I got thrown and my hand came out and separated my shoulder AC joint leaving me with a massive bone spur. It was by far the worst injury I received.
In terms of āfull contactā, all i meant was touching all parts using all tools available. Typically, full contact for any sports I did was expected to be around 50-70%. Sometimes shit would escalate and these things happen.
The thing about kendo thats cool, is since there isā¦ since there is so much armor, when sparring, you typically go close to 100 percent every time in terms of speed and power. However, the major difference is shiai tactics and effort. You would never play every match like its a shiai(tournament), since that would make you a douchebag and the tactics you would use would all be for the sake of ego. Which is not the point when sparring.
That said, you can also do shiai practice in Kendo with relatively little repercussions. I feel like sports where you can do this type of training really allows you to excel since you can practice putting yourself in the toughest situations all the time and learn how to thrive in that atmosphere.
I know several of yāall are in this video.
why do they keep showing clips of Mickey Facchinello? i guess they hate sport karate?
Judo
Boxing
Wrestling
Karate
Sanda
Shuai Jiao
Hapkido
Why is Wing Chun even listed?
Because wing chun sucks
Board and brick breaking are the worst