Sparring

[Datu Tim Hartman]

What kind of sparring do you like and why?

[Ron B]

the sparring that I do with my training partners is continuous contact sparring with a padded stick for 3 minutes.we dont usually grapple or strike with the other body weapons.if we do that we just start out in grappling range with a live stick and grapple.for safety we wear fencing masks and hockey gloves.we used to spar with rubber knives as well but now we are sparring with aluminum knives wearing the fencing masks and hockey gloves.other weapons that we use are kendo sticks,padded bo staffs that I made out of pvc pipe and insulation wrapped in hockey tape and padded nunakus.I believe that you have to balance safety with realism.while sparring with rubber knives while wearing paintball goggles I was hit with a downward strike which was followed by a stab.the downward strike moved the goggles down my face and I almost lost one of my eyes.with the fencing masks this wont happen.safety has to be the # 1 concern the other is the skills that you want to develop.with the padded sticks you can spar more often as you dont have to recover from injuries.we will get knee pads and elbow pads and spar with light rattan sticks later on this year.I will stick with sparring with the padded weapons most of the time though as I will have to go to work the next day and being 37 years old I dont recover from injuries as quick as I did when I was younger.

[DAMAG-INC]

On the DAMAG-INC training floor, we like to train at full contact during sparring. We do vary the degree of sparring now and then. One night we will spar with paddedsticks, and another night we may use live rattan sticks. We go at it from single stick, double stick, stick and knife, knife, even to mismatched weapons(i.e. short vs. long stick, single vs double stick, etc.)

Padded stick sparring:


http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/3120/damagincmarcvsjaimelowlineentr.gif

Sometimes we like to spar with regular rattans
Single stick


http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8218/joshvsjaimesinglestick110705md.gif

Double sticks
http://img491.imageshack.us/img491/2227/damaginc2006dannjondblstickspa.gif

We'll even mix it up with kicks
http://img506.imageshack.us/img506/6701/damaginc32005doublesticksnroun.gif


That's it for now....

Can you DIG IT!