To spar or not to spar?

[SevenStar]

http://www.thearma.org/essays/sparornot.htm

[Oso]

nice

and is that a wooden Flamberge that one dude is using...2nd pic down.


http://images.google.com/images?q=Flamberge&ie=UTF-8&hl=en

[rogue]

Granted there are some movements which reasonably must be suitably modified for safety (such as breaking joints or striking to the eyes and throat), but if something does not work in free-play how can we argue it would then work in real fighting?
My sensei is a firm believer in no targets off limits sparring. You may have to pull a strike or move it slightly off to a safer place to hit, but the idea is to get close enough so he can tell you can really get in to that spot. It's something to find out what you can and can't make work against a moving target trying to do the same. Those sport guys may know what they're talking about after all. ;)

Guys you have to read "By the Sword" by Robert Clemons. It's a history of the sword that's really fun. The thing is that they were arguing about the same things about sword fighting that we argue about here. Nothing really changes.

[Icewater]

While I am a staunch advocate of sparring, it can be argued that without a more realistic situation a person does not really know what they will do. When real inujury is a threat, and adrenaline pumps you up, a lot of training goes out the window. This can be mitigated with 'adrenal sparring' where you inject some reality into your training.

For hand-to-hand combat this can be achieved by simply sparring hard with somone you know will knock your block off, but at the same time has enough control that they will not give you permanent injury. Will more serious accidents happen with more serious sparring... probably. But hey, that's why it's not a knitting class.

With weapons, the promise of real injury increased exponentially. I have heard of instructors using paintball guns and dulled knives to inject some reality into their training. For those that would put themselves at this kind of risk for the sake of reality, I would love to learn from their mistakes after the combat is over.

[SevenStar]

ttt

[Christopher M]

Originally posted by rogue
The thing is that they were arguing about the same things about sword fighting that we argue about here. Nothing really changes.

Pssh. Thrust is superior. Single time chokes out double time. :p

[David Jamieson]

when we are talking about weapons there are only two kinds of people:

a)the quick

b) the dead

but in sparring, you want to recycle those people that you train with or you simply won't be getting much sparring done.