Greenlighting

[MasterKiller]

Greenlighting is a term used for full contact nights in the gym. You see this in some of the more hardcore fight gyms occassionally.

Sometimes, you'll hear it associated with 'challenges" in which some guy walks in off the street and mouths off, so the instructor 'green lights' his student to beat the guy down.

Anyone do this?

[sanjuro_ronin]

Greenlighting is a term used for full contact nights in the gym. You see this in some of the more hardcore fight gyms occassionally.

Sometimes, you'll hear it associated with 'challenges" in which some guy walks in off the street and mouths off, so the instructor 'green lights' his student to beat the guy down.

Anyone do this?

We didn't call it that but yes, we had thins in Kyokushin, in TKD and in BJJ.
Never in Judo or boxing or MT if I recall though...
Sometimes it wasn't an obvious challenge, usually it was some guy in for a trial class trying to make a statement.
Got a lot of it in TKD because, well, it was TKD, but it was a rude awakening for most since we were not a WTF TKD school and our head instructor was old school full contact TKD ( bare knuclke full contact red belt and over).

[MasterKiller]

LOL at full contact BJJ. :p

[sanjuro_ronin]

LOL at full contact BJJ. :p

BJJ under Fabiano WAS full contact Bro :D

[TenTigers]

yep-old school TKD was bare knuckle, no pads. We didn't have people off the street come in, but we did have "attitude adjustments." Seniors would tune up a guy who was bullying weaker students, and Sobumnin would turn a blind eye to it.
We've had this in my school as well. I think it's a tradition in old school schools.
In Tang Soo Do, we would also get guys in who couldn't wait to spar, and then when they did, they were schooled immediately. Some stayed, most quit.
But, to have an open door policy and just let anyone in off the street sounds dumb and risky.
In alot of cases, the mentality of people who would come in off the street to fight at a MA school is also the same guy who when he loses, breaks your windows, vandalizes your car and school.
yeah, that may be a generalization, but I'm talking about someone off the street as opposed to inviting people from other schools to come for open mat.

[Lucas]

remember jesus quan?

RIP

[SanHeChuan]

No but sometimes we play grease lightning.

[sanjuro_ronin]

remember jesus quan?

RIP

Indeed, we had a drunk guy come in once and start trouble, he was dealt with and no hair on his hear was harmed.
We had on guy that was a student and he had some mental issues and at times was too violent, he was not allowed to spar untill he showd control and even then he only sparred high rankers.
Slowly but surely he got a grip on things and no problems ever arose.

No excuse for what happened in that situation you mention, NONE.
BUT I know of a few cases, at least two for sure, that the person in question needed to be, well...take care of after the match.

[MasterKiller]

BJJ under Fabiano WAS full contact Bro :D

http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/motivational-lols-15.jpg?w=500

[Lucas]

ummmm, wow....thats messed up. and the guy getting his nuts bit looks like he likes it a little too much.

[SPJ]

Greenlighting is a term used for full contact nights in the gym. You see this in some of the more hardcore fight gyms occassionally.

Sometimes, you'll hear it associated with 'challenges" in which some guy walks in off the street and mouths off, so the instructor 'green lights' his student to beat the guy down.

Anyone do this?

verbal warning is enough.

not to come back near the school area. b/c he is disrupting the school.

or will file restraining order with court.

---

this is the way done with bars, restaurants, shops, etc also

unwelcome guest is denied service, or reserve the right to refuse service

----

[mooyingmantis]

It used to be called "dojo storming" in the karate circles during the 70's. It happened more than once in my first (inner city) kung fu school in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Put up, or shut up. That was way before the keyboard warriors of today.
Dang, I miss those days! :( It solved so many problems.

Richard A. Tolson

[Jimbo]

Back when I trained Kenpo as a kid (late 1970s), I remember a couple occasions where someone off the street asked to spar. One guy in particular that I remember was a Navy guy who claimed to be a boxer, and that he thought karate didn't work. It was the middle of the sparring class, which was round-robin, but because of the # of people and small space, it could be chaotic. The guy got worked up pretty good, and our teacher (who never did the 'point sparring' type of Kenpo) always wore boxing gloves anyway, and literally beat him out the door, but he was not really injured. The guy took off the gloves, left them inside the door, and walked away.

Another time, there was a new student in the class who had studied TKD while stationed in Korea, and had hurt one of the advanced students with a very wild, full-out spinning heel kick to the side of the jaw. The teacher made the guy spar him, and kept kicking the guy in the groin whenever he tried one of his high kicks. The guy eventually got the message and toned it down, but left soon after, because he could never learn to relax his movements.

I actually doubt these two incidents are quite the same as 'greenlighting,' though. But back in the day, that teacher, who at the time was in his mid-late 30s, almost always accepted when someone came in asking to spar. Sometimes they simply came from another school and had carried their gear with them. It was a beach area too, and sometimes you'd also get the assorted weirdos and druggies coming in, who were usually ignored or told to leave.

[pazman]

Usually every Saturday morning we have full-contact "practice matches" at our gym. Having a hangover usually helps buffer the initial dread of doing these, but by the end of the morning it ends up being pretty fun.

I've never seen a "dojo storm" at this gym but we do get guests. Since I am the only foreigner training, sparring with outside guests is inherently considered a challenge match. Whenever I hear of foreigners engaging in a "friendly" match of push hands that suddenly turn into a match that includes elbows and knees, it doesn't surprise me. I think many Chinese are very sensitive when engaging foreigners and I'Ve been told by more than one coach if a Chinese spars me, even in practice, I should consider it a challenge match, not a practice session.

Thankfully, all of the guys I train with are far more fun-loving and open minded than a previous generation. :)

[SevenStar]

In MT and BJJ, we'd roll and spar so much that this is never an issue, however, when I was training longfist, and when I was in college with a small group of guys training "traditional Japanese Karate" we did do this. In the karate class, I fought a guy who was a marine and came in saying that due to his military training, he could beat the pants off of any "karate guy".

In longfist, we once had a guy who came in, said he was a thai boxer and that he loved leg kicking. it was a sparring night anyway, so sifu put him against me. normally, we rotate partners, but he was stuck with me all night...

[MasterKiller]

In MT and BJJ, we'd roll and spar so much that this is never an issue,

Greenlighting is used in sport schools. Everyone here has it confused with 'hard' sparring. It's a bit tougher than that. When you show up and it's a greenlight night, people get knocked out.