semi contact worth it??

[THREE EYED LAU]

so whats the more seasond of the martial arts practisioners here got to say for semi contact. for me as a beginner is it worth getting into or is it a waste of time training and sparring useing techniques that maybe worthless in a street situation????

[rogue]

Depends on what you mean by semi-contact. In my school we don't use protective gear and use medium to heavy-medium contact. Even medium contact could do damage and it's good to know how it feels to work without gear, to have your hand connect with some hard body parts. On the other hand you also need to put on some gear and go heavy since that's what the other guy will be doing to you on the street and you better be doing to him. So if done right semi-contact is a good part of training but you should go full-contact on a regular basis.

[Mr.Binx]

Full contact is definately something to start practicing once you get combat-comfortable with a chosen style. Up until that point soft, relaxed, slow mock combat is normally best for most styles.

[SevenStar]

nothing wrong with semi contact.

1. you're a beginner
2. nobody should do full contact all the time - not healthy.

[wall]

I've done loads of semi contact and personally is the sparring-training I prefer.
1 - strikes are mostly controlled enough to avoid wearing protective padding, which builds misplaced confidence as well as hindering movement.
2 - you still make some contact, thus there is the contact element to it, and furthermore if not careful (eg walk into an oncoming strike) you can still sustain damage, thus you maintain high awareness.
3 - striking is done at full speed with only a slowdown in the last part of the motion, thus in a real combat situation would be very easy to simply not put the "brakes" on in the last few inches of the strike.
4 - the control required in point 3 often develops better technical ability then just trowing strikes full force all the way.

Because of the above reasons I much prefer semi contact (light contact is the correct term actually - semi contact often refers to no contact at all) then full contact, for the normal weekly training.

C

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by wall
I've done loads of semi contact and personally is the sparring-training I prefer.
1 - strikes are mostly controlled enough to avoid wearing protective padding, which builds misplaced confidence as well as hindering movement.

you can go full without a helmet, shin guards, etc. for your knuckles' sake, wear some padding on the hands though. you can hit the heavy bag all out though. Semi contact can also build that false sense of confidence, which I'll address under the next point

2 - you still make some contact, thus there is the contact element to it, and furthermore if not careful (eg walk into an oncoming strike) you can still sustain damage, thus you maintain high awareness.

you still make contact, but you don't want to get fooled into thinking that that will be as hard as it gets. You may get too confident in your ability to absorb shots, which can be a bad thing.

3 - striking is done at full speed with only a slowdown in the last part of the motion, thus in a real combat situation would be very easy to simply not put the "brakes" on in the last few inches of the strike.

then, theoretically, the people who slow down while practicing their eye gouges, pressure points and other "deadly" tactics should be able to use them properly and effectively when needed, no?

4 - the control required in point 3 often develops better technical ability then just trowing strikes full force all the way.

The idea is to have both. you have solo, bag and sparring work to drill your technique. also, you work up to full contact, you don't just start there. technical ability shouldn't be a problem. if it is, then drill what you are having probs with.

[Sho]

It's good to start with semi-contact sparring and then eventually advance to full-contact. But like SevenStar said, people shouldn't do only full-contact, because it can be very damaging.

[MightyB]

It's actually very good practice. Especially if you have specific goals that you're trying to get out of light contact sparring. One of the things that you should really work on is speed and attacking and defending with combinations.