Sparring Bareknuckles

[red5angel]

Is it possible safely? Do any of you guys do it? how do you go about it?
The reason I ask is because I study wing chun. We have some stuff that does not work if you are wearing gloves. thats all good for tourneys but what if you wanted to spar all of your techniques short of the ones that would kill obviously.

[Stacey]

I used to.

There is more blood, but it hurts less. Not the brain damage you get from boxing gloves.

Fists are smaller, you can sneak in more hits. Can't use a boxers guard as well, have to actively block.

You can't hit as hard because your knuckles hurt from hitting skull.


Its good training....when your ready for it.

[ewallace]

I used to when I had a friend that actually wasn't a ***** (he moved a few years ago). Anyways, we use to spar bare knuckles. Body shots would be around 3/4 power. We wouldn't really hit each other in the face much, unless we left ourselves wide open, in which case we would usually hit (away from the nose) at about 1/4 power, just as a friendly reminder.

CAUTION: You must really trust the person you are planning to spar with.

[TenTigers]

surprisingly enough, bareknuckle sparring can be safer than with gear. Moderate contact to the body, and possibly touch contact to the sides of the head only. This is a gentleman's agreement (some schools call this "promise kumite" I promise not to hit you, you promise not to hit me) Sparring with headgear sometimes gives a beginner the idea that they have carte blanch and can smash you inthe head. The headgear is for accidental contact or light contact in most cases, unless you are going all out. Blood occurs only when you strike to the face, and do so without control, or you are both moving in at the same time. As with all sparring, you must definately check your ego at the door.

[Liokault]

No point in doing it if you are going to hit with less than 100 percent power......and you dont want to be doing that with no gloves on as your knuckles will not take it for very long......the guy doing the hitting will probably end up more hurt than the guy being hit.


I have recently been reading alot about bareknuckle fighting and every thing i read points towards broken hands.


No the plus side their is much less chance of long term brain damage if you are going to sparr regularly (if you try it i bet it becomes wrestling very fast).

[DelicateSound]

No point in doing it if you are going to hit with less than 100 percent power......and you dont want to be doing that with no gloves on as your knuckles will not take it for very long......the guy doing the hitting will probably end up more hurt than the guy being hit.

No, no and no. 100% power would be a fight. Lots of sparring there. Depends how well your hands are conditioned. More hurt than him? Broken nose/Bruised fists?



I have done it once, in my old Judo class. It was more of a self-defence class - or combat Judo! - anyway, it was a one off, with people we could trust, at about 60% speed and power. Made me realise the folly of the "boxing guard", and also made me realise how sh!t my blocking is.

It was very defensive. You had to fight very differently, no flashy stuff, just meat and potatos punch, block, clinch. Maybe a low kick.

Too scared of opening up to go for anything else. Unlike in most semi-contact places where people throw spinning back kicks with gay abandon!

[Liokault]

For every blow that hits the nose 10 are going to thump into solid skull (just a joke there red5angel)

And why try to make somthing more realistic if you then do it at less than 100 percent? just know when to stop.

[DelicateSound]

Not to be a VTG - but if we sparred for 5 mins, and I landed a punch at 100% - it WOULD break something. Be it a nose, rib, cheekbone ETC. I know because that is what I train my punch to do. It is designed to break stuff. It will


You can't expect to spar 100% without gloves, especially not to the head surely!! I've seen people carried to A+E through a 100% gloved punch - but bareknuckle. One landed to the temple and it's lights out.

[Liokault]

Only one way to find out guy.

[DelicateSound]

I have found out! If I hit a guy in the nose 100% it will break it. I've done it before!! I've had mine broken too with a lucky/skillful [not sure which!] punch.

I don't recommend it. Lose too many braincells, and I need the fingers to play the guitar!

I really don't see the point in that - the risk of big injury is too great IMHO. There is much more to my life than martial arts - and that would be a very bad balance.

[Liokault]

AND a blow that is strong enough to knock someone out first time is surley strong enough to still break the nose even at 50 percent?

[Grappling-Insanity]

I gotta agree with DS on this one, if you spar for longer than 2 minutes and its 100% power somthings getting broken. It'll be as soon as some one lands a nice clean shot, youd be surprised how much damage a knuckle can do.

As with the promise kumite what would be the point? to train un-realistically? I just dont see the reason behind it.

[rogue]

I do it every class. One thing it helps develope is control, anybody can hit crappy, anybody can hit 100%, but the hard part is hitting a spot on a moving target to a desired degree. Also you don't need to hit 100% to do damage or break something.

Everyone posted most everything else I was going to say about blocking, guards and busted hands.

[MaFuYee]

re: "...where people throw spinning back kicks with gay abandon!..."



that is great!

[Merryprankster]

CHRIST!

Get some MMA gloves--close enough. Take out the punch bar so you can grab.

I thnk you'll find the techniques that don't work with gloves suddenly DO work

Def agree about the guard thing--hands up is one thing, but gluing them to your cheekbones is folly