What would you say the correct ettiquette is when hurting opponants when sparring. Since starting TKD I have made good friends within the club, there are some of us, who despie TKD being semi contact, do go in with both barrells blazing when sparring each other, this is fine with opponants who enjoy the contact However, I have on occassion hurt sparring partners who are smaller or lower grades with exessive contact after sparring hard with previous opponants. I find myself apollagizing and sometimes go home feeling like shit, I am not, nor do I want the reputation as a bully, I realise its about control and its something I constanly try to improve. How much should I apolagise in the meantime and is there any game plan I can adopt to reduce casualties.

Great question and ive put a sticky on it to encourage some responses on this one.

As you have a few years experience on me Tony im saying this with all respect Also no one thinks your a bully!

I think asking this type of question now has highlighted your growing maturity as a martial arts practioner. Your starting to get to a level now where you can start mixing it up a little with senior students as you have quite rightly realised you can take a hit and give one back.

Our instructor (for the benefit of other users on here, Mr Chris Beanland - soon to be on Martial Edge video ) said to me that when you start asking yourself this question it means you should start dealing with sparring partners differently i.e. not beating the crap out of every person in front of you etc. Different sparring partners can offer various opportunities in my opinion.

For example, we have some heavyweight guys that we know can take hits - at the same time we have some younger blackbelts that can hit us from impossible angles but cant take much of a hit. So in this example I would be fighting the kid - working speed and evasion - whilst my heavyweight buddy id be stepping up a gear.

The challenge for you now is to grow your fighters mind as it were and start making these tactical decisions 20 seconds into a sparring session.

Thats my two cents worth. But now its on here and its public I will look forward to our next session

Opening it up to everyone, what are your thoughts and opinions on the subject?

taekwontony wrote:
What would you say the correct ettiquette is when hurting opponants when sparring.
Apologise and try to be a better sparring partner in future.

Since starting TKD I have made good friends within the club, there are some of us, who despie TKD being semi contact, do go in with both barrells blazing when sparring each other, this is fine with opponants who enjoy the contact However, I have on occassion hurt sparring partners who are smaller or lower grades with exessive contact after sparring hard with previous opponants. I find myself apollagizing and sometimes go home feeling like shit, I am not, nor do I want the reputation as a bully, I realise its about control and its something I constanly try to improve. How much should I apolagise in the meantime and is there any game plan I can adopt to reduce casualties.
It's not a question of you being a bully. You're just in the position that you are dishing it out.
That's not a productive place to be.
While it may be good for those learning by 'second place', maybe you need to put yourself into a situation where it is you who is feeling what they do?

Good advice guys, try to learn difering strategies within the style. I think maybe I try to win a little to much when actually learning is more important in the long and short term, I think the evasion rather than attack approach will improve my sparring for competitions as I tend toget caught when attacking alot.Will try out and let you know

Its got to be about balance - and I guess that's the process of honing your martial skills?

I'd like to just say something from the POV of a complete weakling!
Ok, from my background and condition, I would completely resent it if someone treated me with kid-gloves, at the same time my teachers adjust things accordingly - like Pete says, in how far to push things.

I know I may be hurt, or I may be thrown around like a puppet - and if nobody dared to treat me like that, I wouldn't learn some essential lessons. Its also done a lot for my self-respect, self-esteem and confidence.

I'm not condoning inappropriate harm or hurting others though.

This is a massive subject and I think there is actually more than one debate going on here because it really depends on what martial art you practise. The level of contact is going to depend on what style you do and therefore will dictate what level of force you hit your training colleagues with in order to condition yourself for competition. In other words, I'd expect the training sessions in a Muay Thai club to be rougher than in a style that practises light contact sparring.

With regards to sparring in a TAGB Taekwondo club, the style dictates that in competition we practise semi-free contact and you need to keep that in mind when you are training. The level of control you can exert when you are sparring will increase with experience so that by the time you reach black belt, in my opinion, you should be able to gauge the level of contact appropriate to the sparring situation you are in. So if you are sparring with someone smaller or a much lower grade, control is essential not to injure or discourage the other person.

Of course, one can expect the level of contact between two heavyweight men to be harder than between two lightweights but being different body sizes comes with a different level of skills that are interesting to match when brought together.

I could go on for ages on this subject but I'll stop now before I bore anyone! But the main point I want to make in this particular post is that I think that one of the desireable qualities in a black belt is temperance, and being able to exert this at appropriate times is a real skill that takes time to learn.

Gave the advice a try, tried to put younger much smaller student in position of power tonight, very tough young lad but was a bit frustrting, I tried to let im lead and had no intention of countering, I think he was scared as he only threw half hearted attempts that did not reach, even when I purosely dropped my guard to invite attack. Very frustrating but I think I learnt that being bigger psychologically beats the opponant on occassion, and I also got to observe his movements rather than just overpowering him. Frustrating but a learning curve, will plod on with same approach net time

also be aware that your sudden change in tactic is probably making your opponent uneasy
when you know the person you are up against is bigger, stronger, faster, senior, etc. you mentally prepare yourself for a tough time
to then be presented with an open target on this person you then start waiting to see what the catch is.

-AP

taekwontony wrote:
What would you say the correct ettiquette is when hurting opponants when sparring. Since starting TKD I have made good friends within the club, there are some of us, who despie TKD being semi contact, do go in with both barrells blazing when sparring each other, this is fine with opponants who enjoy the contact However, I have on occassion hurt sparring partners who are smaller or lower grades with exessive contact after sparring hard with previous opponants. I find myself apollagizing and sometimes go home feeling like shit, I am not, nor do I want the reputation as a bully, I realise its about control and its something I constanly try to improve. How much should I apolagise in the meantime and is there any game plan I can adopt to reduce casualties.

Ok..
If TKD is meant to be semi-contact, then I would recommend only training at this level in class. This way you won't "over-charge" yourself just before coming up against a junior student.
If you and your friends from class want to take it up a notch, do it outside of class, or ask your instructor if he would be willing to run a class for senior students focused on heavier sparring.

I think the chances are, if its meant to be semi-contact, and you accidently injure anyone whilst going heavier, your insurance policy may not cover you.

So my advice, stick to the rules in class. Outside of class, or in a specialist class, go for it.

Good points, well made. The changing tactic thing is really interesting, can see the point with a regular sparring partner, wonder ow to adpt it to competition sparring. Very good point about about level of contact and we have times where we cool it down, however just seems to result in the same full force brawl sooner or later. Lot to learn about control I think, its just theres nothing quite like hitting and being hit to make you feel alive !