This weekend, I taught a seminar on light touch sparring at our annual Black Belt Extravaganza. The Extravaganza as we usually call it, is a gathering of the black belts of our federation in the Pennsylvania area to train together and develop comradery. It was a wonderful experience filled with learning and connection with my peers from around the CTF.
Since the overall reaction I received was positive on my seminar, I thought I would share my notes on the seminar here, so that people who attended could better understand my mindset on the drills we practiced that day. I quipped that I could have spoken about light touch sparring for the duration of my allotted time of the seminar, so this post is me kind of making good on that comment.
Before I go any further though, I have to apologize to my wife who was instrumental in helping me shape this seminar. I meant to make it a point to mention her during the seminar, but since I wanted to surprise her I didn't practice what I was going to say when I practiced the seminar with her. As the old adage goes: how you prepare is how you will perform and I completely forgot to mention her. Her guidance on what to include, and what not to include was extremely valuable to me as I put these concepts in motion. If people hated the seminar, it would have been because of my execution but if they liked it, it surely was because of her insight and guidance on content. Thank you LK, you are well on your way to master level.
The Seminar: The Lost Art of Light Sparring
I titled my seminar "The Lost Art of Light Sparring" but I think a better term would have been "Sparring's Missing Link - Light Sparring". A 10,000 foot overview of our rationale for this seminar would be how to bridge gaps between no contact sparring and standard classroom sparring. If I could see it realized it would be the standard way to introduce beginners to standard free sparring, and would be a place where good fighters "go to the lab" to develop new skills. As I hope you will see and experience, it provides ample opportunity for new people to get acclimated to kicks and punches "touching" them without causing lasting injury. It also provides fighters to work on things that aren't ready for prime time yet in standard or higher sparring environments.
Origins
The story behind this lesson starts approximately 480 years ago, around the year 2002. I had just returned to the greater Philadelphia area from college and was back teaching at my Tae Kwon Do school of origin. I was reminiscing with a great mentor of mine about the training I did while away at college (a different school in the same federation). We decided spur of the moment to drive up there for the night and take a class there together. While warming up my mentor had me spar with him, but when I came at him how I would in a standard sparring match, he stopped me, and showed me what would eventually become the genesis of this seminar.
I didn't know it that night, but this drill (and the time chatting, traveling and training together) was his final gift to me. He retired from Tae Kwon Do after that very class. I would see him one more time after this, several years later as one of his good friends was testing for 3rd dan herself at our school. This seminar was a bittersweet reminder of my time training in the early 00s.
Concept
As stated earlier, the idea here is to bridge the gap between no contact free sparring and standard classroom free sparring. I wanted to do that for two primary reasons. First, I wanted something that was more dynamic than static sparring drills, and second I wanted an exercise that allowed me to spar at a level where I did not revert to the things I am already instinctively good at to survive the matches. It is our belief that by bringing the level of potential contact down that we can find a space to spar in where the fight or flight reflex doesn't even think of kicking in. This allows for cognitive thought during sparring, something you often aren't afforded in standard classroom or harder levels of sparring.
I was always told there were two ways to get better at fighting.
- The path of pain - spar, get your butt kicked, and evolve over time.
- The path of boredom - do thousands of repetitions, develop new, effective strategies to instinctively revert to in higher stress sparring.
Our goal was to present a 3rd method of getting better at sparring. A high intensity but minimal contact method of fighting that allows for in the moment feedback with your partner. The lack of strong contact minimizes punishment for mistakes and doesn't immediately negatively reinforce risk taking.
Light sparring would not replace any kind of other sparring, it simply outlines a new drill for consideration.
Benefits of Light Sparring
The benefits of light sparring are plentiful but fall under 3 tenants.
- Escape fight or flight
- By allowing students to take a risk on new techniques and combinations, a comfort level can be established with new techniques and combinations that will allow them to be integrated in harder sparring faster.
- Collaboration
- Since both fighters aren't doing their best to try to "win" real, constructive feedback can be presented during the match.
- Trust
- Since the level of contact is minimal, age, size, gender and rank mismatches should be irrelevant. Sparring is a dynamic exercise and an instructor always has to know their student base and should take caution to ensure the rules are being followed.
- With trust comes experimentation and the possibility of elevating ones skills, or in-the-moment raising up of a less skilled fighter.
- Since contact is minimal, non standard sparring techniques (low kicks, sweeps, clinches) can be added creating a truly dynamic exercise.
- Shoulder tap
- Have partners facing each other. One turns their back to the other. The person behind taps the other on the shoulder (similar to the prank where you get someone to try to look the wrong way).
- This tap is the level of contact your punches and kicks should have.
- This tap symbolizes the trust we have. While no one likely smashed someone in the shoulder with their "tap" so should they not smash someone with punches and kicks in the coming drills. The trust we had in this non serious drill should extend into the actual matches.
- Very short drill set - 3 minutes max - 1 time each person.
- First matches
- The first matches were with a comfortable partner, from their own school, or a partner they knew (if possible).
- demonstrated expectations in terms of contact by instructor and instructor's co author.
- Rules the same as standard classroom sparring
- 3x1 minute matches, explaining 1 benefit (above) after each match as to allow fighters to recoup.
- 10-12 minutes
- Second Matches
- Switching to partners not comfortable / familiar with.
- Allows to see the benefits in action.
- 3x1 minute matches - random information about things I saw that I liked and why I personally liked the drills in between each match to allow recuperation.
- 5-7 minutes
- Third Matches
- Introduction of the concept that with minimal contact, and abundance of trust and collaboration; things outside of standard sparring were now fair game.
- 2x1 - "clinch" sparring - Students hold on to each other and fight in extreme close quarters fighting
- 1x1 match - low kicks only - calling out that in regular classroom sparring we never kick low, but in most of our self defense lessons we talk of only kicking low. This gave the students valuable practice time feeling out low kicks. (An entire seminar could be taught here by someone more experienced in this than me).
- 5-7 minutes
- Fourth and final matches
- All things combined, students can spar standard, can clinch during sparring, or decide to clinch the entire time, and can kick low
- 3x1 minute matches.
- Ample time to recover after each.
I finished with closing remarks about this seminar, like the gift it was to me, is now a gift to the CTF. Although I do not plan to retire at this time, my hope is that the people in attendance build on my ideas like I built on my mentor's.
