Sparring and Levels of Contact

Sparring is an essential part of training in martial arts, however there are many ways to approach it.  Let’s start off by defining what sparring is intended to be.  First, sparring is not a “real” fight.  There’s two ways to interpret “real” fight.  It can be either a competitive match or a self-defense scenario. Street fights and self defense situations tend to be surprise attacks which can potentially involve more than one assailant or an assailant with a weapon.  In such a case, your goal should be to avoid harm and escape and not to defeat all the assailants.  Competitive matches are two people testing their skills and trying to defeat one another. Sparring on the other hand is intended to train skills and strategies against a live opponent who provides resistance and possibly a certain method of attack/defense.  Sparring is used to prepare for a fight but is not a fight itself. 

So now that we’ve defined what sparring is and what it isn’t let’s talk about how to use sparring in training and the benefits of it.  Sparring develops a number of skills that are difficult to develop using other means.  One of the most important of these is is distance management.  Being able to judge and move between ranges with a live opponent is critical in a match.   Sparring is the best way to practice closing, maintaining or creating distance between your opponent.  You need a person attack and moving in order to learn the proper methods of moving while maintaing proper defense or creating openings for offense.  Timing is another aspect that can only really be worked in a sparring context.  Timing not only is simply judging when to what rate to execute a attack or defense but also when and what to use.  It takes timing to a land a front kick on a moving a opponent, but there’s also the aspect of knowing when to use a front kick.  This skill can only be developed in sparring.   Another key aspect is working fighting strategy, there is no other way to execute fighting principles other than in a changing environment against a resisting opponent who is has their own strategy.  Knowing how to adapt to opponents of different sizes and abilities using various strategies and principles is a skill that is necessary to become a good martial artist.  Getting this type of practice brings a greater understanding of the techniques due to having to apply it in various situations.   Sparring is a excellent way to reinforce fundamentals as you have to use them instinctually and while under pressure. 

The next important element of sparring that is somewhat disputed is the level of contact that should occur.  Some people think only hard, full power sparring is worth doing.  Others only do very light “touch” sparring.  Let’s go through each and mention possible benefits or downsides.  Light sparring is a useful tool for learning as it allows people to experiment with a low risk of injury.  When trying new techniques or strategies it is helpful to work out the idea at first without having to worry about being clocked.  Light contact is great for training frequently, as there is a low risk of injury.  You can spar everyday and work on all aspects of your art without concern about recovery.

Next is what I would consider moderate contact.  I would define this as just enough to sting or hurt a little.  This is a good compromise between heavy and light contact.  It’s enough contact that you really want to avoid it.  Also, it provides good feedback to both people.  The person who lands successfully know that they could have hit harder and the defender clearly knows it as well.  Sometimes, light sparring can become tag and a false sense of what a real strike is can develop.  Adding a little bit of “pop” helps avoid this and ensures that the fighters know they can defend against and execute an attack with real intent to make contact.  This is good once both people are comfortable with their skills and can demonstrate good control.

I’ll define heavy contact as full power with potential (or intent) to drop someone.  This type of sparring should be used sparingly and I honestly think it should be reserved for professionals only.  For everyday people who aren’t into competition it’s really not worth it.  There is a high risk of injury and it takes time to recover from full contact.  One benefit, however, is that heavy contact offers a very close simulation of real fighting in and outside of competition.  Good padding can reduce the risk of injury but heavy contact to the head is damaging regardless.  Contrary to popular belief, taking heavy blows to the head doesn’t make you tougher.  In fact, it makes you more likely to get knocked out.  Take a look at many fighter’s career’s and you’ll see that once they’ve been KO’d once they tend to get KO’d more often.  Most of what makes a fighter tough is psychological.  Often a tough fighter is referred to as having a lot of heart.  This shows an understanding that It’s the fighting spirit and not necessarily a hard head that makes a tough fighter.  Also, there are other less destructive ways to test your will (think long runs, long stance training, intense workouts, etc..).  If you still want to do heavy contact I would keep it to the body. In reality, it takes a lot more toughness to shrug off a hard body shot.  Body shots are the type of strike that make fighters curl up into a ball and quit.

Since we practice outside with limited equipment, our group uses mostly light sparring to train various techniques and fighting strategies.  We occasionally do sparring with more force using heavy duty chest pads and restricting to only body attacks.  Our focus aligns with the idea that sparring should be treated like an experiment and is a tool for trying out what you’ve drilled in a freeform, unpredictable environment with an opponent who is actively resisting.  Some form of sparring needs to be a part of training to aid in grasping the ideas and strategies in martial arts.   When used properly as a training tool sparring will not only help your fighting skills but will better your overall form and technique as well.  Just remember it’s not a real fight, you don’t have to try and knockout each other and you’ll find sparring useful and more enjoyable.

Xing Yi Applications: Beng Quan's Stiff Jab and Follow-Through

https://youtu.be/UlV9ExQ0TTo

Xing Yi Beginner Corrections: Trying to Force Power

Duels or Ambushes?

Sometimes I see arguments between traditional martial artists and sport fans when comparing sport martial arts and traditional martial arts.  Usually it’s pretty biased on either side, where your side is cherished and the other side is trashed. 

That Old Argument
People in favor of sport arts often claim that traditional arts are useless and better off forgotten about; then a MMA fighter pulls off a traditional technique in the cage and all of a sudden they have to grudgingly admit that move at least has some merit.  At one point MMA fans even thought striking in general was useless, but thankfully that was like 15 years ago.  More recently, there’s been a resurgence of solid striking, including the jab, the backfist, the front kick, the oblique kick, the axe kick, and really for kicking in general.  Jon Jones pulled off a traditional shoulder attack against Glover Texeira, where Texeira’s shoulders were damaged enough that he couldn’t throw power strikes anymore for the rest of the match.  The traditional Karate stance made a comeback with guys like Machida and McGregor; McGregor even used his Karate stance to fight Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match and actually fared ok.

Likewise, traditionalists often disparage sport fighting because it isn’t ‘real’ and because there are rules.  Usually if these guys try out a sport fight themselves they get a reality check; turns out it’s real enough if you’re in there.  A really weird thing I’ve seen from traditionalists is this attitude that sport fighters are all meatheads or something because they don’t have the calming mindset and meditative aspects of traditional arts.  But then if you see a match between a traditional guy and a sport guy on Youtube, it’s usually the traditional guy who’s really nervous and flying off the handle because he has something to prove.  The sport guy’s usually been through enough that he doesn’t have to get worked up over a simple match.  Often the sport guy shows more calmness under pressure and is a pretty good example of the ideals espoused by traditional martial arts (please keep in mind that it’s often the case, definitely not always).

Sport ‘versus’ Tradition
Both sides do have valid criticisms of each other, but really I think they each miss the point when they frame the comparison as an argument.  The main difference between sport and traditional martial arts (or at least traditional martial arts as they were originally conceived) is that sport arts are all about preparing for duels and traditional arts are all about preparing for ambushes.  A duel is a 1-on-1 match that has an even playing field so you can see which person’s better at the end of it.  An ambush is a surprise attack, usually with the purpose of taking something, like a predator killing prey so it can eat.

Dueling is easy for everyone to picture in their minds, and it’s emotionally satisfying.  Two people square off and we find out once and for all who’s better.  A key feature of duels is that both fighters have agreed to engage.  If the duelists keep fighting better opponents, they’ll keep improving.  Eventually the best fighter gets through everybody else, and has become the best by going through the best.  The whole concept is easy to understand, and I think it’s hard-wired into the instinctual part of our brains.  Sport fights, schoolyard brawls, bar fights, and backyard BBQ shenanigans usually fall into the dueling category.  (A quick side note:  people usually think of fighting bullies as a type of duel because a guy being bullied often wants to face off with his bullies to prove he’s better.  But there’s a disconnect here because the bullies aren’t dueling, they’re just having some fun.  I’d say bullying uses ambush tactics and social humiliation to freeze prey in place so they can be pawed around with; in some ways bullying resembles dueling because the bullies are trying to engage with their prey instead of just smashing and grabbing.) 

Although you can learn a lot from duels, the traditional critique against them does have some merit because real-world attacks are hardly ever duels, they’re usually ambushes with unfair odds.  One example is criminals, who usually try to attack people by surprise.  They break in at night when you’re asleep, they distract you from the front while a partner attacks you from behind.  From the outset, they want you to have no options to fight back.  The reason I say ‘real-world’ attacks though and not just criminal attacks is because this mentality holds true for most real-world engagements, not just for criminals.  The military calls this type of attack ‘asymmetrical’; the violence is all going in one direction.  When police detain a violent criminal, they use pepper spray, handcuffs, batons, stun guns, superior numbers, squad tactics, and body armor.  In my own personal experience, when a client was escalating he’d often focus on one staff member, which allowed another staff member to sneak up and subdue the client from behind.  Having a head-on fight was actually the least desirable scenario, for a number of reasons.

Another critique that traditionalists have against dueling which does hold true is that in the real world, since there usually aren’t agreed-upon rulesets a duel can easily turn into an ambush.  A guy who’s losing a duel in a bar or in the street might pull out a knife to ‘even the odds’, but really they aren’t even anymore.  Somebody who lost an argument or a duel on the street might leave the scene just to grab a gun so they can come back and shoot people.  They might grab some friends, too, and they might follow you home.  They’ve stopped ‘playing fair’, they’ve stopped dueling.

Goals in Training
The goal of a duel is to win, and the goal of a person being ambushed is usually just to escape without suffering much damage.  These goals really factor into strategy, and strategy determines how you train.  Somebody who’s training for self defense or for a dangerous job probably won’t find much direct use in a lot of dueling strategies just because the goals of each are so different.  A lot of dueling revolves around a back-and-forth give-and-take where over time you get your opponent to think you’re about to swing left, but then you swing right.  An ambush by its nature is a trap that’s sprung, so back-and-forth strategies don’t factor in as much.  (Sometimes there are lulls in an ambush where you find yourself temporarily squaring off though, and these moments could be where dueling strategies might come in handy.)

But really, how do you directly train for a random ambush that could come from any number of criminals or wackos in the world?  I don’t really think you can, and it’s kind of a source of frustration for me to be honest.  The reason I started martial arts was to use something that would keep me safe at my old job, and self defense is still in the forefront of my mind when I practice, even now.

The Best Answer I’ve Found, So Far
Several years out from when I had my old job, the best answer I’ve found (so far) in training for self defense is actually to use different types of dueling to train your techniques as well as you can.  The main goal, though, isn’t to win the duel but to learn from it; to view dueling as another training method instead of as an end goal.  Our group’s primary form of dueling practice is free-form push hands, which is basically grappling in a standing clinch.  I used this training tool to stay safe at my old job, so I’ll stick with something which I know works.  In addition to this, we’ve practiced light sparring without equipment and harder sparring with pads and gloves. 
I think the most important thing to keep in mind for self defense is that whatever you’ve learned, practiced, or studied, the best tools for self defense will always be paying attention, listening to your intuition, and leaving the area.  Everything else in martial arts is just cool stuff heaped on top of those three things.

Andrew

Xinyi-Dao Public Talk - Stanford University

Tips on Practice

Practice can be frustrating for beginners especially when it comes to fine details in internal martial arts.  Even long time practitioners can become prone to becoming unmotivated or feel stagnated by practicing the same things over and over.  Here are a few ideas that may help both beginners and experienced martial artists alike when it comes to practicing.  These tips not only apply to martial arts but I’ve found they can apply to any skill.

The most important tip I can give when it comes to practicing martial arts is to just do it.  Just practice as often and consistently as possible.  This is the simplest advice but it tends to be the most difficult for people.  Consistency is the most important aspect of this.  Developing a habit of practice is crucial to making regular progress.  Long gaps will stall your progression and eventually discourage you.   Finding time tends to be the biggest obstacle, but I think even short practice sessions done everyday for as little as 15 minutes can be more effective than a 2 hours once a week.  If you’re on a tight schedule simply set a timer and practice until it goes off.  In this way you can concentrate on what you’re doing and not be concerned with the time.  Practicing everyday helps to reinforce the physical patterns by making them a regular part of your daily life.  You constantly “remind” your body how to move until it becomes automatic.  So practice and practice often!

The next tip essentially is an aid for achieving the first one.  Conditions do not need to be perfect to practice.  You don’t need a large space.  You don’t need lots of time.  You don’t need equipment.  You don’t need special clothes.  You don’t need to feel 100%.  There’s almost no requirements for being able to practice.  All you need is yourself and the will to do it.  Many exercises and drills can be done in place requiring only an arm’s length or a single step around.  This would be things like standing practice, five elements, push hands, etc.  You can still practice stepping and footwork in a small space just take one step forward then one step back. Bagua circle walking is excellent for small spaces.   In addition, limited space is even better to practice in as you probably won’t have much room in self defense situations.  Practicing martial arts doesn’t require any equipment.  Though heavy bags, pads and other tools are very useful you don’t need them all of the time there’s still plenty you can work without them.  I’ve done light sparring many times without any equipment.  Use it as an opportunity to work technique instead of going hard.  You don’t always have to be 100%.  If you’re a little sore practice anyway go a bit lighter or simply just warm up more.  If you’re tired just start practicing and see how it goes.  Many times once you get going you’ll feel fine.  It’ll help you sleep afterwards, anyway.  As you see there is very little reason to not get that practice in.

This last tip is mostly for beginners although experienced practitioners may find this helpful as well.  Remember that skill is built over time and you can’t get everything perfect right away.  This is especially true for internal martial arts.  There are a lot of fine details to work and at the beginning it’s too much to try and get everything.   Being a martial artist involves being a constant work in progress.  Making progress is about getting it right once out of a hundred and eventually improving that to two, three, and so on until it’s right almost every time.  Keep in mind that perfection is an ideal to be worked toward but cannot be truly achieved.  Also remember that progress can be non-linear, it doesn’t always follow a straight line.  Sometimes you have a breakthrough and make a lot of progress other times you’ll stagnate this is normal.  The key is to always try and improve on something.  If you feel like you’re stagnating with one aspect shift your focus to another and then come back to what you felt you stalled on before.  If your push hands feels stalled work on footwork for a while and come back to it.  You may make progress simply by revisiting it fresh again.

I think these are some important tips that both beginners and experience martial artists tend to run into.  Doing martial arts like all other skills just requires the will to put in the work and little else.  Most problems practitioners encounter can be solved with simple solutions.  I hope that this can help people in their practice whatever the style or even in developing non-martial arts skills.

The Three Pillars of Internal Martial Arts Practice

Stances, Partner Work, Dantien Development

Our group has always had a pretty straightforward approach to practicing internal martial arts.  Really, everything we do can be broken up into 3 categories:  Stances, Partner Work, and Dantien Development.  I’ll cover these one-by-one, as if they build upon each other, but they should actually be learned and practiced concurrently.

Stances

A lot of traditional martial arts have stance training, including external kung fu styles and Karate.  In old kung fu movies, usually the student has to maintain the stance over a burning candle or something, and the master laughs as the student sweats.  Some styles have esoteric exercises or breathing that’s supposed to be practiced while holding the stance.  Regardless, the main reason for holding stances is to develop a solid frame within your body that can meet external forces coming at you (grabs or strikes).  Since you maintain the stances for long periods of time, you start to relax within them as you practice.  After awhile, the framework is there for you already, a part of you that you don’t have to ‘turn on’.  The relaxed framework helps to keep you on your feet if someone’s trying to take you down, and helps you to keep your balance if you’re getting hit.  The framework helps you to move your body all at once like it’s one piece.  Funny enough, a lot of Yoga practitioners get similar results from their stances.

The framework developed by stance training is the basis upon which everything else in internal martial arts is built.

Our style has 3 main stances:  San Ti, Chicken, and Tiger.  You can find a detailed description of them in our handouts for beginning students.  Beginner Syllabus

Partner Work

The title for this category is a little bit broad, but it refers to specific types of partner drills.  For self defense, you’ll want to try striking drills with partners, and maybe run through scenarios.  What I’m talking about for internal kung fu development are really special types of pushing drills where you’ll need a partner.  

The most basic level of pushing drill is to literally push your partner using the stance frame mentioned above, where your partner gives you some weight or resistance and you try to use the minimum amount of muscle needed to push them across the room or something.  For instance, you’d hold the San Ti stance with your hand forward, have your partner lean back on your hand, and then try to maintain the stance as you push them across the room.  This will help to reinforce the framework within your body, and any weak points in your frame will jump out at you.

Eventually, you move up to push hands practice, which is probably the best partner drill for developing internal kung fu.  Push hands practice starts off with set patterns, then as your skill develops you move into free-form practice (basically, wrestling).  The idea is to first maintain the framework from stance training while moving through set motions, using as little muscle as possible.  Eventually, you smooth out the movements and work out any kinks in your framework (sidenote:  in internal martial arts, you’re always trying to smooth things out and eliminate rough spots, it’s a process not an end goal).  A natural question is to ask, ‘If the end goal of these partner drills is basically wrestling, then why not just practice wrestling?  How is an internal martial art any different?’  There’s nothing wrong with not doing internal martial arts and just going straight to wrestling, but read on to see what makes internal martial arts different.

Dantien Development

At the same time as doing all of the above, you want to be developing your dantien.  There are a lot of hocus-pocus explanations of what the dantien is, how it involves chi and energy channels.  I’m not saying any of that is incorrect, but you don’t need to know it to develop dantien for martial art purposes.  The simplest explanation of dantien is just to move your body with respect to your natural center of gravity.  The natural center of gravity is a point a couple inches below your belly button.  To move your body with respect to its center, it needs to be a connected whole.  In other words, your body needs a solid framework that’s relaxed and can move in a fluid way as if it’s one piece (sound familiar?); then it can wrap around, rotate, shrink into, and expand out from its center of gravity.  This is the essence of internal martial arts; it’s what makes them unique and separate from other martial arts.  

‘Unique’ doesn’t mean inherently better or anything.  Moving with respect to the dantien is what makes an internal martial art ‘internal’, instead of just punching and kicking things.  Other arts have their own unique traits that set them apart, and some of them even have crazy-awesome things going on internally (like White Crane or Wing Chun, both great martial arts with their own unique types of internal body connection).  Moving the body with respect to its center of gravity is what makes internal martial arts unique.

Each internal martial art has its own practice to develop dantien:  Tai Chi has its silk reeling exercises; Bagua has its circle walking; Xing Yi (or at least our style, Xinyi Dao) has the squatting monkey exercise.

Stances, Partner Work (especially Push Hands), and Dantien Development are the 3 pillars of internal martial arts.  If you’re already practicing internal martial arts, or are thinking of trying out some classes somewhere, please keep these pillars in mind.  It’s actually difficult to find a place that teaches all three.

Also, be sure to check out our Youtube Channel, now with 8 videos posted!

Seattle Xinyi Dao

-Andrew