Free Sparring Can Kill You
Training Tips | Written By: Andre Vatke
I saw a news story in German media the other day that reminded me why free sparring - especially full contact - can lead to a serious disadvantage in a real survival situation.
The story involved a man that was confronted by 3 teenagers in the subway. They were asking for money and being a bit belligerent about it.
The man, becoming irritated got mad and punched one of the boys in the face. He preceded to get into his fighting stance expecting the kids to back down. Only they didn’t.
The boys went off on him. They didn’t have a plan and were not trained in combat skills. They simply went on instinct and after a couple of hits, the man was on the ground. This is were the teenagers, now in full rage, kicked him until he stopped moving.
The man later died due to blunt trauma.
The lesson here is that if you expect your opponent to fight fair you’re already at a dis-advantage.
The problem with free sparring is that you have to fight fair. If you don’t you or your partner won’t be around the next day to train again. I sometimes get asked by people if Dynamic Self-Defense engages in full contact free sparring.
They are often disappointed when I tell them that we don’t.
Sometimes they insist that it is the only way to really learn how to fight. I simply respond by asking them how hard they can get kicked in the groin. That’s how hard we’ll go!
Self defense is as much about targeting and positioning as it is about just hitting hard. The problem is that if you don’t train to shut down your attacker you’ll revert to fighting fair when faced with a situation like the man in our story.
At Dynamic Self Defense we have adapted the same training methods used by Police and elite military units. These methods allow participants to train the various components of self defense (positioning, targeting and power/penetration) without placing them in unnecessary danger.
We’d like to invite you to
contact us to schedule a time to observe an adult or children's class at our New Albany school for yourself. We know you’ll like what you see!