The importance of sparring...

​When I was younger and first started training, self-defense techniques and katas were strongly encouraged but not sparring. 

It wasn’t until I was an adult that I started sparring and fell in love with it. Yet, the first couple of months were kind of rough as I started to apply everything I had learned and practiced into a full contact scenario.

Kenpo Girl sparring for her 3rd Brown belt.

For the longest time, when people saw my bruises from sparring, their expressions would go from concerned to shocked and slightly taken aback. They would ask,

“You let men hit you?”
​
 “Only after I hit them first,” I would try to laugh it off but the humor was totally lost to them and I began to realize that not only sparring—but women sparring—was considered so taboo.

I keep telling people, but no one seems to believe me.

Little do they realize that sparring is equally crucial in Martial Arts as practicing katas and techniques. ​

 When I attended a large tournament this summer, I was super excited to meet other martial artists who were equally as passionate about sparring as I am.  One of these competitors is fellow Kenpo sister, Heather Flessing.

Heather Flessing, 2nd Degree Black belt in Kenpo and 1st Place winner for
​Women's Black Belt Sparring.

Heather is a 2nd degree black belt in American Kenpo and has been training for 7 years.  When she first started Kenpo, she started sparring right away and explained,

“I began sparring about 2 months after I started Kenpo. Sparring looked exciting, and I wanted to have a practical application for some of the techniques I was learning in Kenpo.”
​

That was the same reason I decided to start sparring as an adult.  I had been hesitant at first because I had a lower back injury and was worried after years of rehab that I would injure it again.  When I brought my concerns up with my Sifu he urged that our sparring night wasn’t a full out fight night like you would see in the movies, but that each student practiced control with one another.  

We fix what we break,
​Mr. H helping Ms. A after accidentally hitting her in the nose.

My Sifu also reminded me,
“Learning karate isn’t just about learning to punch and kick someone, it is learning to take a punch or a kick because in a real fight—they’re going to punch and kick you.”
 
Heather believes sparring is important because it allows you to get your adrenaline going and see how to respond in a “real” attack situation. It goes back to the reason Martial Arts was developed—self-defense.  We have to look realistically in a fight our attackers are not going to just stand there and allow us to break their bones. 
​

If only it were that simple.

​She also explained why it is so vital for women in particular to spar,

“I definitely think it’s important for women to learn to spar because when you spar, you learn how to take a hit. Generally, women do not play sports where they make contact with others in a way that might knock the wind out of them or cause them pain. If they do not know how it feels or how to react when someone punches them in the stomach or face, they won’t be as capable of defending themselves in a real-life situation.”
 
Though the probability of a woman being attacked might seem unlikely…  According to the Criminal Victimization Report but the Bureau of Justice Statistics,

The rate of serious violent victimization for females increased from 19.1 per 1,000 persons in 2014 to 21.1 per 1,000 persons in 2015.

For more scary statistics please visit the Bureau of Justice Statistics website.

It was common when I first started sparring for people to see my fore arms bruised up and automatically assume my boyfriend was beating me.  When I told them I was a Martial Artist and it was from sparring, they concluded I must enjoy fighting and be a violent and hard woman.
  

For a while I became self-conscious of this. I dreaded wearing short sleeved shirts and shorts, exposing my discolored forearms and shins. ​

Kenpo Girl all bruised up.

Some people were appalled that men at my Dojo were hitting me.  Yet for anyone that has been to my dojo they would know the males do not enjoy hitting women and are very respectful towards their female peers.

I was told once,
“They should hit you—if anything they should hit you harder because a rapist isn’t going to worry about how hard he’s hit you when he’s assaulting you.”
 
I finally began to accept my bruises as badges of honor and began to openly discuss them, calling them my “Kenpo kisses.” 
​
Heather’s advice for anyone thinking of learning to spar is,

 “Though sparring might seem scary, it is an important part of self-defense. If your reason for learning martial arts is to be prepared in a self-defense situation, sparring is essential.”

Heather Flessing competing at the Long Beach International Martial Con 2016

There are many people that enjoy sparring so much they compete at tournaments but we have to remember whether we want to compete or train for survival, sparring is crucial to our Martial Arts Development.  

​Regardless of system, there is always a portion we favor.  Yet we have to remember that each portion or aspect of our system is there to build on each other.  The sparring cannot be without the basics and the basics are just pretty movements until applied.  Anyone can be taught the movements in the air, but learning how to apply it is what distinguishes Martial Artists from Dancers.