Beware of Sparring Too Soon

Sparring training is one of the most exciting drills in Martial Art training.
A very common mistake instructors make with their students is they get them sparring too soon. A great question to ask an instructor is "when do students start learning to spar?" There is no standard time frame. A rule of thumb is that students in the beginner levels should be focusing on the their basics of standing, punching, kicking, blocking, stretching, etc. Sparring and sparring drills should not begin until these basics have been reasonably established. At American Kempo Karate Academy, a typical time frame is 6 months to start sparring. Even then, the students are just learning drills and not live sparring. Sparring can be very dangerous if it is not taught properly at the proper level.

Adults need to be careful of fight clubs. Often times, fight clubs just put brand new people in the ring so that their "champion" fighters have some punch dummies. Most fight clubs make their money from fight events and not from instruction so they could care less if you quit or get hurt. Don't let yourself be someones kick bag when your first start. Sparring is a skill that must be developed over years of training. If you find yourself in a fight club, make sure they actually train beginners. I also suggest you confirm the head instructor's background. If they are not a high level instructor in an established Martial Art, move on. Chances are, they are not qualified to teach.

Be sure that when the time does come to spar, what kind of equipment will be used. You want to make sure that a reasonable amount of safety gear is being used for sparring training to prevent injuries. Be careful of schools who try to sell you the safety gear too early in the training. Many times they are just after the profits of selling the gear and not in your proper time frame to start sparring.

At AKKA, we make sure students are properly prepared to start learning how to spar. Training is closely supervised to insure good control and safety and the students LOVE IT!
For more information, visit http://www.akka.com/