The problem with sparring in lots of styles nowadays is that you'll see some guy doing all sorts of traditional forms and stances but when it comes time to spar out comes the generic kickboxing. And who's gonna win in such a fight? The best kick boxer of course. Of course I trained in Muay Thai which is essentially kickboxing but when I began practicing xingyi (which in my opinion has very superior footwork WHEN APPLIED CORRECTLY) we did nothing but prearranged drills which included the an shen pao two man form which is more free but still scripted in a sense. With lots of practice in the aforementioned pulling it out spontaneously isn't a chore.Originally Posted by boxerbilly
Also people tend to fight just like they spar. Very seldom in real life have I seen two people "square off" which is how sparring begins. People are cowards and they'll try to hit you with a surprise blitz when you are distracted or aren't paying attention (the sucker punch). I've seen it too much. I know of two guys who were black belts and each had lots of sparring experience and success in tourneys who respectively got stomped by some dudes who were not nearly as skilled. The fights started as I described and they had like a "holy ****, this ain't how it's supposed to start" mentality at least at a subliminal level and in one guys case it caused a brief shutdown that gave his opponent all the time he needed.
My two of my teachers (Taekkyon and xingyi) trained that you should be able to respond to an attack whether it be squared off of hands down at your sides. One time in HS I had a couple of guys pin me against the locker and start wailing on me. I tried to get away by rolling against the lockers but they just followed me and I ended up getting the brunt of the attack (multiple opponents aren't cool).
Twenty five years later when I was in South Korea I was in Seoul for the first time on a brief holiday. I had met up with a Croatian dude and he told me about a happening club somewhere along the way. We walked around until we found it as we were walking in the door some freaking HUGE (about 6'3") US service man came out the door and immediately threw a punch at my head. I ducked but caught a little of the forearm on the brow which cut me. He dove into me and pushed me against the wall. I rolled out along the wall as I had done years earlier in HS and I think I pushed my foot against the wall and got him in a bear hug. when he started to pull back I hooked his leg which threw us against the door and we both fell through the door and back into the bar. We had some considerable momentum going and when the dude hit the floor he cracked his head pretty hard. I looked up an saw about half a dozen US servicemen with the WTF?? look on their faces. I shot up and bolted out the door like a bat outta hell and to my good fortune there was a nice pink Taxi cab with a vacant light passing right by. I jumped in and wildly pointed to the driver in the opposite direction. He did a donut just as all those dudes were piling out of the bar after me. Now I didn't know this dude, I had never seen him or had any idea what his problem was, nor did I stick around to sort things out.
No amount of sparring in the dojang could have prepared me for that. But as I later reflected on the incident lots of previous ones like the one I mentioned came to mind.
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