sparring in unarmed/dagger combat

[Gene Tausk]

Hi Doug:

You have raised an excellent question and one which has been discussed previously, but there is no 'final' answer.

It is somewhat strange in that practicing armed combat with the ARMA system can actually cause less potential injury because of our safety protocols and as a result, the only thing a person will likely receive is a bruise which, as you pointed out, is fine. However, going "all out" in unarmed combat has the potential of broken noses and, if armbars and leglocks are used, serious injury.

This is my two cents - use it as you will:

1. It is essential to learn how grappling works. I therefore train my students in GR wrestling with some elements of sambo thrown in (using jackets, etc). This allows students to go "all-out" with a minimal risk of injury, as GR wrestling allows for this kind of contact by its very nature.

2. When it comes time to learn weapons grappling, as sooner or later it will, we switch to a "jutsu" approach and allow the students to practice techniques and principles. I have not really discovered a way to let students go all-out with weapons grappling without the serious risk of injury, but because the principles from both GR wrestling and the fechtbuchen are applicable, the students can pick up how it works and get the correct form into their "muscle memory."

This is not, of course, the 'last word' on the subject and I am always looking for other approaches. However, the emphasis must be, IMHO, on the following:

1. Safety. If the proposed ideas will bring about an unacceptable risk of injury (by my standards), they will not be used.

2. Realism. ARMA is not an organization dedicated to the "House of Flying Daggers" approach. We use realism.


------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>gene

[Casper Bradak]

It's theoretically a lot easier to be safe when unarmed than it is with weapons.
For striking, simply pull your blows and restrict contact on certain areas if they're unprotected, like the face, groin, and neck.
The skill and experience of those sparring is the biggest factor on how far you take it. If they are skilled at falling and throwing, you will be able to take certain techniques all the way through. That also depends on the ground.
If it is a dangerous throw or hold, initiate it, but don't complete it, I.E., gain the leverage, or advantage, pick them up, get in position, etc., but don't drop them on their head or stretch their elbow backwards.
Use tap outs.
Continue to practice the techniques normally outside of sparring, to develop competency and safety when sparring.

[JeffGentry]

Hey Guy's

For striking, simply pull your blows and restrict contact on certain areas if they're unprotected, like the face, groin, and neck.
The skill and experience of those sparring is the biggest factor on how far you take it. If they are skilled at falling and throwing, you will be able to take certain techniques all the way through. That also depends on the ground.
If it is a dangerous throw or hold, initiate it, but don't complete it, I.E., gain the leverage, or advantage, pick them up, get in position, etc., but don't drop them on their head or stretch their elbow backwards.

We basicly do the same we don't realy strike we verbaly say i could strike you here and tap there nose or head, or eye gouge, me and Jaron are both pretty good at break falls so it is not a real concern for the two of us and now at our indoor site we do have mat's so we have been doing some throw's that are a little dangerous on the mat's and we test it low to the ground first, when we can then go to a standing position so we both know the fall and the load and throw and if one or the other isn't comfortable we talk and one may just get thrown and not throw or do the load and not throw what ever we are confident to do.

We do allow choke's and we will keep fighting/wrestling in a choke and if we are realy tired we may tap out, we are fairly careful with arm bar's and such we tend to feel them pushing the joint before we get hurt and go to ground quick and say "ok" or something of that nature and then let the person who did the lock know what it actualy did as to "it had alot pressure on the elbow or shoulder" or where ever you felt it so they know that it was working and what it did exactly.


We try to communicate when we feel tension in joint's and such and we try to exercise alot of self control to not actualy hurt your partner if we do a joint lock and there was no tension on the joint we tell each other or pull away and keep fighting if they let up too early and gradualy take it to the level before we get hurt, and it seem's to work for us, me and Jaron do this quit abit though and we work well with each other even with the unexpected flip or armbar or whatever we are fairly comfortable with each other.


Jeff

[Dan Kanagie]

SeALs do similar type training, They blindfold one man and put him in the center of the room. Then others file in (always different people, amounts, and positions). When they say go, the blindfolded man is unblindfolded, and has to fight his way out. Another way is to designate certain people as friendlies. These you can not attack. Mix them in with the unfriendlies.