Half Speed Sparring

[Don Roley]

One of the things that has been reccomended on the ARMA article on training tips is half speed sparring.
I have delt with this a little in my self defense training. Usually it needs someone to stand by and call a halt when the tempo increases too much.
What can people tell me about half speed sparring in WMA? Do you use wasters? Can you do grappling and half swording? Safely? Can you open up the targets you can go for if you are sparring at a slow pace?
I want to try it. But before I do, I want to learn from other people's experience (or mistakes as the case may be. <img src="/forum/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" /> )

[Mike Cartier]

We do it frequently, however we don't need anyone to stand by and stop it when the tempo gets too much, thats best done by the participants.
We call it Karenza for want of a better name.
3 of our study groups members (including myself) are FMA trained and they do the exact same thing which is where the Karenza name is.
Its just half speed attacking and parrying back and forth.
Its great for learning your footwork and getting used to protecting yourself.
The tempo can easily be made faster so you just have to concentrate on going a comfortable pace.
Depending on your comfort with the partner you do it with, you can get it going pretty fast.

Yes we do it full target, although we never really do any thrusts to the face without any protection on.
We use waisters and we sometimes do it with steel.
Grappling is a bit more problematical i think, at least for us, its hard to do grappling karenza , grappling requires speed to make the techniques work and you usually end up doing full speed grappling.
Hlaf sword ing i havent treied but I'm sure it would work ok, but as with any thrusting attacks it should be done with control

[John_Clements]

I think conducting some free play at a slower tempo is good for novices not ready yet to jump into full speed sparring. It is also good as a warm up or cool down for experienced students.

[Randall Pleasant]

Don

In the ARMA DFW Study Group we do half speed sparring with wasters and half &amp; full speed sparring with padded swords. When possible we have a third individual act as an observer to point out mistakes such as bad footwork, bad body position, etc. The speed of the sparring is maintain by the individuals who are sparring, not the observer.

[Jake_Norwood]

However, when new folks are sparring or free-playing they MUST be supervised, and often reminded of speed.

Just my experience.

[TimSheetz]

I think half speed sparring is a great tool...

one point though... in order to BEST benefit from it, the participants need to understand the FULL Speed actions.. so they know the actual realistic follow-thru actions that do take place when you strike at someone...
It is really easy to recover from a half speed swing.. but to do so gives an unrealistic picture the weapon system capabilities.
I think another GREAT tool to give some insights and is a GREAT workout, is to spar with control, using actions that would only wound and not kill your opponent... with the long sword this amounts to focusing on draw cuts... it teaches control and is a much harder workout thatn full arm swings. Just another training tool in the kit bag in my opinion.

[Jake_Norwood]

think half speed sparring is a great tool...

one point though... in order to BEST benefit from it, the participants need to understand the FULL Speed actions.. so they know the actual realistic follow-thru actions that do take place when you strike at someone...
It is really easy to recover from a half speed swing.. but to do so gives an unrealistic picture the weapon system capabilities.

Couldn't agree more, Tim. That's one thing that I find when Free-playing with newbies...I "lose" a lot because I'm focusing on following through and full-arm cuts instead of little raking actions and wrist cuts. Once we get them to loosen up...then things change. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

I think another GREAT tool to give some insights and is a GREAT workout, is to spar with control, using actions that would only wound and not kill your opponent... with the long sword this amounts to focusing on draw cuts... it teaches control and is a much harder workout thatn full arm swings. Just another training tool in the kit bag in my opinion.

I've never thought of this as a "training tool," although I often do it when I'm not feelin challenged by an opponent. I'll have to actually seriously try this out with intent to learn a lot from it.

[Don Roley]

"in order to BEST benefit from it, the participants need to understand the FULL Speed actions.. so they know the actual realistic follow-thru actions that do take place when you strike at someone...
It is really easy to recover from a half speed swing.. but to do so gives an unrealistic picture the weapon system capabilities."

Thank you, that is exactly the type of thing I was looking for. I had not considered that the inertia of a blow would be less in a slow situation and thus allow people to stop and start a lot faster than they coud in a real fight. I should have seen it, but your post and experience just saved me a lot of time and trouble.
Thank you, and everyone else who has responded.

[Mike Cartier]

In the FMA arts this kind of controlled freeplay is called Karenza
its definition is Free flow shadow boxing using different weapons configurations (unarmed as well)

In considering its meaning i would propose this following German name for this particular longsword activity
Schwertkampfübung - sword combat exercise
axtkampfubung - axe combat exercise
Messerkampfubung - knife combat exercise
or more generally as kampfubung (combat exercise)
or more descriptively as Fließende Kampfübung - flowing combat exercise.
That funny B thingy being a very hard "S"
I hate using spanish terminology to describe a German longsword drill <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[TimSheetz]

HI Jake,

ALong with the draw cut workout, you always have to keep in mind... don't kill the opponent... I set up the drill as two people who are obligated to duel to first blood but are friends so don't want to kill each other... but they want to win... So you have to move fast but have to draw cut with control. A GREAT arm workout.

A note for some new folks that read this: This should be seen more as a drill to develop control and precision and also some conditioning... it should not be seen purely as a free sparring bout and should be used to develop very specific skills. It should not take up a large portion of your overall training.. it is just a drill. Sorry if I am stating the obvious, but when I first started, I wished more folks had stated the obvious! <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />