Martial arts instructors, do you spar with your students?

Question

I have been to schools where the instructor won't spar at all with students. I have also seen instructors who will only spar at the end of a rigorous class when the students are completely exhausted and can't really put up a fight.

Is there a legitimate reason for this, or are they just afraid they might look bad in front of their students?

Answer 1

for the first part of the details it could be because there nervous, the other part of details is a good one. I had a instructor who would spar with us at random times, we'd win some and lose some. He said we must be ready to defend ourselves and experience to fighting during what ever situation is needed too. When we beat him which was rare he said he too is a student learning from experience as it comes and that their is no perfect way to fighting so in a sense were teaching and improving each other

Answer 2

I spar with anyone. At any time in the class.

But to be fair to the instructors you mention...sometimes it is as simple as:

- the other students are warmed up and the teacher has been stuck standing and walking around. If he does this every day or every couple of days and tries hopping in for the whole sparring session, he will likely end up with a ton of injuries (from cold to high intensity several times a week)...

- he is out of shape (teaching doesn't always mean you are training as much as you want

- he isn't there for ego. He is there to help the students, and this is the best time to help show something important. If the student is fresh and warmed up and the teacher isn't... the youthfulness and speed might be relied upon too heavily and the important lesson will not be possible.

There are tons of possible reasons.

Judge not too harshly...

Answer 3

Yes started training in 1960 now 68 yrs old and still spar with my students but they take it easy on the "old guy".

Answer 4

I do spire with my students even full contact type sparing but I now wear a belly pad for that.  I don't train and work out near as hard and being twice the age of many of those I am fighting along with the fact that I have been doing martial arts for almost forty years and want to be able to continue to do it means taking certain precautions.  Some of my faster, stronger, younger students who have several years of training who are young adults can now out fight me if they really push it but I still can surprise them some or do better than most people can against them.   The belly pad is to make sure I can continue to take those hard body shots and everything still works like it should.   You have to remember that instructors have to take care of their bodies and take precautions since they can not teach if they are laid up or in the hospital.  You don't see many pro or college coaches putting the pads on in football and going out their and scrimmaging against their players.  I will at some point myself stop taking such risks but it is a risk and you also have to keep in mind that as a person gets older their ability to heal or recover is not as good as when they are younger.

Answer 5

When people are super tired an exhausted, they rely so much more on technique, so thats probably why.  He probably does what he thinks is best - prolly wouldnt be afraid of losing face

Answer 6

I teach Kenjutsu with another instructor.  We show the techniques to the students, then have them work on them for half an hour.  The rest of the class, we suit up and do Randori to allow the students to practice the techniques for the other half hour of our class.  Some days, we just spar the entire time or give instruction for the whole hour, depending on who shows up.

Answer 7

Well, before I started instructing, Shihan sparred with us all, so did our Sempai and guest instructors. They went hard too. Shihan put people in the corner and made them cry until they finally grabbed their balls and fought back. Generally this was how we'd rid ourselves of the people who did not want to make this a life endeavor. Our Sempai had been in for about 25 years when I was still a kyu and we sparred often in the beginning. There were a lot of injuries as this guy (among others) was just nuts. He was a pure definition of the Tiger, and had a wicked combination with this spinning back kick to finish it off.

Nowadays, Shihan has only one or two students and those of us still here are Shodan and above so the sparring has turned into more of a concept specific style. We would work on intercepting, avoiding, and preemptive... one at a time, and run it over and over. Its really fantastic as we get fully into the fight mode (as though it were a real fight with full intention). This way we began to understand the connection between the two combatants and it really shows in our inate ability to cut the attacker off before the attack truely developes.

I spar with those I teach, as I am still young and need to maintain the ability. Our sparring included and still includes everything (striking, grappling, and takedowns) as does our system.

Just for the record about ten months ago I was training with Shihan and another drop-out student. We were outback working some concept sparring and I wasn't paying attention as I thought this kid was annoying. I was supposed to be in the middle of sparring and I got a light tap from Shihan's knee in ST18. Put me out for a month. Luckily I had strong enough CHI (yes I said it) otherwise I'd probably have had a heart attack. I ended up having heat in the blood for a while, and had to work some extra specific routines he taught me, and he gave me some heart medicines. I got better but...whew, that's yet another good proofing moment of Kyusho and it's deadly effects. Oh and we had this guy who was an ex football pro, and bouncer at a bar who never believed kyusho was real, and he trained for 16 years. Well, he got a perfect example as he crapped his pants and had the runs for a day. We now call this strike the "Steve Strike". lol