Post By: Lee Phelan
One of the things that makes our dojo truly unique is our open sparring class. This is something that many of us have grown accustomed to and may not fully appreciate. A couple of years ago I asked permission from Sensei to check out some sparring classes offered at other schools, which he seemed to happily encourage. Allow me to again express my appreciation for our sparring class.
First of all, very few dojos have open sparring classes. The ones that were willing to let a foreigner in were, well, unique. Some were more open than others. There was one dojo that had to first gain permission from their head Sensei, who required my name, age, rank, number of years training, tournament history, and gender. After two weeks I was allowed into their inner sanctum. The atmosphere at this particular dojo was very competitive. Despite the full gear I was required to wear, I still left bruised and battered. Another observation I made were the lack of female students who were actually participating in the sparring. There was only one, and she was serving water from a cooler to the guys. (Lee takes a deep breath and calms down, repressing the urge to jump into a feminist rant.)
Another dojo I ventured to was very laid back during their sparring class. Uniforms it seemed, were optional. Which made it difficult to tell who was a beginner and who was advanced. After a brutal warm-up we went back and fourth between sparring and bag work, with Limp Bizkit blasting from a stereo the entire time. Students were allowed at any time to stop and partake in energy drinks which were in a mini fridge on the dojo floor. While I was curious about what 288 mg of caffeine would do to my sparring, I ultimately decided to pass.
One of the strangest dojos I went to was actually a Kung Fu school. Everyone was very respectful there, and I enjoyed the group meditation before we started. Off in one corner of their training floor was a guy with a giant drum. Drum guy would provide a tempo which we had to correspond our techniques with. The result was a bunch of mechanical and robotic movements. This actually could have been a fun training exercise if the beat had changed at any point during the hour of sparring.
Our school has an excellent atmosphere for sparring. We have the freedom to go at our own pace, to advocate for ourselves, and to learn. If you want to work on slow sparring, you can! If you want to throw on gear and train with stronger techniques, you can do that as well!
Appreciate our open sparring class, participate and learn from the experience.
One of the things that makes our dojo truly unique is our open sparring class. This is something that many of us have grown accustomed to and may not fully appreciate. A couple of years ago I asked permission from Sensei to check out some sparring classes offered at other schools, which he seemed to happily encourage. Allow me to again express my appreciation for our sparring class.
First of all, very few dojos have open sparring classes. The ones that were willing to let a foreigner in were, well, unique. Some were more open than others. There was one dojo that had to first gain permission from their head Sensei, who required my name, age, rank, number of years training, tournament history, and gender. After two weeks I was allowed into their inner sanctum. The atmosphere at this particular dojo was very competitive. Despite the full gear I was required to wear, I still left bruised and battered. Another observation I made were the lack of female students who were actually participating in the sparring. There was only one, and she was serving water from a cooler to the guys. (Lee takes a deep breath and calms down, repressing the urge to jump into a feminist rant.)
Another dojo I ventured to was very laid back during their sparring class. Uniforms it seemed, were optional. Which made it difficult to tell who was a beginner and who was advanced. After a brutal warm-up we went back and fourth between sparring and bag work, with Limp Bizkit blasting from a stereo the entire time. Students were allowed at any time to stop and partake in energy drinks which were in a mini fridge on the dojo floor. While I was curious about what 288 mg of caffeine would do to my sparring, I ultimately decided to pass.
One of the strangest dojos I went to was actually a Kung Fu school. Everyone was very respectful there, and I enjoyed the group meditation before we started. Off in one corner of their training floor was a guy with a giant drum. Drum guy would provide a tempo which we had to correspond our techniques with. The result was a bunch of mechanical and robotic movements. This actually could have been a fun training exercise if the beat had changed at any point during the hour of sparring.
Our school has an excellent atmosphere for sparring. We have the freedom to go at our own pace, to advocate for ourselves, and to learn. If you want to work on slow sparring, you can! If you want to throw on gear and train with stronger techniques, you can do that as well!
Appreciate our open sparring class, participate and learn from the experience.
Photo By: Ken Smith
We are very lucky to have a Dojo that is , well, the best!! I would like to know more details about your sparring experiences. So far, I am both surprised, and not surprised.
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