what is the best way to become a better fighter?

I have seen guys who are very good martial artists but are not very good fighters

most people who train in martial arts are decent human beings who dont  want to hurt their training partners and want to learn self defence. is sparring the way to learn hit an opponent without injuring them?

sometimes I wrongly feel myself holding back in fear of hurting a training partner, how do you overcome this? 

I have lots of personal views on this, but I give just two for now, one short and one longer.

If you want to get good at fighting then fight.

I have known lots of really good fighters who have never studied MA, they just like to fight and have been lots of real fights. For most of us though, this is neither acceptable nor desirable. The real question is do you want to learn self defence? Do you want to learn a Martial Art? Or do you just want to know how to fight? Although not mutually exclusive, these things are not necessarily related.

For martial artists sparing is our bridge between training and fighting, and the intensity of the sparing is something that can be increased and decreased (of course the consent of the right training partner). So if you are training with a partner using complete control, it would be wrong to strike them with any weight. You and your partner need to decide how hard you want this to be, and be very realistic about the risks of sparing hard, and ensure you are prepared for this.

In the end though this is all preparation, and nothing can fully prepare you for the aggression and fear you face in a real life situation. You are just trying to gain the skills and the aptitude to give you the best chance.

Z

Would you think there is any benifit in entering competitions? Not necasarly full contact there lots of light contact contests, I have never enterd myslef so could not say if it is a good thing or bad thing.

I would have thought if you wanted to test yorself under preasure its probably the closest you will get to a real fight without going to stupid extremes of picking a fight down your local.

I have found the limited amout of sparing I have done so far with mates from other styles Mainly Thai kickboxers, very usfull and definatly a great confidence boost if I do well and actually use what I have been taught effectivly or indeed if I cant do somthing it has shown me where I need to concetrate. Its all been very gentilmanly and light contact esp compared to some of the advance classes I have been to lol 

Having never fought in a competition I really don’t know.

I guess it depends very much on the completion. Many of the semi contact competitions I have seen seem to favour specific styles. If you look hard you may find something that you feel is appropriate. However, in my mind I would train very differently for a competition than I would for self-defence. That does not mean that you wouldn’t learn skills that cross over though.

I have spared with varying degrees of control (and success) against all sorts of styles and fighters.  This has been great fun, and I have learned how to adapt what I do to handle different opponents. Again, I’m not sure how much this has to do with self defence.

Also, picking fights with random people in pubs has nothing to do with self defence, and is a very dangerous way to train.

I guess this goes  back to the basic question, what are you training for? The goals and methods you bench mark yourself will very much vary depending on your answer to this question.

I am not really concerned with being good at fighting, self defence, competing. I just love Wing Chun and enjoy the journey, learning and assimilating new skills along the way. Of course some of these skills crossover into fighting, but it is not my concern. However, I do believe that you need to test yourself along the way to ensure your perceived ability matches your actual ability. Otherwise this can be very dangerous.

Hope there is something useful in amongst the waffle.

Z

Yes as ever insitefull and usefull.

Agree that testing yourself along the way is good, over confidence could get you into a heap of trouble

I guess the compititons and or sparring would help you to be able to think and keep your head together while someone is throwing punches at you with a degree of intent behind them woudnt have thought that mnay actual techniques would be the same for self defence and sparing/contests. When sparing I do enjoy adapting what I have learnt to fit the situation

I am sure competitions are a valid way of testing your capabilities but not for wing chun.

once you start to impose rules then it doesn't suit self defence scenario, if you stop chops to the throat or kicks to the groin for example then you start to restrict the wing chun man and allow other styles to win with less effective techniques that suit competitions.

the point I was trying to make was how do you progress in wing chun to make training more realistic without hurting your partner?, making it more realistic without it turning into a outright fight

I have a number of ways of doing this in class, ranging from quite soft to, more extreme:

One person stands with their back to the wall, and the rest of the class line up in front of them, with the first person standing a couple of meters away. The class then “attack” the person standing against the all one at a time. They are only allowed one attach each, and the person defends the one move. All attacks and counters are done with control. Once the attack and defence is finished, the attacker moves to the back of the line of students, and the next person attacks. This creates a constant flow of different attacks, I encourage the attackers to use non Wing Chun attacks, and shout and act aggressively. This can be very intimidating for the person against the wall. You can also do a similar drill where the people surround the person, and attach one at a time.

Next I have done some training where I slit the class pairs, one person in each pair is the Wing Chun person, the other can use any technique they want. The Wing Chun person just wears some light gloves (like Cage Gloves for example), the Non Wing Chun person wears heavier gloves (like kempo gloves) and a head guard. The idea is simple, the non Wing Chun person attacks with weighted strikes (as well as anything else they want). The Wing Chun person defends with control.

Finally I have also done (at the request of a couple of students) some full contact sessions, where both people wear the heavier gloves, and anything goes. I would not do this without supervision, and I would only do this with students I really trusted.

There are lots of other variation I have run on this theme. One of my favourites is where you take the Wing Chun and non Wing Chun students (based on drill 2) stand them toe to toe, and the non Wing Chun person can attack any time they want, however they want. This can be really interesting. I keep this really short, only about 10 – 15 second bursts of real aggression.

My aim is trying to think up ways of making training real, but also safe. Also bear in mind that we never go straight into this type of training but build toward it over a couple of weeks to give the students the right level of skill and aptitude.

Hope these help.

You couldnt really use strikes to the groin or chops to the throat in any training situation and keep it safe and respectfull. Master Sincliar and the Sifu's make it as realistic yet as safe as they can  In my opinion, IE when doing combinations choping/punching to the chest instead of head/throat. When you see the videos on the site you see master sincliar do this alot. 

I agree.

You can use chops to the throat with control (with experience) and we normally strike toward to inside of the thigh forgroin strikes.

However, there are always limits to how real you want training to be. Also as a slight aside, it would very unlikely that I would use an actual strike to the throat in a real fight, as I wouldn't want to kill my opponent.

Z

excellent stuff, thanks very much for all the useful information

the problem with a forum is you can be taken too literally, I understand that you wouldnt normally kick someone in the groin when training, you kick the inside of the thigh instead and if you are practicing attacking the throat then you have to chop to the breast bone.

I think Zen you have answered my question by the way you train in the class, its a question of building up the reaction to the point where it becomes an instinctive you just do it without thinking it through.

I like the idea of training that way because it will also free your techniques up you can defend using any block or attack unlike when you are training combinations. where there is a normally a fixed response.

thanks again 

must thank the guys in the advance class for hitting me so much then lol

seriously I whole heartedly agree, at the begining of the year I was getting myslef in trouble doing double chi sua with more expericnced guys as i was turing my head away when getting hit and that just made things worse for myself, now after a few months I try hard to keep looking the way the strikes are coming from and have found that I get hit no where near as much and am even starting to get some good counter attacks in, well now and then I do