Types of Sparring

Injuries

Protective equipment is worn over designated body target areas during free-sparring and the range of allowable techniques is restricted to provide a demanding, challenging, and yet safe, competition. Sparring injuries are few and are usually very minor. As sparring skills increase and the body is hardened by training, injuries become rarer. Beginning students are not allowed to free-spar for their first few months of training, so they may learn to block effectively and to control their attacking techniques. When free-sparring, an inexperienced student is more dangerous than an experienced student. Therefore, instructors usually pair inexperienced students with experienced students. The experienced students are better able to protect themselves from poorly controlled attacks and they have better control of their attacks, thus protecting the inexperienced students from injury.