POSSIBLE REPOST- Old School Sparring

[williamwilson666]

This may have been put up before, but I thought I would post something decent to watch just to cleanse my self of the Maoshan debacle we have had to endure.

This is a clip of Sifu Carl Albright (Mantis et al) sparring with a student in 1982 and it's very good, in my opinion.

[Strange]

i like it very much
mantis? it looks like southern hung gar/ white crane / butterfly palm to me, but i am no expert in southern schools.
yes train like you fight and fight like you train. i think this is fundamental and very important.
the opponent may be very aggressive, but with good basics a block/slap will send the whole body turning to one side - the other hand cannot punch... no more.
but props to the black gent - he doesnt give up easily heh.

thanks

[C.J.Wang]

The black guy is using southern styles, Sifu Albright is the one with the beard.

[Chris McKinley]

It's certainly better, but there's a whole lot of kung fu-ey hand waving and not really much in the way of sustained exchanges. Albright's got some good control and timing, but one has to wonder how his follow-through parrying would fare against a sustained flurry by someone with a better understanding of range than his opponent here. Albright's opponent seems limited exclusively to long-range attacks, even when he's at medium and close range, and doesn't show much understanding of strategic combination. In fact, the reserve he's forced to show in forward body movement at the moment of attack in order to make room for his long-range strikes and the constant overcommitment to every strike when he's in close range may be the only reason Albright is not forced to engage in more than parrying to deal with him.

Albright may be able to start from a hands-down position against just about anybody perhaps, but against anyone with real fighting experience, he wouldn't be able to maintain that position beyond initial engagement. I realize that this is an example of friendly sparring, so that fact inocculates it against certain degrees of criticism as long as the participants are claiming no more than that. If this were to be claimed to be an example of full-contact, real pressure, or even generally realistic sparring, it would not qualify. In its defense though, it's important to remember that all levels of sparring intensity can be valuable for different reasons. Light-to-medium play, in addition to the full-out stuff, can make you a better fighter than if you only spar full-out.

[strawdog]

That's sparring?

[williamwilson666]

That's sparring?

Yes it is.

It just isn't kickboxing.

[Chris Fleming]

LOL at 1:37

Looks great to me. He was able to parry and neutralize everything the man in the red sash came at him with.

[strawdog]

The title says it was "light sparring". Meaning it was LIGHT SPARRING.

[williamwilson666]

The title says it was "light sparring". Meaning it was LIGHT SPARRING.

Well, if it says it in the title....

Does this mean Fox News is "fair and balanced"?

-Scary thought

[qiphlow]

LOL at 1:37

Looks great to me. He was able to parry and neutralize everything the man in the red sash came at him with.

and LOL at 1:56 for use of miyagi's crane technique!

but i agree--redsash was completely outclassed.

[Bodywork]

Neither were really sparring now were they? No critisism offered just observations.
in the first one- if the teacher were truly able (lets assume he was) then he should have been fully engaged and pressing the student to the students limits. It was stand offish and very reserved.
in the second one- they were doing drills!

The title says it was "light sparring". Meaning it was LIGHT SPARRING.

No, it also said learning to flow in applications against a fully resistent oppoenent Contrary to the advert there was no "fully resitant opponent" now was there? Oh were that the measure of fully resistent!! I'd be in heaven. No big deal though. its all good, just not full on force-on-force.
When we spar we have gotten broken bones, bruises, need to see the chiropractor the next day and all manner of mayhem. And we are at least in some manner, getting kicked, hit, thrown, head butted, choked etc for our trouble.

[williamwilson666]

Neither were really sparring now were they? No critisism offered just observations.
in the first one- if the teacher were truly able (lets assume he was) then he should have been fully engaged and pressing the student to the students limits. It was stand offish and very reserved.
in the second one- they were doing drills!

The title says it was "light sparring". Meaning it was LIGHT SPARRING.

No, it also said learning to flow in applications against a fully resistent oppoenent Contrary to the advert there was no "fully resitant opponent" now was there? Oh were that the measure of fully resistent!! I'd be in heaven. No big deal though. its all good, just not full on force-on-force.
When we spar we have gotten broken bones, bruises, need to see the chiropractor the next day and all manner of mayhem. And we are at least in some manner, getting kicked, hit, thrown, head butted, choked etc for our trouble.

Wow, you guys are so tough. I bet you could beat up a bear.

[Chris Fleming]

How many martial artists does it take to spar? 100. Two to got at it and 98 to say "well they aren't really sparring. what I do is..."

[strawdog]

Hey I have a suggestion...

Bodywork (Dan Harden), please show us a video clip of you sparring. I'd like to see you sparring.

Maybe Shane should have simply said a "resisting" opponent. Not a "fully resisting" opponent, that was his bad. I agree that wasn't fully resisting otherwise it would look different. Then again, we haven't posted Shenwu vids in a while. Maybe it's about time to show some new footage.

[Bodywork]

How many martial artists does it take to spar? 100. Two to got at it and 98 to say "well they aren't really sparring. what I do is..."

Thats all well in good-who gets counted among the two- some guy with vids, sparring low key in his own dojo?
If people want to put up vids with misleading commentary and just get pats on the back...great. If you note Shawn didn't take insult and saw the critiques for what they were and acknowledged the description was off a bit on the Shen Wu vid. Which was no big deal. Does the shen wu method really need any defending anymore? Doesn't Tim's work speak for itself?
Stop being such pantywaists over commentary- it doesn't speak well of your efforts good or bad. To flip it around I could say "Every minute of fight review (even critique by others) saves you five minutes worth of mistakes under stress in the ring." And "Five minutes can last a...very... long time.
So, love it, don't hate it.