Full contact vs light contact?

"How does teaching in light contact (training against people that don't use full or most force against you) prepare you for combat, sport or defense."

For sport, it's obvious: some sporting formats are entirely light- or non-contact. For the others, they have their place. They ingrain the movements into the neurology of the student, and they allow you to practice more advanced techniques without risking too much injury. With that said, they should be used along side higher levels of contact rather than as a substitute. If you're preparing for a full-contact event (sports or self-defense, as real-world assailants don't understand "light contact") you should make higher levels of contact a regular part of your training. Use the appropriate protective gear.

"To my knowledge many martial arts teach in light contact and I've been wondering why?"

Initially, in addition to the reasons listed above, probably a lack of adequate technology for protective equipment. The Okinawans, for example, adopted protective gear in their karate sparring while the JKA was still heavily promoting point-stop sparring.

"It has been proven that full contact training prepares you much better so why don't all martial arts try to incorporate as much contact as possible?"

Despite protestations, you're right, it has been proven as much as can be possible in a controlled format. Martial arts is a science, and competitions help to serve as a laboratory. I'm not sure someone trained primarily in non-contact methods has ever defeated someone who trained primarily in full-contact methods when the skill level was comparable. So why don't all places do it? Partly tradition, partly money, partly ignorance and fear. Many martial arts instructors, especially those from Eastern systems, have the mentality that they need to pass the system on, unchanged, exactly how they learned it. Full-contact sparring also leads to injuries, which in turn leads to fewer paying customers, so light-contact keeps more students enrolled. And finally, many instructors don't know how to incorporate full-contact training, or buy some of the myths (excuses) of why they can't do it, like their style is too deadly or something.

In the old times all martial arts were full contact, because it's needed for everyday life. Those days you don't know when you'll have to fight for your life, and that time you could really do it if you know how to do martial arts, and one more thing, that time the law is different.

Today people don't need martial arts as it used to be, because there are some reasons that disabled us to protect ourselves only by doing martial arts, like when you meet someone with a fully loaded gun.

And today the law is much stronger. You can't just beat people and make them cripple then go away with a reason of "that was just a training".

That's why lots of martial arts today are changed to be more like sports than self defense.

Even a full contact martial arts like Kyokushin Karate make some rules to give more safety like disallow to punch the neck and above or kicking the balls.

About the time that the TKD organization was lobbying to become an Olympic sport and getting it's various instructors and programs all on the same page (necessary for an Olympic sport) many teachers were recognizing that the style had serious shortcoming insofar as actual fighting utility, and started incorporating things like Western boxing, and grappling, and so forth. So, as the OP notes, there are still places you can go to learn a more complete art than the competition-oriented stuff you see. However, that's not always the case. I recall going to see the Olympic trials some years ago for the TKD aspirants and I was frankly shocked at the way the tournaments were being conducted. No hand techniques at all. If fighters "clashed", they just stood there till they were separated by the referee... Not good. At the same time, more recently, I watched the History channel's show with the two MA guys who were sampling different arts from all over the world. They went to Korea to experience TKD the way it's being taught over there... Strikingly different! So....If you were a prospective student, It would behoove you to go to whatever schools are available in your area and see just what they're teaching... Unless you were interested in Olympic-style competition. Personally, if I were interested in a practical combat art, TKD would not be high on my list.

Light contact is for you to begin to learn how to fight. It's to help you see openings and go for combinations, and these ideas are incorporated into most martial arts. Many martial arts don't go full contact for various reasons. In martial arts such as aikido, japanese jujitsu, hapkido, etc. Going full force can generally mean a fight that lasts maybe 30 seconds and one guy ends up with a broken bone or joint. Some martial arts can simply train at full contact earlier due to the nature of the art. Even muay thai and brazilian jiu-jitsu do not teach full contact though. There are rules in place and you certainly wouldn't want to kill your training partner. Full-contact implies that your going to fight at max capacity, i.e. not going to just submit the opponent but end the fight permanently.

And depending on the place of instruction, you may do all varieties of contact. My instructors always compare it to having a volume knob, the higher/harder I go, the harder they go.

I see the reason for your question and agree with your line of thinking. The way you might fight in light contact is not the same as how you should fight in full contact and I teach my students about this. The one thing that light contact does teach them is how to develop their skills better to hit a thinking, moving, reacting target. As they develop their skills and ability to do this I then put them in there with a bigger, stronger, opponent who is capable of taking most of their shots and/or has the skill to not take their shots directly so that they can get some experience at throwing things with the distance and strategy in mind of actually doing sustained damage to their opponent. This gives them a better opportunity to take their fighting skills and ability to a higher level and increase their understanding about this.

This approach runs contrary to some styles and what instructors believe as far as sparring goes. They believe that sparring, since it is not real, only creates bad habits and a false sense of security and reliance on techniques that would not otherwise work. In some ways they are right and that part of their thinking agrees with your question and line of reasoning I think. However the quality of protective equipment like head gear, mouth-pieces, body protectors and such that is now available and the availability of good sparring partners trumps this reasoning I think which is why my students spare both light contact and hard contact.

Simple answer, most people's career does involve the use of both arms, hands and all fingers, both legs, feet and all toes, and all bones and joints intact.

Light contact teaches timing, recognizing an opening and striking it. It teaches you to 'deal' with something coming at you fast and to get out of the way and/or block. You wouldn't believe how many people have to practice that and there is some value in practicing light contact.

HOWEVER, I do understand what you are saying and one incident came to mind. I joined a 'new' school and we were training to compete in the biggest national competition in the country. The teacher only taught light contact and I got repeatedly reprimanded for my hard (not even full) contact and finally got kicked off the training classes. I went to talk to the instructor and told him that he knew (he was a professional kickboxer!) that his students would not be treated with satin gloves once they were in competition and that my contact was not nearly as hard as what they would have to encounter once in the ring. He said he knew but his students didn't want hard contact and he was going to give them what they wanted. Personally I thought it was very unfair to the students to send them in the ring what I felt was totally unprepared. Long story short, they didn't do real well in that tournament whereas I did. So, yes, I do understand what you are saying and if someone wants to compete at that level they should train at that level and at least once in a while practice hard sparring.

I do not consider myself as hard core but to most people I am and train that way for several reasons. When I go visit my hombu dojo I have to lay way off on the techniques and still get a lot of flack for hitting too hard. I tend to believe that there should be a certain amount of conditioning that comes with the training but I also believe that there should not be injuries (regardless how slight) occuring every time you train.

"It has been proven that full contact training prepares you much better so why don't all martial arts try to incorporate as much contact as possible?"

It's been proven? Better? You're using these statements again. Full contact and speed all the time may be a faster way toward a level of proficiency (getting a new student to be able to punch and kick with some ability against another human being quickly), but the level of technical skill can't be derived from this type of training. There's just too much resistance to learn to get locks on with any real skill. You may be able to get a wrist lock (omote gyaku, for instance) once in a while, but is your wrist lock locking out the elbow, shoulder, and spine as well? Going too slow too much is bad too, but only if you're never stepping out of that compliance mode. It's about balance.

Look, both have their uses. When I train a new technique where I'm learning a new way to alter or change balance, what good does it do for me to go full force and rip the uke to shreds? Further, if he resists, what am I learning? Everything has stages...

The lowest level is slow speed training, where the uke has no interest in screwing me up. This helps me as tori to learn the balance points, to train sensitivity (counting points of contact, vertices that need collapsing, etc.), and to work on getting the technique fundamentally correct.

The next level is resistance training, where he knows what I'm going to do, so he attempts to resist. I have to ad lib a bit to get the technique to work, applying solid strikes or encouraging him to give up his balance by striking or grabbing at me. Now, this means I have to have some leeway: the technique should be allowed as ura or omote, hidari or migi. This level is done "at speed".

The level after that is even slower than the first. Keeping the contact lighter and moving through the technique over and over to drill it into memory. It's a hell of a lot harder than it looks. No resistance (again, it's too easy at slow speed to resist).

The last level is randori. Here you'll be continuously attacked by one, two, or three opponents from the class at a time. As soon as one is taken down, he's out and someone takes his place. Here, there is no technique: you fight using the principles you've learned. Still, this is training. It's not full-out, teeth-bashing, clobbering time, but it's at speed with 60% strength: hard enough to cause pain and to let you feel the intent, but not so hard that you're going to work tomorrow looking like Quasimodo. Here, though, we aren't using pads or gloves. We aren't prohibiting strikes or joint manipulations. We're just keeping the power level down so as not to do serious injury. It's training, not the apocalypse.

I encourage higher strength strikes against me during that second level, and use higher strength strikes against them during that point. But it's mostly unnecessary other than to get over the aversion of doing harm. I still don't believe in slapping on a pair of gloves to do it, however, because they, as simple as they may seem, can become a crutch as well.

Hopefully that makes my point. I'm heading out the door, however, so if you feel you need anything clarified, send me an email and I'll try to answer here.

for beginners you can have them go full force at themselves you would run out of students real fast, or now a days be sued. its not like the old days where you could draw blood from your partner and then laugh about it.

there are different stages of kumite taught, as you get more advance you are suppose to do more and more contact, in the prearranged kumite the attacker should be attacking full contact, particularly in ippon kumite or even keesha and okuri kumite.

as you advance more and more juyu kumite should be semi if not full contact,

light contact should be for beginners and intermediates, to help you get your timing and distance down. but with the raise of law sued and insurance needs more places are doing light contact to no contact for fear of being sued

one of the many purpose of kata is to practice eye gouging, joint attacks full force, besides being the manual to your style.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ap1hb...

In the olden days the vikings trained with real swords, axes etc.. whoever survived the training was strong enough to continue...would that sound like a good idea to you?

A lot of people just don't have the possibility to train full contact due to their day job or other reasons. I'm a sales rep and in such a position I can't allow myself to appear before my customers with a black eye or visible bruises.

it's not because you don't train full contact that you don't train on proper technique.

e.g. during my capoeira class we hardly ever even touch each other during class and kicks are usually not meant to hit the opponent. Still we do a lot of work on leg strength and improving our kicks on bags, pads,... Most of the students in our class are able to put in just as good and hard a kick as a trained karateka or a muay thai fighter. True that you will probably not have the resistance to getting punched as a trained prizefighter but believe me the human body is not meant to get hit. if you train proper technique and simulate proper attack you will learn usually more than enough to hold your own

In my experience, what's considered light contact changes as you improve your level of skills. In Goju Ryu (and one guy I train with in Hapkido), when we spar in light contact we make contact and even snap. We hit pretty hard but keep it in control. One time I accidentally didn't tone it down after sparing him in class and when I started sparing with this other guy who took martial arts for about 4 or 5 years at the time I practically knocked the wind out of him. It was light, as in it wasn't full force.

I can't speak for the sport versions of any art, but in the traditional arts striking isn't done by throwing your body into it or anything like that (not implying sport does). That's just pushing. Strikes are very different from just what I can see between ones thrown by MMA practitioners and those by traditional martial artists. There's far more snap and form control in the strike in traditionalists... this is just what I see. Again, not implying anything. It's just different looking so I'm assuming the principles of striking are different as well.

As far as difference goes, I don't think there should be any difference in light or full, really. There should be no real visible difference in strikes light or full force. A visible change means a serious change in form which jeopardizes power and ability. You have to perfect form. As a martial artists there's no other way around this. Form has to perfected in one way or another. Until then a practitioner should never even attempt to play with full force, even when training on their own. A punch isn't a push, neither is a kick. It's a strike that should resonate in kinetic energy and a few other factors I'd rather not explain. That's a real strike.

Light contact, even with barely any contact, is to perfect form. In music (piano, guitar...etc.) it's taught that if you can't play it slow without any flaws you can't play it fast without any flaws. Light contact sparing is training to become flawless for full contact.

No ones ready for the serious training right out of the box. Personally, I don't see very much consideration to form in MMA. It just seems to be about strength and power rather than technique, flow, form and mechanics. I never see any snap, centering, rooting, or full body mechanics. No using the body as a whole, but just arms for punching and legs for kicks, with just a little help from the hips. Whenever I see the MMA guys fighting and they throw a punch or kick it seems to me that the rest of their body all of a sudden is in the way of the technique, hindering it. I'm not implying anything bad or trying to put MMA down. It's just what I personally see. I don't think I'm better than them as I can see things in myself I need to work on, and I am. But I never see much focus on form in MMA, which can only be trained in light contact which works on form and on yourself rather than how to beat up your opponent.