Pros of Full Contact

To many in the wing tsun/chun circles, full contact sparring is either not encouraged, not needed, not realistic or not practiced. Instructors have their reasons, many advocating that it deviates from the realistic nature of the street fight. Others take a different approach and feel that it may be too dangerous to apply in the sparring situation. Whatever the case may be, I think there are some benefits to exposing one’s self to the adrenaline rush of a full-contact fight/sparring experience.

1) There’s just something intrinsically primal, and well, REAL about your opponent throwing a punch, kick, elbow or tackle at full power. This is hard for your partner to replicate in class. Many of the punches thrown in the drills are half-assed or “too nice” as to always make the drill work.

2) Exposes weaknesses in conditioning – full contact fighting brings out quite the adrenaline rush and, with it, exhaustion. It shows us how much is really in our gas tank and gives us some perspective as to how much we have in a street fight.

3) Spontaneity – the attacks coming at you are completely unknown. Unlike the drill setting where an attack is pre-determined, the free fight scenario carries an element of surprise and a refreshing experience of not knowing what’s going to happen next.

4) You get to hit hard back! Now it’s your turn to unleash your powerful punches…no need to worry about pulling your hits back like that in a drill.

5) You learn pretty quickly how much more “boom” in your punches you’ll need.

6) Against a grappler, you can see how effective take downs can be….or ineffective. You will also learn how the ground game is very different when facing someone who is skilled in the art of ground fighting.

7) It’s not as bad as you might think it is. You won’t be facing an Iron Mike in the ring…but most likely someone of similar skillset or experience as you have. Like you, they don’t know what the next hit is going to be. Things are relatively controlled and safety comes first.

Something to add to your training repertoire I would say. Next post, the cons of sparring.

Until then.