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One thing you are missing though, in my opinion, is that you should never encourage your students to go toe to toe with ANYONE. It doesn’t matter if they are bigger or smaller. Toe to toe implies that you actually WANT to be in that fight. Either you started it, or you initially defended, had a chance to get away but didn’t take it, instead you stayed to continue the confrontation. Even if you are bigger than your opponent and could beat him up easily, if he no longer poses a threat, you’d be breaking the law if you hit and hurt him unnecessarily.
So, if you were to encourage your bigger students to go toe to toe with people their own size or smaller you would really be doing them a disservice and might get them into trouble down the road. And then there are other factors to consider, such as the smaller guy carrying a weapon (Darren has a tape of a big guy arguing with a much smaller one in a bar. Suddenly, the small guy pulls a knife and starts stabbing the big guy dozens of times, driving him back, all across the room. The big guy is so overwhelmed by the attack, that he doesn’t throw a single punch and soon after he dies from his wounds). In the street fight, a knife can be a great equalizer.
Sparring isn’t the same as a street fight. If you believe that it might encourage students to go \”toe to toe\”, than that wouldn’t just be a problem for your small students, it would be a problem for everyone. I don’t think that’s what sparring does, however. It is just one of many tools to improve one’s overall fighting ability. Furthering that ability can only help you in a street fight. Yes, some people don’t have enough time to practice, but the goal isn’t to make them Ultimate Fighters, just to give them a better shot at surviving a violent confrontation in the street.
The thing about being a big guy is, if a large guy who knows how to throw a decent punch can land his hardest hit, the conflict is pretty much over. I know there are a lot of guys out there who can hit me 10 times before I get them once, so I don’t want to go toe to toe with them. If the guy’s holding a knife, I’m screwed. If he’s going for weak points and gets me in the throat, eyes and breaks my knee, I’m screwed. So from the point when I know there is oing to be a conflict, I follow through. Hit first, hit hardest, and keep hitting. Taking some hard pops to the head kind of mitigate the speed advantage.
GK,
i agree with you! I was not trying to imply that it is ok for bigger students to go toe to toe either. So you are absolutely correct and I thank you for making that distinction.
I realize that there are many different goals and outcomes of sparring. I think that since we primarily are teaching self defense, sparring should reflect this whenever possible. This is not to say that sparring is a waste of time. Especially for those of us with more skil. So I do see your point regarding sparring in general. I think that the self defense aspect can easily be lost if the instructors don’t make it a point of focus!
Great response GK!
BIG vs little
Well I really don’t see the problem here.
A big guy goes against a smaller guy in krav sparring. No problem at all. I’m 5’4 and I encourage my instructors to pair me up with guys twice my size because on the street I’m not always going to be able to say, hey I’ll fight him instead of you because he weighs 130.
If a big dude is gonna spar a smaller guy, help the smaller guy out and point out his opponents weaknesses. Instruct him, but don’t just completely say that unequal height and weight sparring is not right. Because what happens when they do have to defend themselves in a fight against a 200lb burlly man with a beard and a harley, then they are screwed.
I like fighting big guys, because it gives me a wake up call when I get cocky. Plus they move in slow motion : )
yeah
okay, true true… but most its just a matter of physics of being able to move 130lbs faster than 200lbs…
I must have played hooky the day in physics class that they stated smaller inherently equals faster.
Damn it, I can’t believe I missed the cutoff time for the heated political debate! 😥 But onward:
Are small people inherently faster? That’s what you always hear big people say. But somehow it seems illogical. Why would a 6 Foot 6 250 pound athletic guy with 4% body fat be inherently slower than a 5 foot 110 pound guy with a similar physical structure?
What about a 250 pound athletic guy vs a 150 pound fat guy?
Maybe big guys aren’t inherently slower, but just too lazy to move their big, 30 pound behinds? 😉 😆
As far as I can see speed is determined by the power to weight ratio (over simplified analogy – the way a heavy 230bhp BMW will leave a light 170bhp Mini in the dust).
I’ve got 2 hours before I leave for Krav to ponder that theory 😕
Ok, I’m 6’3 and weigh between 195 – 200 lbs., however I have weighed upwards of 245lbs. Do I fight the same way now as I did then? It depends. My point is I would never stand and trade punches with anyone if I can help it regardless if they’re bigger or smaller. If I’m trading punches one for one with my opponent it’s time to try something different. Maybe it’s movement, maybe it’s getting in close and delivering elbows and knees, maybe it’s using my reach, maybe it’s using improvised weapons. Who knows, depends on the situation.
Maybe I’m still missing the point, but does anyone out there just stand there and \”trade blows\” even if you have the size advantage? I would think you would still want to minimize the injury to yourself and maximize the damage to your opponent and the circumstances will dictate the approach. For example if I have to fight a 250 pounder in an elevator I will use a different approach than if I had to fight the same 250 pounder in an empty parking lot….
Re:
quote \”PhilST\:As far as I can see speed is determined by the power to weight ratio (over simplified analogy – the way a heavy 230bhp BMW will leave a light 170bhp Mini in the dust).I’ve got 2 hours before I leave for Krav to ponder that theory 😕
Minis are quick in the turns.
The lotus elise would spank a 230bhp bimmer.
Our senior instructor had a great comment when discussing the topic of the fight class offered at our school. His central point is that while you can attempt to make the class as realistic as possible, it will never be the equivalent of what you will do in a real fight because, if we practiced some of those defenses, there wouldn’t be any students left.
In my opinion (and please note I have not been to fight classes at any other KM school so this is purely guesswork), fight classes may become more sparring focused because that is what can be safely done without risking serious injury. Sparring will never be the equal of a true fight but it does serve to prepare someone for how to move, what it’s like to deal with strikes coming at them, how people move, etc.
This all comes back to the \”Does size matter?\” issue. The best answer I have is: Size CAN matter.
Since it’s entirely situational, you can’t make a blanket statement. In training, I don’t think it should be a \”you should work with someone bigger/stronger\” mentality but a \”you should work with everyone you can\”. Everyone you face will be different in some way or another so it’s best to work with people bigger/smaller/faster/stronger simpe because it will help a person learn how to see their opponents strengths and respond accordingly.
Class has a limit on how much it can prepare a person. Given the classic big man VS little man scenario, it can conceivably go either way. Natural size advantages can trump a smaller opponent. Or the smaller person could shove their finger in the bigger man’s eye socket up to the 2nd knuckle and \”win\”. (Unless the one having their eye popped out is a Biofeedback nut 😉 )
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