3 Things to Keep in Mind When Sparring , Monday, March 22, 2010 at 7:20 PM, in

Are you looking to have all those great looking trophies and winner plaques on your shelves? Now you can! All you need to do is enter in a number of martial art tournaments and win them. However, let's back up a little we got a little ahead of ourselves because you might be asking yourself, how do you get there? The answer is found in one word: sparring. You must equip yourself with a great deal of sparring experience in training to find yourself on the winners podium with a medal or trophy. You need experience and skill and that is why sparring training is a must. Or, more accurately, proper sparring is a must.
We put together some ideas to squeeze the most out of your sparring, these are:
Let's establish something important at the outset: sparring is not fighting. Sparring is a drill designed to enhance your fighting skills. Like we have been told since we were kids it is not about winning or losing but how you approach it. It is about improvement. That means you need to curb your competitive spirit and approach sparring with an attitude centering on a positive learning experience.
If you are not in the higher belt ranks, you shouldn't be sparring without proper supervision from an instructor. In addition to having a knowledgeable eye presenting you with tips and pointers, there will be someone there to ensure the sparring session stays light and friendly.
It is imperative that you DO NOT spar without the proper sparring gear on. You can see professional fighters training without such equipment all the time. If you are training as a hobby or for an amateur tournament or competition, you will want to wear as much protective gear as possible. This includes head, chest, feet, hand, and groin protection. This this will eliminate the likely-hood of an injury and this gives you the opportunity to train more harder and safer.
Always keep intensity and physical contact levels low. You don't have to practice at 100% to sharpen your sparring skills. In fact, doing so is often self-defeating. You want to be able to assess your strengths and weaknesses in sparring while refining the areas you excel and enhancing (or avoiding) that are underdeveloped. It is very tough to do this when you are training with excessive contact or intensity and such heavy training should be limited. However, limited does NOT mean never. You will have to push yourself very hard to get to the same exertion point you will find in a competition. So, as a rule, limit the tough sparring sessions to 10% of your training time.
Spar according to the rules of the tournament you wish to enter. In this way you will have the tournament rules work in your advantage rather than working against you. It's imperative that you wear the same sparring gear while training that you will wear when in a competition. If you train in mixed martial arts shorts and shoes for martial arts then you are in a tournament that requires a uniform and doesn't allow shoes, you will feel very off when the tournament arrives. It is important to pick a sparring partner who can control their kicks and punches. You want someone who is safe, controlled, and non-competitive but still knows how to push you to improve. Aggressive sparring partners who are overly competitive should be avoided at all costs!

Tony Mills is the Chief Editor of online Content for The MMA Zone. Tony is an expert in the field of martial arts training and conditioning. To see more article and information on MMA Gear and Martial Arts Supplies please go to The MMA Zone.

A Short History of Aikido , at 7:11 PM, in

The name aikido is formed of three Japanese characters, normally romanised as ai, ki and do. They are frequently translated as meaning union, universal energy and way, so aikido may be translated as "the way to union with universal energy". An additional common interpretation of the characters is harmony, spirit and way, so aikido can also mean "the way of spiritual harmony". Both interpretations draw awareness to the fact that aikido's methods are designed to control an attacker by controlling and redirecting his or her energy rather than blocking it. An analogy is frequently made of the way in which a flexible willow bends with the storm whereas the stout oak may break when the wind blows too hard. (The Korean martial art frequently known as hapkido uses the exact same three characters: a few propose a historical link through Daito-ryu, the main foundation of aikido).
Morihei Ueshiba formulated aikido mostly from Daito-ryu aikijutsu, integrating training moves like those for the yari (spear), jo (a short quarterstaff), and perhaps also juken (bayonet). But perhaps the most powerful influence is that of the katana (sword). In lots of ways, an aikido practitioner moves as an empty handed swordsman. The aikido strikes shomenuchi and yokomenuchi come from weapon attacks, and resulting techniques likewise from weapon take-aways. Several schools of aikido do absolutely no weapons instruction whatsoever; others, such as Iwama Ryu usually invest substantial time with bokken (wooden sword), jo, and tanto (knife). In a few lines of aikido, all techniques can be performed with a sword as well as unarmed.
Aikido was brought to the West in 1951 to France by Minoru Mochizuki. It was introduced to the USA in 1953, the UK in 1955, to Australia in 1965 and to many other countries. Today there are many aikido dojos available to train at throughout the world.