Sparring was commonplace in American karate schools during the heyday of the ‘80s and ‘90s. It is an excellent way to develop champions, but it brings an increased risk of injury, and acts a big deterrent to new students. And, as it creates winners and losers, it feeds a high dropout rate. Most importantly, sparring as it has been traditionally done, as in boxing, has been found associated with significant risk of concussion.
Sparring gives us the opportunity to learn in real time what we can do, and what we can’t. This is a valuable lesson. In particular, we learn how to respond when things do not go as planned. As Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Jean Jacques Machado has stated, “No sparring, no miracles”. But, as we have learned via football and the Iraq war, head trauma is a serious overall health risk. As one of my teachers mentioned to me recently, while we can become conditioned to take a strike to the body without damage, such as by tightening our abdominal muscles, there is really no way to learn to take a strike to the head.
What would then be the value of sparring that included strikes to the head (in some fashion)? Being struck in the face can be a very emotional experience. In particular, this alone can end a fight badly for us if it’s the first time it has ever happened. As a result, a safe way to get used to being struck in the face without shutting down is very useful. Additionally, learning to keep the eyes open while strikes are approaching the face is really important to surviving a fight.
There are a couple ways this can be done. First, sparring with light training weapons made of foam can allow a lot of this without injury, when appropriate face and eye protection is worn. Second, traditional Kendo armor fully protects the face with a steel cage. There is very little protection on the sides and top of the helmet. This is actually specifically designed to protect the person who looks directly into the strike, but not if the head turns away.
A third way of training to keep the eyes open and deal with something flying right at the face is the boxer’s reflex ball. This is a headband attached to a light foam ball by an elastic length of the wearer’s arm. Contact to the face by the ball is minimal due to its light weight, but the elastic makes it move very fast and unpredictably. The reflex ball has an additional application hard to duplicate: it can be safely practiced (with eye protection) in the kind of low light conditions wear assaults may happen. Among other things, this is an excellent way to train the peripheral vision. For more advanced students, heavier reflex balls with stronger elastics are available. You can see what the reflex ball looks like in the video below. I am also doing it combined with footwork training to avoid obstacles on the ground.
A final example of sparring illustrates an approach to head injuries in karate competition. The karate style of kyokushin has the following rules: matches have no protective equipment beyond mouthguards and groin protectors, and all strikes are full power. However, the only strikes allowed to the head are kicks. While this may seem concerning due to the power of kicks, the likelihood of actually landing a kick to the head on a fully resisting opponent is relatively low. For these competitions, it is important that participants have a reason to protect their heads, but a degree of safety in the rules.