FMA Sparring Spaztardery

**Ignorami** · Posted On: 7/24/2012 4:39pm

So, I had my first stick sparring session on Saturday.

I've been doing JKD base Kali once a week for about two years now, and despite allusions to doing sparring in class at some point down the road, it's never materialised.

I broached it with the instructor, and proposed doing it on our own initiative during open sessions, and got the green light, so that's what we're doing.

The down side is that it means no instruction.

The upside is that I haven't ever had that much fun without full access to a beach volleyball team, kitchen foil, two 4" sections of pipe insulation and a patio-graveyard.

So, without video (in the short term - I'll get some eventually), I need to do what all successful athletes do. I need to get coaching from the internet.

Here's the additional info:

My sparring-buddy's experience level is about that of my own.
Some of you already know, I am 6'7", and built like an anorexic drinking straw.
Our current sparring kit is: helmet, gloves, padded stick (no jacket).
Under pressure I seem to revert to fencing footwork instead of triangular footwork.
I have a knack for blocking the stick with my stupid hands that is wired in at a spinal level.
and here is the kicker: I am thinking of entering the national open championships - Arnis Alliance Rules, in September (no gloves).

So, help me out guys. I need to be the ************ Jason Bourne is scared of, and I need to be it quick.

**Fuzzy** · Posted On: 7/24/2012 5:23pm

Awesome man!

My instructor's gearing us up for a tourney in September too, I wonder if its the same one.

My advice to you is to work on keeping that empty hand down or focus on trapping with it rather than blocking (I have this problem too)

Also if Arnis Alliance is anything like our low armour, remember that head strikes count for more points, so cover that **** at all costs.

**Diesel_tke** · Posted On: 7/24/2012 5:46pm

I don't know what rules you are using but what rules are you using for sparring? Are you doing, say 3 minute rounds with hand only, or hand and head....?

Sounds like you are relying on your fencing footwork because you are panicking in the round and falling back on what you know. Two things will fix that : more sparring rounds and footwork drills.

Whenever I find that something isn't coming out in sparring, I go back and drill the **** out of it. Then drill it some more. "L" stepping drills is one of the first I learner and still my bread and butter for distance.

To me triangles are a confidence thing. If you aren't confident in performing them in sparring, then you will hesitate too much and not go for them. That just comes with lots of drills and more sparring.

Sparring solves everything so get in as many rounds as possible prior to your tournament! And good luck!

**Permalost** · Posted On: 7/24/2012 6:48pm

[*]Some of you already know, I am 6'7", and built like an anorexic drinking straw.

Pads might be a good idea then, if you've got skinny bird bones. Despair not- height and reach are to your benefit in weapon fighting tournaments. I attribute some of my success to that (not that I'm super tall at 6', but a lot of FMA guys are short, on account of being Filipino).

[*]Our current sparring kit is: helmet, gloves, padded stick (no jacket).

What kind of helmet, what kind of gloves?

[*]Under pressure I seem to revert to fencing footwork instead of triangular footwork.

some thoughts:
-stepping in a way that switches your lead foot is probably what's throwing you off. This could either mean stepping forward and to the left or backwards and to the right, both of which put you in a left lead.
>For forward and to the left stepping, have your opponent feed you lots of backhand strikes. This stepping method is better to receive that sort of strike than hanging back in a fencing stance and doing a weak turn-edge-outward sort of block/parry, and will set you up better than just stepping straight back. Maybe even try going against a slower, more powerful weapon like a shinai, bangkaw or tapado.
>For backwards and to the right, have your opponent feed you lots of forehands, where you dodge by moving your lead foot back, and intercept their swinging arm/wrist/hand with your own forehand. This one might not feel as weird, because you can still do this while playing a "timid" stand-back-and-attack-incoming-wrists style (a style that I've used the longest).

-sometimes I do weird fencing stuff because life's too short to not sometimes try a passata soto or inquartata.

[*]I have a knack for blocking the stick with my stupid hands that is wired in at a spinal level.

Probably an outward/upward block to stop a forehand when your stick can't get to it? I've hit lots of arms that way. I've never been too quick to do those for some reason, but one of the guys I train with is always doing those and regretting them.

One solution to that is to learn to use your left hand to "guide" the strike just off path, instead of trying to intercept/block it. Or you could just try not to use your off hand, but I think that's a really bad strategy for learning to fight with FMA- your live hand should be ready to do all sorts of stuff at medio. This should mesh well with your aikido background, I'm guessing.

[*]and here is the kicker: I am thinking of entering the national open championships - Arnis Alliance Rules, in September (no gloves).

You might find that there's not a whole lot of fierce competition that you may be imagining. I technically became an international grand champion in a tournament where one of my opponents was a 70 year old man who I knocked down with a push kick and felt bad about it.

Or, you might find some muscular scowling behemoth who just wants to hit someone with a stick- it can be a diverse crowd.

So, help me out guys. I need to be the ************ Jason Bourne is scared of, and I need to be it quick.

Witik to the lead hand, over and over again, some of them turning into forehand abanikos to the left temple.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 7/24/2012 9:31pm

Another thought: your "one-sidedness" may be helped by sparring double stick instead of single stick.

**Mr. Machette** · Posted On: 7/24/2012 9:51pm

Do LOTS of stamina work. Train for explosive burst of power by going full force against a bag for a given amount of time. 30 seconds is a good start if you've never done it before. 60 seconds can be downright punishing.

Do it in cycles. Blast the bag for 30 seconds then rest. Blast, then rest. Get your heart rate up and down a few times. Extend the duration of your blasts as you are able until you can go full power, full speed, for a considerable amount of time.

If you wind up performing well you're going to needthat wind.

Also train against as manny oponents as you can. Everybody comes with a different rythm at different angles. Training with people who DO NOT do FMA is AWESOME. They don't play your game and they force you to reconsider paterns that your FMA buddies know and use.

Eperiment with timing. Hitting your opponents on the off beat and surprising them. Mess with their head. Be unpredictable.

If I was there I'd drill you on picking and hitting your oponent from outside their range of vision, also hitting multiple places at the same time in one gross motor movement(See one feel three as my teachers used to say) But I'm not there. So explore these fundamentals and exploit them!

**realjanuary** · Posted On: 7/25/2012 8:53am

One-sided is not necessarily wrong in every situation. At largo it makes sense. To get into the sexy ranges like medio and corto we need a certain familiarity with the largo game (a bit like striking and take downs).
If you drill medio and corto, but can't get past largo in sparring you can add a mix of entry drills and focused sparring.

Double stick can help the one-sidedness, but if you're like me you'll cheat yourself and play with the off-side stick playing defence while you swing with your preferred hand. You can add some single stick with your bad hand to get that working.

In a perfect world you'd have no ego and be perfectly willing to work on your B game and "lose" in sparring. In the heat of the moment this can be hard. Let your buddies know what's working for you to help them learn to counter it, so you'll be forced to diversify. Also, some tactics require your partner to be proficient at another tactic to be useful, see the tactical wheel in fencing

I find sparring gives people motivation to train the simple things more deeply. Which means they can better deliver the fancy stuff.

***DerAuslander*** · Posted On: 7/25/2012 10:07am

Seconding the suggestion of double stick. Sinawali brings out a whole different type of footwork than single stick, as does espada y daga.

DOOOO IT.

DOOOO IT NAOOOO.

**tim_stl** · Posted On: 7/25/2012 10:15am

I'd say just as important as sparring a lot is drilling under pressure. In my experience, people 'revert' to something under pressure because they haven't trained under pressure what they want to come out under pressure.

**RynoGreene** · Posted On: 7/26/2012 2:45pm

Tim makes a good point. Sometimes just focusing on a single aspect of your game under pressure is very helpful. In out and out sparring, you've got a lot more to worry about and might neglect the area that you suck at.