How To Spar: A Guide

**Basagulero** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 4:10am

Yeah this is excellent advice. Especially the bit about the Hygiene. This is actually why I bring several shirts to class since dry fit does not stay dry on me and I also shower right before training. Actually, when I told my instructors that I do this and complained about certain individuals that smelled bad, they began making notices and announcements regarding hygiene. The guys still smell bad.

The advice regarding women is rather funny since we've actually had one instance where a girl came to our club looking to spar one night, and so my instructor had me suit up since I was about her height (5' 8") and everyone that was still around after training was a behemoth. I decided to just crash in on "go" and beat her into submission. Surprisingly she really enjoyed it and said "That was a lot of fun and I really feel like I was able to push myself... the guys I train with just go easy on me all the time and its frustrating." She ended up joining our club.

**Neo Sigma** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 9:01am

I feel like a bit on dealing with getting banged up is also important. I've seen the two extremes come and go at my gym for different reasons- the "PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY GRRRR" types who refuse to sit out when their kneecap is in a different place than it should be and turning purple before our eyes, and the "OH GOD I GOT PUNCHED IN THE FACE I THINK I HAVE A CONCUSSION" types.

It's important to get used to getting clobbered and dealing with the aches and minor injuries that you're inevitably going to experience if you train to fight. You don't want to mentally give up in the middle of the round because you whacked your foot on the opponent's elbow throwing a body kick. I did that in my fight last weekend, and it sucked, and I just now can walk on it like normal, but you keep going because it's better than letting all that training time go to waste because you stubbed your toe.

On the other hand, if you get swept and roll your ankle going down, and it's the size of a baseball after half an hour, you may want to consider taking a day or ten off to heal up. Nobody is going to be impressed by your determination to keep working if it sends you to surgery and you end up sidelined for months. There's a difference between day-to-day training injuries and serious, go-to-the-doctor-before-that-falls-off injuries, and a lot of people don't seem to know the difference before it's too late. It's normal for your ribs to ache for a bit after eating a really hard body kick. It's NOT normal for it to hurt to breathe for two weeks afterwards. If it seems bad, it probably is, go get it looked at. Unfortunately, I think a lot of us had to learn that one the hard way.

**korean dragon** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 10:22am

Dear Kid

I like to hear your thoughts on what people should do when someone is getting the best of them in sparring, because in my experience people mainly do one of three things when they are being pushed by a better fighter. 1.Get angry and rush, 2.Give up and stop trying, or 3.Go blank and forget everything they were taught.

I really want to know how you'd deal with this.

**Scott Larson** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 1:18pm

This is much appreciated. Thanks for putting in the time to write that, and for sharing.

**TheMightyMcClaw** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 1:23pm

Could you elaborate more on what you mean by sparring gimmicks/tricks?

**Scott Larson** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 1:35pm

The kind of crap that I pull all the time. Relying on distractions and mind games instead of real ability. "Hey look over there" kind of stuff.

At least that's how I look at it when I do it.

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 1:54pm

Originally Posted by TheMightyMcClaw

Could you elaborate more on what you mean by sparring gimmicks/tricks?

The one thing that immediately comes to mind is this one guy at a previous gym I trained at would hold his lead hand out at full extension, then run past you and slap you with his out stretched glove. A "sparring gimmick" is something that doesn't really have any useful fight application beyond irritating your opponent, doesn't set up any sort of combinations or do any real damage. Back fists and other point sparring specific techniques fall into this category. I also consider kicks where you fall on the ground immediately after throwing the kick to fall into the obnoxious category, even if they do have some chance of being effective in competition.

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 1:57pm

Originally Posted by Scott Larson

The kind of crap that I pull all the time. Relying on distractions and mind games instead of real ability. "Hey look over there" kind of stuff.

At least that's how I look at it when I do it.

Yeah, mind game tricks is a good way to put it. It's fine if you do these against people that you train with all the time, but doing it to people you don't know is a good way to get them irritated with you.

**Scott Larson** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 2:07pm

My major issue is that I have that "Big fish, small pond" scenario. People that I train with aren't experienced enough to be able to deal with it, and it makes me lazy. When I'm not so busy with keeping the school open, I hope to do some of the networking that you were talking about.

**Dr. Sleepless** · Posted On: 8/22/2010 2:59pm

Wait a minute, I didn't see anything in this about raging out when you aren't doing well against your partner and throwing a fit?

Also, where's the part about ragequitting and making sure to always hit harder than your partner, because hey, you ain't no bitch.