How To Spar: A Guide

[Dr. Sleepless]

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.

HEY!

What do you have against backfists?

[Torakaka]

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.

Yes, sparring with someone that mops the floor with you can be pretty damn frustrating. The biggest challenge is overcoming the mentality of defeat and losing your composure. I've had this problem myself on more than a few occasions and it sucks big time for both you and your partner. The best thing to do is to try and catch yourself before you let it overtake you, take a second to tell yourself you can do better than you're doing, and try to refocus.

The best way to improve is putting yourself against someone that challenges you, but to do this you have to be able to maintain that learning mindset I mentioned before. You need to be clear headed and focused and try to figure out what it is you're doing wrong, what you know your coach has told you about dealing with a specific problem, and then how to overcome it. This thought process is an "action" process, where you think it out while attempting different things. Never try to overcome your partner with increased aggression. Even if it works, you haven't learned anything new and if it doesn't, you just get more frustrated.

Of course, some times you will spar with someone that's just so much better/faster/stronger/bigger that trying harder is just an exercise in frustration. This is when it's time to suck up your ego and ask them to slow the pace down. You're not really getting anything out of just getting your ass kicked without any room to do better. This is a great deal of the reason why I say to find appropriate sparring partners, both in size and skill. The ideal sparring partners are people that are at the same level or just enough better or bigger to give you a good challenge while still being close enough that you can get the upper hand at least some of the time. Next to that, spar with people that are much more skilled but have the ability to allow you to work effectively. If someone is much bigger or much more skilled and only seems capable of relentlessly kicking your ass, sparring with them probably isn't too helpful.

[Torakaka]

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.

Yeah the most unfortunate scenario for someone that actually wants to keep their skills sharp is being surrounded by people that you totally outclass. You get so used to screwing around to try and keep things at a level that your sparring partners can deal with you end up developing a lot of bad habits.

[Petter]

Yes, sparring with someone that mops the floor with you can be pretty damn frustrating. The biggest challenge is overcoming the mentality of defeat and losing your composure. [...] If someone is much bigger or much more skilled and only seems capable of relentlessly kicking your ass, sparring with them probably isn't too helpful.

I am so glad to hear that from someone who’s, well, good. Be it BJJ or fencing or whatever, everyone keeps saying “it’s by sparring people better than you that you will improve” while I feel like I’m wasting my time sparring anyone much better than myself—and like I only learn when I am sparring people in the range from “a bit better than me” to “beginner” (beginners, because I can try things that I can’t make work against my peers). But I was afraid this was just me being a pansy/dealing poorly with pressure.

[Coach Josh]

Can't rep you anymore so good job.

[wizwar31]

this guide is freaking amazing. After reading it, it really makes me wanna go out there and spar more often than my lazy ass usually does

[roiheenok]

Really interesting read. I haven't really sparred seriously yet, but I feel a lot more prepared after reading all of this. Very well-written too! Thanks!

[Torakaka]

Really interesting read. I haven't really sparred seriously yet, but I feel a lot more prepared after reading all of this. Very well-written too! Thanks!

Glad it could be of some help :) I'm happy to hear people new to sparring reading this to help them get started.

[speedycerviche]

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.

Back fists are used a lot in MMA and Kickboxing events to great effect and cause real damage and real KO's. Also kicks where you fall down are used with huge success in Knockdown Karate and Kickboxing matches scorring alot of knock outs and are a favourite tool of many fighters (including world champs). So how can they train these techniques if they do not spar with them?

[Dargentus]

I really like this.

Ditto on cutting and pasting it for my students if thats ok.

Push-ups!