sparring questions

[work765]

how many rounds and days a week is it optimal to be sparring? I know to much can lead to head aches and to little can lead to getting beat down, which will lead to a lot more than head aches... so whats the optimal schedule for sparring? Also do you guys enjoy sparring? For some reason i don't look forward to sparring and kind of don't want to, but once i start and get relaxed and warm, i enjoy it. So i was wondering if anyone has had these feelings. And our gym really doesn't go hard at all. Maybe i'm just not sparring enough in general to really enjoy it or maybe i'm just a pusy. Or haven't learned to control my adrenaline yet??

[Khun Kao]

I don't have my guys spar that much. For instance, in our typical week, we DON'T spar at all. We may spar once a month, at least right now. I have a few guys preparing to fight, so once we begin adding our Fighter Training Sessions, we will spar once a week.

My approach to training (the way that I was trained) is that drilling your fundamentals is much more important than sparring. I mean, you obviously need to spar if you're training to fight, but drilling your fundamentals takes precedance.

We did spar last night, though...

Khun Kao

[Khun Kao]

Sorry, I realize I didn't exactly answer your question/s...

How often you spar is entirely dependant on the coaching philosophy of your instructor. There are some schools that spar every single day. They come in, warm up, do a few drills, and then start sparring. There are other gyms that rarely spar, and spend the majority of their time drilling.

I tend to lean towards the latter of the two. At least for right now. My reasoning is that my students (and team) is still predominantly comprised of "rookies". I only have one student/fighter who is what I consider an advanced student. I actually have a few more than that, but for various reasons, the others are either out-of-shape, nursing injuries, unable to commit, etc, etc, so sparring is not going to help them retain their fundamentals.

When I (and the other coaches) become comfortable with a particular student or fighters fundamentals, then we will begin to introduce more & more sparring into the training routine.

Khun Kao

[skilzkid]

We spar every Saturday...our instructor will make you go light for the first month or two, making sure to focus on technique. Somedays you would partner off and everyone would spar at once for 4 or 5 rounds, sometimes we would sit in a circle and swithc in and out (or do man in the middle). I don't know about anyone else, but as much jab-cross-hook-cross as I did for the first 3 months, the first time I went more than 60 or 70 percent, I still threw a haymaker or two. There is a certain comfort in sparring that can only come from, well, sparring. Lately, it seems like we've been sparring (sometimes light, sometimes full) the last 10 minutes of every non-saturday intermediate class as well, but they are always geared from the class. For instance, if we were doing punch combos and loose punch drills in class, we would spar hands only. If he felt like torturing us, he would make us do kick ladders (single kick right, double kick right, triple, up to 10, repeat with left) and similar drills, then have us spar legs only, and finish off with squats. But generally, even on Saturdays, the sparring is to reenforce something from class. One thing he would do with beginning sparrers is have body-shots only rounds, since a lot of beginners tend to be head-hunters. So I guess on average we do anywhere from 4 to 8 rounds a week at different intensities with different focuses...but this has really just picked up like this in the intermediate class, beginners only do Saturday sparring, and that is only if they are ready, then still only at 20 percent. Sorry for the rambling

[JP Prideaux]

At our gym its only the fighters that get to spar ona regular basis. Our coach likes to keep the sparring between guys ina similar weight class.

Me being a cruiser-weight, I get to spar with the heavies and the middles and welters (mainly because I can control my power well for lighter people)

We go reasonably hard especially when you have a fight coming up. Though sometimes even the keep-fits are thrown in to spar moderately so they can get the hang of it. Usually the keeptfits will be tasked with attacking one of the fighters - so we end up defending. Good way for them to start ring work... get some good hard shots in without the fear of getting hit back.

Our gym isnt big... so me and the heavy end up doing 7 or 8 rounds of hard sparring on tuesdays and thursdays. When fights get closer we throw in a few extra days.

It tires me out and occassionally leaves me all ****ed-up. But its good. I dont have anything negative to say about regular sparring unless my nose looks different each night i look in the mirror. Just depends on the way you pace yourself and how you handle it.

For me - sparring and conditioning go hand in hand. Too much is never a bad thing. I feel good after a good session - even if i ended up taking some heavy blows. But if your sparring is leaving you in a bad state then you should realise your limits.

Just today i was sparring my my heavyweight buddy. I've never gotten the better of him in our sparring. But today I got him with an axe-kick which bloodied his nose a bit. All in good spirit... he kneed the crap out of me for the rest of the session

I also reckon having a good sparring partner can make a difference...

[retired]

JP Prideaux
You finally got the axe kick in after all that practice!!!!! (i bet it was worth the knee barrage), now to fulfill your dream you just need to do it in the ring (if you get that KO with one you've talked about then i want the video).

skilzkid
We also do a lot of body sparring & mix it with grappling & light side knees.

Khun Kao
I think we train pretty much exactlly as you said with building up sparring sessions closer towards shows, we also tend to spar when we feel like it as there are enough advanced student's to just go to one side & spar while intructor teaches lesson.

Do you often drill your student's after a show & make everybody aware of possible concerns or mistakes? as our concern at the moment has had us spending a lot of time on the Elbow defence & jam:

[retired]

Other Side:

[JP Prideaux]

Originally posted by retired
JP Prideaux
You finally got the axe kick in after all that practice!!!!! (i bet it was worth the knee barrage), now to fulfill your dream you just need to do it in the ring (if you get that KO with one you've talked about then i want the video).

Thanks Mike. i was pretty shocked i actually got the range and accuracy right. I actually meant to knock it on top of his head - but i pulled it in so that it wouldnt 'hang' up there and have me fall over.

He just sniffed. Said "Nice one, mate" and gave a huge left round kick to my ribs. and had me on the run from his knees after that.

But yes... i WILL KO with that axe-kick and you'll get the video.

[Khun Kao]

Yeah, especially if we are able to get a tape of the fight (we don't always) so that we can review what things we were doing that worked, and what things weren't.

For instance, the last time I fought was about 2 years ago in a Toughman-style Kickboxing Event. I took the fight on 3 hours notice, with absolutely NO TRAINING WHATSOEVER. I basically got into the ring and was someones punching bag for three rounds.

What I did after the fight was started drilling my guys in the one combination that the guy was scoring on me over & over & over. (and variations of that combo)

Push Kick-Jab-Cross

Because I had not trained at all, I was unable to move out of the way. I would see the kick starting the combination, and was telling myself to move laterally to effectively side-step the kick, then launch a roundhouse kick of my own. But I simply could not move in time. He kept nailing me with the kick over and over. I would at least get my guard up enough so that I did not eat the punches.

Khun Kao

[retired]

Yes i love that combo (got some good video of me doing that one) as it work's on the defence as well.

[Khun Kao]

That has become my favorite combo, even above the other classic combination:

Jab-Cross-Round Kick

[retired]

i like the jab-cross straight after doing a shin block & stepping into them POW WHAM!!!

[Khun Kao]

After a Shin Block, I like to tap the blocking foot to the floor and immediately launch a high roundhouse kick with the blocking leg after they have thrown a right-side roundhouse kick, or a push kick if they have thrown a left-side roundhouse kick. (I knee shield/shin block almost exclusively with my lead/left leg)

Khun Kao

[retired]

Sweet
(like a switch kick?)

[Khun Kao]

Yup. Pretty much.