Just wanted to get a concensus on how often people spar who post on here. Also please list if you are a competitive fighter and what sort of competitions you compete in.
Personally, I try to spar as much as humanly possible. I dont compete in any competitions yet, but I would like to eventually get into some sort of NHB fights. I train at a Shaolin 5 animals school and to be honest most of the students there don’t give me a challenge…except my instructor, but he hasn’t been sparring much lately. Since I dont compete and sparring is such a rush for me…I get pretty intense…and there are a few people I spar with that actually like getting that way too. If I had to say the intensity level as a percentage of total power and energy expended, I would say anywhere from 50-70%. Also, I always spar full contact with groundfighting…sometimes I will use a face mask and light gloves, other times just light gloves. I was getting to spar at least 3-4 times a week about 6 mos ago. But lately because of lack of training partners it has been about once a week. I am thinking about going around to some fighting gyms and seeing if I can find sparring partners there though.
I guess someone has to give a serious answer though…
I “spar” every day, for the most part. I train bjj and judo currently, and we roll in every class. in my longfist days, we sparred 1 - 2 days per week. In muay thai, we sparred once a week (classes were twice a week)
I may be going to another MT school once a week shortly - I’ll be going on wednesdays, which is the night they spar.
With an actual other person…January 2003 one night and July 25, 2003. And recently once before that all but not sure the date.
Intensity. Very relaxed even when maiming serious. If I feel the urgency of the danger. I slow my responces and responding with my tensing (choking) muscles. It’s always intense. Severly, yet I have seemingly acquired a sense of don’t get caught-up/lost in the urgency feeling (adrenaline) or some-such perhaps.
Sparring nearly none. Intensity, way high.-ish
I presume Think opponents don’t count for this post. Iff, Think opponents count~ Then I spar very frequently if not constantly. Intensity, still very high.
Right now I’m trying to mix it up more, 2 nights of relaxed light moderate contact emphasis on footwork and evasions for 30 minutes a session; one night of self defense training; one day of working in-side; going to start doing some full contact with gear and I’ll cycle that about every 3 to 4 weeks. I’m hoping this will help build skills while cutting down on injuries.
In the 2 classes I’ve been attending in JKD, we have sparred at a high intensity-level. I think they do it every lesson in some form. Currently we’re going through a Kali curriculum, where we spar full-contact only wearing shinpads & boxing gloves. (but it is only Lago Mano I have trained so far, so it is only the hand/arm + shins that have been the main targets.)
In class 1 or 2 times a week, friday is always 2 hours of nothing but sprarring… havent caught that class lately tho.
Outside, was doing occasional sparring with… 1 4th dan kempo karate dude, 1 2nd judo bb, 1 1st judo bb, 1 former wing chun/tsun and praying mantis bb, and 1 dude w/brown in bjj. Told me he had a black tho, lying f*Cker.
But alas, now Im at my moms house for another month, and she doesnt like it that I have strange people come over to fight.
Oh well… soon… very soon… Ive just been doing speed, power, cardio work extensively lately.
I try to spar at least twice every week. Our school went through a period where not many of the students really cared to spar… well, that’s still the case, but enough are interested that we can have some good training. We use boxing gloves, boxing headguards, muay thai-style shin guards and the obligatory cup and heavy-duty mouthpiece.
Most often, we do drills with the gear (i.e. just punches, just kicks, just throws, just groundfighting) and every once in awhile spar outright. We allow any techniques that are reasonably safe to spar with. Our school most often does unpadded drills, which are geared toward developing speed, reflexes, and conditioning (these we do every night, which is twice a week for either BSL or Hung Gar, four times a week if you work out with both). The problem with these is that the student is required to pull his punches.
Intensity starts out low when people are learning maneuvers and builds as the session progresses, perhaps up to 70% intensity (high speed, medium power). Some of us advocate competition (san shou) for those who are serious.
