So how often do you spar and at what intensity?

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
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So how often do you spar and at what intensity?
We all know sparring is important but I was wondering how often the members on the board sparred, is it multiple times a week, once a week, or less and how do you spar is it stand up clinch ground, with and without strikes or all of the above?

Personally out of about 5 – 7 hours MMA training in class I would say on average an hour to two hours is spent sparring. I do 30 minutes MMA sparring on a Saturday which starts out with rounds of pure stand up, and then goes into MMA sparring. I also do position grappling sparring on this day, i.e. sparring from the guard and going for submission, sweeps or passes and then restarting in the guard. Or starting in mount and going until someone escapes or is subbed. This sparring lasts about 20 minutes, I will also do 30 minutes of grappling sparring on Saturdays if I am feeling up for it.

The other two classes of the week take place at a different club and the sparring there is less structured, but we normally either roll or do standing sparring at least once a week at this club.
I actually probably do more MMA/stand-up sparring than grappling these days, I find my grappling has got to a level I can maintain it with just drilling and positional sparring, where as my stand-up always need work
My second question is what equipment you use for sparring and how intense the sessions are: normally for me if we are going hard in MMA/boxing sparring its boxing gloves (at least 12oz but if people are getting ready for comps its 14oz with head protection) shin guards mouth piece box etc. By hard I mean it keeps you honest and under pressure, if you get hit you will taste blood, get a bruise and maybe see stars, but actually going full out i.e. to knock each other out or hurt each other is very rare. Even when guys are getting ready for comps and have the headgear on its still not full out full contact (this is done but only occasionally throughout the year and only with guys that are on the team.)
What’s interesting to me is that when the MMA gloves are put on the intensity is dialled down, none of the clubs I train at use MMA gloves for full on hard sparring (not even those new MMA gloves that are meant to be padded like 10oz gloves) so I would be interested in hearing from guys that go full out with MMA gloves what the injury rate is etc. Even when the coaches are getting guys ready for pro fights they only spar hard with the boxing gloves, MMA gloves are used but in lighter sparring sessions.
With grappling sparring it’s pretty much full out all the time, but unlike competitions when sparring in the gym my first responsibility is to my partners safety and subs are put on accordingly, where as in competition it’s my opponents responsibility and the refs to look after himself not mine

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i havent been able to find good quality sparring yet at the two schools ive been too

shaolin do was well shaolin do LOL but we sparred almost every class at least

and grudge was dissapointing because it was too boxing oriented

they went hard which was nice to have because it was realistic but for an mma gym they should have focused on the whole enchilada so to speak not on just one aspect

in sparring there it was rare they even let us go rounds with kicks

i prefer the knock out karate form of sparring(kicks to everywhere, punches to body) with throws and trips put in

or just regular kickboxing sparring with out shin pads

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Everyday, all day, full contact.

Also randomly, while on public transportation I like to reach out and throw strangers to the ground and stomp them.

YOu know, just to keep that edge.

:rolleyes:

:smiley:

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[QUOTE=David Jamieson;1001962]Everyday, all day, full contact.

Also randomly, while on public transportation I like to reach out and throw strangers to the ground and stomp them.
[/QUOTE]

You’re not practicing the real deal until you come to the states. You never realize how much Canada limits your ability to fight with aliveness until you come to a country with real freedom, where you can haul off and belt a guy, saying “eat this” without having, in order to avoid a fine, to also say “la-mange.” Those critical lost seconds trying to conjugate might be the difference between dealing a curb stomp and getting tazered.

My sparring has been limited since I injured my knee, I’m not starting up again until May.

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[QUOTE=David Jamieson;1001962]Everyday, all day, full contact.

Also randomly, while on public transportation I like to reach out and throw strangers to the ground and stomp them.

YOu know, just to keep that edge.

:rolleyes:

:D[/QUOTE]

why the sarcastic attitude if you didn’t like the thread how about not replying?

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[QUOTE=Frost;1001977]why the sarcastic attitude if you didn’t like the thread how about not replying?[/QUOTE]

He was being sarcastic toward his post, not the thread.

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[QUOTE=Frost;1001977]why the sarcastic attitude if you didn’t like the thread how about not replying?[/QUOTE]

You looking for a spar or something?

hey? hmmmn? huh?

come on up to canada and get on a bus, I dare you!!!

translation:

Vous recherchez un espar ou autre chose?

hein? hmmmn? hein?

Montez donc au Canada et à monter dans un bus, je vous mets au défi!!

Hey, oyu’re right KC, it takes less time if you don’t have to say it in french too. :smiley:

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[QUOTE=David Jamieson;1001988]

Hey, oyu’re right KC, it takes less time if you don’t have to say it in french too. :D[/QUOTE]

The next step is to quit with the english and just speak 'merican.

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my opinions on sparring are pretty unpopular.
i understand this and i understand if it causes a bad reaction.

i like sparring when it’s constructive, when it’s done with supervision, and when there are specific goals.

i hate sparring when it’s competitive and little more than an excuse to beat the cr@p out of each other.

i’ve done both.
i’ve had long periods of training where i did one or the other exclusively.

to different extents both are required.
i am in no way trying to deny this.

i’m of the mindset that the first type should make up 90% of your training.
start slow with defensive drills, add more freedom & speed as partners grow accustomed to each other. It’ll look almost full out when you’re comfortable with each other, but it’s something you work towards, not something new guys get thrown straight into & not something competitive.

my preference is to do the second type periodically; that is, weekly or monthly, and more frequently as you ramp up the training before a fight.
I also think the second type should be with someone from another gym, preferably in a smoker/interclub-type situation.

The reason I’m more for slower, controlled defensive drills at first, is because that’s how you build skill & proper form. Kinda like tai chi or throwing slow kicks; you get the mechanics down right so when the time comes you don’t have time to think about it.

You learn to handle the speed, the crowd, the power, the adrenaline dump, the anger, and all that when you get to the interclub. It’s not going on your record, so no biggie. Even if you lose a few times, if you take a career of interclub sparring into your first amateur fight, you’re going to know for sure that you’ve kinda been there before, that you’ve experienced guys who weren’t willing to give you any quarter. Sad thing is that the role the interclubs fill is what amateur fighting was supposed to be in the first place.

The reason I prefer not going hard with people from my gym, is that I prefer a team-type gym atmosphere. I don’t want to be be in a shark tank where every single kid that comes in the door is going to try to take me out. I want to save my competitive drive for the ring where it actually counts. You may fight alone, but it’s your team that gets you ready in training camp, they watch your back when you go to an event, they cheer for you in the crowd, and the team works your corner between rounds. The better your teammates and the more constructive/collaborative the atmosphere, the better you’re going to be.

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[QUOTE=Pork Chop;1002137]my opinions on sparring are pretty unpopular.
i understand this and i understand if it causes a bad reaction.

i like sparring when it’s constructive, when it’s done with supervision, and when there are specific goals.

i hate sparring when it’s competitive and little more than an excuse to beat the cr@p out of each other.

i’ve done both.
i’ve had long periods of training where i did one or the other exclusively.

to different extents both are required.
i am in no way trying to deny this.

i’m of the mindset that the first type should make up 90% of your training.
start slow with defensive drills, add more freedom & speed as partners grow accustomed to each other. It’ll look almost full out when you’re comfortable with each other, but it’s something you work towards, not something new guys get thrown straight into & not something competitive.

my preference is to do the second type periodically; that is, weekly or monthly, and more frequently as you ramp up the training before a fight.
I also think the second type should be with someone from another gym, preferably in a smoker/interclub-type situation.

The reason I’m more for slower, controlled defensive drills at first, is because that’s how you build skill & proper form. Kinda like tai chi or throwing slow kicks; you get the mechanics down right so when the time comes you don’t have time to think about it.

You learn to handle the speed, the crowd, the power, the adrenaline dump, the anger, and all that when you get to the interclub. It’s not going on your record, so no biggie. Even if you lose a few times, if you take a career of interclub sparring into your first amateur fight, you’re going to know for sure that you’ve kinda been there before, that you’ve experienced guys who weren’t willing to give you any quarter. Sad thing is that the role the interclubs fill is what amateur fighting was supposed to be in the first place.

The reason I prefer not going hard with people from my gym, is that I prefer a team-type gym atmosphere. I don’t want to be be in a shark tank where every single kid that comes in the door is going to try to take me out. I want to save my competitive drive for the ring where it actually counts. You may fight alone, but it’s your team that gets you ready in training camp, they watch your back when you go to an event, they cheer for you in the crowd, and the team works your corner between rounds. The better your teammates and the more constructive/collaborative the atmosphere, the better you’re going to be.[/QUOTE]

i don’t think your ideas are unpopular i actually agree with you hence i asked what intensity people worked at. I read about people on here sparring full contact week in and week out and thats just not the experience at the gyms i have trained at.

i have trained at a view gyms that produce pro fighters, both MMA and kick boxing and the sparring is pretty much as you say. You start off with drills and isolated sparring (jab against jab, only streaight punches etc) and build up to full sparring, and the intensity is never more than medium hard (it keeps you honest but you don’t look to hurt the guys) quite often they break out the MMA gloves and tell guys to spar at only 60% so they can work on new techniques is a relatively safe enviroment (they always stress good structure and not being sloppy even when sparring at low intensities). Harder sparring is done is you are about to compete but that is with head gear, big gloves and not done all the time, they still do plenty of lower intensity stuff to

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chops post made sense too me

dont see why it would be controversial:D

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Pork Chop is correct.

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sparring that gets competitive is not sparring.

the intention of sparring is to learn.

If one or the other people are being competitive in a sparring session, then they are jerkwads who need to step back and do their basics.

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Pork Chop

There’s a lot of truth in those words PC.

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Frost,

To reply your questions, I am training by myself only now. So for sparring, it will not be with a life partner. I trained with one though last year. The intensity was 70% full power. We trained about 40 minutes twice a month. As far as the equipment is concerned, we used gloves, shin guard, head guard, and groin cup, depended on what exercise we were doing at the time. During the five months of training with my partner, no injury has occurred.

sparring that gets competitive is not sparring.

the intention of sparring is to learn.

If one or the other people are being competitive in a sparring session, then they are jerkwads who need to step back and do their basics.

  by David Jamieson

This is very true. It tells the intention of the people at the time. Is it to learn or to beat the opponent?

Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

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I’m back to sparing twice a week. For the last four years my sparring is strictly Shuai jiao sparring. which means throws while standing. I recently moved from beijing to souther china {shenzhen} and started training in Hung Chuan, but other then some two person drills these guys don’t spar. Fortunately I was approched by one of the students, that herd I had trained for over three years with the best shuai jiao coaches in the world, and needs a partner for sparring, So yesterday I trained him in some basic throw and we did about 20 minutes of light sparring. Great to be back on the mat, although we are really training on the grass.

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To be serious for a moment, sparring takes place once a week.
we don’t do full force takedowns and no ground work at all.
That’s just not our thing. :slight_smile:

sparring is generally relegated to standing chin na, clinch skills and kicking and striking of course.

we wear fingerless, headgear, mouth and cup.

we try to find the function of what comes out of our respective kungfu styles.

my training partner is 51 and I am 46 next week. So we don’t compete and that is not out goal. We are much more interested in find the applications and correct forces to use with them from inside of the kungfu systems we’ve both learned and have been studying for all these years.

I find the sparring aspect to be the one which opens up a lot of discovery and also sends us back to the drawing board to tighten stuff up. :slight_smile:

It also changes the shape of drills, combos and forms. I see the greatest changes in how form can be executed to fit the drills and sparring as opposed to the other way round which I have always found to be self defeating in a lot of respects.

In short, sparring helps me to understand the kungfu systems I study.