I was going to be doing 4 a month, they worked out a deal with me to go twice a week. We sparred for the first 3 months pretty easy, and didn't spar for a few weeks for me to work on some things. Now we are in the 4th month and going back to upping the sparring intensity as well as amount in terms of rds. 24 hours doesn't sound like much I'm sure to many of you here, but these are private lessons in which my form and everything is under constant scrutiny during everything I do. This is also not including the time I spend practicing at home. Someone who isn't attacking me isn't going to be wearing gloves no, but neither am I, they also aren't going to be wearing shin guards, and as far as being armed... well keeping distance is the idea for much of what I'm learning and is really all I could do in that situation. I'm not to worried about the being armed thing... just keeping my own cool in a heated situation, but being able to defend when it's needed.
No, that's true, but neither is a watered down contact sport that instills a false sense of confidence.... this is what I think sparring that is to light does.
Sparring light isn't about instilling confidence for the real thing. It's about learning to apply techniques in a live environment while minimizing the risk of injury to yourself or your partner. You quite simply cannot do that properly if you are being beaten to within an inch of your life in a sparring session as a beginner. All you are doing is learning how to take a beating and risking serious injury, especially if you are inexperienced. You need to start light and build up to heavy contact as your ability becomes capable of allowing you to do so. You will progress much faster this way than you would going heavy. Your defensive ability will progress faster too. Personally, from what I have seen of your ability, I wouldn't have you past the light sparring stage yet. I have no idea how far you have progressed since then but I have a lot of doubt, even through private sessions (taking into account I teach privately as well) it would be a massive leap within just a month to allow you to spar heavily. Just because you might be able to take a hit, it doesn't mean you should be doing it. it's detrimental to the point of sparring for the majority of practitioners at basic and intermediate levels. To be quite honest, I would like to see a video of your current ability and of you sparring. To gain a fair assessment of your current ability and training. For pointers regarding levels of contact during sparring, watch this video of a Thai style sparring demonstration from World Class fighter, and ex champion, Jompop Kiatphontip. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-tnU-bJbGE"]Muay Thai How to Spar Tutorial - YouTube[/ame] That is how Thai's spar all the time. Tell me if they are sparring light or heavy. You'll find they are sparring light, with pulled strikes, yet the sparring is still very realistic. You don't need to be smashed in the face with an elbow to know that the light contact hit to the shoulder, or collar, you just received would have knocked your head off if it was full contact. This is something you learn from sparring experience, and competition. Full contact sparring increases the risk of injury. This is why a lot of fighters don't tend to spar full contact. It isn't about a false sense of confidence. It's about staying in prime condition to fight. And let's be honest, if you get black eyes, bust lips, bruised ribs, etc from sparring on a regular basis, what good is that to you for fighting competitively or for self defence? Your black eye is easier to swell and cut open, your cuts are easier to open up or make worse, your ribs make you a simple take down to a well placed strike and make responding much harder for you. It's easy to think getting in the ring and going for it heavily will make you tough, I think most people have made that mistake at some point or another when starting out in a full contact art, but the reality is that you are more likely to be weakened by it through injury and lack of proper technical skill application. Confidence, ability, and conditioning, comes from years of experience, and the correct type of training, with a multitude of training partners. Not from a few months being beaten senseless privately by one.
Yep nicely put There is a difference between learning and testing as well, sparring should be 90% of the time a learning experience, yes you need to test yourself on occasion but that is what fight prep training and fighting is for, if you are going hard at it in sparring all the time you will rely on the same old techniques you learned in your first class and never improve and grow because to improve and grow you need to try new things and in doing so you will make mistakes, and if your partner is going to take your head off when you make said mistakes then you will never try anything On the injury front I spent 10 years at a very good MMA club, and the vast majority of injuries happened mid fight camp when the guys were going hard, I don’t think anyone ever got through a fight camp without an injury, you cant train like that year round. What did the coach have the fighters do when not in fight camp, light technical sparring.
To be honest I’d say that light sparring is essential for perfecting technique. I don’t see the benefit of going straight through someone, people can and do it perfectly well but even they would admit that technique can be lost, balance may be off. To be brutally honest paying for the privilege of being beat up on a continuous basis is ridiculous. What do you take out of these lessons? In my journey through TKD I have been hospitalized twice and had to visit the dentist once. A severely heavy kick caught me in my side and bruised my liver and kidneys. I can assure it’s a pain you never want to feel, laying on an ultrasound while some checks for internal bleeding is a terrible experience. It was the result of someone who went too heavy and lost control. You can’t play with your kids because of the pain and have to sleep upright in a chair every night when you go to sleep. I learned nothing from that, absolutely nothing – I got lighter on my feet as a result but it didn’t make me a better fighter. The suggestion that you go gung ho and enjoy this is irresponsible and I have to question the instructor who goes around beating up his students and gets paid for the privilege. It’s ridiculous. What is your fitness level, how many 3 minute rounds can you go? I can manage 4 max at a push. How does your instructor guage your ability? Baza
In all likelihood his coach started light and has just increased it little by little so its slightly out of SIB confort zone, and SIB thought the only way to prove his manliness was to misrepresent that online.
First time I sparred yesterday for a long long time, it was only 1 hit sparring, and even that if you've been out of practice for a long time and not in decent shape starts to show up flaws. Going hard for excessive number of rounds/time when you're not ready for it, is a waste as you will just end up practicing and reinforcing poor technique.
Let me clarify that we did light sparring many many times, now we are getting into heavier sparring. This is not going to be a regular thing, but it's meant for him to see how well I am progressing. If we are sparring and my technique is poor on something, he is quick to point it out and we will go a round where I am using the correct technique, after that is a standard round. The guy isn't trying to beat me to death lol. As I said though, I told him I didn't want to do the pity pat stuff all the time though. Yes, I have marks from sparring, but who said I was getting beaten the entire time? It's true I'm not hitting him often, but I am pivoting very well according to him and my defense is much better, so many of the punches are not actually getting to me like I'm a complete newbie. He said I was "99%" better than the last time we sparred and that it was getting harder to hit me, but that I was lacking enough confidence and my timing needed to develop, therefore, timing is what we will be working on over the next few weeks.
so just to be clear when you said you actually meant and and when you said you really meant ok cool just so we know
It sounds like it's past time for you to join the main class. The only time I would advise such extensive privates for a beginner in BJJ is if someone suffered a phobia related to close contact, to be honest. Form is most easily mastered through function.
There is no main class. The MT teacher there is now only doing the MMA training. I'm not interested in that. The only classes there are BJJ classes, which I'm also not interested in. I don't like people, I don't like people around me... I want to be left alone and not put in a position of having to deal with some knowitall in the class who isn't the instructor. I'm doing private lessons and that's all I'm going to do. I realize you were just making a suggestion, so I'm not trying to be a jerk, but that it's just not an option for me. My teacher is a good teacher and I have a lot of things still to learn and that I want to pay so that they are directly watched.
I meant what I said each time... the last sparring session was very heavy. As I had posted about before... other times it wasn't that intense and that's the times in which we might work on something for a round or so and see how I do. After that, it's back to the same type of sparring. Why is everyone so intensely interested in my own MA studies anyway? Go critique and twist someone else's words for a while. All of the armchair comments are at the very least comical since none of you actually are in my class with me to see what I do or how we train, but really?
I think it's time to get back on track. If we've said all we have to say in response to the OP, this thread may have outlived its usefulness. Saved's training history is (apparently) an unwelcome aside. Can we get back to the topic? Thanks.
How's your general fitness level, U6? Just being in the ring, with the adrenaline dumps and all, even if your lightly sparring, can be very taxing. Don't know why, but it just seems that any given fitness level needed for any given task in another sport needs to be multiplied at least by a factor of 3 in the ring. For example, if something requires the equivalent energy expenditure of 20 burpees to accomplish, that same 'task' will require 60 burpees in MA. Of course, that isn't true, it just seems that way. I think Icefield or someone here's posted some stuff on HIT and the like a while back that would be useful, if your havin troubles with your cardio and the like.
