Guys, I love to box and spar, but the last two times I did it, I either hurt myself, or my opponent. Here is my problem: I don't know if sparring "just is like that", or if I am doing something wrong. How hard can it get and still be legitimate sparring ? The one time I hit my opponent after we got mad at each other. He removed his headgear, and had a massive shiner, which left him with a black eye for a week. He is a construction worker here, and wanted "revenge" the next time. Also, I recently broke my hand sparring. I don't know what the issue is: am I hitting too hard, am I letting emotion in too much ? Is the supervision lacking ? Or is sparring just "like that"...
It sounds like you need to calm down a bit when sparring. Its not about losing your temper and trying to inflict as much damage as possible. You have to be mentally controlled. The same goes for your opponent if he wanted "revenge". How did you break your hand? Perhaps you should spar under more supervised conditions.
sparring Sparring shouldnt be about killing the other guy. If you want longevity in the art, leave the ego at home and calm down. Go about fifty percent speed or power at first and then build it up until you reach your happy medium where you are both still learning stuff instead of trying to survive the sparring session. Gord :cry:
Most definitely the supervision is lacking! Someone should be stepping in when they see it getting too emotional and real. Sparring should be about improvement not survival. Save the real fight for the real fight. Not down on you at all though. It is easy to get too hung up on the idea that you are wearing protective gear. For some people the gear seems to give them the mental go ahead for hitting too hard.
JKD sparring Well, I currently do Jeet Kune Do, which is the Bruce Lee art, circa 1967. Lots of boxing, and we spar every class. My problem was, I was getting hit a lot and my defense sucked, so I was getting frustrated. My opponent is a lanky "kid" who was defending high, but his whole midsection was left open, so as he would advance, I was pummeling his body. I was throwing shots as hard as I could, trying to slow him down, because he was kind of getting the better of me. The problem is, my instructor has 4 groups sparring at once, and doesn't intervene. The week before, two guys really fought, and ended up crashing into a mirror. At which point, the instructor said, "ok guys, stop", but it was too late. I would like to go 50 %, and he did tell us to, but as soon as I start to lose and get frustrated, I am throwing at 100% again. I broke my hand by hitting the guy's pelvic bone. And no, it was not a cheap shot, I was aiming for his belly, not a low blow. Anyway, thanks for the advice and input. I appreciate it.
If you are told by your instructor to go 50%, then that is what you should do. Dont think of it as "winning and losing". Both of you are winning becuase you both learning.
You need to lose that ego before someone physically removes it and jumps up and down on it yelling "Die die evil ego!"
sparring I do muay thai so we sparr a few rounds every meeting. I on the other hand dont hit most of the time (stop within 1/2-1 in.) or hit at about 20% because it would hurt the other person quite a bit. When you sparr you can do this and learn to increase your balance,stance,defense, and control and really if you want to step it up a level agree to this with your partner and dont loose your control and start getting mad cause that emotion will destroy you, especially if your fighting someone whom has yet to show you their true skill or potential. Stay calm, if you want to learn to take a punch better learn to seperate feeling pain from acknowledging it, also if it helps do what i did take the next few sessions and work on something specific when sparring - try defense only or kicking more than punching, or boxing more than that; just focus on one skiill until thats improved. Goodluck
Just like most people say- Sparring is a tool for learning. Dont be one of the silly folk who see sparring as fighting; it does no one any good!
Sparring is a training aide and should be used to learn or perfect form/technique. In this case you should have stressed defence as the major point of your game. Col
hmmm Ok, intellectually, I agree with what you guys are saying about sparring at much less than 100% force, but it is really hard for me to not throw hard punches when I am getting pummeled. I will try to mellow out, but I was really throwing hard, because I was losing. I was eating a lot of punches, and just got sick of it. My thought was "ok, if he wants to come at me like that, he can eat this...". I now realize that that is not good, but it just was hard not to do at that time. :bang:
heres an idea- grow the hell up. if you cant control yourself then maybe you want to go do something else. like embroidery. go get laid or something so you arent as aggressive.
sparring There was an article here in Men's Health magazine about an older guy going 3 rounds with a pro heavyweight boxer (the article was on boxing and brain damage). The older guy had a fat lip and a swollen eye ("at that point, he saw the damage and went lighter on me..."). I think this shows that pros actually DO hit hard in sparring. I mean, would you guys like to really get in the ring and spar with Tyson or one of those guys ? Do you think they would "go 50%" on you ?
Well, to be honest im not supprised. As a boxers skills get better... naturally their going to start sparring harder against eachother. They're going to want to push themselves over the limit that bit more.
Boxers go hard. I've done boxing and i guarantee that you spent a lot of time getting hit in the head during a class. Unfortunatelly there is brain damage mostly beacuse of the training and not the actual fights. Rocky lied over this one
i'm the guy whom jkd guy brike his hand on. he became really frustrated because i was tagging him repeatedly on his head. i was training at 50%, as he should have. pro fighters may spar at hundred percent frequently during sparring, but we ususally do not especially when we are supposed to be training at 50%. i didn't even realize he was going at hundred percent until i read this thread. his "pummelling" body shots weren't slowing me at all. i wish he would have told me so i could have done the same. p.s. i have really hard bones. p.p.s. jkd guy, try to avoid parrying and blocking so much. that's what gets you in trouble. hope you come back to class soon.
