Fighting Tired, Fighting Defensivley

Everyone at some stage during sparring or a competitive fight will get tired. It is not physically possible not to. When you get tired, mentally you do not think or react as fast, and physically it can be extremely more difficult to move than when you are fresh. A lot of training is spent mastering techniques and fighting ability, but not much time is spent training once tiredness kicks in. This is strange to me as it is something that always happens, so you must prepare for it in my opinion. Unfortunately there are not many things that you can do when you are tired because of the fact that you are ....tired. Personally i think the most important thing to do is not show your opponent that you have run out of steam. If your opponent thinks that you are tired he/she wil probably try and end the fight but rushing you with lots of techniques. Signs of fatigue include, breathing heavily from the mouth, a drop of the guard, a half hearted attempt at throwing strikes, not bending thoroughly when attempting throws, straightening of legs and being flat footed. There are more, but these seem to be the main signs in most people. When you are tired, you must save the little energy you have, so its recommended only to throw strikes when you see good openings. If you are a fighter who attacks a lot when fresh this may be a sign to your opponent that you are tired and theirs nothing really you can do about that. Always keep your guard high. Your arms will feel very heavy, but a hard punch or kick to the jaw will feel even heavier. Get used to always breathing from your nose. In your daily training, when working on the bag, sparring, groundfighting or anything else, always concentrate on breathing from your nose. (Weight lifting is the only time when you must breath from your mouth in my opinion). If you get used to breathing from your nose, you may be able to keep it up, even when you are tired. When someone tries to take you down by shooting at your legs SPRAWL. Don't let them get the take down. Sprawls are easy and you don't need much energy for them. Just drop your weight down on your opponents back when he goes for your legs as you kick your own legs behind you. If you are unfortunate to find yourself on the floor groundfighting, stay close to your opponent. Hug him/her tight to prevent major strikes or most submission attempts, and wait for an opening to gain control. When groundfighting you tend to use up more energy than when striking so this is where guts and determination will be proven or not. As you can see you become a very defensive fighter when tired and this is inevitable, but BE DEFENSIVE, which means defend. The consequences are getting knocked out, or if its a street fight, maybe worse.