Sparring Intensity in Martial Arts

Sparring is needed in martial arts. It is one of, if not the best way, to try and apply the basic principles and techniques you practise for hours on end, against an opponent who is doing his best to resist.

The level of contact which is needed when striking should also be given considerable thought. Although full contact techniques will quickly teach you how to give and receive blows and should definitely be trained, it is not always necessary or wise to spar this way and lighter contact may provide opportunities to practise different combinations, without the fear of being punished too badly for leaving openings.

I remember one time while sparring, I let my partner attack first as to get an inclination of the level of intensity and contact he wanted to use. By the ferocity and lack of control of his attacks, I assumed he wanted to spar full contact with high intensity, which was no problem for me. As the sparring pursued, I started to land some hard blows of my own and one of the things which I noticed was that the high intensity and hard contact which he started with, slowly started to ease off ending up with much lighter contact, so I also eased off a little. Afterwards I did not think anything of this, but I found out that this person was telling others that I was in a way bullying him and using too much contact.

After I heard about this, I was very disappointed with this person.

My own personal thoughts when it comes to sparring intensity are that whatever level of intensity one wants to use is completely fine as long as the person they are sparring with is in agreement. After all, one of the reasons we learn martial arts is how to fight, which means hard, fast contact must be used from time to time, weather it be hard strikes, furious throws or fast paced grappling. But one thing that I do not agree on, is that your sparring partner can not also use the same amount of intensity. You must be prepared to receive exactly what you give, without any excuses or any complaints afterwards. Everyone trains in order to learn and everyone will get dominated during sparring from time to time and the best way to deal with it is to practise more, reassess where you think you need improvements and always strive to better yourself.

Others may have different opinions on this and that is fine, but these are mine. Sparring should be an educational exercise. It should be used wisely, practised often and eventually improvements will be made. It should never be used as a way to beat others up, because sometimes you may find yourself on the receiving end.

Marks

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Tags: sparring, full contact, striking, grappling