MarksTraining.com: sparring

Showing posts with label sparring. Show all posts

Monday, 14 July 2008

Sparring Without Gloves or Pads

In today’s society, with the need to work and earn money to support not just yourself but also your family, people who train in martial arts don’t want to look bruised, blooded and broken each day. This is one of the reasons why gloves, shin guards, mouth pieces, cups and other protective equipment are used during sparring.

The problem about wearing protection all the time when sparring however is that you can get to used to it. Sloppiness can set in sometimes with technique, the thought of avoiding strikes can sometimes be ignored as getting hit by a soft 14 oz glove or shin padding sometimes does not inflict enough damage to hurt and awareness, timing and rhythm when fighting does not get trained as much.

For this reason, maybe sometimes it is best to spar without any protection, nothing at all. The idea of covering up without boxing gloves when your opponent is throwing hooks and straight punches becomes a more difficult task. Firstly you would be taking some of the blows on the back of your hand and if you try just tapping the back of you hand with your knuckles you shall see that it is quite painful, so you can imagine how a hard punch would feel. Secondly, without big gloves, you would not be covering up much at all. Your opponent would find it much easier to strike around and through your “covering up” as your hands do not defend as much as your face as you would have hoped for. This way of defending may now be substituted by parries, body movement and stop hitting, which all work your timing reflexes and awareness much more.

A lot of people also get into the habit of taking shin kicks to the thighs when wearing shin pads without the thought of defending them. If anyone does not know the pain of getting hit hard on the thigh with an unpadded shin let me just say it hurts and you don’t want to get into the habit of taking them when fighting. When shin protection is out of the equation you shall find yourself relying on correct technique when shin blocking, again you shall learn to move out of the path of the shin kick and hopefully you may start to learn to move whilst staying within a striking range, ready to counter.

Sparring without protection keeps you on your toes. It helps you to think better, move better and reminds you that without good technique you could easily find yourself in an awkward position. As mentioned above, most of us have jobs and families and cant afford to get hurt so keep the sparring controlled and sensible. Contact to the body and thighs may be a little harder. The level of contact can be agreed with your sparring partner before you begin.

Wednesday, 4 June 2008

From Brown Belt to Black Belt

Everyone who trains in an art that uses the belt system at some point in time puts all his/her focus towards gaining there Dan grade (black belt). There will always be this fascination towards it as most seem to think that it is an achievement.

While it is, and someone who has gained there black belt should be proud of there achievement, only once you earn it do you realise that it is just a belt like any other and it does not make you the expert fighter you thought it would. But does any other belt push you to achieve greater ability? In my experience, the brown belt does and is more beneficial than the black.

When I achieved my brown belt, it was like seeing light at the end of the tunnel. After years of training to earn it, which included long runs home from work late at night, many hours of solo training, millions of pushups and crunches and countless whacks during sparring, I could see that it finally was paying off and I was one belt away from achieving my goal at that time.

Having this thought in mind gave me great inspiration and determination to boost my training and go all out every workout, and for the year and a half or so it took from my brown belt to my black, that is what I did.

It was during this period where I feel I started to develop my own way of fighting specifically suited for my body type and natural abilities, breaking slightly away from trying to mimic the exact movements of my teacher, or other higher ranked martial artists in my school.

Once I achieved my Dan grade, for a few months, I slackened off slightly, thinking that I was at the top of the mountain, not training half as hard as I did when was on brown belt level. It didn’t take me soon to realise via some harder sparring that I had just started my “real” training and that everything prior was kind of a warm up.

Eventually every martial artist should go through this same process. No two fighters are the same. A person can only perform his best, according to his/her own abilities. Trying to work yourself around someone else’s way of doing things will only result in you never being able to feel comfortable in your fighting style, whichever it is and no matter when it happens during your training years, you must realise what YOU can do, and start adapting your way of fighting around that.

For me it was the hard training during my brown belt stage and for this reason it was the most important belt for ME. For others it may me different and I wish you good luck in your process of trying to better yourselves as martial artists.

Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Reality of Street Fights

Where ever you come from in the world, if you have had the unfortunate pleasure to be involved in a street fight or have even seen a street fight you shall have noticed that they can be quit intimidating. Before sparring in a martial arts school, there is either a hand shake, a bow or some other gesture to show that the sparring is to be kept respectful. This should also happen after the sparring is over. Unfortunately in the street though, it never happens like this.

Normally there is swearing, pushing, intimidating looks, spitting, throwing things at each other etc. It can be very different to how you train in the dojo. This is the reality of street fights however and it should be something practised within your training regime.

By having someone shout at you “im going to f*&$%”g kick your face apart” while pushing you with full force (or something along those lines) before a physical confrontation can be quit daunting. It can raise your adrenaline, shock you and sometimes make you freeze up. Defending yourself effectively when in this state of mind can be difficult to say the least.

Training in the gym/dojo, we prepare ourselves to be able to defend ourselves if involved in a street fight of some kind, and yet it is very rare to see this kind of preparation.

Im not saying that from now on, before you start sparring, swear and taunt at each other to feel the fear factor of a real fight, but understand that you cant just expect to be able to deal with it effectively, if faced with it in the street and that some preparation by acting out these conditions is necessary.

Im sure that there shall be some who disagree with this and that this type of training should be prohibited from the dojo, but it happens on the street so it should be something that we should keep in mind.

Friday, 16 May 2008

Bettering Yourself in the Martial Arts

When training in any martial art which requires sparring, at the beginning you shall find that you can easily adapt to the free exchange of techniques. Strikes will start to instinctively be attempted without even thinking, throws will feel more and more natural to you and your body will react and defend smoothly whilst ground fighting.

You shall start to feel that what you have been studying is well worth it and that it actually works. You may even start to be thinking about certain techniques that feel more natural to you than others. Good for you. This is the correct thought and the correct frame of mind to have.

However, as you spar more regularly and with more and more advanced martial artists you shall eventually come across someone who constantly gets the better of you. It could be that they constantly manage to land that low roundhouse kick even when you prepare for it, or that on the ground they submit you using techniques you never even knew existed.

One of the worst things you can do against someone like this is to focus your training and sparring, on beating this ONE person. Getting caught up by this one person’s ability to always get the better of you can be detrimental to your progress as an all rounded martial artist, capable of adapting to different situations.

This is because when you train, your focus shall always be on ways to beat that one opponent. Eventually after sparring with him/her a few times you shall become accustomed to there style, you shall learn the ways they move and shall develop counters to beat them. But then what. What about the person who always beats them, and everyone else. You shall have a tough time against them because you have had the single thought of gaining victory over a single person.

Your training should be about YOU and you only. You should concentrate on YOUR form, on YOUR balance, on YOUR speed etc. It is YOUR technique that you need to be focused on. Through hard training, lots of sparring with different people and the single thought of bettering YOURSELF, you shall eventually develop skills which will allow you to deal with any opponent who happens to be standing in front of you. This is not a guarantee that you shall always win, but it is a guarantee of knowing that you did the best YOU could and that you tried according to your own abilities.

Don’t let the thought of winning against a certain person enter your mind. Train hard and train smart, with the thought of being able to deal with any type of situation. This is the way to become a proficient martial artist.

Monday, 25 February 2008

Is Sparring Useful in the Martial Arts

To be able to swim, you have to get into the water and swim. Obviously you are not thrown in the deep end straight away, because you will drown, but gradually you work your way to deal with them types of waters. This is a very common saying, and I am sure you have heard it before. It is mentioned a lot in the martial arts world, when people talk about weather sparring is needed or not.

The argument of sparring being useful or not is never ending. Some think that there is no way of learning qualities like reflexes, distance, timing etc without it, and that sparring must be carried out each training session. Others think that it not needed to become an efficient fighter or to be able to defend yourself on the street. Some people believe that you need to spar so as to learn what it feels like to get hit, so if it happens in the street, it won’t shock you. Then there are some who think that sparring lures you into a method of fighting that is not practical for the street.

Personally I feel that sparring is very useful and should be carried out constantly. But there should be different types of sparring. Grappling only, striking only, both, two or more against one, full contact, semi contact, hands only, clinch fighting only, etc. There should be many types of sparring practised, rather than the standard one against one. Sparring where you concentrate on street techniques (strikes to vulnerable areas, trying to not engage in a ground fight etc) is an excellent type of sparring, and should be done by all martial artists, as the main reason why most practise martial arts to be able to defend themselves on the street.

By sparring, you don’t have to always hit hard. Controlling your techniques is probably the best way to learn the mechanics of fighting and by doing this, sparring can be very useful and can be practised by all, regardless of style.

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Monday, 14 July 2008

Sparring Without Gloves or Pads

Wednesday, 4 June 2008

From Brown Belt to Black Belt

Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Reality of Street Fights

Friday, 16 May 2008

Bettering Yourself in the Martial Arts

Monday, 25 February 2008

Is Sparring Useful in the Martial Arts

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