Heavy Sparring - How much do you do/

Over the years, the level of heavy sparring/fighting in my training has gone up and down depending on a variety of factors.

For example, when going through the "Animal Day" years it felt like we were heavy heavy sparring pretty much every session, and a good percentage of those sessions would be completely heavy sparring from the start of the class to the finish.

When I worked the doors full time my quantity and intensity of my training also went up, basically because my job demanded it.

These days I personally do alot less full-out Animal Day type sparring, but still feel it is necessary in one form or another if we are to truly test what we are teachining and learning (from a self defence point of view).

So, in your own training and in your own teaching (which may be different), how much heavy sparring do you do and in what format? Will you spend a whole session just fighting off, or do a few rounds at the end of each class?

Whats your preference?

normally doing one session a week sparring, the rest is fitness and or technicle stuff.

it seems to hurt more these days

Tell me about it

I must be getting soft

At least once a week and light sparing once a week on stand up stuff plus light and heavy grappling. We do some really high intensity fitness and mental pressure tests every session. After real heavy sessions we have ten minutes deep breathing in total silence.i find this great after a real heavy work out.

Like you Al, its gone up and down over the years, depending on needs and circumstances.

I don't think I ever really sparred hard, in the true sense of the word, until I started my Boxing training. The first time I was knocked out I thought "oh OK, thats what people mean by hard sparring!".

I have to be careful, because my job relies on my brain and communication skills, and I can't go into work marked up all the time. I also need my hands to be in good working order to play the guitar and piano - there's more to life than martial arts.

So these days, I try to keep things around the 50% mark. That gives you the degree of safety to perform at a more technical level, but also means the intent is still there to test your defence.

I only go all-out every now and then, and it still feels great. But I think once you've gone through the flames you don't need to keep going back there all the time. Sooner or later, you're just going to get burned.

I am like most above, been boxing since the early eighties so I am showing signs of not being as sharp communication wise as I was (not kidding either). It's a family thing but I don't belive you should take major truama to the head after the age of forty. I got that advice from my Granddad and Dad and it seems to make sense.

I replace the hard boxing/muay thai with hard rolling and clinch etc which seems to be fine for my life style.

However some people say you should always include some hard boxing type sparring to keep it real and to help you not develop delusions of grandeur, I did not think this was true until the other day when I referred to myself as supreme grand master – ultimate pendkar Richard.

My training partners soon brought me back down to earth with a left hook...

I wish i could do some heavy sparring but the person i was usually sparring with might as well have been hitting me with a feather pillow. I'd love to do some heavy sparring to build up resiliance etc. It's one of the things i was looking for in my training. Why dance around tickling each other - not very realistic really.

i sparred well enough with ya
mind you, we didnt do any stand up sparring as far as i remember. (except when you tried those locks on me and i launched you into the wall )

yeah grappling was knakering but fun. We didn't do any stand up sparring (yet). Wonder what the people downstairs were thinking when i was bouncing off the walls though!! haha!

We usually do every wednesday heavy grappling for those that want to and the monday and friday classes are now starting to have a few rounds of sparing which you can buy into with your partner on how hard you want to go. This is a great way of sparing and stops you getting gun shy. Swapping partners is another way of learning how different people like to fight (inside,long range etc)


Tim