chrismann

To be honest, it's not really that bad (in fact, it's good!). After all, you're only sparring and not actually trying to knock each other out. I would say that the most important thing is to start off with a good sparring partner. You want someone who is experienced and most importantly doesn't feel the need to beat you up to show you how experienced he is. We generally avoid any "wild" swinging punches / spinning backfists etc (just in case you don't manage to block one of them), and basically, if you see the opportunity to hit someone with a good strike, just hit them softly to let them know what you could have done. Otherwise that will be the end of your sparring session. If you are sparring with someone decent you can both bring the level of "hardness" to whatever point is enough for you. Generally the better fighter should fight back approximately as hard as the less experienced fighter, allowing the less experienced guy to control how far he wants the fight to go. If you are just getting beaten up then you are learning nothing apart from the fact that you are sparring with a muppet. I found that for the first month or so it hurts a bit (especially your toes/shins) and you get the odd hard blow, but after that your defence improves as does the general "hardness" of your body and you'll find that it doesn't hurt much at all. Also, we often spar with some of the kids who are far smaller than us, but obviously you just keep it gentle and don't hurt them. Full contact sparring is the only way you will become a good fighter, because part of fighting is the necessary defence that comes with the possibility that you could be hit quite hard - you will never learn that until you put yourself in that situation.

If your worst emeny is an untrained fighter, then why (assuming you are) are you bothering to train in MA, since you obviously feel that MAists are easier opponents?!

ha, interesting choice of words, since techinically boxers don't kick! Well, hopefully we might see Tyson vs "a muay thai master" in the K-1 arena soon - which should answer some questions. My guess is that the boxer/Tyson, although undoubtedly having superior hand skills, will succumb to the thai low kicks...

Stand facing a partner with your hands on you hips. Your partner wears sparring (16oz) gloves. Partner throws straight jabs to your head. Start slow and soft. You slip, duck and backwards-evade the jabs. Puncher should jab straight at your head, and not try to predict where you are going to move. Keep you hands on your hips at all times. Increase speed of jabs as you get better. Try to imagine where your counters would come from as you dodge the punches (but don't counter, because you don't have gloves on!). Try to keep good balance and poise at all times. Try to move minimal distance to avoid the punch - so your partner only just misses you. (Wear a gum shield - you will get hit)

Did anyone see Gary Turner embarassing Bjorn Bregy a few months ago? Interesting to see how the simple jujitsu sweep brought the big man to his knees consistently throughout the fight. Not really in the K-1 spirit I know, but quite funny, especially if you're British!

I'm more interested in seeing Tyson against Le Banner / Hoost / Cro Cop, just to see which style comes out on top. I expect that Tyson will destroy Sapp though, as per Cro Cop, and as Hoost should have done...

Well, we do roughly the following moves in various combinations with and without thai target pads, for each belt: white: you get this one for free red: jab, cross, push front kick, front knee, plam block, inside forearm block yellow: hook, upper cut, roundhouse, low roundhouse, palm deflection block, sliding jab/cross/front kick, escape from grab front kick orange: rising elbow, side kick, back kick, hook kick, outside knee block, elbow block, neck grab with knee green: long hook punch, roundhouse elbow, spinning elbow, jump front kick, spinning hook kick, roundhouse knee, ridgehand takedown, outside knifehand block, double forearm block, outside forearm block, long guard, sweep blue: reverse jab, jump back fist, swinging uppercut, outside roundhouse, spinning back kick, neck wrestling throwdown, reverse sweep, upper cut block ...and that's as far as I've got. There's some throws and weapons (nunchukus, american style batton) in the higher belts. Sparring is not a requirement to gain a belt as some students do not wish to spar.

High kicks do work. Watch "K1 Greatest Knockouts" if you don't believe me. They will more often than not knock out an opponent if contact is made (remember there are no pads/gloves on shins and feet so contact is very solid and the legs are very strong). They are quite easy to defend against though as they are a relatively slow move and should therefore usually be used within combinations where the opponent is opened up in preparation for the kick. They are also more effective at later stages in the fight when your opponent is tired and prone to making mistakes or dropping their guard.

In my english class, it's: white, red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, brown 1st dan, black, black 1st dan, ..., black nth dan

You're reactions will only really improve through sparring. In a sense, it's not really "reactions" as such - it's more learning what to expect and being ready for it; learning not to put yourself in dangerous positions etc. It's also about spotting little tell tail signs that a strike is coming, which are not so obvious at first. Fighters don't generally just react, they're already ready, and when a strike comes in that they need to defend or whatever, very little movement is needed to block or dodge. Distance, balance, rythmn... that's the key.

Syo, You also said you do bodybuilding 3 times per week. That routine you just quoted is not really a mass building routine as there are far too many reps, so on top of this do you also have a separate weight training programme?

I've studied karate and now do a sort of kickboxing / muay thai combination in which we use a boxing stikes and defences. In my opinion, boxers have by far the best hand system - far superior to traditional karate (and I would guess other similar styles). We often get ex-karate students trying out at our club, and their hand system is clearly inadequate against a boxer. Most noticable are that they carry their arms low leaving their head open to attack - and consequently get hit easily with the target pads. However, historically boxers haven't been able to compete with muay thai fighters because, whilst probably slightly weaker on the hands, their kicking system is so effective that they can out fight the boxer. Obviously in a street fight a boxer may decide to use kicks, but it is unrealistic to expect that these untrained techniques could compete with their muay thai equivalents or with the toughened legs and shins of the muay thai fighter. Boxing certainly has it's place, but due to it's nature as a sport rather than pure fighting discipline it is incomplete as a fighting style. However, muay thai and maybe kickboxing are the only styles that would clearly out fight a boxer; karate/tkd fighters would struggle because of their lack of use of the boxing hand system and limited use of low kicks.

High impact or high stress activities such as weightlifting or kicking the heavy bag, or various sports soccor/rugby etc. will cause your bones to become more dense (not necessarily hard), in the same way that other parts of your body adapt, such as your muscles. After the age of around your early thirties though, your bones reach their maxium density and will only deteriorate after that. Kicking the heavy bag also apparently deadens the nerves in your shin. Also, apparently Thailand has the highest rate of shin cancer in the world!

Ha, well your english is better than my thai(?) ! Ok, so long as you wait until you have been kicked, before countering with a kick, you won't end up on your back. But why let yourself be kicked, when you could block, then counter? I think the kick to the thigh is an extremely punishing and painful kick, and not one that I'd just "take", unless I had unbelievably tough legs. So, you don't teach knee blocks at your school? C.

Reply to last by Syo: Obviously there are techniques (as described above) and they work very well. Personally I wouldn't try to kick with one leg while taking a kick on the other. Sounds like a good way to end up flat on your back. And, of course most attacks to the leg are aimed at the thigh muscle, so it doesn't really matter how touch your shins are. You can try and "take the kick" if you want, but after you've "taken" about three of them, you won't be able to walk, so I wouldn't recommend it.