Sparring

[karatechick]

I'm going for my brown belt in two weeks and ive been told i have to do 8 rounds of sparring and also some bag work does anyone have anygood tips which could prepare me for this.

Thanks

[bushido_man96]

You should do some rounds of sparring. 8 or 9 rounds, 2 minutes per round, with 1 minute rest between.

You should probably do some rounds on the heavy bag as well, because it can be more intense, as you don't react to anything, you just throw techniques.

Best of luck at testing!

[jaymac]

When you do get in the ring to spar, take your time and watch for your opponents weaknesses and counteract on them. Alot of times when I am watching black belt tests and the testers have multiple rounds they must endure, I notice at the beginning, they jump in right away and throw all kinds of techniques and ultimately tire out easy. Pace yourself. You don't always have to be first, you just have to be accurate.

[arran6]

I'd say learn to counter attack! I skit around a bit check them out see where they leave there arms out or do sumthing wrong and after about 1 minute i know what they are up to, what they like, what they cant do too well.

[cathal]

We prepare for gradings by doing more than is required, to help build endurance. If you need to do 8 rounds (probably 2 min each) then you should practice ten rounds at 2 minutes & 30 seconds. If you need to work a bag for the test, work your practice session harder & longer as well.

[bushido_man96]

When you do get in the ring to spar, take your time and watch for your opponents weaknesses and counteract on them. Alot of times when I am watching black belt tests and the testers have multiple rounds they must endure, I notice at the beginning, they jump in right away and throw all kinds of techniques and ultimately tire out easy. Pace yourself. You don't always have to be first, you just have to be accurate.

This is a very good point. You don't want to get to excited with your first match, and then not have anything left in the tank for the rest of them. And when the nerves kick in, you can tire out really early.

[Jiffy]

I have a question....

If you are grading in two weeks, shouldn't you already be familiar with everything that's in your grading?

Generally speaking, the last few weeks, you should just be polishing off little details...

[Simo]

as well as using the bag and actually sparring i also do some intense cardio wrk. Like sprints, or long runs with short burst sprints, but as jiffy has said, polishin shuld b done!

good luck anyways,

[wolfen]

I find increasing the duration of each sparring round is more useful for building endurance than increasing rounds. In any case, the idea is to do extra so that you won't be totally worn out after the sparring portion but can still put high effort into that portion.

[ShotokanKid]

Do jumprope so you'll have endurance.