New to sparring-I need some crucial pointers and tips

[tallgeese]

Just some thoughts, albeit kind of late.

First off, keep moving. Don't get stagnet in one place, even when you're getting pressed. If at all possible, circle when you move, try to avoid straight lines espically to the rear. It's much eaiser to adjust for.

Hands up, always. Protect the head. Protect your body with your elbows, and your legs with your shins. No reaching down for kicks.

Find those combinations that work for you and strike with them, always. Try to minimize your reliance on single strikes. Jab often and double and triple up with it from time to time, keep the bad guy guessing.

Use head movement, alot. Bob, weave, duck, just keep it moving and keep it a hard target. In conjunction, keep you chin tucked to the lead shoulder, this will minimize the cranial shift that goes with a good shot to the button.

Just some things I try to get my guys up to speed on as quickly as possible.

[Throwdown0850]

Just some thoughts, albeit kind of late.

First off, keep moving. Don't get stagnet in one place, even when you're getting pressed. If at all possible, circle when you move, try to avoid straight lines espically to the rear. It's much eaiser to adjust for.

Hands up, always. Protect the head. Protect your body with your elbows, and your legs with your shins. No reaching down for kicks.

Find those combinations that work for you and strike with them, always. Try to minimize your reliance on single strikes. Jab often and double and triple up with it from time to time, keep the bad guy guessing.

Use head movement, alot. Bob, weave, duck, just keep it moving and keep it a hard target. In conjunction, keep you chin tucked to the lead shoulder, this will minimize the cranial shift that goes with a good shot to the button.

Just some things I try to get my guys up to speed on as quickly as possible.

good advice, gotta mix it up just like Tallgeese said, stick to the basics which is great but, dont do the same ones all the time, you dont want to look like your repeating yourself..

[humble monk]

The most difficult part of sparring in class is remebering that this is a tool for learning, not so much a competition. Keep the learning mindset for class, save the competition mindset for the tournaments. Most importantly, have fun with it.

[Ozpunker]

Whenever I spar in class, I always choose to fight a person who is a higher rank or better than me in one way or another.

For example.

James, a green belt has some really nice high kicks. I spar him to learn how to avoid the kicks and get in close enough to strike.

Trent is an ex Muay Thai fighter, I spar him to learn how to take more of a stand on the floor. etc

Recently, the instructor told us that we are welcome to join them at our other dojo a few towns away on Tuesdays/Thursdays (we train Mon/wed) to train with different people.

I guess my point is to try and learn from everyone in your club. You have something new and different to learn from each person.

[Tiger1962]

Variety is good. If you have the opportunity to spar people of all heights, weights, male, female, young, older, the more variety the better. Personally, I believe that being good at sparring does not require many complicated or fancy moves.

It's finding a few quick effective ones and knowing the right time to use them and catching your opponent off guard. Change things up a bit too. For example, if you find yourself sparring the same person in your class all the time, after a while, they start to anticipate your moves. Try surprising them by mixing it up a bit.

[bushido_man96]

Whenever I spar in class, I always choose to fight a person who is a higher rank or better than me in one way or another.

For example.

James, a green belt has some really nice high kicks. I spar him to learn how to avoid the kicks and get in close enough to strike.

Trent is an ex Muay Thai fighter, I spar him to learn how to take more of a stand on the floor. etc

Recently, the instructor told us that we are welcome to join them at our other dojo a few towns away on Tuesdays/Thursdays (we train Mon/wed) to train with different people.

I guess my point is to try and learn from everyone in your club. You have something new and different to learn from each person.

This is good advise. Even doing Aikido and Hapkido, it is important to switch partners as often as possible, because everyone has a different level of flexibility and pain tolerance, so you have to be able to adjust your techniques accordingly. Sometimes it changes the way you have to move your body around, or how to distract to begin a technique.

[Aodhan]

1. Concentrate on footwork. Not crossing your feet in stances, moving lightly, staying on the balls of your feet. Direction shifts, stance shifts, movement/agility drills. Drill until you're sick and then do some more. Movement will save and help you more than any combination ever will. V in and V out are two words my students get sick of in the first 6 months they start sparring.

2. Learn to watch your opponents, both when you are sparring someone, or sitting on the sidelines. Everyone has signature moves, most people have little giveaway moves that foretell a move. See if you can figure out how they set up and how they move (Sensing a theme here?) from technique to technique.

3. As others have said, relax. Learn to stay relaxed right up until just before impact, then drive your muscles through the target, then relax again just after impact. Tensing before will slow you down, staying tensed after contact will transmit some of your attack force back to you.

4. Learn how to watch your opponent. Don't fall for head/foot fakes. The center of gravity of a body is the only part of the body you really can't fake with, because for it to be convincing, you have to shift your weight.

5. Work on the fancy stuff, because you can often score an unexpected point, but don't do it at the expense of basics. A good ratio is 3:1, for every drill you do on a "fancy" trick, do 3 basics.

6. Combinations. Never throw just one attack, unless it's a complete feint. When you attack, you want 3-5 moves that end with you in a position to move away from the opponent if necessary. So often, especially in tag, er, point sparring, I see a beautiful 4 move combo that misses, and the person is then standing flatfooted in front of their opponent. Oops. Have 4 or 5 "pet" combinations that you can throw at any time from any angle, and be able to move (There's that word again!) into and out of them without stopping.

Don't worry about being great right away. Because you are new to sparring, you ARE going to get lit up like a Christmas tree. Happens to everyone. Just keep working on it, and eventually you'll be the one lighting up the n00bs, and maybe a few others as well.

John

[Bushido58266]

combinations! lots of combos and variety! also dont stand in one spot stay mobile and if you get charged dont move backwards move side to side so u can counter attack!

[JAKEHE3078]

Think KISS (keep it simple stupid)

just go in there and use basic punches and kicks for an offense. do not force your attacks. If you see it then take it if not, like I said do not force it. Try to evade and counter as much as possible. And never plan what your going to do, its a match not a fantasy.

[white owl]

Stay loose on your feet manying do not be flat footed use your angles and do not think to much, thinking to much will make you slow, at least it did me the first time I point spared.