Number of Sparring Techniques Needed?

[Johnlogic121]

I read a book once that was written by a woman who was an accomplished tournament fighter. The book had a lot of good tips on tournament fighting, but it has been so many years since I read the work that I cannot recall the ttle or the author's name. However, I do recall a central thesis that I wanted to ask the forum about. This author asseted that to prepare for a tournament sparring fight it was only necessary to work at the physical development for three, four, or five techniques that you could score with and of coarse the blocking and dodging and footwork necessary to go with that. The specialization in 3, 4, or 5 techniques alone does limit versatality for true self-defense, but in a fight lasting a few minutes and going to a low number of points, it is recommended by her as sufficient. Each technique should have good form and blazing speed, and since speed is hard to develop in everything, focusing on 3, 4, or 5 things might be a useful idea. What does the forum think of this recommendation? How many sparring techniques should a person really prepare to use in a fight? Is there anybody who would stick to readying their full martial arts arsenal for a fight, even though sparring in tournaments can be done with a limited set of techniques? Thanks in advance for your time in replying, take care and good luck.

[bushido_man96]

I think that in sparring and fighting, keeping it simple will lead to success. Bill Wallace is an advocate of this idea, as is Joe Lewis, I believe. What is important is to make sure that the techniques you train work for you. This can usually be discovered while experimenting with sparring in a class setting. Antoher option is to scout your opponents, if you can, and then work on a few techniques that may work well against them, and train to add them in.

I think that fighting is the same way. It is going to be very beneficial if you can apply a small set of techniques in a variety of ways, and it helps keep the mind from getting jumbled up on excess techniques.

[yingampyang]

You should always keep it as simple as possible, i have 16 styles and i some how keep it pritty simple lol .

[DWx]

I myself only use 4 or 5 leg techniques. Mainly because I believe that there is more chance of it going wrong the more complicated it is and because I train different combos of these to try and fit as many senarios as possible.

[ShoriKid]

I'd say for point competition the writer was dead on. Besides, don't we all develope our favorite techniques that we use when things get heated? A stiff lead left ad a side kick are my go to techs when things have to come out my way. Or they are dependant on the rules set. But, that's a completely different book to write.

[shift]

keep it simple silly KISS principle

you only need 3 -5 leg techniques. What you should focus on is delivering them at any angle, because your opponent will always be moving and changing their orientation. Once you can strike an opening with your selected techniques from any position while moving and blocking then you'll be fine.

Speed and coordination is key

[marie curie]

I have a bank of stuff that I can do pretty effectively and that come naturally, but at a given time you will notice that I have one old favorite, one new favorite, and one thing that I'm working on (to move up a notch ).

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

fighting and sparring, in my opinion, are two different things. a fight is a fight, end of story. but if we are speaking of sparring, which is a competition, it is good to have a few things perfected that you can bank on. it keeps your game plan simple. and think about it, naturally, you are only going to feel comfortable with and be good at maybe a half a dozen kicks depending upon how many are in your style. for example: i find comfort and a good amount of skill in my round, hook, reverse round, and axe kicks. using those in competition are more than enough for me because i put them in combinations with each other, and my hands. it works out for me because i feel comfortable with them, and because i feel comfortable with them im good at them. and the better and more comfortable you are with kicks, the faster their going to be, and speed is very effective in sparring.

[ninjanurse]

keep it simple silly KISS principle

you only need 3 -5 leg techniques. What you should focus on is delivering them at any angle, because your opponent will always be moving and changing their orientation. Once you can strike an opening with your selected techniques from any position while moving and blocking then you'll be fine.

Speed and coordination is key

I agree and add my 2 cents:

For sparring purposes, I teach my students patterning drills which serve to make muscle memory and reaction pathways strong so that they think less and respond more. The actual kick is not as important as the timing and speed in relationship to the actions of their sparring partner and most drills are based on one of 3 kicks-turning kick, push kick, back kick. As they get better, use of other techniques are self-generated based on the flow of the match and how well their brains have been "patterned" to react.

[redruss]

I think it's safe to say that everyone at any standard (whether they realise it or not) has their own repertoire of techniques. They are generally the things that come most easily to them as a result of repetitive practice to the point that they flow naturally without thought either agressively or reacting to an attacker. In my experience i have been taught a whole host of techniques in various styles of martial arts, some have been discarded as they didn't work for me or i simply didn't enjoy them. As a result of this sort of "weeding out" i have fine tuned a set of kick and punching combinations that have worked for me over the years. Although i adapt my fighting style to each opponent these techniques are still prevalent. As the years roll by my repertoire may change as a result of necessity (people start to pick up on your fave techniques) or by my training methods.