I'm terrible at sparring

[ryu6603]

Hi guys I've been doing karate for over a year now and I am still terrible at sparring and I have never won a match. I am starting to get discouraged.

Any advice?

[Dobbersky]

Ryu,

What type of sparring do you practice, what style do you study, There are so many different ways of sparring. If you let us know we can asssist more

Welcome to the Forum, OSU!!!

[ryu6603]

Sparring is done in two half points, whoever gets a full point first wins. I study Chito-ryu karate.

[Dobbersky]

OK, There are plenty of Karateka on here who practice that Style of sparring, I practice Full Contact knockdown sparring which is as different a Table Tennis is to Badmington

[JusticeZero]

Well, how about if you start by dissecting what happens? First __ happens, and then you respond by ___, and then you lose. Do you know what that chain of events is? If not, maybe you should find out. Have you asked the people you're sparring with what you can do to improve? Your teacher? Get someone to film you with a phone and watch your own match. Do you have a bad habit? Are you falling apart on something specific? There's always a reason, and if you address the reason you can fix it.

[DoctorQui]

I currently do full contact sparring but have done semi-contact and Traditional sparring where you can score only with reverse punch (which I never really got on with!) when studying Wado Ryu.

When I first started, I could never get a point or good contact but following advice, started to look at my defensive stance and telegraphing.

If someone is scorring points against you, then you are leaving yourself open for them to get in, if you are unable to get a point because your opponent is always able to defend, then its a telegraphing issue!

Don't beat yourself up over it (pun intended! ) after just a year you are still trying to find yourself. It took me a good 2-3 years before I could settle into sparring. Have a good look at your defensive stance, do you always stand in the same way or do you vary it, are your arms and hands defending the point scoring areas where a more experienced or faster Karateka can take advantage. How obvious are you making your attack, are you positioning yourself in a way that your opponent can see its going to be, say, a mawashigeri with your right leg for, say, the 2nd or 3rd time during the spar?

Also, sparring isn't for everyone, I don't actually enjoy it as much as others, I prefer kata and form. BUT ultimately, learning karate is about self defence and how else do you find out if your technique works!

Give yourself more time,if you're in it for the long term sparring technique will improve!

Edited June 28, 2012 by DoctorQui

[Wastelander]

Hi guys I've been doing karate for over a year now and I am still terrible at sparring and I have never won a match. I am starting to get discouraged.

Any advice?

Hello, and welcome to the forum!

First of all, you should not be trying to "win" in sparring--sparring is a live practice drill for you and your partner to both improve, not a competition. As for getting discouraged, don't be! I have been training for 6 years, so far, and I still feel terrible at sparring!

Without seeing video of you sparring, it is very difficult for us to provide any feedback that might help you improve. Your sensei would be a much better person to ask. That said, if I had to guess, you are probably hesitating and that is why your sparring partners are scoring their points before you. This is common in people who are relatively new to point sparring (well, sparring in general, really), and especially when they are sparring against more experienced students. For now, don't worry so much about whether you will get hit or not, and just focus on trying to hit your partner--as I said, it's not a competition so you don't need to worry about "losing", just improving--by bursting forward (forward and at an angle is preferable to straight forward) with your attack, and try using combinations that will tend to draw their hands away from an area that you can strike to later in the combination.

[Student4Life]

Ryu,

Point sparring can be very aggravating. To be efficient at point sparring you need a very good defense and quick well timed counters. To most of us, our natural instinct is to fight thru our opponent and land strikes that are going to cause the most damage. While this is not necessarily a good strategy in any fight it is even worse for those of us who point spar. I have been practicing Karate for almost 20 years. For ten of those I have practiced contact/knockdown karate. I still get aggravated when I point spar. Keep a cool head and let your opponent do the work. Work on using parries and common blocks and develop quick counters. Using defined blocks such as Gedan Barai, Uchi Uke, Soto Uke, and Jodan Uke not only takes more energy to execute than parries and common blocks but they also leave you open to combinations if you are not quick. If you really want some good pointers on point sparring you might want to ask in the Korean Martial Arts Forum. The TKD practitioners are known for their point sparring prowess. Hope this helped some! Good luck and if you have anymore questions please ask!

[sensei8]

It's only been a year for you...you've just started to scratch the surface.

How often are you sparring in your dojo? If you're not sparring that much in your dojo, then you're swimming up a waterfall. Spar often, until the wheels fall off and then some!!

Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar, Spar...

However, spar under the watchful eye of your Sensei!!

[DoctorQui]

Hi guys I've been doing karate for over a year now and I am still terrible at sparring and I have never won a match. I am starting to get discouraged.

Any advice?

Ryu, just had a thought!

Does you club pratice Ju Ippon (or their version of it)?

Ju Ippon, if you didn't know is a sort of controlled sparring session with prescribed attacks and defences.