Andrea 
Sparring rules for fighter in combat sport.
5 unwritten rules of sparring in striking! The rules of sparring in the striking that you need to know.
Sparring in striking is a must for martial arts and combat sports to hone skills and hone your skills.
The same goes for rolling in wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Sparring is one of the fundamental stages of learning a fighter.
But as with rolling in ground combat, there are unwritten rules for sparring that must be respected and you have to follow to keep you and your partner safe and progress without getting hurtunnecessarily.
Sparring is a very important part of training, because it is the time when you try to apply the techniques learned during the sessions, to evaluate their effectiveness and adapt some details according to your fighting style.
Personally, I consider sparring to be a fundamental phase of every training session.
However, to avoid unnecessary damage and preserve my ability to absorb shots, always use all the protections during striking sparring sessions, so:
- Helmet
- mouthguards,
- gloves,
- Shell
- para tibia.
It’s part of the training and everyone who’s been training for a while should do it.
For those new to striking fighting sports like Boxing, Muay Thai, Kick Boxing, or combat sports in general though it’s important to know that there are some common unwritten basic rules when it comes to sparring.
No matter where you are or against those you fight sparring, they are rules that you need to know and that must be respected.
The bell rings and you touch your gloves.
The sparring begins, one round, two rounds, three rounds, etc. and usually you don’t chat much during sparring but only at the end to discuss what happened with your training partner or your coach.
During the minute of pause stay focused and recover energy.
The 5 unwritten rules of sparring in striking:
1 – Use large gloves
To do sparring the gloves to use are in the range of 14-18 ounces because they have a larger padding and in this way even if it pulls a little harder, the shot comes a little softer.
Wearing big gloves helps to make the environment safe where everyone can participate even those who are less good at working with stronger people.
The lighter gloves are designed to hit the bag and the pao.
With smaller gloves you can seriously hurt a training partner (broken nose, concussion, injuries, etc.).
There are some gyms that encourage people to always pull with smaller gloves, but there’s no longevity for you and your training partners in giving and taking shots with 10-ounce gloves.
It’s training, not a real match.
That’s why there are these Sparring rules for fighters!
2 – Train to make your art work
The reason you commit to training is to learn and progress.
If you see openings in your partner’s guard or limits in their game you have to hit and vice versa.
Sparring is the closest thing to combat simulation.
It’s a great way to know what your strengths and weaknesses are and what you need to work on.
Sparring shouldn’t launch super slow, super light attacks in a way that doesn’t benefit anyone but doesn’t have to become a brawl, you have to work to improve your techniques and try to use the things you learned during class orstudied.
3 – Adapt sparring to your partner’s experience
You can’t sparring a beginner the same way you would with someone with 30 matches.
You can’t do that!!.
With beginners you have to have a lower pace and number of strokes and go lightly so that they can learn to keep their eyes open and react properly, you also have to be careful to perform some techniques to avoid hitting it hard.
Don’t make your dick head to make you beautiful and destroy their spirit during their first sparring pulling combos after combo while knowing full well that they don’t know what to do.
Keep your ego under control, he’s not your opponent! and you have nothing to gain when you hurt someone who’s not as good as you.
With experienced fighters, you can increase speed and intensity.
Sparring rules for fighter!
4 – Establish a power level for each other
If you’re comfortable sparring hard and your partner too, there’s no reason not to (chances are you won’t worry about your head being knocked out and being “played”).
I am aware that there are also benefits in doing hard fighting if both people are at stake, plus it makes things more intense even emotionally helping to work on the psychology of combat as well.
Attention!! You have to declare it first and agree both, if you’re paired with someone who just wants technical sparring then you don’t have to pull hard with him.
Always start with a few shots to establish the intensity and see how your partner reacts, if you agree with that intensity, stay on that level and if you want to increase it declare it between rounds.
Example, if:
- they hit you harder and you’re fine, you can and you have to do it too.
- you don’t agree, you have to say it verbally and ask to go lighter.
- things get out of hand, a coach or an outside training partner should step in.
- a coach doesn’t sit around you for some reason, stop sparring and want to sit out the ride.
5 – Don’t look for the knockout,it’s stupid
I think this is obvious, but better to reiterate this concept … Don’t knock out your training partners!
When a KO occurs,when someone is knocked down or knocked out there is serious damage.
You don’t want to inflict this harm on anyone except during a fight.
Sparring is for learning, that’s its purpose.
If you see guys in your gym who like to shoot hard, don’t go sparring with them, takepride aside and save your head from unnecessary trauma.
You need to know that once you start taking a series of COs, your brain is no longer the same after, many pro athletes even of the UFC changed their view on making hard sparring because they noticed that they remained more sensitive to knockout and even modified their helmets for more protection..
The ego should never take priority over your safety.
Always evaluate who you’re dealing with before you start shooting with someone with power!. Don’t hurt someone unnecessarily.
A safetraining makes your training buddies happy and progress for everyone regardless of level!
Conclusions
Sparring is a practice that if done intelligently you can also do daily.
There are “conditioned sparrings” that are basically like the others but start from some specific positions (e.g. shoulders against the cage, corner to ropes, etc.).
A sparring of medium intensity or light is therefore a part of the training that can be daily then you can make a day dedicated exclusively to hard sparring, that is, with shots pulled at maximum power.
Again but better to say especially in this case, you have to wear all the protections and with particularly padded gloves (e.g. 16 oz).
Of course, while pulling at maximum power, common sense should never be lacking and therefore you avoid throwing heavy blows that in some limbs are allowed such as knees or elbows to the face, frontal kicks to the knees etc.
As for sparring that include shots you can make them mainly by dividing them into 3 different types:
- Boxing (punches only),
- Muay Thai (punches, kicks, knees and elbows, controlling the latter a lot, which can cause damage with ease use elbow pads),
- MMA (also ground shots)
In M.M.A.’s sparring if you use the competition protectors (gloves, mouthguards and shell) with your fists you have to be very light.
Spread summary:
- medium and low intensity, even every day with full protections
- conditioned of medium and low intensity, even every day with full protections
- at maximum power, once a week and always with all the protections.
The idea of sparing at 100 and without complete protections (helmet in the first place) because you have the idea of conditioning the body to the real intensity of the shots that will be pulled in combat is, in my view, very counterproductive and in the long run can also affect the performance in combat making you more sensitive to shots.
Sparring rules for fighter!
Always respect the unwritten rules of sparring in striking!
Street Fight Mentality & Fight Sport!
Andrea
