Some Thoughts on Sparring

By Ernie Lake

When I first started my martial arts training, I (like so many others) thought that I knew what it was to be "in a fight" or to be a "fighter". After two or three sparring sessions with a skilled opponent, you soon come to realize that what you thought you knew and what you have just come to realize are two different animals altogether. I have found out through personal experience that light sparring is a great way to learn a variety of different aspects of the fight game. Timing, distance, rhythm, just to name a few, BUT, until you get "in the mix" and agree to go all out with a willing partner, you will never learn how to respect a hit. When I talk about "a shot" or "a hit", I'm talking about any kind of strike: punch, kick, knee, elbow, etc. To truly respect any type of strike, you have to experience it, really experience it. I don't expect anyone to stand in front of his or her training partner and say, "Ok, give it to me." No, no, no. That's silly, as well as being downright stupid. Put on whatever protective gear you think you need for whatever skill level you're at. Then find a partner who's willing to go as hard or harder than you.


Here are some common mistakes that M.A. students make.

Mistake #1

Don't fall into the trap that most students of the martial arts do. DO NOT SPAR SOMEONE THAT IS THE SAME SKILL LEVEL AS YOU ALL THE TIME. You will never reach a higher skill level doing this. Occasionally you must test yourself by competing against someone who can really put some decent pressure on you. Becoming too comfortable with sparring people of the same skill level will give you a false sense of security. The "game" will slow down: you'll see openings and will be able to exploit them, you'll have complete control of your emotions, and you'll be relaxed and ready. This sounds great, but when you step it up a notch what happens: suddenly you're missing targets, you're distancing is off; you're tense and unsure of yourself. Why should we purposefully take ourselves out of our comfort zone? It's simple, if you're not growing than you're dying. A perfect analogy of this comes from football. Nine out of ten professional football players when asked what is the biggest difference between the college and pro game, will respond, "The pro game is so much faster". BINGO. Everything speeds up, you have less time to think and react. But ask those same players about the speed of the game after they've been in the league 4 or 5 years and they'll say that the game has slowed down considerably.

Mistake #2
Mistake #2- Here, Ernie "underkicks" his opponents block which would normally have devastating results.

 
Ignoring the shot/hit. This mistake occurs a lot more often during lighter sparring sessions. How many times have you sparred someone, and caught them with a good shot (lightly). Then they continued to lurch right into you, punching & kicking. They don't have respect for the shot they just took; they don't realize that if that same punch/kick etc. had been at 90-100% they'd be on the floor, dazed. This is another weakness of light sparring. If you ignore the shot and get used to doing so, when you spar someone with greater intensity you will get floored (KTFO). A good example of this can be found when someone walks through a Thai round kick. When you're going light with someone and you tap them with the round kick, a lot of people don't realize or respect the fact that if you had landed that same kick going at a high intensity they're going to feel it; and they're not going to be able to just shake it off like they never got kicked and keep on coming.
However, his opponent ignores the kick and comes back with a counter and doesn't acknoweldge the kick to his support leg. So, Ernie repeats the kick at a much harder level. His opponent learns what the kick really feels like when it lands and learns to respect the hit when his partner is nice enough to spar with light contact.

Mistake #3

Some students think that sparring their instructor is counterproductive. I've learned more from getting my head rung by my instructor than I ever did sparring my fellow students and assistant instructors. Sparring my instructor is like driving at 100 mph, and sparring everyone else is like driving at 65 mph. When you're in a car driving 100 mph and you slow down to 65 it feels like you're barely crawling along. The same goes for sparring. I love it when newer students come to me and say, "Put it on me!" They realize they'll never get any better "driving 65 mph".

Mistake #4

Mistaking a learning experience for an "ass whoopin". I've seen new students get their tails handed to them and walk away from the experience thinking several things: "I stink", "That guys just trying to show off", "What am I doing here?" I've also seen guys take the same experience and say: "Man, I learned something from that", "I know what I need to work on now", "Now I know what a real punch/kick feels like." The student's perception of the whole experience also relies heavily on the behavior of the instructor. When sparring with a student, I'll try to explain what weaknesses I see. And I ask for them to do the same for me. If I exploit a line of attack two or more times, we'll stop and analyze what they're doing wrong and explore some options on how they can correct the problem. That way, they don't think I'm just tagging them for the sake of tagging them.


So what do we do as instructors? We can do a lot to make sure that our students do not make these mistakes. When a class is sparring rotate often. Make sure that each student is seeing as many different skill levels as possible. If you see one of your students ignoring a shot or hit, point it out to them. If that doesn't work have them gear up with another student and go at a higher level of intensity, and instruct both students to step it up two or three notches and really put it on the line. If the problem persists, gear up and spar the student yourself. Make them respect the shots that they're walking through, they'll have a couple of bruises for the ordeal but they'll thank you later. Finally, make the student understand the purpose of what you're doing. Instruct them on their weaknesses; don't let them walk away with the feeling that they got the crapped kicked out them for no good reason. Reiterate the fact that they've got to constantly push themselves to be better even if that means taking some lumps in the process.