i was told by one of my trainers (hes a really good trainer btw) thats its not good to spar more than once a week. we only have training twice a week. He said its good to work on technique defensive work instead of sparring flat out all the time. He said once you do some more technique work youll be able to beat the other guys in sparring. sounds good to me but i have really started to enjoy sparring and think once a week isnt enough but he obviously knows his stuff. How should i feel about this?
Different folkes different storkes. My trainer used to make me spar everyday after a gruelling two hour work out. I was so tired after two rounds that i took unessacary punishment and sometimes it carries over the next day like a jacked up rib. I didn't like it and is dangerous imo.
I've seen and experienced both sides of the coin. My first gym was an inner-city rec center and we would do grueling calisthenics/running or sprints everyday for the first hour and a half or so and then spar for the reminder of practice (about 45 min) this got me in fantastic shape and i'd say for the first 3 or 4 months the sparring did me good. After that I learned all I could from sparring without any real technical training. It made me tough as nails and in good shape but my form was crude and stagnant. Then i've been to gyms that turn out to be more "boxing fitness" but they have all the adequate equipment like bags, ring, machines, treadmill etc but they lack good smash mouth sparring. Both can be good. If you are absent from sparring for a while obsess over your form. Make sure every punch is perfect down to the last detail, every combination flows like water, your head movement footwork etc. going back in to sparring after this you will be a better fighter after you shake the sparring rust off of course. Now when you spar in abundance practice timing, distance, speed, power. exercise those things you practiced before but for real in a fast pace spar. I think you should take periods to do more technique/more sparring constantly through your training. You'll know when to stop sparring and focus on technique when you get stuck and really are not improving during sparring like you used too
Sounds like he might have said that specifically for you and not as a general idea. Maybe you've been lacking technique or you need better conditioning and he's trying to lead you in a direction where he thinks may be more beneficial for you. If you're like James Toney, who all he does is spar, then you probably should focus on anything other than sparring. Twice a week seems reasonable, but like the person above me said, it's mostly a personal situation and you have to balance yourself out. Listen to your trainer. He knows you better than us.
We spar twice a week, sometimes three. I think it's good to spar a lot, I learn more sparring than hitting a bag...
Sparring is a valuable learning experience but should be not be abused due to potential traumatic damage to the brain. There's not much value in it if you're not in the build up to a fight, maybe now and then but not regularly. If you're going to let somebody punch you in the head, make sure you have done lots of work in other aspects of training; no point in sparring then realising you need to learn to throw x, y or z punch properly. So in a way its an advanced tool, but absolutely necessary in the approach to a fight to build sharpness.
He said most trainers want you you to spar every week but with him he doesn't like it, thinks you should spend just as much time on technique i guess
Sparring doesn't have to be a full battle. You could safely technical spar everyday I would have thought.
We spar pretty often at my gym, but most guys do light sparring and never more than 3 rounds. When I'm sparring someone at a similar skill level or higher, the only times we'll ever really get hit hard is if we walk into a punch or if it's on accident. Other than that, we keep it light and focus more on technnique, defense, footwork, and landing clean shots rather than hard ones. The few guys who compete will go harder but rarely all out. They usually train at different times though so I'm not sure how often they spar.
It all depends on how good you are/how you fight. If you're a guy who takes 3 shots to land 1, then once or twice a week is plenty. If you're harder to hit, then you should spar as much as possible. The ONLY thing that should limit your sparring is the amount of punishment you take. If you never get hurt, you might as well spar every day. If you take a beatdown every time, spar once a week or less. Brain damage ain't nothin to **** with. But sparring is beyond question the best training you can do.
