Body Sparring

i think body sparring is a stupid idea, but thats just me.

 

it is a stupid idea. The lack of threat from a head shot means guys keep their hands real low and just cover their body with their arms.

Tbh back when I first started coach just had us sparring with just the jab, that way we could hit the head or body and work on one of the most important punches.

If you're ready to spar you're ready to get hit in the face imo.

 

i can see the others point , but we used body sparring in our gym. You can say the other way round in normal sparring alot of people focus on head hunting especially when starting out and forget about the body. Body sparring really makes you think about it. I always found it a bit easy though ( and im nothing special !!) but like the others said without the threat to the face its easy to move alot and just throw alot of punches. The best thing you can do is take the responsibility yourself and treat it as if its real sparring. Hands up ect.

 

I see others point, but I did startout with body sparring by my coach. "I" feel like that it helped me with a few very important basic things.
1) Properly throwing punches at a live target.
2) A good intro to simply moving in the ring.
3) Learning how to hit the body(this is a lost treasure it seems often times)

My coach emphasized the importance of learning one skill at a time, and I think felt that sparring to both head and body was "too much" for a beginner. The emphasis when I started in actually sparring was learning to throw punches properly. I actually sparred the low level pros to head and body and they could only hit the body.

Now, I am not great by any means but do feel that training this way helped me learn the fundamentals. At this point I would never do just body sparring.

That being said, it doesn't mean that simply sparring with contact to the head is less desirable. An argument can be made for both.

 

I've done this in my old gym, focus on keeping your hands up instead of protecting your body too much.. like real sparring. Body punching is a lost art, having that in your arsenal is always a good idea

 

a hard body shot can end a fight. potentially it's the most effective punch you've got

thing is, nobody just walks forward throwing body shots, the way to set them up is by firing at the head then going downstairs. eg a quick 1-2 to the head then a left hook to the ribs

body sparring doesn't help you practice this

 

I do agree with that. It is difficult to get practice on mixing up head body combinations. Again, I think since you have only started a few weeks ago, body sparring can be a great learning tool.

To actually answer your question Daveyboy, I think that it is very difficult to land anything substantial when just going to the body. Therefore, just work on your fundamentals through using this. Work on keeping stance sideways, staying in rhythm, moving with your partner, stepping around after throwing your combinations, stepping with your punches, etc.

 

Other have already pointed out the flaw in "body sparring", however I've done it in some gyms.

What I found particularly useful from it is learning to create angles to land those bodyshots. Because your opponent is over protective of their body, they usually tuck up their elbows on it, however there is always an opening and I find myself either moving to their right to create an angle for a straight right down the middle, or jumping to their left, creating an angle for a left hook to the center. Also learn to catch their bodyshot and counter with your own bodyshot whilst the opening is there.

 

Body sparring is hard as your opponent knows you're not going to hit his face and can therefore can cover up more and be more ready for the body shots.
Keep moving around your opponent so he isn't just standing there waiting for the shot and throw some faints to the head and go for the body.
I personally dont like body sparring as i like to get in the grove of hitting to the head and then the body or vise versa

 

Hit him in the head and it will open up opportunities to land some meaningful body shots...

 

i like it...and if they cover up u just bang their arms and shoulders...even tho its not gonna hurt em too much u get a good work out in...its also good to wear a few..condition the body for punishment.

 

why not just work on body shots in normal sparring?

 

Body sparring is great. Good tool for learning about infighting and reaction.

 

This is exactly what my coach said. He is a big on inside fighting.