Goals in Sparring: MOST IMPORTANT AND FIRST TIP ON MY LIST, PAY ATTENTION!!! 1. Look for openings. Yes, look for openings. This will force you to relax and compose yourself because you have to THINK! It also opens up your options because with just one opening or flaw in their defense, you can open up immensely with offense. EX: Ward vs Dawson. Ward's whole execution was done off of Dawson's low lead guard. Ward was able to jab over the top, double it. He was able to throw lead rights and even sneak in lead lefts. He only needed three punches in varied combination to take out Dawson and the left hook was his money shot. All because Dawson had that low lead guard, thats all it was. Watch it and see what i mean/ Andre Ward vs Chad Dawson Full Fight 2. Repetition, repetition. Repeat punches, not necessarily always combinations, because a combination will not apply to everyone the same way, some will be money shots, some will be null and void. Learn how to throw every punch and flow, keep your balance and shift your body. Learn the proper mechanics so that you can instinctively punch when you see an opening EX: You(orthodox) vs Opponent(orthodox) You: His lead hand is low and he never follows up with it... Opponent Jabs... You: Im going to force him to jab with me and follow up with a right over his jab. You Jab...He Jabs....BOOM! You: :yep 3. Watch fights and sparring and watch to see how the pros react to particular openings. I am a southpaw but Floyd Mayweather is one of my favorite fighters to study from. So i studied him versus Demarcus Corley. Floyd was always able to jab and offset Corley due to Corley's low lead guard. From there, he followed up with good, sharp combinations and lead shots. He also tried to sneak a lead hook over Corley's low jab. Also with sparring, just watch how hard the experienced fighters work... If you noticed, none of them go balls to the wall. Sharp punches and combinations, and then back to walking pace. None of them try to brutalize one another. Find a pro fighter sparring then find him fighting. Do a compare and contrast for the fight tempo and amount of exertion between both the sparring session and the fight and see for yourself that no one needs to kill each other over sparring. 4. If you are a beginner and you are trying to win, you are really going to lose. I have seen people post up "I looked good on pads and bags, but terrible in sparring." Well, first off, you dont have natural, engrained habits to fall back on when you are bust trying to "win." When you fight, you fight to win, all the training you put in are just habits that you developed to keep you sharp, TO WIN. But see, you placed unnecessary pressure on yourself. What do you acquire after the session? I have had a time where i was handing someone their ass in sparring, I saw them the next day, nothing happened. I had times where i got my ass handed to me, i came back the next day, nothing happened. So....what do you get? Not a damn thing except a pat on the back and a list of sh*t you need to do differently. Theres a difference between getting your ass kicked and just taking something a bit too extreme. If you are worried about looking bad, allow me to paint a picture for you. Youre watching a guy relaxed and composed just blocking shots against a guy who is trying his hardest to put him out but the relaxed guy just keeps chilling and defending. Other guy is killing himself and going hard but nothing serious is landing. Final round and now the relaxed guy wants to work offense, need i say more? Swallow your pride and get hit, invite it. Dont pull a Silva vs Weidman but allow that guy to work, build his confidence, then if you know you can and want to, shut him down. 5. Dont put pressure on yourself. Go into the session with something in mind to work on. I hit 10x harder when i am relaxed, my reaction time is 10x faster, my defense is 10x better. Over-exaggeration? Maybe, but the point is that i am BETTER when i am relaxed. I dont walk into a session thinking, lets see who wins this sparring match. If youre not getting hurt by his shots and as a matter of fact, they dont even bother you, calm yourself and work on new things. With this in mind you wont have to worry about eating canvas and 9.9 times out of 10, the sparring match is dictated by the guy who ups the ante. If i noticed that a guy is relaxing, and working, I do my thing, and keep the pace relaxed. 6. You are your worst critic. In your mind, if you slip while getting punched, you might think EVERYBODY thought that you got hurt. I challenge you to video tape yourself sparring at least once so you can see yourself working. I guarantee you will feel more confident because you will see your mistakes and be proud of some of your accomplishments in your sparring work.
Great thread. I was actually going to start a thread to ask how should I be sparring but this basically answers that. I've seen guys in my gym trying to kill each other and I don't want to hurt anyone in sparring session but at the same time, I feel if I'm not going 100% I'm going to get hurt which makes me feel less confident for sparring :/
I personally benefited from every so often doing more technical sparring. It was normal sparring but one of our coaches would set us a mission eg you need to land a left hook to the body, or you need to pin him to the neutral corner, or you need to stay center ring ect ect It really gets you thinking and like the OP said it almost relaxes you having that goal and I came along a lot more in normal sparring
I understand this but at the same time I suffered big time for lack of aggression, yes sparring isn't about hurting people however it does in my opinion need to prepare you for a fight. In the end especially approaching my first fight the way I saw it (because we had good coaches) was it was the coaches job to stop the sparring or say take it easier and especially when sparring guys better than me I would go out and try and "hurt" them.
