Don't be afraid of Sparring
How to get better and become comfortable with Sparring
If you're interest in classes in any striking discipline please check out our
Boxing
and
Muay Thai
pages
Getting hit is a common fear and it prevents a lot of people from progressing in martial arts. This is especially true in arts Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), where the majority of people “head hunt” when the first start sparring. But this is a fear that you have to get over in order to get better. Sparring is a necessity and ultimately what separates real martial arts and fake martial arts. So how do you get over your fear of getting hit? Here are some tips that can help you get over your fear of getting hit.
Build up your Skills
Before you start sparring make sure you turn up class on a regular basis. Make sure you go each week and learn how to punch, kick, block, cover, check, or whatever skills are that you need to learn in your combat sport. If you can’t do the basic attack and defence moves correctly you’re going to struggle when it comes time to spar. Spend the time on the pads with a partner, on the heavy bag and in front of a mirror refining your skills.
Do A Lot of Live Partner Drills
Before you go spar, hopefully you have gone to class on a regular basis and built up your skills. Part of building up your skills is getting a lot of experience doing live drills. Live drills are dynamic drills done in a sparring-like scenario. Live drills allow you to get more comfortable with getting hit, playing defense, and throwing combinations—all skills needed in a real sparring match. Additionally, you get to experience a little bit of what a sparring-like scenario would be like, without actually sparring.
Here are some live drills that may help:
Jab and Hook Drills
With this drill you start off by throwing a jab at your partner who catches and throws one back for you to catch. Then you build up to both throwing a jab simultaneously and both catching simultaneously. You then do the same thing with the hook. You start with throwing a hook and your partner covers and then returns for you to cover. Then you both throw and cover at the same time. Once you have this you put the two drills together throwing a jab then hook and continuing to alternate all the time attaching and defending at the same time.
Inside Combo drills for Boxing
For this drill, you and your partner are in the pocket. You would try to throw a 3-punch combo then they would then throw a 3-punch combo. You just take turns throwing 3-punch combos back and forth. However, to make this drill realistic, the person on offense should try to adjust for proper angles to land clean opening shots. Also, the person on offense should learn how to set up punches. Conversely, the person on defence should try to block all the incoming shots. You start by throwing a combo that both of you are doing and alternate. You start slow and build up the speed. As you get better you can start mixing up the combinations that you throw so that you don’t know what your partner is throwing at you.
As your level improves there are more complex variations of this drill that you can do where you vary up the amount of punches each person throws, that way it makes the defence and offense much more unpredictable. During one turn, you could throw 3 punches and then the next you are throwing 6. Keep in mind you aren’t going hard, just being unpredictable which gets you ready for the unpredictability of sparring.
Dutch Kickboxing Combo Drill
This is another live drill that is great to do for kickboxing. It is a live drill where you and your partner take turns going on offense and defence (like the boxing drill above). First you start with a combo you both know you are going to throw but it must end with a kick. Then as you improve you can mix up the combo (same as the boxing drill above) that any combo that is thrown should always end with a kick. And like the drill above, the person on offense should take good angles to land clean shots and should also be setting up shots. That is what Dutch kickboxing is known for. The person on defence should actively play defence—including catching and checking kicks and working all your different defences.
Corner/Wall Drills
Another great drill you can do is to put yourself in a confined space or against a wall/corner and have your partner start punching you. Your job is to fight out of it. In doing this drill, it forces you to keep your eyes open, fight back, and find a way out of a sticky situation. You can get out of the wall/corner by punching back, bobbing/weaving, blocking, or cutting a corner out. As a beginner being put in this situation, you will feel super tense—but learn to relax and have your partner start slow and slowly escalate when you feel more comfortable. By going slow, you will be able to practice seeing the punches come and practice keeping your eyes open. If you aren’t comfortable with keeping your eyes open and seeing the punches, try to stay in there a longer so that you can work on dodging and blocking the punches. But you must remember, during a live sparring situation, you don’t want to stay in there long—get out of a corner as fast as possible during sparring. This is important because what you do in sparring you do in a fight and you always want to develop good habits.
Use Different Types of Sparring
Sparring does not always have to be hard Sparring. There are different types of Sparring and Sparring drills that can help you improve your sparring and fighting skills. Some examples of different types of Sparring that can be used to help you get comfortable with sparring are; Should tag, where you’re only trying tag your partner on the shoulder with a punch. If you get tagged you do a burpee; Body Sparring, this is where you only attack the body if boxing, or the legs and body if doing Muay Thai/MMA Sparring; Specific Sparring, this is where you choose the attacks that can only be performed in the round, such as only the Jab and rear body shot if boxing or the jab and the rear round kick for Muay Thai. You have an unlimited number of combinations you can use in this scenario. All these different types of Sparring can help you become more comfortable with getting hit and being able to handle it.
Pick Someone Who Isn’t Just Going to Beat You Up
The number one rule if you are new to sparring is to spar with someone who you feel comfortable with, someone that is willing to go light and can help you out. There is no sense in putting someone who doesn’t know how to spar with someone who is just going to beat you up handily. Before you concentrate on anything else, just do that. Pick someone who will tone down the intensity. Then once you get more comfortable sparring, then you can bring up the intensity and work with some brawlers.
Talk To Your Partner
Don’t be afraid to ask your partner to adjust their sparring whether it’s at the start of the round or the middle of the round. If you’re feeling uncomfortable your training partner won’t know unless you tell them. Sparring is there for you both to learn so make sure it’s a learning environment. If you want touch sparring, light sparring, body sparring or even hard sparring it’s always good to confirm with your partner before the round starts as sometimes once the leather is flying it can be difficult to find the time to let them know. Communication is the key and it’s your responsibility to let your partner know what you want to get out of Sparring.
If you follow these suggestions, you’ll get better and more comfortable with Sparring regardless whether you train in Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, or Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). If you get more comfortable with Sparring may decide to step up and compete. Remember it’s a process and takes time but you can get there if you follow the steps laid out for you. Having a great coach to guide is also especially important to ensuring you’re able to achieve your goals so find a good reputable training centre to train at.
If you're interest in classes in any striking discipline please check out our
Boxing
and
Muay Thai pages
If you’re interested in coming and learning some Boxing, Muay Thai, or Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) let us know:
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