Sparring full force every time good or bad?

[ringosher]

Hi I am in Singapore and the culture here is different...i.e. Asian culture. 'Face' is very important in Asia and Asians (less the Japanese perhaps) generally are egoistical and lack the ability to criticise themselves. They want to look good and 'win' (whatever that means) at all cost.

I go to a gym for Muay Thai and they 'spar' with headgear and shin pads and body pads. And they hit 100%...well the overhelming majority of them anyway. They don't want to 'look bad' when others are watching.

I don't know how to spar like this. I mean, I either spar or I fight. Sparring to me is about going at 50% or so and learning technique and timing. I spar with my good friend and we go light and have a good time each time. Fighting is about hurting my opponent and killing him off.

So I join a sparring session, and then they hit 100%(I've spoken to them and their delusional responses range from 'you are wearing a headgear it will be okay' to 'we are only hitting at 50% but it sounds loud maybe' ), but I don't want to kill my opponent...say unload 10 punches to his chin and knock him out...although I am very tempted sometimes. I can't do that as well as I will probably get thrown out of the gym.

Yet I don't see the point of dancing around in the ring and taking damage from 100% crosses and jabs and uppercuts and worry about hitting him unconscious.

It doesn't make sense...I don't know what to do.

I have spoken to Indian and Pakistani and Chinese fighters and it seems like they all 'spar' like there is a medal to be won each time too. So it is an Asian cultural thing.

No wonder these countries have produced no good fighters.

[ringosher]

And from what I have seen, there are no good fighters (advanced standard) in the gym (maybe one or two at most) and there are no real fighters with a proven track record in the entire country.

They have a few Thais (Lumpinee champs etc) who are great fighters but that is about it.

[iatiel]

Well, if they're throwing 100% all of the time, you have two choices.

1) don't throw 100% and get clowned constantly

2) throw 100%


Go for #2. You will either "win" the sparring match outright, get KO'd, or they will back off a little eventually, and then you can work more on technique. Either way , life will move on.

[BLIND]

Originally Posted by iatiel

Well, if they're throwing 100% all of the time, you have two choices.

1) don't throw 100% and get clowned constantly

2) throw 100%


Go for #2. You will either "win" the sparring match outright, get KO'd, or they will back off a little eventually, and then you can work more on technique. Either way , life will move on.

This is the only response needed

[aristocrat]

From time to time we all come across guys that spar as if they are fighting for their lives,what i ve seen so far since im from europe (serbia) it means two things. Either a partner is not skilled and doesnt understand what the point of sparring is,or he has an ego issue which for me is worse cause with the unskilled guy you can reason with him or keep on distance if you are better while with the other you never know when he might weasel out and punch you hard dirty and on top of it when you strike back hard they protest like you're on fault, you' ll just learn to deal with it in time...

[genecop]

When in Rome......

[TheMadHatter]

when I spar I will only hit my opponent as hard as he is willing to hit me. You should never hit your opponent harder than you are willing to get hit when sparring.

[MadHorse]

Sparring means not throwing 100%... otherwise it's just fighting.

I go (have gone) to two gyms for boxing. One where we spar and the other where we smash each other. Sure it makes you tough to punch and be punched as hard as possible, but honestly I don't progress in the second gym in a year as much as I would in the first gym in a month.

In summary, hard "sparring" is good occasionaly but not every fucking time

[spooNN]

Well, I think going 100 percent in sparring will give you a closer experience to a real fight. You will have an idea of what expect and be more comfortable in a fight when someone is trying to knock your block off. The downside of going 100 percent all the time is that there is probably more injuries during sparring/training which might put you on shelf and cost you valuable training time.

[RyanR]

Bad. Very bad.


Every once in a while its good to spar hard but doing it EVERY time is just plain f-ing stupid.