Sparring fresh or fatigued?

[eternaldarkness]

which do you prefer? i have seen coaches that are advocates of both, but the majority have sparred at the end of the session. i believe they both have merits, but i personally prefer sparring fresh until tired and trying to always focus on staying sharp.

 

[ctrlaltdelete]

For me a good warmup of stretching, footwork, shadowboxing and a light round on the bag to get a light sweat going, a little rest then start doing rounds.

You end up sparring fatigued in the later rounds anyway - you should at least start pretty fresh.

 

[DoctorTaco]

Start fresh and learn to control your gas tank through 3-4 consecutive rounds.

 

[j123]

I prefer fresh, most of the time I want to spar with my main training partners who happened to be more exp'd fighter than me, so I can test out new things and see what works. Hard to do so when I'm wiped

 

[eternaldarkness]

i find fresh is better for technique, fatigued is great for heart and keeping a solid defence. i find i look for combinations a bit more and don't rely on power as much, when i'm exhausted.

 

[ARIZE]

Like most, I believe they have both merits, but in completely different ways. Basically:
-Fresh: To try new stuff.
-Tired: To see what works for you under pressure.

I like gyms that do both. Sparring sessions after training, but also one day only for sparring.

 

[esum80]

we do full muay thai rounds after a 15 min warm-up, 4x clinch and 4x boxing.

edit: we do clinch rounds to start to burn off the excess energy for some people who are still new to sparring and are wayyyyyy too amped up.

if we are preparing for fights, we shark-tank. 3x 3 min rounds, fresh person each round.

 

[dudeguyman]

i like sparring fresh, but that's just personal preference.

 

[fluffball]

Coaches like tired fighters because they won't beat the fuck out each other, and because you rely more on technique than force and athleticism. But if everyone is an adult about the situation, fresh is way better.

Also stop catching kicks because the other guy pulls them.

 

[Physikz]

We usually spar at the end of the session, especially if we've been drilling combo's or techniques, but we do have a seperate sparring day.

 

[William Huggins]

Freshly fatigued is the best method.....any form of fatigue past it's sell by date is not good........

 

[devante]

Like most, I believe they have both merits, but in completely different ways. Basically:
-Fresh: To try new stuff.
-Tired: To see what works for you under pressure.

I like gyms that do both. Sparring sessions after training, but also one day only for sparring.

'
SPARRING WHEN TIRED, to me builds alot of confidence, anything i can do successfully and consistently instantly becomes something i have HUGE confidence in because im doing it at my worse physically...mentally. Which means i can completely rely on this tech or strategy...

plus it also lets you know what you have faith in or have down, cus that is what you go to when exhausted

 

[freaky]

which do you prefer? i have seen coaches that are advocates of both, but the majority have sparred at the end of the session. i believe they both have merits, but i personally prefer sparring fresh until tired and trying to always focus on staying sharp.

Our coaches purposely tire us out. Friday is spar night and we all come in fresh. He purposely have us go ham on the bag for a round or 2 to tire us out. So when we hit, we don't hit at 100% and do less damage to our partners.

Everyone can fight fresh. It's the later rounds that gets you. So it's better to train for the later rounds. I guess that's why some people do so well at later rounds vs certain guys only good when fresh. How many fighters you seen start off great then fall off and losing the fight?

 

[ARIZE]

@devante

Yep. It's also a nice way to see if your training is paying off... When you manage to do a combo that you're drilling for months, while you are dead tired, and you can't even think straight, is a nice feeling.

And it's a nice ego boost: Wow, I manage to do that while been in that condition... Imagine what I could do if I was fresh... I'm faking awesome...
And then you get hit in the face... But that one doesn't count because I'm tired... And he was probably lazy during the bagwork, managing his strength for the sparring... Faking cheater... If it was a real match I would have destroyed him...

 

[CFGroup]

Tired to test your mentals in camp.

Fresh with a light warm up in the last week of camp to wrap it all up.

 

[Universal Kombat]

Like most, I believe they have both merits, but in completely different ways. Basically:
-Fresh: To try new stuff.
-Tired: To see what works for you under pressure.

I like gyms that do both. Sparring sessions after training, but also one day only for sparring.

I go to a gym that basically has everyone do a pretty good workout before they allow anyone to spar, I'm sure there are many reasons, good and bad for this, but I always put in the work they ask, and I seriously dislike it when they put me to spar a guy who did 1/4th of the "required" work out because he was faking it behind the instructors back. Definitely puts you in a disadvantage where you eat more shots than you would. I would prefer to spar fresh.

 

[ARIZE]

Yeah, there always that guy who comes late, to avoid the running, or the pushups or whatever we do for warm up. Then like you say, he is lazy during work out, waiting for the sparring. And usually he doesn't understand the world light.
But i think it's also a good training. If you are able to hold your own against a fresher guy, you're in a good path. But it can be very frustrating if the difference in fatigue is huge. If that's the case, and I don't like the person, i can be mean and use techniques i won't usually use... Teeps to the face, heavy drops etc...

 

[mmafan2000]

Both are important. I train both on different parts of the week:

1. Fresh: learn to manage power of technique. I do this two times a week. Simulates the opening rounds of fights.

2. Fatigued. I also do this once a week or so after grappling. I train stand up fresh on other days. This way I get used to championship rounds. I get tired, lactic acid build up. I make terrible mistakes. Don't think clearly and much easier to get hurt. All injuries I had was during dis training.

 

[spacetime]

which do you prefer? i have seen coaches that are advocates of both, but the majority have sparred at the end of the session. i believe they both have merits, but i personally prefer sparring fresh until tired and trying to always focus on staying sharp.

I never thought it made any sense to spar late in the session, but that's what often happens.

 

[krugansjj]

Do sparring after every training section that is the match because the fighter goes this in the same way as in a competition. Remembering that in competitions the physical and psychological faot involved!