Anyone else sparring 4-5 days a week

[biscuitsbrah]

My coach has us doing ‘movement drilling’ 4 days a week but it basically just turns into sparring 100% of the time. Sometimes these drills consist of lead hand only or some other limited thing, but mostly it’s just regular sparring. We also have 1 day a week where we ‘hard spar’. (Hard sparring days are only 3-5 rounds, where 2 guys rotate and shark tank me)

I have a kickboxing fight in 2 weeks and I have never seen so much improvement in my boxing in my life, but I can’t help but think it’s going a little overboard with the frequency.

Some days it’s only 3-5 rounds, but others it’s 7-8. Which feels very long for me when I know I’ll have to do it all over again the next day.

I’ve been doing this for 2 weeks now

 

[Hotora86]

(...) I have never seen so much improvement in my boxing in my life (...)

I have highlighted what's most important here IMHO. As long as you don't go "super hard" and can recover fine for the next day I think it's good for you.

Trust your coach, he knows what's good for you. You might just peak in 2 weeks and outclass your opponent, that would be ideal.

Anyway, stay healthy and good luck!

 

[theranch]

Depends on the intensity in my opinion. Every coach I've had had sparring every session but 85% of the 'sparring' was at 20% impact playing around wich is vital for improvement and doesn't burn you out too hard. The heavy sparring is what will take the toll but active fighters need to do it (just not all the time)

 

[spacetime]

Depends on the intensity in my opinion. Every coach I've had had sparring every session but 85% of the 'sparring' was at 20% impact playing around wich is vital for improvement and doesn't burn you out too hard. The heavy sparring is what will take the toll but active fighters need to do it (just not all the time)

What about for guys in their second term (continuation group) ? Step below intermediate group, do they spar at all? There was virtually no sparring in the beginner group, which sucked and didn't make you much better than when you started

 

[ARIZE]

At my TKD ITF gym, they spar everyday at then end of the session. They just don't go all out with the kicks to the head. And usually they are a lot more respectful when for whatever reason you want to go light. The intensity goes up for those who are about to enter tournaments.

At MT gyms, I've seen everything. From every day to almost no sparring unless you're about to fight. Usually the intensity is very low, unless it's a more KB oriented kind of gym. I like the ones that have light sparring very often, with a harder session on a specific day. That way, if you don't want to spar hard, you know what day to avoid. You may be injured, tired, last week before a match... it's stupid to show up for a surprise gym war...

For boxing, I've seen a only one day a week spar, but usually hard for the most experienced.

 

[CFGroup]

Lucky Ducky Dawg!

"...but it basically just turns into sparring 100% of the time...."

Class is for working with other people!

U show me a "drill" I'll drill it for hrs at home.

I hate those endless classes of shit I can train on my own.

Love the "guys get out the gear" right after warm ups classes!

Lucky Ducky Dawg!

 

[spacetime]

At my TKD ITF gym, they spar everyday at then end of the session. They just don't go all out with the kicks to the head. And usually they are a lot more respectful when for whatever reason you want to go light. The intensity goes up for those who are about to enter tournaments.

At MT gyms, I've seen everything. From every day to almost no sparring unless you're about to fight. Usually the intensity is very low, unless it's a more KB oriented kind of gym. I like the ones that have light sparring very often, with a harder session on a specific day. That way, if you don't want to spar hard, you know what day to avoid. You may be injured, tired, last week before a match... it's stupid to show up for a surprise gym war...

For boxing, I've seen a only one day a week spar, but usually hard for the most experienced.

I was surprised how experienced ITF guys go harder than the guys in my boxing gym. Maybe the rules make it more delicate but the boxing sparring in the gym was mostly technical.

 

[Hotora86]

Lucky Ducky Dawg!

"...but it basically just turns into sparring 100% of the time...."

Class is for working with other people!

U show me a "drill" I'll drill it for hrs at home.

I hate those endless classes of shit I can train on my own.

Love the "guys get out the gear" right after warm ups classes!

Lucky Ducky Dawg!

 

[Uchi Mata]

My coach has us doing ‘movement drilling’ 4 days a week but it basically just turns into sparring 100% of the time. Sometimes these drills consist of lead hand only or some other limited thing, but mostly it’s just regular sparring. We also have 1 day a week where we ‘hard spar’. (Hard sparring days are only 3-5 rounds, where 2 guys rotate and shark tank me)

I have a kickboxing fight in 2 weeks and I have never seen so much improvement in my boxing in my life, but I can’t help but think it’s going a little overboard with the frequency.

Some days it’s only 3-5 rounds, but others it’s 7-8. Which feels very long for me when I know I’ll have to do it all over again the next day.

I’ve been doing this for 2 weeks now

I would love to get that much lower intensity sparring in. I only get one day of sparring in a week, and it's pretty high intensity for 10-12 rounds.

 

[Jimmy Jazz]

I would love to get that much lower intensity sparring in. I only get one day of sparring in a week, and it's pretty high intensity for 10-12 rounds.

wow that seems like alot. do you box?

 

[esum80]

we spar once a week and we do 4x clinch, 4x boxing, 4x muay thai rounds, a short water break and then we continue with usually another 4x muay thai rounds for people who want to keep going. the intensity for these rounds depends on you but it rarely goes above 60-70%. otherwise, we do a lot of light contract drills which are a bit more controlled with an emphasis on technique in addition to pad work.

edit: these are 3 min rounds with 1 min rest in btwn.

if we are preparing for a fight, the intensity during the sparring day increases obviously and when not sparring, it's usually a lot of hard pad rounds. a month and a half out, there is an additional sparring day for the fight team only where we are shark tanked for 3 rounds after an extra long warm-up/conditioning, bag work and contact drills. of course, you also expected to do road work on your own. the hard sparring tapers off as fight day approaches usually around 1.5-2 weeks out.

 

[Uchi Mata]

wow that seems like alot. do you box?

Nope. MT/Dutch KB. It is a lot. Thursdays are a hard day at the gym. I'd much prefer to have it more spread out over the week, and also have more moderate intensity. There are some guys who are a little lighter, but it's largely hard sparring.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

I guess the consensus is that this is the way to go. I never really understood just how quickly training like this improves amateurs

 

[theranch]

What about for guys in their second term (continuation group) ? Step below intermediate group, do they spar at all? There was virtually no sparring in the beginner group, which sucked and didn't make you much better than when you started

always been sparring in every group for me, Just with beginners its very closely watched and usually with a more experienced partner and Intermediates mostly at light contact and again pretty well monitored.

 

[Frode Falch]

I spar every session that is not a solo session. But i spar different ways.

Light touch sparring
Semi light thai style sparring
A bit hard sparring
Full contact sparring (rare)
No protection sparring. Touch with clinch

 

[AndyMaBobs]

I don't spar striking every day, but I spar clinch every day for about half an hour or more, when we do spar clinching we do it with no gloves or shin guards and light kicks allowed.

 

[j123]

I used to when I first started and needed to get used to getting hit without shutting down. It was a big problem for me when I started out, got scared to get hit, and I needed it out. Now I just bang.

Really if you're not getting injured and its good by all means continue. But the problem alot of newer people have, which I also did when I started out, was TOO much sparring, and no technical work. Its great you know how to fight now, but there's no technique and thats not good.

yr 1-2 - I was very technical, did slips and all cool shit. But I rarely sparred

yr 2 - started camp as a competitor, did nothing but spar. Problem was I was now a sloppy ugly brawler

yr 3 - present: figured out how this works, and really I spar only 1-2x a week. Sometimes even twice a month due to work getting in the way. Funny thing is, those days I come back, I feel I've made the most progress and those days ended up being the best days for me.

Also:
People tend to have different meanings to the word "sparring", and it creates confusion sometimes imo.

To some fighters like Cerrone, sparring means gym war 100% power and intensity, he basically described it on a Rogan podcast once. But to most of us, sparring is 50% power. The confusion comes when Cerrone says stuff like I don't spar anymore, and guys here think "oh, I don't have to do sparring (my kind) because this seasoned vet says so".
When in fact his type of drilling, IS sparring that most of us do.

Since year 3, I've bee doing ALOT of drilling, but the drilling is very like sparring anyways and it doesn't feel much different.

I do real hard sparring twice a camp

 

[Pugilistic]

Also:
People tend to have different meanings to the word "sparring", and it creates confusion sometimes imo.

To some fighters like Cerrone, sparring means gym war 100% power and intensity, he basically described it on a Rogan podcast once. But to most of us, sparring is 50% power. The confusion comes when Cerrone says stuff like I don't spar anymore, and guys here think "oh, I don't have to do sparring (my kind) because this seasoned vet says so".
When in fact his type of drilling, IS sparring that most of us do.

Since year 3, I've bee doing ALOT of drilling, but the drilling is very like sparring anyways and it doesn't feel much different.

I do real hard sparring twice a camp

In Korea, they have a different word for light sparring, called "messu (or massu) boxing" which I think actually comes from Japan although I can't be sure about that. When they say "sparring," it means going all out like it's a real fight. The word sounds weird to me so I don't use it so I specifically say I want to spar light to guys when I don't want to go hard. Sometimes I would ask a guy to spar and he'd freak out and say no because he thinks I'm going to go balls to wall, so I have to rephrase the ask.

 

[j123]

Sometimes I would ask a guy to spar and he'd freak out and say no because he thinks I'm going to go balls to wall, so I have to rephrase the ask.

Let Pug bang!!

Messu sounds like could come from Engrish so its kinda believable the term came from Japan

 

[shincheckin]

sounds like a good routine he has you guys on. I think light/medium clinching & sparring should be done daily. if your fighting monthly, theres not much need for hard sparring due to fight frequency but if your fighting every few months i would want to add some hard sessions in.