Felt kinda bad about an incident that happened tonight at MMA practice . . .

So you could say I'm one of the better BJJ guys out of the people that I train with (not that that actually says a LOT or anything, since I train with lots of guys who do this only on their free time at my university). Anyway, today I was training MMA with a friend of mine with a strong background in Gojin Ryu karate. He is a tough kid and he is a nice guy. But whenever we spar, it seems like he always goes 100% and tries to seriously knock me the f*** out. I always try to maintain my control, especially since I do outweight him by 30 lbs, and I don't really want to bang it out hard with him. So we are sparring and I take him down, and I start throwing some punches to his side/ribs. He proceeds to punch me pretty good in the back of my neck. I feel a tingle and I'm like damn, okay, I gotta be more defensive, this guy is ROUGH. then he elbows the back of my head, and I really feel it this time. So I got upset and I started raining some punches down on him and I look clearly angry. I told him if he was going to elbow me or hit the back of my head, I would too. Then he asked, "I'm assuming that these [motions a knee from bottom guard to my head] is illegal too right?" I'm pretty much dumbfounded since I thought we were sparring and not trying to kill each other.

Anyway, did I have a right to get angry and get "violent" as he put it and rain down punches after he elbowed the back of my head?

 

stop sparing with him.

 

Guess it helps to set the rules before sparring. Sounds like you both were playing to a different set of rules.

Personally if someone does it to me - yeah I'd probably get pissed & beat the crap out of them for a bit. I figure you have a right to get aggro - especially if HE is as well. Shit if he wants to play rough he's gotta expect the same in return & a good GnP is a fair exchange for an elbow to the back of the head.

 

You needed to break off the sparring as soon as it got out of hand on his side, and explain why. If he continues to go beyond the limits you set, then really you should just quit sparring with him, but then I would see more of a reason to get pissed off.

 

well, in every major MMA org there are never blows allowed to the back of the head or neck/spine. i assumed he knew. i assumed wrong.

 

just let him know what's up. today i was going with our official judo guy (blue in bjj) and i headbutted him or something when i was in his guard and he got pissed or whatever. anywho, i'm the kind of guy who loves the intensity because it's how i trained wrestling. you come in the mat room every day for a few months and at least once a week and you just get tired of the guys you train with or you're frustrated for no reason..hard to explain.. but at least once a week two guys are going all out, basically fighting but keeping it barely within the rules of the sport. been there myself before, sure i'll be there again. 1v1 competition is about the aggression level when you boil it down.

we got stood back up because there are too many groups rolling in the small room and we're back to stand up and we're walking back to our area and he just jacks my gi up, no usual preliminary hand tag or whatever and we're going and i know something's up. i don't aim to piss someone off or maybe he had bottled up aggro, but when it happens, i love to rise to the occasion.

enjoy the aggression. it's bound to happen when hands and feet and bodys are flying around. someone gets frustrated, someone gets kicked in the face.. etc.. i caught an elbow to the lip in the exchange (just bought my mouthguard that day too, was wearing it.. woot!) and i'm carrying a fatty atm but shit's gonna happen. in fact, the shit that happened after he jacked my gi was a nice blocked throw countered into side control into an arms triangle choke until the timer went out. god damn my arm was burning trying to sink the finish.

if you cant enjoy a little heat, what are you training for?

on a side note, we're cool after the heat. i didnt even know i headbutted him. he thought i had kicked him in the face at some point but we were always facing on the ground so i'm assuming it was a headbut (i always posture my forehead into the neck/jaw area for leverage except sometimes in guard. shit happens. good stuff.

 

yep

 

Nice post FS.

I was at submission wrestling last night. I've sparred a couple of the guys there but not all. One of them wanted to roll with me yesterday and I was like ok. So I dominate and tap him but I'm tired 'cause I've been rolling for while. He can see I'm tired and wants to go again. I'm like ok, we roll and I just lock him up under my side control and scarf hold for about 5 minutes thinking serves him right for having better stamina than me.

After I felt kinda guilty as he was rubbing his shoulders and moaning that I just held him down.

Another guy (white belt) at my BJJ club seems to lose it when he spars me. I tapped him with a completely legit collar choke and he pushed my leg off really angrily after I let go. I don't get angry when I spar, I try to remain as relaxed as possible so f**k knows what his problem is. Ego I guess.

You really have to be clear with your training partner on the rules before you spar. I think it's really not a good idea to spar angrily.

 

It's not that I can't take heat. But this person headbutted me, elbowed the back of my head, and punched the back of my neck/spine. No one else that I train with, even the most professional guys, do this. I don't know if anyone here does any kind of striking or if you guys only do grappling, but it's not quite the same for someone to go "hard" rolling versus someone to go hard striking. There's way more possibility for injury when someone is intentionally trying to hit your vital nerves/area on your neck or back of the head with elbows and punches, or when they intentionally headbutt too, verus someone just "spazzing" or going all out when they grapple.

 

So stop and talk to your partner if they start that shit.

 

some people truly have no idea, the difference between sparring and a fight,
or how to put in a volume control in intensity

that training for skill and going light and slow is GREAT training instead of
just going hard, and that hard rolling only increases chance to injury
and that injury is bad for you.

he sounds like a NOOB, and honestly I dont think your that much apart from
him, because you DID stoop down to his level briefly.

 

I get angry when I fight sometimes too. When I am just fighting really poorly & am not pulling off my techniques or when someone gets me with a throw I know I should've evaded.

The anger is directed at myself though, born from frustration.

 

He may not hav known.If he did it after u warning him, then hes wrong. As to him asking about the knee, it depends on his tone. It may be that he is seriously just asking a question with no implication[Like , say, he has always been training knee in that way n asked]

 

No, you didn't. Nothing you did couldn't be solved with talking. You overreacted and I'm surprised you lack restraint.

 

Don't get angry. Thats very stupid, on your part.

 

Crap. It is normal to get angry and frustrated on some days. It is only human. It means we actually care about our performance.

I am not talking about losing control. I am talking about being annoyed & upset with yourself that you are not performing to your own expectations. Maybe if you HAVE no expectations & are happy to accept less from yourself you might cruise through while getting your ass kicked & NOT have it affect you but as for me - I get angry & it motivates me to try harder & be better.

 

If he was acting like an as*hole I would punish him for it. Go Fedor on him from the guard.
Then, stop sparring with him and tell him you don't spar with morons.

Depending on why you are sparring (for a fight or just to train) you should still go easy. If you wanna use elbows, go ahead. But don't actually HIT with the elbow. Use it more to show you can hit. And/or to show yourself you can hit (training to make it 2nd nature). Punches to the body are okay to do abit harder. Not full power but you don't have to worry about it too much. Punches to the face should be light. Hit hard enough to actually hit him in the face, but not so you do damage (nose bleeds are ok etc), but not so hard that you can knock him out or that it hurts alot getting hit (it's not a real fight).

Kicks should be even lighter. Not fast, hard kicks. Do them fast but slow enough for him to react, so you both get used to it. So he learns to see it coming and you learn to kick. The better you are the harder you can spar.

When sparring there should always be a good feeling. People should be in a good mood. You should be friends and if you are friends you don't hit him full power in the face. And you should NEVER get angry at the person you are sparring with. If you do, change sparring partners and see what happen.
If you get angry anyway, you're not fit to be a fighter. You should stop training and grow the f*ck up.

Submissions are okay to go abit harder on, DEPENDING on what submission it is. RNC go as hard as you want. Armbar, take it easy. Pull his arm "slowly" so he has time to react and can tap. Don't go full power and brake his elbow. Achilles heel go as hard as you want. Heel hooks, don't do them at all. If you really want to, put it on to show you can get it, but don't actually twist his foot.

In MMA sparring, on the ground, you can use boxing gloves. That way you can go abit harder from the guard without the risk to knock him out.

Bottom line is, USE COMMON SENSE. You are there to train, not to hurt eachother. Sometimes people gets hurt anyway. That happens. It's a part of training. But when you punching a guy in the face, you KNOW how hard you can punch without hurting the guy too bad. If the guy you spar with can't use common sense, sparring partners.

Hope that helps someone.

 

who the hell elbows when rolling tho? i dont think i've ever seen anyone elbow in a sparring match because if you're sparring, you might have a fight soon and a cut before your fight is helping no one.

but, you cant assume everyone knows this stuff. hell, you even said he was from a TMA..

 

dude, when some idiot is doing something stupid like elbowing the back of your head/neck it is up to you to immediately let them know how much fucking pain he just caused. Verball or physical or both.

 

Well, since he's a TMA guy, does he know he was sparring MMA rules? Or did he think he was sparring for true-to-life fighting?

Perhaps you should mention the rules next time. Not everyone has a printed copy of Pride's rules in their pocket.