frustration with bad sparring partners

[swamp_fist]

If you talk to the guy and he keeps going, speak to your coach. Don't whine at him that the other guys is hitting too hard, just calmly tell him that if he keeps it up next time your gonna lay in to him.
Next time you spar go as normal, if he gos for you again, smash him. That way everyone aware why, and you don't look like your in a hissy fit because the other guy is better than you.

^^^ I like this. In the boxing gym, sometimes the coach looks over at a sparring match that escalates and calls out the guy defending himself instead of the instigator.

Another variation I've done is when a guy repeatedly amped up in what was supposed to be a slow Muay Thai session, I poured MAD pressure on him (without actually blasting him hard) and said "Is THIS what you want? You WANT to go hard?" At one point I clinched him and lifted a knee just below his head and stopped. He thanked me afterwards, and has thanked me several times since for not actually ripping his head off when I could have, and for letting him know.

 

[swamp_fist]

As my former Sanshou / Kung-Fu instructor liked to say in his Chinese accent: "If you can't handle getting punched and kicked then maybe this isn't for you. Go do folk dancing or try basket weaving."

This absolutely misses the point. Nobody's complaining specifically about being hit here, the topic is how to deal with crap-ass sparring partners who have no control.

 

[Cannon_6]

This absolutely misses the point. Nobody's complaining specifically about being hit here, the topic is how to deal with crap-ass sparring partners who have no control.

Aw, give him a break. He was just tacking an amusing anecdote onto shera's reply,

...If you're afraid or unwilling to return fire, you're in the wrong place.

which is precisely on point.

 

[amiller353]

These threads pop up all the time, and you know why? Because it's common. Your participating in an aggressive combat sport, this stuff happens at many (perhaps most) gyms from time to time.

Before everyone else jumps in and blasts the coach or the gym and tells you to quit and find a better one, let me ask you- what have YOU done about the situation?

Just talk to the guy man to man and tell him what the issue is. I'll bet he doesn't actually know he's sparring too hard. Just ask him and see what he says. You CAN convert these types of guys into useful training partners.

Most likely he'll probably be surprised to find you feel that way and he'll settle down.

If he doesn't, well you have 3 choices.

1. Keep sparring him and getting hurt and hating it

2. Fight back and hurt HIM (as most Sherdoggers would suggest). Then watch as your skills quickly plateau once you stop training intelligently and start having "gym wars" every night.

3. Leave the gym.

Talk it up with him mate, I bet the situation isn't as bad as you think.

And the important thing is you've learned from the situation, so if you ever become a trainer you'll be better for it too.

Hang in there.

Or he could just stop sparring with that guy in particular.

 

[WARRENMANIA**]

Tbh I do some dick things. Just clinch the fuck out of him. During that tell him to go 50%. If he doesn't stop clinch him again.

 

[thewhiteSRR]

The worst ones are those who keep talking throughout the round. Complain they're gassed, make excuses for why they can't hit you, stop the action whenever they catch you with something so they can bask in their awesomeness and the ones who after doing next to nothing, decide to give you advice.

 

[ambertch]

There's a good distinction there between guys hitting you hard to make you better, and guys who really are assholes. Harder (but still controlled) hits are sometimes necessary if your sparring partner is not defending at all, just throwing out bunches of punches while ignoring yours.

Yup - here's what I do: if I'm obviously on another level and the guy still wants to be aggressive I just keep banging them in the body.

I won't even hit him in the head. Just keep blasting his ribs.

Bang an aggressive guy in the body and he'll think twice about coming in all crazy macho.

 

[LJW81]

A very good friend of mine was being bullied by a tough sparring partner during his boxing sparring sessions. Even after trying to talk to the guy and talking to the coach, the bully would always spar harder than he should and end up hurting my friend. My friend took it upon himself to train harder on his defense and in-fighting and tried to avoid sparring with the guy as much as possible. After about a month, they sparred again and my friend went as hard as the bully did and ended up getting some really good shots in and floored the bully. Later on they talked it over and the guy apologized for his previous actions and lightened up on sparring. I feel like my friend did a good job in trying his best with his situation.

 

[mimo]

This has got to stop. People are complaining that a guy is hitting them too hard in a sport that involves punching eachother? Man the fuck up, find a different gym, or find a different sport.

So you think it's a good idea to ignore the intructors instructions and go hard all the time?

If it was bjj and some guy was trying to break everyones limbs despite the instructor saying go easy, should they man the f#@k up as well, as it is a contact sport?

So much ignorance.

As for the problem OP, hit him back harder until he learns. Letting him get away with being an assclown won't help.

 

[sukotsuto]

I sparred with someone who goes hard, just going forward throwing straights like a madman high and low, and it's kinda hurting the other kids in the training hall, since he doesn't seem to hold back at all. The problem with the way he punches is that he seemed to have this traditional martial arts training habit of leaving his fist straight out after throwing them and not retracting immediately. I'm sure you all know that's PRIME for counters, so when I sparred with him I landed A LOT of hooks and uppercuts to the head and body while he was charging forward.

I didn't go hard at all, since I felt it was unusually easy the way he leaves himself completely open for counters the whole time while his punches are totally predictable as he just goes forward in a completely straight line, not even circling. Same guy who brags he used to break ceramic tiles in TKD and had been training for 10 years - I'm sure he can really hurt me if he lands any of those punches, but only if they actually hit me, since all I pretty much had to do is step to my side to avoid them. I'm not knocking on TKD at all (since I've had good sparring sessions with some TKD guys and gals in boxing), but he looked like he came from a total McDojo

 

[c0r1nth14n]

The macho BS in these threads always amazes me. If your coach tells you to go 50%, you go 50%. You don't start brawling.

Look, I've been knocked out and had a rib broken. Those things were accidents and I didn't hold anything against the people I was sparring. I wasn't happy about the injuries, but I wasn't angry either. I accept that I'm going to get hit and sometimes it's gonna hurt.

Accidents like that are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than someone who goes too hard all the time. That's not an accident, it's deliberate. It's disrespectful to you, it's disrespectful to the coach, it's disrespectful to the gym. You don't have to take it in an attempt to act tough, and you shouldn't.

I don't train muay thai to be a badass, I train it because it's fun. No one's paying me to do this. I've got to get up and go to work tomorrow. So if someone hits me too hard, I ask them to take it down a bit. If they do it again, I'll remind them. If they keep doing it, I tell them (and the coach) that I'm not willing to spar them anymore. Simple as that. If I ever met a coach who had a problem with that, I'd find a new gym where the coach was an adult.

 

[Rink]

So you think it's a good idea to ignore the intructors instructions and go hard all the time?

If it was bjj and some guy was trying to break everyones limbs despite the instructor saying go easy, should they man the f#@k up as well, as it is a contact sport?

So much ignorance.

As for the problem OP, hit him back harder until he learns. Letting him get away with being an assclown won't help.

At what point in my post did I advocate ignoring the instructor? If the instructor tells them to go light and they go hard, it's his job to stop the session. Getting hit harder than you expected and having an arm break are tad different don't you think?

And why are you contradicting yourself by saying the OP should hit him harder until he learns? Didn't you just tell me I'm being ignorant for "ignoring the instructor?"

 

[Rink]

So you think it's a good idea to ignore the intructors instructions and go hard all the time?

If it was bjj and some guy was trying to break everyones limbs despite the instructor saying go easy, should they man the f#@k up as well, as it is a contact sport?

So much ignorance.

As for the problem OP, hit him back harder until he learns. Letting him get away with being an assclown won't help.

At what point in my post did I advocate ignoring the instructor? If the instructor tells them to go light and they go hard, it's his job to stop the session. Getting hit harder than you expected and having an arm break are tad different don't you think? If there is a guy who's breaking limbs, you know you do? Don't roll him with him. Which is kind of what I suggested in very post you quoted.

And why are you contradicting yourself by saying the OP should hit him harder until he learns? Didn't you just tell me I'm being ignorant for "ignoring the instructor?"

I don't know why some of you don't get the simple solution of not sparring the guy anymore if he goes hard and you don't want to go hard. If you're too much of a pussy to tell the guy to go soft or tell the instructor that you don't want to spar with him anymore, then the only other solution is to knock his ass down or pick up another hobby.