My First MT Sparring session- help needed

[Jcoeus1234]

Advice on first sparring session- went with a guy who was real good and taught me a lot.

Here's the link- just would love pointers from everyone so I can get better- thanks.

Patrick

 

[1Strike]

Long story short you sparred against a prick that took advantage of your inexperience
and tried to whoop your ass for the camera. He even kept looking at the camera towards the end of the vid.

My advice would be to work on your defense a lot more and next time spar either someone at the same training level as you or a more experienced guy that isn't gonna light you up for his amusement and will work with you instead.

Keep up the good work, sparring is a lot of fun once you have defense, not just offense and spar against fighters your level or guys with more control.

 

[Pugilistic]

Long story short you sparred against a prick that took advantage of your inexperience and tried to whoop your ass for the camera. He even kept looking at the camera towards the end of the vid.

Really? I didn't think it was that bad.

TS, I'm no Muay Thai expert, but I felt you just walked towards your opponent without any real purpose. You should jab, low kick or at least feint, otherwise you're just walking into his range and letting him hit you. Which he did.

 

[Discipulus]

No, it wasn't that bad. Some of my first sparring sessions had me getting my ass kicked worse, and I still wouldn't consider it to be some kind of abuse.

Honestly, TS, you didn't look bad for a beginner. You looked how I looked the first few times I sparred. The more you do it the more comfortable you'll get taking shots. More importantly, the more comfortable you'll get seeing those shots coming to avoid taking them. At the moment you're still relying on your natural flinch reaction, i.e. turn away, close eyes, duck head way low (which is why you almost ate a spinning back kick to the face). The more you drill defense and the more you spar, the quicker these things will go away.

Pugilistic brings up the most important point, in my opinion, which is: don't be afraid to throw. Start learning your range. Try to lay your shin across his thigh. Try to touch him with the jab and start setting up the rear hand. If you're always waiting to react to him, you'll always fight hesitantly. Even good counter fighters don't just react--they force a reaction from their opponent and then counter that. So throw those kicks and punches, my friend.

We're both novices, but it gets better. Keep at it.

 

[nomilkforsanta]

It looks normal, there was no power kicks or excessive head shots. I am just wondering why are you both not using headgear and why is he not wearing proper striking shin-guards?

I would work on your angular footwork, you are walking into all of his attacks.

 

[joeakrazo]

^^^ In our MT gym headgear is optional for day to day sparring. The fighters use then when they train harder and closer to fights.

Good work for your first sparring session. Keep at it. Good pace. Good work rate.

One thing that is a minute peeve of mine is when sparring at that pace your partner starts grabbing a majority of your kicks, particularly low kicks. Try feinting those kicks more when he starts going to grab and pop a jab out instead to keep him honest.

Check the low kick and don't block it with your hand. You can sweep the teep though.

 

[Bennosuke]

The two drills that will help you a lot (other than sparring a lot more, which obviously is key).

Cover drills, have someone better than you (but who isn't going to try to stroke their own ego) practice slowly attacking you, while you focus on nothing but covering. This will help you practice putting your energy towards blocking and evading with less stress and smaller movements (something you would benefit from improving uppon).

The second drill is simply to switch. You need to get comfortable throwing more than one strike at a time and to train your mind to idnetifying openings in your opponent. Not having to worry about protecting yourself will allow you to start thinking aggressively.

Good luck man. Keep at it.

 

[peanut66]

i didnt see his sparring partner acting as a prick , it looked like normal light to mid sparring session the same we do at our gym , maybe he should refrain from grabbing your foot for now , until you feel confident in your kicking , and you both should have head gear on ,


i wont critique your sparring , im sure you are being trained well, what i will recommend is to break the habit of looking away or shelling up and turtling when you are under pressure, its a natural self defense reaction , all beginners have it , but that is what will get you ko'd, or hurt real bad ,, you are relying on your partners compassion at that point not to hit you , it will carry on until you get in a real fight and then you will get kicked or kneed in the face and not see it coming ( just like brock and overem),, always keep your eyes on him , its the only way to see the shots coming so you can block them , move your feet , get out of there , clinch him , use you knees , punch back , punch your way out , do something , , just hunching over and looking the way is a very bad habit and hard to break ,,, a drill you can do is stand with your partner against a wall or on the ropes and let him punch and kick at you , slowly at first , and concentrate on seeing the shots coming , block , parry , slip , check and counter back , its a good drill

 

[MayhemMonkey]

he may be more experienced, but he makes loads of mistakes you can capitalise on in future. I also dont understand why he was throwing spinning kicks and backfists at a novice, just seemed a bit uncool imo. the hardest thing for a gym to do is to keep people coming back if they are just getting beat up by fighters during sparring, at the gym I train at we ease them into it by showing them little moves or tips to help them relax. We also talk them through stuff to help them develop............I seen absolutely none of that there lol. While I dont think he was going too hard, I just think it doesnt help someones confidence to have absolutely no success in a round. Especially beginners!

I think its a good way to bring novices on and helps them develop more confidence.(the worst part is showing a beginner a move and him then landing it on you the next round lmao)

 

[Pugilistic]

I just realized this was your first sparring session. Dude, that's really good for your first session ever. You look like a pro compared to most people's flailing around I usually see when they spar for the first time.

I got a question though. Is it normal for Muay Thai and MMA gyms to have people spar on the mats in the open and not in a ring? Coming from a boxing background, that's just weird to me.

 

[DrakeSaint]

Gave some insight on your video comments area.

The most important of all I'd like to rephrase here; you had your first sparring against a southpaw. You NEVER, EVER spar the first time against a southpaw, not even if you're a southpaw yourself.

If you're an orthodox boxer, spar with an orthodox; you'll be used to fighting against someone with your own stance better than someone who isn't.

If you're a southpaw, then you have an advantage you should use against orthodox.

This difference starts to fade away as people train both stances, AKA when you're experienced. So when you're a beginner, up until some intermediate level, you're on disadvantage against most southpaws.

 

[Jcoeus1234]

Thanks a ton all. I really appreciate all of the feedback. Going back tonight- so pretty excited to learn and tune my game.

 

[LJW81]

I felt like your opponent was a little rough on you for your first sparring session. He could have let up a bit and not clinched you for so long or threw those spinning back kicks. All in all, as many stated above, pretty good for your first sparring session. It's hard in the beginning to not flinch. You should pair up with other beginners and spar lightly and work defensive drills slowly and then ramp up the speed. Keep sparring man!

 

[DrBdan]

Some thoughts as I watch the video. Some might be repeats of what others have said and almost all of them are things that I've had to work on myself or watched other people at my gym work on...

- When he kicks keep your hands up and try to check or evade the kicks. You don't want to drop your hands expecting a body kick and take a clean kick to the head. You can block kicks with your forearms (think Frank Shamrock blocking Cung Le's kicks) but it's something that takes practice to recognize when you can do it.

- Don't move into range if you aren't going to throw anything. Occasionally you walk forward into range and just stand there so he punches you first.

- Throw more strikes or as my Ajahn says "make more offense!!!". When in doubt, just jab a lot and throw basic combos like jab/cross, jab/cross/kick etc.

- When he swarms keep your hands up and don't duck. If he gets in close don't be afraid to simply push him back or go for the clinch. Another option (which takes practice and might mean you take some shots) is to block his shot and fire back immediately. e.g. he throws a left hook, you block with your right arm and immediately fire back a right uppercut.

Overall it's not bad for your first time. I think it's better to be a bit too cautious rather than to be overly aggressive and spaz out. How long were the rounds? You might find it more useful to keep the rounds shorter (1-2 minutes) so you can take a break and get feedback from your partner and/or trainers.

 

[Discipulus]

Some thoughts as I watch the video. Some might be repeats of what others have said and almost all of them are things that I've had to work on myself or watched other people at my gym work on...

- When he kicks keep your hands up and try to check or evade the kicks. You don't want to drop your hands expecting a body kick and take a clean kick to the head. You can block kicks with your forearms (think Frank Shamrock blocking Cung Le's kicks) but it's something that takes practice to recognize when you can do it.

- Don't move into range if you aren't going to throw anything. Occasionally you walk forward into range and just stand there so he punches you first.

- Throw more strikes or as my Ajahn says "make more offense!!!". When in doubt, just jab a lot and throw basic combos like jab/cross, jab/cross/kick etc.

- When he swarms keep your hands up and don't duck. If he gets in close don't be afraid to simply push him back or go for the clinch. Another option (which takes practice and might mean you take some shots) is to block his shot and fire back immediately. e.g. he throws a left hook, you block with your right arm and immediately fire back a right uppercut.

Overall it's not bad for your first time. I think it's better to be a bit too cautious rather than to be overly aggressive and spaz out. How long were the rounds? You might find it more useful to keep the rounds shorter (1-2 minutes) so you can take a break and get feedback from your partner and/or trainers.

Perhaps not the best example... :icon_chee

 

[1Strike]

Power wise the other guy didnt try to KO him ,thats not what I meant.

However, as a coach that trains fighters full time I can tell you IMO that sure wasnt a productive sparring session for a new guy. The other guy took full advantage of his lack of defense, especially against a southpaw.

First times sparring should get a new guy confident and help him improve, not get overwhelmed.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[MidnightSnacks**]

that was really good for your first sparring ever. good job.i guess the main thing you have is coming forward without throwing anything. you shouldnt keep stepping into his range without an idea what you want to do.

good shit though, keep working hard!

 

[dtravis92]

I just realized this was your first sparring session. Dude, that's really good for your first session ever. You look like a pro compared to most people's flailing around I usually see when they spar for the first time.

I got a question though. Is it normal for Muay Thai and MMA gyms to have people spar on the mats in the open and not in a ring? Coming from a boxing background, that's just weird to me.

Yes, it is normal for MT and MMA gyms to have the students spar on an open mat. Many of the gyms do not even have a ring. This can get really annoying when you got a runner and you cannot corner his ass Additionally, I think it can be detrimental to the fighters as they are not accustomed to fighting in the ring and are more prone to getting trapped on the ropes. I wish more gyms would get rings

TS: You did decent for your first time, especially by not going full out and thinking that it is a fight. That is the most annoying thing when sparring beginners. Not really going to give any advice as most of the problems you experience will be worked out by sparring more and losing that flinch reflex. Your sparring partner should have gone a bit easier and needed to quit throwing those damn spinning kicks. You obviously did not react well to them and he ended up tagging you in the face, if his heel would have caught you on the face then he could have really damaged you (especially without headgear). Sparring a beginner is not really a time to boost your ego, he should do that against people as experienced as he is.

 

[DrBdan]

Perhaps not the best example... :icon_chee

Yeah maybe not the best example considering that the kicks broke his forearm :redface: It was the first example I thought of though.

 

[MayhemMonkey]

Power wise the other guy didnt try to KO him ,thats not what I meant.

However, as a coach that trains fighters full time I can tell you IMO that sure wasnt a productive sparring session for a new guy. The other guy took full advantage of his lack of defense, especially against a southpaw.

First times sparring should get a new guy confident and help him improve, not get overwhelmed.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree with you man, I actually said similar in my earlier post!