Only Way to Get Good at Boxing Is to Spar Hard?

[biscuitsbrah]

Obviously its the fastest way... But is this the correct route for an MMA guy with minimal boxing?
Basically just put on the shoes and head gear and go 100% while keeping it as technical as possible? I know this is how most boxers train...

I want to get comfortable exchanging in mid range... want to use blocks and head movement to return shots instead of shelling or using feet to just stay out of range. (In a real fight, in sparring it always seems easy to do)

Thoughts on this? I dont like brain damage but ive been training striking for about 3 1/2 years now and I think its about time I start sparring hard on the regular. (Ive taken minimal damage at this point)
Btw im 5'4 140 lbs. What is the maximum weight I should spar hard with?... Im thinking 165 at the most.

Anyways, if any boxers/mma boxers could reply or even if you arent a boxer please lend me your insight. Thanks

 

[a guy]

There's a lot more to it than hard sparring. The thing that really sets good boxing training apart IMO is a comprehensive set of partner drills, situational sparring and well-supervised hard sparring.

 

[AndyMaBobs]

Honestly, while your punches will no doubt have their technique refined, I'd be more worried about learning ringcraft and set ups

 

[freaky]

I don't understand this going hard thing. Just go at full speed and no power. How hard is it to control your power? I always drop my power right before it lands if I know it's going to land. I go 100% on bags and drills. I think drilling at 100% is more important than sparring at 100%.

It still hurts when punches land going at full speed and no power. I don't understand and hate it when people go 100% power, trying to take people's head off. Usually these 100% power people have sloppy techniques too.

 

[Paradigm]

Obviously its the fastest way... But is this the correct route for an MMA guy with minimal boxing?
Basically just put on the shoes and head gear and go 100% while keeping it as technical as possible? I know this is how most boxers train...

I want to get comfortable exchanging in mid range... want to use blocks and head movement to return shots instead of shelling or using feet to just stay out of range. (In a real fight, in sparring it always seems easy to do)

Thoughts on this? I dont like brain damage but ive been training for about striking for about 3 1/2 years now and I think its about time I start sparring hard on the regular. (Ive taken minimal damage at this point)
Btw im 5'4 140 lbs. What is the maximum weight I should spar hard with?... Im thinking 165 at the most.

Anyways, if any boxers/mma boxers could reply or even if you arent a boxer please lend me your insight. Thanks

How good are you talking about? Elite championship boxing level? You are going to have to spar hard at some point.

If you're an MMA guy with minimal boxing training...why not actually take some boxing instruction? Training a specific sport with MMA generalists might lead to sloppy techniques. If you wanted to get good at BJJ (or even BJJ for MMA), would you roll with random MMA dudes or a high level BJJ black belt to get proficient faster?

Sure, there are things you have to adapt to MMA but as a person who trains MT, I'd train with MT guys to get my MT better...not MMA guys (unless they had a solid MT background).

 

[ssullivan80]

I don't understand this going hard thing. Just go at full speed and no power. How hard is it to control your power? I always drop my power right before it lands if I know it's going to land. I go 100% on bags and drills. I think drilling at 100% is more important than sparring at 100%.

It still hurts when punches land going at full speed and no power. I don't understand and hate it when people go 100% power, trying to take people's head off. Usually these 100% power people have sloppy techniques too.

Personally I think the whole notion of percentage % sparring is nonsense. It's subjective at best, as the guy getting hit vs the guy doing the hitting are going to have very different perspectives. IMO, there's controlled sparring and fight pace sparring. The more experienced the fighters the closer to fight pace "controlled sparring" becomes. Nonetheless, it's still sparring and not a fight and regardless of what pace your sparring at there is a general "sparring etiquette". The difference between a fight and sparring isn't the speed, power, pace of the punches being thrown as much as it is in the "intentions of those punches". The intention in a fight is to physically harm and damage your opponent to a point that he can't continue, that should never be the intention in sparring.

 

[ARIZE]

Not a boxer, mostly into MT, so it may be different... and also it's clearly a personal opinion/preference. But i really believe someone must have some good hard sparring experience while he is new in a full contact sport before a fight (and obviously that he has enough experience to be able to do it, not a 2 week rookie).

An experienced fighter may not need hard sparring anymore, cause he knows what to expect.
But lots of inexperienced people underestimate what cumulate hard shots do to your body/mind in a match. And i don't mean pain, but mostly the way it saps your energy, makes your brain foggy etc...

There is also the problem of knowing if your techniques work against a fighter while he tags you with power. Example, you may work on a fast 6 punch combo. It's great against you teammates because even if you're tagged in between punches you manage to finish the combo. Comes match day...every time you start your combo, a hard counter will make you stop and reset, because you are not used to a heavy punch stopping you.
Or you may thing your heavy defense is great, absorbing all the shoots, but then you realize that in full blast, the power from the impact travels through your gloves, and still do damage to your head.

You may learn those from smokers, but i think it's safer and more beneficial if it's a hard sparring in a controlled environment, under your trainer. I don't believe a few hard sparring will lead to brain damage... But if you only spar hard for 10+ years, then yeah...you will have a problem.

Another method is the Thai way...with only light/medium sparring. You only fight hard on match day, but since you start very young the first fights wont be that hard, and you go into harder exchange as you grow up.
And since they fight so often, they don't really need tune up in between fights.

 

[shincheckin]

I really hate the guys that dont fight/compete, and so in their mind sparring is a "fight" for the ultimate championship of the world and they go all out. they are called "gym warriors" one step above the "keyboard warrior"

 

[Fire of Youth]

Hard sparring has its value but you need to do it under certain conditions otherwise it is detrimental. These conditions are:
1) Everything else is good. Certain things happen when in an immediate state of threat and when the application of power is prominent in your mind. All your bad habits get multiplied. Hands drop, you start to telegraph hits, you throw slower, your defence becomes less versatile, etc. All those bad habits must be controlled relatively well in less intense exercises (e.g. light sparring, partner drills) before testing them under the more intense context of hard sparring.
2) Your partner must be of roughly equal level. You gain very little throwing down with weaker fighters. You might gain something from getting your arse handed to you by a stronger fighter, but it could harm your confidence, leading to flinching and hesitant movements. Consequently, everything you did before becomes weaker. Similarly, you need to trust that your sparring partner will go hard but will back off when they clearly have it over you. This trust builds over time and a lot of sparring together. You can't go into a gym and have that level of trust after only a few months of training.
3) You and your partner must be injury free. Hard sparring places more stress on the injuries thus leading to worse injuries. Any benefit from hard sparring will disappear if you are forced out of training due to injury.
4) You don't have an upcoming fight. You want to go into your fight under the best conditions possible. Carrying around bruises all over your body is going inflate your pain perception (due to increased levels of cortisol) and also make you more susceptible to the accumulation of damage in the fight.

The main advantage of hard sparring is that you learn that you are OK when others are unloading on you and to show that you can still react appropriately under the context of immediate violent threat. But everything else needs to be there first before you gain these benefits. To conclude, hard sparring can be good but only when you and your partner are peaking in your training/performance.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

There's a lot more to it than hard sparring. The thing that really sets good boxing training apart IMO is a comprehensive set of partner drills, situational sparring and well-supervised hard sparring.

...well shit. Looks like im straight outta luck lol. For reasons below

How good are you talking about? Elite championship boxing level? You are going to have to spar hard at some point.

If you're an MMA guy with minimal boxing training...why not actually take some boxing instruction? Training a specific sport with MMA generalists might lead to sloppy techniques. If you wanted to get good at BJJ (or even BJJ for MMA), would you roll with random MMA dudes or a high level BJJ black belt to get proficient faster?

Sure, there are things you have to adapt to MMA but as a person who trains MT, I'd train with MT guys to get my MT better...not MMA guys (unless they had a solid MT background).

This is what I have been trying to do for a while. Basically I have access to two boxing gyms. In Hawaii it is illegal to pay for boxing instruction because all boxing gyms are held on public locations like school gyms and parks. The first boxing gym I dont know anyone except a high level amateur (Every year she places either 1st or second in national tournaments like ringside etc) and basically she said her coach or any other good coaches wont take me because my intention is MMA and not boxing. (Basically wasting their time in the long term)

The second gym is run by a guy all my team members know very well. The way class is run is basically conditioning the whole class, bagwork, and then some sparring. No instruction what so ever. The high level amateur actually told me I would be better off training at my kickboxing/MMA gym. (She used to train and coach there for about 5 years) As at least we have partner drills and situational sparring (Mostly kickboxing style though, the kind where you dont really hit the face but place shots while the other defends)
We do have 'boxing' padwork which is nice. But thats about it.

So basically consistent hard sparring is the first and easiest thing I can do for now.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

If you want to get good at MMA just spar MMA hard.

But yeh, you can box hard too. Just wear that face saving headgear so you dont break your nose. Or get that Daido Juku space helmet.

 

[panamaican]

I'll admit I don't have a great grasp on this thread but why can't you keep sparring where you're already training (MMA?) and restrict yourself to just boxing against your opponent? Boxing sparring is great but if you're planning to eventually bring it back to MMA anyway then this seems like a decent midpoint until you can get good boxing instruction.

Or are you not sparring in anything at the moment?

 

[Sinister]

Put it like this:

- There were very great fighters before sparring gear was invented. How do you think they honed their skills? They didn't fight once a week, and most of them didn't end their careers beat to shit.

- You should only be sparring "hard" with a person within a similar skill range, and/or weight range (bigger or smaller if YOU can establish control), if both fighters either agree to not be dicks, or agree that they're pretty much fighting, just without actually going for the kill all of the time, and once you are comfortable enough that you can defend yourself. If you cannot defend yourself soundly, meaning minimize the amount of damage you will take, then you shouldn't be sparring hard. If you don't FEEL safe, or like you can defend yourself from receiving most of the damage, then the problem likely isn't merely with you, it's in the training.

I think I did a thread around here forever ago on levels of sparring...

 

[Sinister]

And blammo:

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/levels-of-sparring-visual-aids.2688481/

 

[MadSquabbles500]

And blammo:

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/levels-of-sparring-visual-aids.2688481/

So boxing does have its own version of the "kyah ! ! ! "

 

[rmongler]

You don't train kickpunch the same way you would train wrestling or judo or the like; in the latter, rolling 100% is a common, everyday portion of training as a matter of course, because largely you can afford too.

Going 100% all the time when trying to cave each others heads in though, would take a rather more dramatic, and irrecoverable, toll on your abilities. 'Hard sparring' is not an every day thing, or even a major thing.

The difficulties in crafting good striking training in particular is a lot like the difficulties involved with trying to train soldiers in military occupations in general; how do you become more effective at something without actually doing that something, with 100% fidelity?

It can be easy to see why so many oriental MA's became watered down over the years; measures that might have started simply as expedients to spare students the ravages of injury for the sake of sustainability eventually lost the understandings and unstated presumptions they were predicated on, morphing into something wholly divorced from any sort of freefight logic or competitive contact all together.

There's a balance of course, but it's more than just balance; what makes the difference is about what you're balancing with; finding those 'hacks' that will better prepare you for the thing without the thing, each providing their own pieces of the puzzle, bigger or smaller, without also inculcating their own bad habits.

At the end of the day, i think more than any other sport, you depend on a coach who already knows what good looks like; who's quality will be able to coach you up to his level of quality.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

You don't train kickpunch the same way you would train wrestling or judo or the like; in the latter, rolling 100% is a common, everyday portion of training as a matter of course, because largely you can afford too.

Going 100% all the time when trying to cave each others heads in though, would take a rather more dramatic, and irrecoverable, toll on your abilities. 'Hard sparring' is not an every day thing, or even a major thing.

The difficulties in crafting good striking training in particular is a lot like the difficulties involved with trying to train soldiers in military occupations in general; how do you become more effective at something without actually doing that something, with 100% fidelity?

It can be easy to see why so many oriental MA's became watered down over the years; measures that might have started simply as expedients to spare students the ravages of injury for the sake of sustainability eventually lost the understandings and unstated presumptions they were predicated on, morphing into something wholly divorced from any sort of freefight logic or competitive contact all together.

There's a balance of course, but it's more than just balance; what makes the difference is about what you're balancing with; finding those 'hacks' that will better prepare you for the thing without the thing, each providing their own pieces of the puzzle, bigger or smaller, without also inculcating their own bad habits.

At the end of the day, i think more than any other sport, you depend on a coach who already knows what good looks like; who's quality will be able to coach you up to his level of quality.

That is well put. It is not just combat sports though.

Like Murican football. I never really got training to tackle. I just went out and did trial and error. Eventually I developed the ability to really hit hard. But we always went hard or tried. There was no soft period.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

I'll admit I don't have a great grasp on this thread but why can't you keep sparring where you're already training (MMA?) and restrict yourself to just boxing against your opponent? Boxing sparring is great but if you're planning to eventually bring it back to MMA anyway then this seems like a decent midpoint until you can get good boxing instruction.

Or are you not sparring in anything at the moment?

The way we stand up spar is first half of class is just boxing, other half is kickboxing. Its usually light to moderate sparring, but sometimes we do hard sparring (It looks a lot less cleaner than sinisters hard sparring video though)

I was just wondering if most boxing sparring is moderate/hard like how I see on youtube videos. and if this should make up the majority of my boxing sparring. I want to get better faster. Of all my mma fighting peers, my boxing is among the worst. (Im also the shortest)

Another problem might be the mma gloves... Im not too sure but the range changes dramatically. Either way my eyes are just not there. Probably need more drilling but im sure sparring harder will help.

 

[Reyesnuthugr]

I think drilling is what makes you sharper. That's what you need. I don't think you need to go harder than medium barely ever. Medium is plenty nuff and hard doesn't add much real value most of the time, in fact, it decreases it imo most of the time because you are not thinking/acting fluidly and therefore not learning. It's like "hard" guitar practice ( = sux)

 

[NVSemin]

There's a lot more to it than hard sparring. The thing that really sets good boxing training apart IMO is a comprehensive set of partner drills, situational sparring and well-supervised hard sparring.

nope, at the end of the day, all you need is hard sparring. It is just that not all people are conditioned in all aspects to do so, so they introduce other elements , which work together for the same purpose: prepare you for hard sparring experience or simulate some parts of it to a degree.

I think drilling is what makes you sharper. That's what you need. I don't think you need to go harder than medium barely ever. Medium is plenty nuff and hard doesn't add much real value most of the time, in fact, it decreases it imo most of the time because you are not thinking/acting fluidly and therefore not learning. It's like "hard" guitar practice ( = sux)

As far as I know, masturbation does make you a better lover ....