I just wanted to share some light sparring Im doing with a friend who's new to fighting. I've been training kickboxing for about a year now and though I find the fundamentals and straight forward approach to be essential, Im looking to expand outta the box a little and development my own approach to movement.
Any comments or discussion are welcome!
I understand that you'e having fun and experimenting with distances and timing, nothing wrong with that. I just think that your time would be better spent drilling and applying the fundamentals. If all you've done is train for a year, there's no way your fundamentals are solid. They may look solid compared against someone who just started training, but compared to someone who's been at it diligently for 5-7 years, your fundamentals are very weak (slow, telegraphed, leave you susceptible to counters, carry little power, not placed precisely enough,etc). I'm also speaking as someone who is a newbie with just over a year of training experience, when I partner up with more experienced people the difference in my fundamentals and theirs is night and day. As an example look at the southpaw jab thread, the guy has like 19 variations on the jab that he throws, that should give you an idea of the level of the level of nuance and depth that there is to the fundamentals. This shit takes
years to get down pat, it's just too much material to absorb and internalize.
It would better if your friend threw textbook techniques and combinations and you answered with texbook blocks and counters, you'd learn more from that, especially as your friend gets faster at throwing/linking shots.
Btw, check out this video below, you can do free form sparring with textbook techniques, it's just as fun, but you need to be getting tagged to keep you from developing bad habits.
You guys are going to develop bad habits without proper guidance to your 'free flowing movement'.
Understand that just because this works for Connor McGregor, doesnt mean it's going to be as effective for you. Connor has an athleticism which you dont. You're leaving yourself wide open for so many counters. This is why the fundamentals are really important.
When play sparring, focus on being sharp, you guys are looking sloppy (because there is no danger of getting tagged). You need to treat this like you would a real sparring match, with the difference being that you can afford to correct your form, working on footwork, trying different combinations, because you can afford to make more mistakes.
Exactly. The UFC hype machine is at it again, yet again they have another fighter who is "reinventing the sport", revolutionizing everything with animal movements, eating horse meat, and other bullshit...They've been doing this since at least the Chuck Liddel days, where the ticket to winning everything was knowing how to throw an overhand bomb.
