Sparring, and how often should it be done?

[guardt34]

Ok its like this, I sparred two days straight the other day, today I'm resting because I have a headache all day. My homies wernt even trying to sparr with me, they were straight trying to street fight me with haymakers and and bombs, little ol me trying to jab away mainly. So anyway two days straight I sparred, I figure I should rest today just incase. But tommarow my homies werel like "ya bring the sparring gear over" I said well I might take another day off but someone else will sparr.

Plus since we aint doing anything fancy, were not taking into consideration weight factor. Like the first guy I sparred was easily 5'9 or 6' I'm only 5'6 so I admit I was getting bombed on pretty good by his chuck liddel haymakers my jabs didnt seem to do any good because of his reach. Ok yesterday I hit em up agian with his partnerf a little shorter than first dude but still taller than me and he easily weighed 190 and up I'm almost sure of it, I'm only 160, yesterady was a sick fight. Just thought I throw this out on details, we had flea market style gloves and head gear is about it.

back to the point I guess? sparring and how often should it be done. especially if your partners are trying to go for the knockout and not actually sparring. my partner told me yesterday when I was sparring with his friend that his blows were more cleaner, even though I was getting in mine, u feel me? holla back

 

[Dedicado]

Spar as much as you are able to. If you are outweighed by a guy by a wide margin, ask him to go easy, if he won't - f#ck him!

Sparring shouldn't be about trying to knock each other out, that's what your fights are for. Sparring is about improving reflexes, speed, timing, technique, accuracy etc. in as real a situation as possible. K.O.'s are for enemies and opponents. Period.

 

[Centaur]

^^^^^^

Agree. When I connect to hard with one of my training partners, I always stop, Wait for him to say "too hard" or "that's cool, i don't mind" or whatever. Then we tap gloves and get back at it. We are all there to make eachother better, not KO and try to show eachother up.

 

[Spoonman7]

A lot of trainers over emphasize sparring, if you have an upcoming fight i would say maybe 9-12 rounds a week, if u are just staying in shape maybe 3 to 5 rounds.

 

[Chthon]

This is one of those things that can vary depending on your stamina, skill, and intentions. There isn't really a specific schedule you should have going. Obviously you don't want to do too much.

The main concern here is how you're doing it. Your head shouldn't be hurting to the point where it slows you down. How is your defense?

 

[guardt34]

main concern is my head i know headaches come with the territory, just want to make sure how much is enough for any given time because of concusions, like weekly?. we didnt actually do timed rounds, but basically like that, took a quick breether then went at it again for a bit. we were at a park, i'm hella rusty. i took muay thai like 3 and half years ago, so what little stand up i took with me was rusty. and when i was in thai, i did 5 months with 1 sparring match back then. so it been 3 years or so since i took up sparring, man i tell ya, thats what i needed, i was lacking that edge, i feel MUCHO GRANDE :icon_twis

lets see, i was mainly doing one thing and that was throwing out lots of jabs, hardly any straight rights, when things would get in close we just started sluging it out all wild for a few then back to jabing away for me, while my partner was trying to go all out.

i took tylenol today didnt seem to do much good, maybe i need something stronger. this headache aint effecting anything liek vision or motorskills that i know of, but its pain in the ass, like having a bad hangover all day long

 

[Chthon]

Ok, this is an interesting situation. Should your head hurts this much after sparring? I think the question is a bit off.

Should your head hurt like this if you got punched in the head a lot? Yeah.

Should you have been getting punched in the head to the point where you had to take the next day off? No.

This could be attributed either to the fact that you said your buddies were looking for a KO (which is not cool when you're just sparring) or that you may need to brush up on your defense, and there's nothing wrong with that.

How many of your buddies punches were landing? And how were you defending? Were you just evading or what?

 

[toasty]

Dude, there is a difference between sparring and fighting..you mihgt be sparring but your partners are fighting...Ask them which one they want to do beofre the first punch is thrown..

sparring is to learn and try things out under realistic pressure but not full bore

fighting is fighting...

Chose or lose...

 

[Vilo Magee]

First of all he said they are using flea market equipment. So it sounds like they are not even at a boxing/mma gym but doing this in their backyard. This is a good way to get hurt. Get good equipment made by reputable companies if you must spar. Have you ever taken apart cheap equipment? I have and it was stuffed with the same shit thay use to fill packing boxes to make sure the items inside dont move around not exactly what you would want to use to protect yourself from a punch.

 

[BlackBeltNow]

the first times sparring my head ached

the reason is i was inexperienced, and everytime a guy flurried i froze and tensed up, like a deer caught in headlights. if you tense when someone hits your head, you suffer more damage. as you train more, you relax, and what used to give you headaches will only make you punchdrunk for 2 seconds.

my advice: after everyhard punch, have your oppnent let you recover. and spar more so you can relax.

 

[fdupnct]

main concern is my head i know headaches come with the territory, just want to make sure how much is enough for any given time because of concusions, like weekly?. we didnt actually do timed rounds, but basically like that, took a quick breether then went at it again for a bit. we were at a park, i'm hella rusty. i took muay thai like 3 and half years ago, so what little stand up i took with me was rusty. and when i was in thai, i did 5 months with 1 sparring match back then. so it been 3 years or so since i took up sparring, man i tell ya, thats what i needed, i was lacking that edge, i feel MUCHO GRANDE :icon_twis

lets see, i was mainly doing one thing and that was throwing out lots of jabs, hardly any straight rights, when things would get in close we just started sluging it out all wild for a few then back to jabing away for me, while my partner was trying to go all out.

i took tylenol today didnt seem to do much good, maybe i need something stronger. this headache aint effecting anything liek vision or motorskills that i know of, but its pain in the ass, like having a bad hangover all day long

I don't know what if any ground rules you set before "sparring" but if you took Muay Thai why are you not clinching when he gets close. You clinch which will protect your head and then hammer knees into him. From the sounds of it the people your sparring with haven't trained in anything and are just trying to knock you out.

 

[guardt34]

their really wasnt any rules, other than me saying to my partners " hey i got some sparring gear want to spar?" i carry that shit with me in my trunk on the go they start laughing hehe

ya it is pretty much your typical backyard boxing type of deal, although we sparred at this park both times.

the gloves are flea market, 16 ounce gloves, and the headgear is pretty fat, i've never gave thought to what is packed in them, u might have a point, but hell it protects from cuts thats for sure. isnt that what sparr helms are for any way? to protect u from cuts, headbuts and maybe broken nose?

as for clinching it didnt occur to me, heh i was just reacting to fists flying my way. my head feels alot better than it did yesterday thats for sure :wink:

 

[LCDforMe]

Sparring is to help you with speed, accuracy and reflexes...not to get your ass kicked. If the guy is throwing bombs, you'd better tell him to stop or get your body moving and get out of there.

I think training like the way you explain it is not only counter productive (not increasing actual skill) but also dangerous. You shouldn't have to have a day off because of a headache from sparring the night before.

 

[Chthon]

Yeah, LCD is right. Sparring shouldn't be quite that taxing.

I would recommend you brushing up on your defense before sparring regularly again. Work on bobbing & weaving, catching, parrying, etc. Once you get your bearings back in a controlled environment, then you shouldn't have a problem sparring more often. It's inevitable that you will get hit but if you're getting that banged up then it's a sign that something is off.

 

[OldVet61]

Sparring with someone who is throwing bombs at you is just detrimental to your progress. It makes many people feel scared and then they only rely on using the skills they are good at instead of practicing new ones.