# When to start sparring?



## Spartigus (Jul 7, 2010)

Hi
I have trained other martial arts before, but I have really got into Muay Thai.  I have been training for a month now.  The place I train at has two main class types, training/drills ect and sparring/clinching.  

I asked when would be a good time to start sparing, and they said normally a month or so.  So I was wondering when I should start the sparring classes, and what everyones opinions on when to spar are?

I will have 16oz gloves, head gear, mouth guard, groin guard, shin guards and knee guards.  They are also big on the "not going hard thing" on sparring, so we can focus on learning and combos and stuff.  

So I'm after everyones opinions!!

Thanks
Marco


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## Andy Moynihan (Jul 7, 2010)

Spartigus said:


> Hi
> I have trained other martial arts before, but I have really got into Muay Thai. I have been training for a month now. The place I train at has two main class types, training/drills ect and sparring/clinching.
> 
> I asked when would be a good time to start sparing, and they said normally a month or so. So I was wondering when I should start the sparring classes, and what everyones opinions on when to spar are?
> ...


 
Provided all necessary safety protocols are in place--as soon as they will let you.


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## Nibla (Jul 7, 2010)

What he said. Took me about 4 months. Not a bad thing though, as the not-quite-sparring drills made the transition a bit smoother.


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## Tez3 (Jul 8, 2010)

Andy Moynihan said:


> Provided all necessary safety protocols are in place--as soon as they will let you.


 
This is right, if your instructors are telling you a month or so you should really trust them.


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## jks9199 (Jul 8, 2010)

Generally, I'd advise you start to spar when you get in the ring.  Start before that, and it's generally called assault.  Start after that, and you generally find yourself experiencing an uncomfortable closeness with the ring mats...  

In a more serious note -- your coaches can tell when you've learned enough techniques that sparring, in any form, is useful.  It's easy to jump in a ring and bang around...  but you need some tools to work with if you want your sparring to be more than an exercise in random flailing or a lesson in being a human punching bag.


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## Spartigus (Jul 11, 2010)

Thanks for the replies everyone!!!

Yeah I spoke to the trainers about it, and I think I'm going to keep training before i start sparring, otherwise ill end up a wad of cookie dough .


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## Shims (Jul 12, 2010)

At my gym we started friendly sparring pretty much from day 1, at the end of almost every workout, it doesn't have to be 100% force and brutal, we usually talked a bit during sparring, shared advices on mistakes we saw each other do, and adjusted the pace according to what we felt comfortable, if one said it was too fast\strong, then we paced down, sparring is a way of practicing what you learned so it can transform from being theoretical to functional, many times we would spar concentrating specifically on techniques learned in that particular workout, in my opinion that's what also makes MT better then many of the other martial arts, it's much more functional and straight-forward.


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## Tez3 (Jul 12, 2010)

Shims said:


> At my gym we started friendly sparring pretty much from day 1, at the end of almost every workout, it doesn't have to be 100% force and brutal, we usually talked a bit during sparring, shared advices on mistakes we saw each other do, and adjusted the pace according to what we felt comfortable, if one said it was too fast\strong, then we paced down, sparring is a way of practicing what you learned so it can transform from being theoretical to functional, many times we would spar concentrating specifically on techniques learned in that particular workout, in my opinion that's what also makes MT better then many of the other martial arts, it's much more functional and straight-forward.


 
As long as you don't fight logs.


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