Conditioning for Sparring

[ajs1976]

Any recommendations for conditioning drills and exercises for sparring? Looking mostly for solo stuff.

 

[terryl965]

Yo/Yo or wind sprints also kicking drillls, one would hanging a tennis ball on a piece of rope and hang it at different level to execute all your kicks and hand work. Swimming is great as is any arobic exorcise. rememberto do crunchesfor thos abs.
Terry

 

[Kacey]

Shadow sparring (like shadow boxing, but with all techniques) is a great exercise to use to condition for sparring. If you will be fighting 2 minute rounds, then shadow box for 3-4 minutes continuously (use a timer; watching a clock will mess with your rhythm), and after that, 2 minutes will be easy!

Any aerobic exercise that you enjoy will also help... aerobic exercise you don't enjoy will help, but you won't stick with it if you're like most people.

 

[IcemanSK]

Shadow sparring (like shadow boxing, but with all techniques) is a great exercise to use to condition for sparring. If you will be fighting 2 minute rounds, then shadow box for 3-4 minutes continuously (use a timer; watching a clock will mess with your rhythm), and after that, 2 minutes will be easy!

Any aerobic exercise that you enjoy will also help... aerobic exercise you don't enjoy will help, but you won't stick with it if you're like most people.

I think this is an excellent idea. I also agree with Terry regarding crunches. They help your core to be stronger. Side crunches work your lats to help bring up your kicks, too.

 

[AceHBK]

Great advice!

 

[fireman00]

besides what other folks mentioned..... jump rope, do 3 - 3 minute rounds then when your comfortable add a 4th, 5th 6th ... up to 10 rounds.

 

[TX_BB]

If your legs aren't under you, try fartlake training also called interval training with the intense period being your round length and you should walk for a time equal to the rounds rest interval. If this is too intense try sprinting for a distance than walking the same distance after 3 weeks try the round method.

Try finding a gym and doing a seated hanging leg raises and knee raises. Once you are strong enough get a partner and work with the medicine ball and incline sit-up bench. Do not forget your back try a back extensions.

You'll probably also want to do pylometric push-ups to get used to body hits.

Skipping rope is great for your footwork, agility and conditioning.

Without knowing your base conditioning it's hard to reccomend more. Also are you looking for more sparring information?

 

[Miles]

Do you have a hanging bag or a wavemaster? If so, you can do timed drills where you go all out doing combinations you'd use in sparring. Great for conditioning but also helps you deal with the reaction force of the impact you'll receive in sparring.

Miles

 

[Ninjamom]

I found the coolest toy for sparring training here. It is a round timer online. You can use it to make sure your workout matches the conditions under which you will be sparring/competing. Ideally, you should be able set the round timer to your round length, and set the rest time in between, and go all out with whatever exercise you're doing for the whole length of the round. Realistically, you can't do this, especially starting out (and most people don't fight this way, either - they go 'all-out' in short bouts and fluries of about 20 to 30 seconds, then move around the ring for shorter rest periods during each round).

Start by reading everything you can about aerobic conditioning, anaerobic conditioning, and the differences and similarities between the two. There is still lots of disagreement, even among the experts, about which is more important for sparring, but everything I've read says that anaerobic exercises will help your performance in both, while aerobic training will only help your aerobic endurance (so even if you have great aerobic capacity, make sure you are doing anaerobic conditioning)! Then pick whatever type of anaerobic exercise you're doing, and set the round timer on your computer. Start with something like interval squats (as many unloaded (body weight) full squats as you can do) in one 20 second period, with a 10 second rest, then repeat 6 times or so. Gradually build up to 30 or 40 seconds.

Also try with 30 second rounds and 30 second 'rest' on your timer, but go for 6 sessions straight of a variety of exercise at max volume (e.g., no rest at all between 30 sec squats, 30 sec burpees, 30 sec skip rope, 30 sec pushups, 30 sec shadow box, 30 sec crunches), then 30 sec rest and repeat, x6.

 

[matt.m]

Kick drills back and forth with a partner for up to a minute. Start at 15 sec and build up.