Well, the way to get better at sparring is to spar more - so ask around your class for people who want to spar with you after class.
Make sure you know the rules - remember, unlike fighting, sparring is a game, and like any game, it has rules. The goal of the game is to score points - so how do you score points? Work on techniques that will allow you to score points on your opponents.
Spar whenever you get a chance.
Work on individual techniques and combinations that you can use in sparring - practice them alone, practice them in your step sparring, and practice them in your sparring. Expect them to not work the first time... or even the first 20, or 50 times, or more. Making techniques, alone or in combination, work requires practice - and like anything else, practice causes improvement.
Spar whenever you get a chance.
Practice blocking, dodging, and moving. Too many people stand still and wait for their opponent to come to them, or only move backwards. You need to be able to move, and more, you need to be able to move in unpredictable directions - forward, sideways, at an angle, in a geometric shape (try moving in a five-pointed star, the way you would draw one with a pencil, no matter which way your opponent goes, and see what happens). Remember that unpredictable movement throws your opponent off balance mentally.
Spar whenever you get a chance.
Practice blocking - lots of people can throw good techniques that should earn points while sparring... but they lose, because they don't block, and their opponent does. So even though you may have thrown 20 good techniques and your opponent only threw 3 - if your opponent blocks 18 of your techniques, and you block none of your opponent's - you have 2 points, and your opponent has 3... you lose.
Spar whenever you get a chance.
If it can't land, it's wasted energy - look for openings that you can exploit... but be careful, because people who are good at sparring will create openings in the hopes that you will do what they want, thereby setting you up for something.
Spar whenever you get a chance.
Make the opportunity to watch people spar. Pay attention to what they are doing - what works, what doesn't, why different things work for different people. This will help you in actual sparring rounds when you are trying to analyze your opponent.
Spar whenever you get a chance.
Have a variety of techniques available that you have practiced and can do easily - if you always do the same thing, you become predictable, and people who are predictable can be more easily defeated. Change your "style" between rounds - within a round, if you can manage.
Oh, yeah, and spar whenever you get a chance.... not that there's a theme here, or anything! As I said, sparring is a game, and a skill - and like all games of skill, it requires practice. The more you spar, the better you'll get - and then you'll have the energy (mental and physical) to use some of the other ideas above, and that other people come up with.
Or close with a hand combo , then if they back pedal or side step , take em out with a kick combo. Use variety, and don't make your combos a pattern that they can read, otherwise you will get picked apart. Hope this insight helps.
