Sparring Basics/Fundamentals

[MJS]

What type of basics and fundamentals do you teach your students for sparring? What do you yourself work on in your sparring?

This is an open-ended question, and can apply to any type of sparring/fight training that you do. Point, continuous, MMA, etc.

The majority of students at the school I go to, tend to focus on the typical point sparring. Therefore, the training is going to be geared more for this.

For myself, I focus more on boxing type footwork and strikes. Kicking, clinch work, knees, elbows, grappling, etc., is also added in, so it has more of a MMA type flavor to it. We'll do a certain number of rounds, usually for 1-2 min. each. The contact level is brought up as well, but of course, there is still a safety element.

What about everyone else?

 

[Guardian]

All my training that I did was specifically geared towards defend and attack, more on the defend side for my duties. When I taught my womans SD class it was geared the same way defend and attack and scram LOL.

 

[Big Don]

My Sifu says one thing, call it a mantra, call it a motto:
If you choose to participate in sparring there are two things you can be sure of:
You're gonna get hit.
It's gonna hurt.
While we aren't out to hurt anyone or go for knock outs, we do, from time to time do two, three or more on one excercises, and everyone gets knocked around pretty good during that. It is an interesting thing that no matter how much control you have sparring one-on-one, when you up the ante to two or three or four on one you get excited and hit a little harder without meaning to.
We stress blocking and countering, getting the hit or not being hit when and where it counts under stress is what a "real" fight would be about, and we're as a school better prepared than most schools in our area.

One of my fellow Green Belts is a 17 yr old girl, who stands 4'9", woe unto him who doesn't see her as a threat.

 

[Blindside]

We start our students off with light contact Get basic combinations down and how to close the gap. This should be considered "light continuous." This is done to desensetize a student to the fear of getting hit. Some students don't need that slow progression, usually because they've done something else, like boxing or the like, most do. At that stage we don't grapple, don't do takedowns. As the student progresses, we up the contact. Contact level is generally set by the lower rank, and we don't do full contact very often, heavy contact is fairly frequent. Add in more of the clinch range and knees, eventually we add in takedowns and a bit of groundfighting.

This isn't really sub fighting, the gloves hinder many subs, and that really isn't the point, the point is position, improving it to pound the other guy, or improving it to get up. We don't have the technical expertise to teach really good subfighting, thats why some of our guys go and roll with the BJJ guys.

Lamont

 

[tshadowchaser]

first rule Block
2nd block and counter

I like to see my beginning students do front kicks and stay with in what they have been taught
I would rather they learn to use the basics then try other things. Once the can stand in a front stance and defend and attack, then they can move on to other stances

 

[tradrockrat]

basics and fundamentals:

Conditioning
Footwork
Bob and Weave
6 punches (jab, cross, 2 hooks[head and body], uppercuts, and spinning backfist)
5 kicks (front check [teep], front thrust, side, roundhouse, shovel [leg])

After they can spare well with these fundamentals we introduce clinch, knees, elbows, and throws.

After that comes headbutts, and grappling / ground.

 

[terryl965]

first rule Block
2nd block and counter

I like to see my beginning students do front kicks and stay with in what they have been taught
I would rather they learn to use the basics then try other things. Once the can stand in a front stance and defend and attack, then they can move on to other stances

I also agree with this approach except we do the roundhouse as well.

 

[Steel Tiger]

Sparring basics.

Diagonal movement to take you out of the direct line of attack.
Maintain good coverage over vital areas (head, chest, etc).
Accept that you are going to get hit, that's why you're sparring afterall.

 

[KempoGuy06]

Good topic.

We basically just do continuous sparring. We work drills to help with striking off the block and cutting the angles. My favorite drill is take-away sparring. If you font do this it is where you and another person spar and say they get a solid hit in call up and tell them, then let them take a limb away. Start again with out using that limb to strike. Its fun and makes you think on your feet. Also if you are weak on one side it will show a lot if your dominant side has been taken away

B