sugestions

[Manny]

Manny, what you describe isn't a different kind of sparring, it's just the difference between the youngsters in their athletic prime who also have great skills and us middle-aged folks who are learning skills now. The goal is to score and not be scored upon. You don't have to do triples to spar "Olympic style". The more accurate definition of Olympic style is that it is non-stop, with full-contact above the belt except for no hand techniques to the head. And even that ruleset is just one option--you could just do "kickboxing" and wear boxing gloves and allow hand or foot contact above the belt if that makes you happier. It is important, though, to make sure you are doing something that will gain and retain students, and something that you have deep understanding of if you are going to teach it. A great benefit of Olympic style sparring is that even people our age can go to tournaments and meet and spar others who are our age. I don't think you will find as many kickboxing tournaments, but I don't live where you do.

Carl

Thank you Carl. You are right about the way we sparr, maybe we are not as fast, strong and attlhetic so the way we sparr is diferent from the ones who compete in a regular basis, I want to buy a pair of WTF sparring gloves just as a safety measure because I like to hit with the hands to the hugu, you know to protect a little my hands. I will sparr more ofthen with my students just to gaing some stamina and practice my combos and at the same time to prepare them and allow them to try to nail me without horrororif consecuences. When I sparr with the teens and the blets below me I try to let the boys to conect me BUT always cover my face, in this form I allow them to not to fear and go for it, and yes once in a while I sent a volley of kicks just to make clear who is the boss.

Manny