General Tips

When you spar, how hard should you and your partner hit?

The short answer is – as hard as you want.

If you’re preparing for a full contact match, then at least part of your training will need to be full contact. Most martial artist don’t compete regularly in full contact though, and many of them don’t compete at all. For them, sparring full contact probably isn’t what they want to do . . . but then they miss the benefits of full contact training.

And what are those benefits? Well, hitting and kicking full power requires better conditioning, better set ups, more exact use of leverage, footwork and rotation and it conditions you to not freak out when you get hit.

On the other hand, you’re going to have injuries – jammed fingers and toes top my list. Also, getting hit hard in the head is sort of like getting x-rays: you should only get so many in a lifetime.

So how hard should you spar?

Here’s how I like to spar in my school. We wear head gear with a face guard, and a sturdy rib and chest protector. The rules are: VERY light contact with punches to the head (anything more than that seems to escalate), light kicks to the head. For some reason, they’re easier to control than punches, probably because the person is farther away and you don’t feel the pressure to back them off with power. Full contact punches and kicks to the body wherever it’s covered by the chest and rib protector – again, I use the most solid ones I can find. Full power (or close to it) leg kicks. They sting, but I’ve yet to see an injury from a thigh kick. Take downs are allowed, and the fight continues if it goes to the ground.

Following these rules, we’ve been able to have good matches, get a great workout, and improve timing, power, combinations, and both stand up and ground fighting.

Doesn’t all the gear get in the way? Of course it does. The face guard blocks vision, the chest guard is bulky and makes it difficult to do some moves.

You don’t have protective gear on the street, so why wear it in the School?

Huh?

Who said anything about the street? It’s a sport. If you want to get completely “realistic” in your training, why not just go at it with baseball bats, or guns? A sport is a sport. It has advantages and disadvantages when you try to apply it to anything other than the sport itself.

So, if you haven’t sparred the way I’ve just described, you might want to give it a try. I recommend that you only use a chest and rib protector that is so strong you can let your partner side kick you full power in the chest and you get knocked down but not injured or even bruised in the least.

Being able to hit that hard is fun. Knowing that nobody is going to get hurt keeps it fun.