Heavy or Light sparing

[tmd]

What benefits do you see for light sparing and heavy sparing?

To me heavy sparing gets you mat fit and conditioned but maybe slightly one dimensional as under pressure you tend to rely on those techniques that work best for you. The risk of injury is also probably greater.

Light sparing while it doesn't condition you in the same way makes for a more all round fighter, greater emphasis on movement and techniques, it also reduces the risk of injury on a day to day basis.

so how to do each? that may sound like a stupid question but to make your sparing light you can either hold back your techniques or pad up.

I see there as a need for both and that maybe just maybe as Kyokushin Karateka we have a tendency to be a bit snobby about padding up or 'going light' and end up with a lot of fighters who rely too heavily on punch punch kick combo's.

[GJEC]

Feb 4, 2013 8:04:38 GMT -5 tmd said:

rely on those techniques that work best for you

I might be misreading the question, but I can't see any real reason to work on techniques that don't work best for you.

As to contact, I usually ask for 'light' but if two grown ups want to go hard I let it go - up to a point. If it starts getting a bit OTT I stop it before injuries or bad feeling occurs.

Gary

[MMX]

I agree with your initial assessment TMD. Light sparring I tend to work on new things and also can relax a bit more. Harder sparring I may try something and then fall back to what I know works. I would say we do a 75/25 in our dojo. Mostly lighter sparring with the occasional hard sessions.

[curlbroscience]

Round time and intensity of sessions have an inverse relationship. Harder sessions, shorter rounds. As a general rule of thumb, regardless of contact level, we do not kick hard to the head. We try to rely on technique to get the clean shot rather than powering through someone's guard. We use pads for that kind of jodan geri.

[MMX]

Yeah we almost always wear the instep pads.

For us it is about learning. Easier to learn when people are not as hurt.

[tmd]

That's spot on my point MMX - if we spar too hard we tend to stick to only what works so you'll never know or learn to throw something more exotic - for example I will rarely throw a Jodan Ushuro Mawashi Geri in heavy sparing for 2 reasons; 1 not 100% yet about throwing it under pressure and 2) when I have thrown it when the level was a bit higher I find it hard to control while all the other punches and kicks are above 70%; I can do this with ease with Mawashi Geri so once the pressure mounts it's back to what I can control.



I know what you mean Gary and the idea is to work on what needs working on while the level is low and increase it until the technique can work under pressure when needed.

[MMX]

It is the same thing I do with weight training. Wave loading. Varying the weight and sets. Same with sparring.

[powerof0ne]

When I was in my late teens I loved heavy sparring but now that I'm older I only like to do heavy sparring a few times. My definition of heavy sparring is probably a bit different than most, though.

I prefer light to medium sparring for most other times.

The heavy sparring I did resulted in sprains, broken noses, black eyes, and the occasional fracture on a weekly, if not daily basis by those involved. This helped me learn a lot quickly the hard way until I was fortunate enough to wise up by training with those that knew and still know more than I.

I have noticed over the years that there are pro fighters that prefer the method of hard sparring that I mentioned, but I know it often times causes a fighter to plateau. It becomes more of a mindset of "winning" instead of improving.

Like I said, it's nice to have a few hard sparring sessions with those at your level or better but all the time doesn't help you out much.

The best fighters I have known, and know of focus much more on pad work, instead of hard sparring.
Osu!

[Ros]

Having had a litttle mull over this subject, I will share how I feel. Now, I'm going to be honest about it, so hope it doesn't come out all wrong...

I much prefer doing partner drills and hitting pads than dojo sparring. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, about the only thing I have going for me sparring-wise is power; I'm not great technically, I'm certainly not speedy and because of various health issues my stamina is sadly lacking. However, I think I can hit pretty hard. So, the one thing I might be quite good at is the one thing I can't use when dojo sparring.

Secondly, because I'm not speedy or great technically, the last thing I want to do when sparring is use something I don't think I'm very good at because it is likely either not to work at all or is slow enough for someone to catch and put me on the floor.

Don't get me wrong, I like hitting and kicking people as hard as I can, but I don't particularly want to receive it on a regular basis for recreational purposes and I don't really fancy limping in to work regularly!

I really like doing partner work to work on techniques and using the pads for power generation. I can hit them as hard as I can and don't automatically think they must be better than me!

I like fighting in tournaments, I don't really like dojo sparring.

[GJEC]

It doesn't come over wrong at all Ros. In fact, it makes perfect sense.

One of the mantra's I've picked up over the years is "Placement on partners, power on the pads"

It works better that way in my opinion. Treat people fairly as skills develop, then increase impact with those skills on the pads.

We've all heard the stories from people who state they always fight full contact for an hour every session. I doubt it.



Gary

[Ros]

I'm trying to figure out if that's an intentional apostrophe!

[curlbroscience]

Wow. Excellent statement regarding dojo training and sparring.

Interesting POV coming from a true competitor's perspective.

Thank you for sharing.

Exalt'd

[GJEC]

Love it!

Gary

(The phantom apostropher)

[MMX]

Feb 5, 2013 10:12:23 GMT -5 GJEC said:

One of the mantra's I've picked up over the years is "Placement on partners, power on the pads"





Gary

Yes that is more or less how I feel with the occasional harder sparring.

[tmd]

In a mixed dojo even on sparing night there will be people in attendance from 12-44 (me so the level will alter form fight to fight, I like this as you go from 0-75% sparing as you move from partner to partner, working on blocking and moving at one level - surviving on another. The only time to go 100% is on a pad, especially head shots but gotta say I enjoy sparing, can’t see me giving it up any time soon – it’s probably the thing I miss most when I’m injured….. not always form sparing