DO’s & DONT’s OF SPARRING

SPARRING – DO’S AND DONT’S

If there’s one thing, which is allowed in every form of martial arts, it’s SPARRING. A deep, calculated and pre-empted strike, can really force a devil out of the opponent. Every martial art boasts their best strikes, which could cause a deadly impact on the opponent and can cause unimaginable damage, not just externally, but internally shaking the person from within and causing damage to vitals.

But what does it take to have that perfect sparring session!!

1. Does it take year’s of training? Well if you have been training in some of martial art, chances are that you have been repeating that one particular technique over and over and over again, till it comes to you unconsciously.
2. Does it take some form of secret technical movement – Chances are that you have tried doing all this and have spoken or seen some youtube videos and still falter in it… what’s the remedy, well go back to number
3. Does it require some proper energy moment? – if you have been following Ashwin’s gyan on Chi and how the energy moves around the body, its possible that you have been getting some great shots at the bag/ opponent.

So what is that brings the sparring out of you? What’s about to be written down, is something that has been followed in the class and to an extent, being successful as well. Martial Arts, like Science according to me, changes with every person’s understanding, the core behind the art and developing newer forms and ideas. This is just my way of understanding the art of sparring and delivering it. There might be some points, which could be questionable, or at least worth discussing, which I guess we could take up as and when you all decide to comment on it.

Always remember, there are 2 very different stances, when it comes to sparring. One’s a defensive strike, which means, you block and strike back.

The second one’s an attacking stance, as this would allow you to have that much amount of reach, plus let you flow your energy in properly.

Do’s – Defensive Sparring

1. Always ensure that you are slanted in a 45degree angle, to get the best defensive flow movement.
2. Keep your body stance straight out, with the knees always bent. This would allow you to move away from a potential strik
3. You would have to keep yourself in a level, which allows you to move around. Ensure that your guard’s up… hell if it ain’t up, you better be light in your feet and to jump away  ..
4. Always ensure that you are ready to block yourself first, especially your vitals. Normally, people like to hit the face, as they all think that if you hit the face, you have hurt the person’s ego.. which I think isn’t entirely wrong. Either ways, my funda of keeping the face intact is that you shouldn’t get hit on the head, while in a defensive stance. If you get knocked on your head hard, there’s a pretty good chance that you might just forget all  your skills as a martial artist and would resort to street “jangli” fight… which would result in your defeat in front of a trained fighter.
5. The idea is to always block and attack in a defense move. Stand ground and watch the opponent use their feet.
6. If there’s a punch coming up, use blocks to get away from getting a bloody nose and use your leg on the opponent’s shin. Why would you do that? Well, this when you making your opponent’s mind work double time. The opponent is thinking about using the punch but another party of the mind moves to gather the pain in the shin.
7. When you get hit (and yes you will get hit), make that distance count. Your opponent would be coming in a rhythm and you got to break the rhythm to counter attack and get back to your stance.
8. Never loose focus on your opponent. Do not look at the limbs and fight, rest assured, you won’t be able to block any of the strikes.
9. Always ensure that your leading hand is always a bit forward than your trailing hand. This guard is just perfect to ensure that you will be able to block and strike back, whenever you see an opening.
10. Blocks should be with legs. Always make distance with the opponent. If the opponent comes down to the zone, move around and don’t be around in a straight line of vision with your opponent. It screws up the mind and hence will always cause a doubt coming into the opponent’s mind, on whether to go ahead and release that strike or not !!!

Do’s – Offensive Stance

1. It’s a bit different from a Defensive one. (Well that didn’t require a genius to figure it out.. hell why else would I have a separate section)
2. In an offensive stance, you would have to square off your shoulders. You will be keeping them in the same level and same terms, so has to ensure that you are facing your opponent
3. Keep your guard a bit down, as compared to the defensive one. You would wanna see whom you want to beat up black and blue.
4. Keep the elbows down a bit, to protect the vitals, like the Liver. This is required, as when you are on your way beating the pulp out of your opponent, your opponent might have read through the section above and wants to hurt sections, which might distract your mind.
5. Keep your body stance in a forward stance. You would be going in with combinations and hence would be using your body energy to drive in most of the strikes, which has to be flowing forward, rather than standing stagnant in one place.
6. While in an attacking position, it is important to be moving forward with every strike. This is useful it cornering your opponent in a submission position and hence making the opponent getting their guard up.
7. Take the energy out of your mind and your body. Keep counting each of the combination. This would help letting your body moving.
8. Team up every strike in combination of Punches and Kicks. You need to understand that your opponent would also be applying some of the defensive tactics and would want to screw up with your mind. Hence ensure that you let your opponent also keep the mind working on the guard.
9. While giving out combinations, focus on your opponents eyes. Never look at where you hitting. Always ensure that your legs/ strikes are from the opposite side (that is, if you finishing with a left punch use a right leg and vice versa). This would make your opponents body move around and hence give the opponent less amount to time to figure out a strategy.
10. Switch stances. This is another thing (which means, all strikes and techniques need to be trained in both the stance) which will completely screw your opponents mind. Blocks are based on a particular stance and the moment the attacker changes, while attacking, the blocks have to be timed in accordance to the stance and hence will make your opponent be in the back foot always.

Don’ts of Sparring – General

1. Never ever focus on the limbs, while sparring, irrespective of what stance you taking, whether the Defensive or Offensive
2. Always remember to keep your guard. You can’t be attacking much, if your brains don’t work much and then wouldn’t be able to think.
3. Do not forget to breathe in and out… very very important. You can stand like a stiff ass and look like a Robot trying to enact the human anatomy, or you can be free flowing
4. Never ever keep your body stiff. It would help you take blows easily. You need to stiffen up at the last moment of impact, irrespective of whether you are hitting or getting hit.
5. Do not ever pre-empt a strike and go ahead without a back up. Every strike needs to have an escape, incase your opponent is a way smarter fighter.
6. Always keep light in your feet. The last thing you want is get stage fright when you see a punch coming in. DO NOT stand and look at a strike coming to you and think in your mind “Damn This is going to Hurt ME!!!” …just think “GET OUT” and move away.

Hope these few points will help all potential fighters some insight on sparring. Combination and flow of energy with moving from stance to stance is just a way to always keep your opponent at bay and never allowing them to think much about the next move!!..you win the mind, you win your opponent’s body and hence you have a proper fight.

-       kNigHtRiDeR

Disclaimer – all points are based on the writer’s (that’s me) views and may differ in fundamentals from other practitioner’s of martial arts. Please feel free to disagree with the points.