Amazing Benefits of Sparring in Martial Arts

Learn about the many benefits of Adult Sparring

Sparring is one of the oldest, most effective, and most logical methods for improving your combat skills. What does sparring mean? In short: Two trainers are looking for a suitable place and fight each other. Sparring can be as easy or as hard as the participants want it to be, but the focus of a sparring must be clearly on the togetherness.

Important:

Beginners who want to start sparring should do so only under expert guidance. Here you should take a look at the martial arts again. Almost every martial art has a competition system and also has a form of sparring.

However, there are big differences between martial arts; some place a high value on sparring, others only on a small scale, and in others, sparring does not matter at all.

If you want to learn how to fight, then you should look for a martial art in which sparring is an integral part of the training

Advantages of Sparring

- Removal of impact inhibitors:

If you want to be sparring against your "opponent", you will have no choice but to take off your blow-inhibitions and attack with determination. Those who remain passive will only be hit. If you feel uncomfortable at the beginning, over time it will be normal to attack and hit your opponent.

Here the transfer plays a big role. Transfer means the ability to transfer learned knowledge or skills to new, similar situations. So if you fight regularly in training and have defended yourself against an actively attacking and uncooperative opponent, you have a greater chance to do it all in an actual SV situation. 

At this point, it should be noted once again how important it is to learn sparring under expert guidance.

- Diminishing fear of hits:

For most people it is a natural reaction to turn away or close their eyes when fists suddenly come flying towards them. But this is not exactly conducive to a successful counterattack. With regular sparring you also lose more and more of the fear of enemy hits, as the body gets used to it and you know that you are not "made of cardboard" and can "tolerate" a lot before you actually should go down.

Pain is suddenly a familiar, albeit uncomfortable, acquaintance, but you no longer have to be afraid of it. This knowledge gives the self-consciousness an incredible boost and increased self-confidence has a positive effect on body language and thus also on prevention.

- Direct feedback of the body:

Sparring is an honest affair: if you were too slow or too inattentive, you will be hit. However, the body gets permanent feedbacks through the sparring: "I've got a good hit!", "Ow, he caught me on the nose; hurts, but it is not a problem! ". As a result, over time, you and your body get to know each other better, and you can better assess your abilities and limitations than you did before. This almost always has a positive effect on self-esteem.

- Recognition of movement patterns:

Who spars regularly, eventually gets an "eye" for certain movements of the body and the subsequent techniques. At some point you just know that when "the shoulder twitches" a straight comes, or when a balance shift on a leg a kick is prepared. Not only does this knowledge diminish the fear of the "unknown", it can also save you the dreaded "moment of shock."

Examples of Methods of Sparring:

- Variant 1: only fists / feet

It may be attacked only with fists or feet. Counterattack can be freely chosen. Good exercise to detect movement patterns of the body during blows or kicks.

- Variant 2: drum fire

The practitioner stands against a wall or in a corner so that he can no longer retreat. The training partner starts now, the trainees in the corner for about 10 seconds. with a hail of light to medium attacks with fist and foot "to cover". During this time, the practitioner only tries to fend off the attacks and protect himself. After the 10 sec. "Barrage" the defender may defend himself again and must try to escape from his corner. This is followed by 30 seconds of normal sparring, then the other partner's turn.

Objective: The practitioner should learn not to turn off his body even during a hamming stroke, to consciously face the blows, to protect oneself actively and, above all, to maintain eye contact with the opponent under stress.

- Variant 3: Everything works

This is the proverbial "FreeFight". Here you can beat, kick and wrestle. If the practitioners go down, the fight continues there. This is a good exercise to practice and get to know the fight at all distances. Due to the extremely high intensity, this variant is more suitable for advanced users.

- Variant 4: Role play

This variant can be done well with several practitioners. Here, everyday situations are re-enacted that suddenly change and turn into aggression or violence. For example, the practitioner may be asked for a fire and, depending on his or her reaction, may be surprisingly attacked or harassed by the partner. From these situations, a sudden sparring may well develop. This exercise combines normal sparring with attention and stress management training.

The sparring indicates to a large extent the true potential for the exercised eye. When the boxer shows enough ambition and the opportunity to evaluate him or her, the boxer's physical abilities will be meticulously tested under the watchful eye of coaches and managers. That's how Oliver McCall quickly achieved mandatory aspirant status, after allegedly causing Mike Tyson to fall to the ground. But in most cases, however, it is impossible to establish the authenticity of the facts since training partners have always been ordered to remain silent.

Impressive triumphs in sparring can cause dramatic changes in the Gymnasium hierarchy. This explains why seemingly harmless duels gradually turn into street fights. Thus, although the so-called wars in the ring force opponents to raise their level by one notch; some of them will pay the price by seeing their stamina gradually eroded by multiple blows. Among those who waste their ammunition in these strikes, few of them will be able to wage real wars.

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