How much sparring is safe?

[karategan]

Sparring is the only fun part of training to me. I spar on average 4 days a week, 6 rounds each day.

[Mike_Erm]

That's way to much if your young and getting in the fights game. I suggest 4 times a month MAX at 6 rounds. This is a problem at a lot of boxing gym I coach and train at, people just love sparring... You can't take that many shots to the head you gotta think about you long term health and short term reaction times.

[NVSemin]

I know example of James Toney, who sparred about 300 rounds before fights roughly. I guess "average" fighters do like 100-150 rounds. Hope this info helps.

[NearHypnos]

I know example of James Toney, who sparred about 300 rounds before fights roughly. I guess "average" fighters do like 100-1500 rounds. Hope this info helps.

Unless he's pro I wouldn't recommend that amount at all.

If you're just training and getting that much sparring in a week I'd really tone it down. I'm not sure how big/skilled your pool of sparring partners is either but you also don't want it to become counter productive by sparring so much with just one or two guys.


Tone it down think about the long run like Mike said. It's sad but some lose it all in the gym as opposed to fights...keep that in mind.

[Interloper]

Sparring is great for experience and you can't really substitute anything for it. However, you do need to think about the brain damage that it causes. Most dementia and slurred speech cases in boxing are from gym wars and sparring, not actual fights. Just something to consider.

[Rockin']

I sparred every chance that I got when I was coming up, from age 14 to 20. Any damage that was incurred from boxing came later as a professional. I did suffer from some extreme head aches when I was fighting as a pro, I just figured it was some thing that got hurt in my brain but found out later that I had over stretched the muscles in the back of my neck. The symptoms and damage being similar to whiplash. I was prescribed muscle relaxers and the head aches quit showing up.

I would spar roughly 15 rounds per week as an amateur. I had a few headaches through my 7 years, but nothing to really speak of. As a pro I was working 36-45 rounds per week while fighting only 4 rounders. Now looking back I believe that that was too many rounds but if I was in a fight where skill level was similar and it came down to endurance I knew that I would be fine. Now you have to remember that I was fighting out of the same stable as James Toney, we all worked a lot of rounds at Galaxy. That's just how we rolled.

If you are going to box you will want to box as much as you can, meaning sparring. I expect to be criticized for that comment but it's the absolute truth. For your eyes, for your timing, for your endurance and in general to build your skill.

I don't recommend that you fight wars when sparring every time out but that's how I went about it. Somebody lands a good shot on me and I want it back immediately and set out to get it back. I hit him back and then he wants it back and we'd just get throwin' down.

Proper supervision is huge though when dealing with youngsters. Not so much about brain damage though because truthfully 8 and 10 year olds are not strong enough to really hurt each other yet. When matching be very careful about matching age and weight together. Don't match up an 11 year old 100lb kid with an 8 year old 100lb kid and believe that they are playing on an even field.

Rather than brain damage you have to consider how the hard training will enlarge the youngsters heart possibly causing medical problems down the road for the kids. A teenager you can let spar as much as they want (properly supervised), they'll do 3 or 4 rounds at the most in a session, they just don't have the endurance built up yet to do more than that. But you have to be extra carefull with the younger ones. And the main concern should not be brain damage but rather over-exertion. Like I said, the little ones are not strong enough to really hurt eachother yet.

I sparred as much as I possibly could when growing up. Any damage that I may have incurred from boxing came later while fighting as a professional. And it wasn't from the bouts that I contested but rather from the gym wars. Down at Galaxy we sparred very hard and for many rounds. The amateurs and pros are different sports though. I recommend amateur boxing to any youth that is looking to better himself. I do not recommend fighting as a professional, once in you will look around and find that it is a meat grinder in most cases taking more from the fighter than they will ever get back. And what is taken is irreplaceable ..... Rockin'

[Suckmedry]

When i was fighting i would spar a good bit, usually 20 rounds a week id guess. we were a gym that sparred alot and i was the smallest always, i remember weighing less than 100 lbs always sparring guys who weighed 160-170, I remember taking a few beatings and being rocked around pretty good a few times (only been dropped twice but off body shots) but that constant experience with bigger stronger guys made my defence pretty good and i learnt how to take care of myself in the ring and hang in there even if i was overmatched