Non-contact sparring!?

[WarVeteranO01]

I think the phrase non contact sparring is an oxymoron, sounds to me like you are shadow boxing with someone next to you or I dont see it any different than sparring in front of the mirror. & I mean this as no offense to you or your trainer because theres things he and you may know that I dont...

[BennyST]

I don't think 80% is too intense, unless one of the two is a novice. And what you are describing is pretty much what I said, only in more detail, lol. Plus you can still work on specifics going 80%, a fighter needs to toughen up and learn to take punches with ill intent on the arms blocking, for example. You only learn how to exhale when getting hit to the body by experience.

But regardless, in all you described there is still contact, punches being thrown, which was my point. Every now and then a pro or seasoned amateur will work on defense and a novice boxer or two will do some rounds with him and try and take his head off and he is instructed to either not throw back or only jab, etc. And every now and then the novice is either so awful, or the vet is so slick, that rounds could go by where he slips everything and makes the cherry guy look stupid, but the lack of contact is unintentional in those cases. Otherwise it isn't even sparring imo.

The only time I am not making contact is when I shadowbox, and in short spurts of either slipping and rolling shots in sparring, or working the mitts. My trainer will shoot that straight right, right down the pipe if he sees my eyes wandering when he's giving me mitts, he wuuld bloody my nose easily, but if I slip it then I can jump back into the flow of combinations, it's like music. bam bam! bam bam bam! That slap of crisp shots and my trainer getting in my ass: eso! mas rapido vamos!....que, ya estas cansado...

Right, right. Gotcha now. I thought you were suggesting that you basically only went in there doing gung ho sparring all the time and nothing else. Makes much more sense now and yeah, very similar. I tend to do maybe only one full, heavy sparring session a week max these days of 80-100%. The rest is just working on technique and doing lots of controlled sparring for specific things, which I would say would be usually done anywhere from 50/60-80%.

[LoadedWraps]

Right, right. Gotcha now. I thought you were suggesting that you basically only went in there doing gung ho sparring all the time and nothing else. Makes much more sense now and yeah, very similar. I tend to do maybe only one full, heavy sparring session a week max these days of 80-100%. The rest is just working on technique and doing lots of controlled sparring for specific things, which I would say would be usually done anywhere from 50/60-80%.

[AddiX]

Shadow boxing with a partner is a great tool, especially for beginners.

Also gives the trainer a chance to see how you move and how you think. When I Wouod shadow box with someone else I'd also try and work on my own reflexes and even steal some things from them if I saw them do someing i liked.

[AaronJW]

I think the phrase non contact sparring is an oxymoron, sounds to me like you are shadow boxing with someone next to you or I dont see it any different than sparring in front of the mirror. & I mean this as no offense to you or your trainer because theres things he and you may know that I dont...

I guess so. I personally don't enjoy it so much.
My problem is that with every punch, I don't know if it's a hit or a miss, so I'm not sure I'm getting any feedback on my ability.

[JadeaKallen]

non-contact sparring comes from traditional karate, because some old karate teachers believe sparring is fighting and all fighting is to the death, pretty stupid I think, in my opinion it's a waste of time.