Sparring. . . rules?

[KingDosia]

Keep it up and you will win the Nattering Nerdy-Boy Award!

bwa haaa haaa ahaa
Nerdy and Boy are two things that strike me as being HILARIOUS when trying to describe me. Let me try to understand your interpretation.
Nerdy maybe because my knowledge seems to be twice what you have. Or maybe because I'm on an internet site. Which so are you, so I'm wondering how you could fault me for that. I'll also mention I don't even own a computer this site is somthing I seek refuge in while inbetween tasks at my job.
I don't get the boy part at all I've stated many times I am 30 yrs old have been involed in the sport for over 12yrs.
Little. hmmm. I am a little heavyweight standing 5' 11" weighing in at 230 right now.
Anyway where is my award???

[Zigga]

If its one one of my m8s then we normally belt esch other to the body and ease up when hitting to the head. If its some guy i havnt sparred with or dont know that well, i pull the punches off to the body cause i dont want him to get the wrong idea.

Usually we always agree what kind of sparring, most guys will just say "light sparring please" and am cool withy that, other will be like "dont hold back" so it all depends on the individual. If u dont get to speak before the sparring then i am sensiable, however if some guy is trying to blast me up, then i wont hold back.

[Zigga]

Just a little side note, if hes trying to blast me up and hes less experienced then myself, that fine with me, all the power to him am not gonna try and damage the guy, dont wanna knock his confidence. I remember when i first started i got hammered and it does knock ur confidence, sparring sud be about building urself, giving u confidence, not the opposite.

[j]

agree guys - sparring is mostly about learning and ingraining increasingly more efficient fight tactics and strategies into your fighting instinct. i should say "boxing tactics" as boxing is quite a bit different compared to fighting.

[ferocity]

In all honesty light sparring is for newbies. I mean you don't pull your punchs but you do hold back if you are starting to hurt your sparring mate then you resume to the tough sparring. Its really difficult to explain but basicly if you want to get better you better be willing to accept tough sparrings. If you suck then i can see why light sparring is for you 24/7. You can go to youtube and see some sparring some are very intense some not as much. Check out youtube, look at Margarito, Vargas and Escobedos sparrings on youtube, they are tough sparrings or check out Valeros sparring again tough sparrings, but as i meantioned they know when to hold back if one or the other is hurt. Light sparring is good and bad, good cause you get to practice shots and moves you are barely learning, bad, because the mentality you may get from easy sparring and this in turn ****s you up in a competition fight, and this i can speak from experiance. Read some books of some of you favorite fighters they'll tell you stories of their first sparrings and im sure more then half of them will tell you their first sparring was nothing nice. Hagler has talked about getting his ass kicked in his first sparring, Foreman talks about being out classed by a skinny boxer and so on.

[skyler]

I learnt never to go hard out while sparring, sparring is not a real fight you spar to learn and get the feel of being in a ring, just to get the feeling of fighting another person and practicing all you're skills, all that you have learnt and then putting them together against an opponent, footwork, punches, reflexes etc..

I was always told sparring is about learning and practice not about trying to kill the other guy, save that for a real fight,
But if the other guy is hitting you hard then i guess you should be hitting him hard back.

[potatoes]

In all honesty light sparring is for newbies. I mean you don't pull your punchs but you do hold back if you are starting to hurt your sparring mate then you resume to the tough sparring. Its really difficult to explain but basicly if you want to get better you better be willing to accept tough sparrings. If you suck then i can see why light sparring is for you 24/7. You can go to youtube and see some sparring some are very intense some not as much. Check out youtube, look at Margarito, Vargas and Escobedos sparrings on youtube, they are tough sparrings or check out Valeros sparring again tough sparrings, but as i meantioned they know when to hold back if one or the other is hurt. Light sparring is good and bad, good cause you get to practice shots and moves you are barely learning, bad, because the mentality you may get from easy sparring and this in turn ****s you up in a competition fight, and this i can speak from experiance. Read some books of some of you favorite fighters they'll tell you stories of their first sparrings and im sure more then half of them will tell you their first sparring was nothing nice. Hagler has talked about getting his ass kicked in his first sparring, Foreman talks about being out classed by a skinny boxer and so on.

Not all trainers have the same view of sparring. James Watt talks about soft sparring at the gym where he trained in his autobiography. Kevin Rooney is an advocate of hard sparring and lots of it. I have seen boxing clubs where they throw a novice in the ring as soon as possible to "beat him into shape." So there is definitely more than one way of doing things, but as far as I am concerned some ways a better than others.

I am a firm believer in hard sparring but I wouldn't let a kid spar until he completed a program of defensive ring drills. Kids who get beat up the first time they spar have not yet learned how to defend themselves. The problem with lots of sparring is that there is a tendancy to repeat mistakes because sparring is a dynamic and flowing process, and boxers rarely like to be interupted and told they are doing something wrong! Ring drills are segmented and easily interupted for the purpose of instruction.

Boxing skills are best acquired through ring drills, but no amount of ring drills can create simulated reality of sparring nor the reality of a fight. Quite honestly I have never been able to comprehend the logic behind soft sparring. It lacks the reality factor of hard sparring and instructional value of ring drills.

[fraidycat]

Quite honestly I have never been able to comprehend the logic behind soft sparring. It lacks the reality factor of hard sparring and instructional value of ring drills.

When was the last time you sparred with anybody? Just curious.

[ferocity]

Not all trainers have the same view of sparring. James Watt talks about soft sparring at the gym where he trained in his autobiography. Kevin Rooney is an advocate of hard sparring and lots of it. I have seen boxing clubs where they throw a novice in the ring as soon as possible to "beat him into shape." So there is definitely more than one way of doing things, but as far as I am concerned some ways a better than others.

I am a firm believer in hard sparring but I wouldn't let a kid spar until he completed a program of defensive ring drills. Kids who get beat up the first time they spar have not yet learned how to defend themselves. The problem with lots of sparring is that there is a tendancy to repeat mistakes because sparring is a dynamic and flowing process, and boxers rarely like to be interupted and told they are doing something wrong! Ring drills are segmented and easily interupted for the purpose of instruction.

Boxing skills are best acquired through ring drills, but no amount of ring drills can create simulated reality of sparring nor the reality of a fight. Quite honestly I have never been able to comprehend the logic behind soft sparring. It lacks the reality factor of hard sparring and instructional value of ring drills.

I totally aggree - at least with most of what you said.

Its really tough to try to explain it, but what im trying to say it you have to let your hands go in sparring, you have to get hit hard by your sparring mate.

I sure you understand that when you are sparring sombody, you see them hurt, then you back off and vise versa, then slowly pick up the pass. After all, you are wearing bigger gloves and headgear, and if you are with sombody at your level the tough sparring doesn't exactly translate to bloody, intense tough fights.

I've sparred all out, and most to the time by the 2 or 3rd round im swinging with less of what i have because im just no in condition to be able to last 3 strong rounds of sparring. And basicly thats what tough sparring will help in being able to go 3 hard rounds.

If you are hurting your opponnet very easliy then off course you are going to have to pull your punchs. But realisticly you should then move on to a tougher sparring mate.

I just seen a Margarito sparring, and he was going light on his sparring partner if not he'd hurt the guy, but his sparring mate wasn't taking it easy on him, he was blasting Margarito with tough shots, but Margarito was taking these shots easyly. Margarito was probably striking back with half power, basicly just speed and no power. But this work out helps both of them out.

Now, i've also seen Margarito sparr some very intense rounds. All these intense rounds simulate real scoring competiion. It sharpens the eyes, to see fast punchs, it helps you to not close your eye when somone is punching at you, it helps to absorb punchs and if you get hurt, because your oppont will back off this helps you to over come this situation and if you are in this situation in a real fight you at least know how to react.

And i aggree that differnt trainers have differnt rules of sparring, i've been to different gyms and each one has their own rules of how to sparr, basilcy its up to the coach. Cause if he sees you are too strong for your current sparring mate he either moves you along to another sparring mate or tell you to pull your punchs.

As a boxer, more or less, you understand the sparring rules. It just part of the learning proccess.

[Zigga]

I agree that sparring does have to be hard, if u cant hack tough sparring then u may be in for a shock when u fight for real.

However Light sparring is just as essential as full contact sparring as u can pratise little things and tricks that u cant normally get away with just yet as more pracice may be needed, and besides i dont wanna spar hard 3 or 4 times a week, thats bruising on top of bruising without giving ur body time to heal.

Light sparring gives u more of a chance to learn new techniques and moves, tricks etc. Hard sparring toughens u up and increases ur cardio in comparison to light sparring, so my point is they are both important.