Frame of mind when sparring:

It is imperative that all egos are left outside of the gym in order to ensure that sparring is beneficial for you and your team mates in the gym. It is also vital to remember that sparring is simply another ‘tool’ of learning and is not a competition given that you are not fighting with, but learning from your sparring partner. Every member of your gym should be treated as a member of the same team, you are not aiming to smash up any member of your team, but instead you are aiming to enhance your Muay Thai skills and develop your application of these skills in a controlled fashion.

You should have trust in your sparring partner that they will not aim to cause you damage, and you should also earn the same trust back. This is achieved by having complete control over yourself when sparring, anger is not an emotion that should be anywhere near the ring. Keep control of yourself and your emotions and set an example for your sparring partners. You will develop a lot faster if you are not forced to go in to a shell and protect yourself from hard damaging attacks so it is important that you communicate with your sparring partner if they are not relaxed themselves.

Sparring is your arena to work or your flaws, and to expose your partners, it allows you to work on perfecting your Muay Thai, and work on these errors bringing both your and your partners levels up. It is the perfect place to try something new without the worry of getting an injury that will set back your training if the sparring is out of control. Safety when training should be a priority and not compromising you or your partners safety by being wild and uncontrolled is crucial. If you are dangerous and erratic and not in control of yourself then there will be a growing number of people that do not enjoy training with you, this may cause you to miss out should they decide to avoid you in the future.

It is important that you do not launch dangerous damaging techniques at full power, but instead pull out of techniques that are likely to injure your partner or compromise their safety. This shows that you are in control and sets a good example that your sparring partner is likely to follow. It is far better to try and flow with faster lighter combinations then to have a mentality to “win” when sparring. There is nothing to “win” in sparring except self improvement. By restricting yourself to using only your best techniques against your partner rather then trying to improve the weaknesses in your game, then you have not won anything at all.

Of course as a fighter the will to win must remain inside you, but it is important to know the time and place to let this winning spirit out. On a competitive level or in a real life confrontation it is essential that you give your all, but when sparring, this is not the time or the place to let this spirit out.

Relaxing is the secret, if you can train your body and mind to relax in the ring then this in turn has a positive effect on many other components required for successful Muay Thai. You will be able to plan your attacks better, read more of your opponent’s attacks, conserve more energy, and perhaps most importantly enjoy it more!

Try not to waste energy, or techniques and aim to improve something every time you spar for instance - your timing, distancing, combinations or defence. Try different things against different sparring partners, this way you can always come away from a session knowing that you are progressing from practicing to improve your weaknesses. If you make an effort to challenge yourself as oppose to simply using what you know works, then you will build up a greater array of skills and techniques that will work for you but firstly you must realise and then work at them.

Sparring is not about testosterone, egos and power, but it is about technique. When sparring, there will be times when you will be the bigger person and times when you will be the smaller, so powering up is pointless since it proves nothing. No matter what their size or strength, both fighters can try to out technique the other and expose weaknesses. You can learn from the superior technician if they are more successful in the sparring session, but it is unlikely that you would learn from the more powerful should they be limiting the techniques and skills that they are attempting when just looking for a single “big shot”.

Just because you are not attacking with full power does not mean that you should exclude using realistic pressure. Throwing fast combinations that you are aiming to land is still testing your partner, and between the two of you, it is useful to agree to the amount of force that you want to use but ensuring that you both are in full control. The time to develop the extra power in your techniques is from conditioning on the pads and bags which are of course other training “tools” at your disposal when you use the gym.

Gook luck.

By Steven Ryan

www.ko-kickboxing.co.uk