Importance of Sparring and How to Improve

After you’ve started training martial arts for a little while and you've built a foundation and are becoming more comfortable with some techniques you’ve learned, the next step would be to start sparring.

Sparring is a great tool for understanding where your strengths and weaknesses may lie, and is the best representation of a real fight. It is the stepping stone to amateur or professional fights and competitions. Now, many students who first start sparring specially with another sparring partner will find themselves blinking, freezing, and flinching a lot. It's extremely uncomfortable getting in someone's face and most people are scared of getting hit. Sometimes stepping into sparring class, people will forget all the techniques they've worked tirelessly to learn. This is one of the biggest problems, and it's usually because the martial artist hasn't practiced their techniques enough.

The obvious answer that most coaches provide is to just keep sparring and in time you will get better. That's fine, and like most things in life, it will take time. But the fastest way to get better is by... DRILLING. This key aspect of training is usually underemphasized by coaches and gym owners, who put a lot more emphasis on conditioning.

In my video, you will learn some of the best tips to employ when drilling. These tips will help make it a much more realistic match and actually help build your confidence for the real thing. Now you might be wondering what are some of the best techniques to practice, and what drills should you use? Well, it depends, but these are some of the drills that I currently use to get myself in fight shape.

I decided to develop this program because I received so many questions from my audience, asking me questions such as “how to get over the fear of getting hit”, “how do I react fast enough”, “how do I stop freezing”. Just like in school, hitting that learning curve fast is all about having structure and consistency. As mentioned above, this is an accumulation of all the years of training and drills I've learned and thought to be the most effective for fighters. So if you're looking for information on how to stay sharp and prepare for your fight, I highly recommend you check it out.