Purpose of sparring.

As many of you know, I am not a fan of Bruce Lee, I think he was a great martial arts movie actor, and had his own ideas on training and the practice of martial arts and largely, was unconcerned with how to fight in the competitive arena. I think the practice of sparring in MuayThai is about learning to cope with different situations.

Sometimes it is about how to position yourself in the ring (known as ringcraft )and using your footwork to gain an advantage over your partner, to manipulate them into moving where you want them without them realising what you're up to.

It is about learning to defend youself in appropriate ways that will keep you relatively safe and able to continue sparring.It is about developing counter-attacking skills, that is, defending yourself and being able to hit back as a direct reply to what your partner is trying to do to you.

It is about learning to identify the flaws in your partner's skill. The gaps in defence as they move around or make an attack,the defences they favour, the counter-attacks they prefer. You must also establish their strengths, the things they are good at or like to do. You can learn how to get the upper hand on virtually anyone by identifying your partner's weakness.

We have to learn "when" to do things, not just how to do things. Timing the delivery of a defence, counter or attack or when to pre-empt an attack is crucial to our success. We also have to make appropriate choices of which techniques to use against our partner ( the right time to use the knee, or clinch, when to box and when to kick, which kick to use, when to sidestep,when to move away, when to close in etc.)

You must also learn to read where your partner's bodyweight is; establish which foot your partner has his/her bodyweight on and you can read a likely attack or make it difficult for them to counter your attack, you can make it impossible for them to block your attack just by identifying which foot they've got the majority of their bodyweight on.

Conditioning is a different matter. Skill aquisition is one thing, but harder sparring means you need to develop an altogether "different" type of skill. Light sparring allows you to experiment and develop skills without the fear of pain or injury. Hard sparring is more realistic and tests your ability and skill against the (almost)full force of your partner's attack. Trying to counter a full force attack is much more difficult to do, you'll need to find stronger balance, ensure your bodyweight is predominantly on the correct foot for what you need to do. You may have to "trade off" a punch in your nose or a kick to your thigh to land something that will do more damage to your partner (don't trade a broken rib against a heavy kicker, or a KO against a hard puncher). You can stop your partner from using their power by keeping them on the wrong foot anyway.

Speed is another ingredient we need to develop. Many students appear to be slow when really they are "telegraphing" what they are about to do to their partner.If your partner can read what you are going to do because you "wind-up" your technique just before you attack, you will have far less success in hitting your partner. Eliminate all movements that show your intentions, even if that means a loss of power.

Finally, try to focus on what you want from sparring, not on what you fear.If you are struggling against your partner, you may focus on getting beat - and thats exactly what will happen,if you resist the negative feelings, have faith and focus on what you can do, your actions will take you in that direction. Keep your guard up, your chin down, practice your footwork meticulously, hit your partner and don't get hit back !!! Mick.