Too much sparring?

[Ryu]

What is everyone's opinions on this.
Is there such a thing as too much sparring? Obviously it's not good for you if you are getting injured all the time, but if not do you think this should make up most of your training program?
How much do you spar? (and that means pretty much full contact, not one step, etc.) Everyday? Every week? Every 2 weeks?

Just curious as to everyone's opinions and training.

Ryu

[tsunami surfer]

We sparr at least once a week for 2 and 3 minute rounds as many as you can handle in a round robin type group. Sometimes twice a week, just depending on the type of program being worked for that time period.

[Akuma]

I'm hardly qualified to comment(me white belt)..but I'd have thought that sparring as you describe would be good to do as much as possible.

You can only improve if you keep practicing and practicing, particularly with a resisting opponent.

I think that it could be bad though if you keep practicing against the same people over and over again, coz you would kind of know their game too well and could possibly form bad habbits.

It would be cool if you could spar as much as possible with a whole lot of different people who are at your level or better IMO :)

But again, I'm not really qualified to comment coz i'm a noob to martial art:D

[IronFist]

Hey Ryu, do you mean sparring or playing fighting video games? :D

IronFist

[scotty1]

Because I only go to class once a week!

I think sparring too much (full contact) could be counterproductive.

[Sho]

IMHO once every week is an appropriate amout of sparring. People should have enough time to revise and learn on what aspects they should practise more. One week for recovery is also good if not injured too seriously.

[Mr Punch]

Every day can be too much. I used to share a house with a kungfu brother, who was just as obsessive as me... sometimes it got rather dangerous, especially due to the number of weapons lying around! When we both got drunk it was a nightmare!!! Still, we never got burgled!;)

Before then I used to train various forms and spar four or five mornings a week in a local park, at about 6:00, before I went to work. Training quite so many lethal techniques at that time, before your brain fully wakes up can lead to some seriously freaky visualisations... It took its toll in the end, and we cut it down to two or three times.

I think a little sparring each lesson doesn't hurt... :rolleyes: Just a few minutes to take the edge off the really dangerous stuff, and loosen you up a bit. Of course, if you intend to spar to train the really dangerous stuff, it's also good to practice the control.:D

[rogue]

Usually makes up one third of class training time, so about a half an hour or 45 minutes per class. Right now we're finishing up belt testing so most people are learning new kata, which means less sparring. The more you spar the more you have to pace yourself and use common sense. Some days work only defense, others offense, some days just work a few techniques or combos and then of course go all out. And remember that sparring is just a training tool and not a real fight, though sometimes the line between the two gets pretty thin.

[shaolinboxer]

I spar about once every week, for about 15-20 min.

That is outside of normal class time, as there is no sparrin gin aikido.

Interestingly, my sparring has improved significantly since I changed directions, even with significantly less sparring as part of my training regimine. I believe this is becuase most of my aikido training has been training of the mind.

[Kristoffer]

Our sparring is full contact. 1 hour a week.. But then again, every od week we have Shuai Shiao 2 hours a week (two days) wich is fullcontact and hurts just as much. :D

[Badger]

I spar hard 3 times a week....full-contact bodywork.
I have never been injured other than having a boxers nose.



Badger

[Dark Knight]

When I was teaching full time i sparred every day. the top fighter I had and other schools had sparred every day. We had students that came in at add times during the day and would get in at least 15 minutes of fighting, then off to work or where ever they were going.

Sparring is an important part of your training. It is not realistic fightiing like in self defense, but it teaches you timing, and other important skills.

you cannot go full contact every day, even proboxers dont fight full contact every day. Light sparring will help to sharpen the skills nessesary in fighting. Your sparring, forms and techniques are part of the training that prepares you for fighting. each one is important.

[Ray Pina]

When I was training S. Mantis we fought three days a week: Tues, Thurs, Sun.

I got pretty bruised up, especially the forearms, under the biceps and chest (even with chest gear, though we'd go without that as often as we used it).

I loved this schedule. This attributed to my greatest leap in fighting skill wihtout a doubt.

We usally set a clock for three three minute rounds. But there would be a lot of breaking when we got tied up or someone clearly dominated someone.

Then we'd switch off and get a rest. There was on;ly a handful of us.

Now I'm training internal and haven't done any real fighting in a while. I'm learning new material, principles. My gung fu is better, though I have not fought. I just now, because the new material is tigher more sound.

Have have chi saud with a few of my old clas mates as a sort of testing and am pleased with the results. Needs more work though. I plan on fighting outside by summer's end if all stay's well with the tender knee and all.

There is no substitute to test one skill. I'd say 3 times a week is good. More then that could be a bit ruff on the body. My girlfriend thought I was insane with the bruises I had.

[Black Jack]

I like to spar/drill in different formats, it depends what I am working on, but if we are talking about straight matched off sparring, then 4 times a week now, twice a week with my h2h training group and twice a week with my classical fencing group.

[Ray Pina]

Fencing looks cool. I see my senior brothers and sisters doing it. Looking forward to that step.

[Black Jack]

Evolutionfist,

Do you mean the Eastern methods of swordplay?

I work with the classical Western school of fencing, just started a few weeks back with the French foil to be specific, though my goal is to get to the saber.

I started to understand more of my western ma culture from a physical and not academic perspective, that and to translate some of the saber/epee methods to my long knife training for the bowie, but once I got started it is becoming much more than that, it's very stimulating and engaging both physical and mental.

I'm pretty lucky as the college has a great teacher and I picked this over a german broadsword class which I was going to take first, which now I will save for later.

[Ray Pina]

I usually catch them doing western fencing. One of my master's disciples was a collegiate fencing champion. She's young and petit but a good martial artist -- alot of knowledge.

I personally want to learn his two handed sword method and use a katana. But its all sword play to me at this point. I have learned forms in the past but never real usage. I got a brief taste of his two handed method. But am now focused on H2H.

Have fun for all of us. : )