Excessive Full Contact?

[jon]

As some of you may already be aware from my past posts ive been meeting weekly with some different partners for some full contact work. This is all fine and dandy but unfortuately i train every day and seem to end up doing some form of contact sparring basicaly every day.
This may sound a little obvious but man im getting BEAT!!!
I mean not beaten:p I mean as in my whole darn body is numb!
This may simply be an obvious case of over training but it makes me think a little about the guys who compete NHB and as such must also have to train like this every day.
Let me complain a little just so people know where im comming from...
In JUST TODAY and not counting my mirad of other injurys ive sustained in this week alone.
Today i copped in one two hour session

More take downs that i knew existed, i ive met the floor worn out my welcome and we have both decided we dont get along.

A headbut strait on the nose, whilst sprawling like a timid child against a bjj guy who actualy knew what he was doing.

Both my knees have no skin thanks to being stupid enough to bother with groundfighting on carpet IN SHORTS!!!

At LEAST ten kicks to the midsection thoughout the day becouse i couldnt decide if i wanted to protect my head or my ribs more becouse they both hurt like hell.

I managed to avoid copping any bad head shots appart from my self indused headbut to the nose. Still i did get pleanty of elbows and gloved fists to the back of the head whilst i attepted my totaly unrefined and non spontanious double leg shoots.

My shins are going to be basicaly black i think, then again my partners are all having the same problem. Put a bunch of cma guys together and what do you get? Sore shins from the constant barage of low kicks :(

I then had the joy of being repeatedly thrown to the floor whilst my sifu demonstated a takedown against a high roundhouse.

I also managed to get kicked under a striking pad and strait into my lower stomach and grazing my groin.

Still i did kind of get my own back :D
I freaked out a newbie who was built like an asian action star but new no kf at all. He simply couldnt handle my kicks right though the LARGE pad. I was knocking him of balance and accross the floor no matter what stance and i was penetrating the pad with enough force to actualy hurt him. He litteraly said it was to hard and he couldnt continue. Ahh if my old TKD instructor could see me now :) lol this guy as i say was WELL built and my age :)

I also at one point got the sh!ts and beat up my WC BJJ buddie by taking advantage of the fact he was wearing gloves and i wasnt. Besides i had to prove that point to him, darn things are a detriment.
He typicaly complained about it afterwards :p I would really hate this guy if he wasnt so darn well trained and willing to fight :) Me and him have some great little matches, i just have to REALLY avoid going to the ground.

My other ammusing moment was one of the oddest things i think ive ever had happen but it kind of proved a point.
I had gone to the ground againt my WC\BJJ friend and he was dominating me easily. I was on top of him with my back against him with him having me in a choke. He had one of his legs wrapped over my leg and i couldnt really get in any solid shots. I was trying to hit his leg but it wasnt doing squat. He ordered me to tap so i put my fist between my legs ripped off my glove and punched him hard with my knuckles strait on the bottom of his thigh just above the knee. He let go instantly and we both got up... But he was limping so i figue i get that little point proven.

Gloves suck people, if they didnt prevent even more horrible injurys i would say the things are a detriment to training.

The actualy POINT of this great long debarcle and winge about everything is actualy a simple question:rolleyes:
To the people who do a LOT of full contact, how the hell do you manage to stay in fighting condition? I was sloppy as heck today becouse every darn muscle in my body is aching and my ligiments feel like rubber bands.
Do i just get 'used' to this as i have with the full time training or is there some kind of trick that doesnt involve constant medicals and trips to the massues?

Anyone else have any tips for doing a lot of full contact and how to actualy STAY in decent condition? At the moment i litteraly dont even get addrenalin when someone is trying to punch me in the face. This tends to make me lazy and sloppy and i cant really make up my mind what im trying to do at any given moment.

[Merryprankster]

Well, for starters we use protective equipment like, I dunno, MATS. And shin pads.

You don't get shin conditioning from constant shin on shin contact (I suppose you could, but that's hardly gradual...)--you get it from banging the heavy bag around a lot. So you use some low profile shinpads with some tape around them to keep em from flaring at the sides--you can still work your techniques, but don't take the bone bruises.

What kind of gloves were you using? Open fingered fight gloves, I hope... And your buddy let go of a choke when you hit him? Dear lord. I would have made you pay (pass out, unless you tapped) for that!!! :)

[jon]

Hi guys thanks a lot for the replies, i had hoped for a few more but i guess not THAT many here actualy spar full contact a lot.

guohuen

Your advice is quite close to what i have been considering. Im debating doing freestyle push hands and rou shou (bagua soft sparring)daily but i might leave the contact stuff for once a week.
Its just hard becouse i train daily and see my different partners mainly on different days. With the exception of Saturdays where i get together with a few of us for our little meetings :)
Anyway i think its becoming obvious that this kind of thing is not to be done every day. Least not if you want to stay in decent condition.

Merryprankster
The point you bring up is actualy one i had hoped to touch on, protective equipment.
As it stands we simply use gloves which are provided by the gym and are basicaly cheap boxing gloves. You can open your hands enough to actualy grab a little but they are NOT open gloves.
We dont have access to head gear or shin pads :( Much as i hate to admit this i simply cant afford to buy them. Im just a KF student and JUST get by working part time. I litteraly just cant afford a couple of hundred dollers of protective equipment.
I also stand by my premice that gloves change the game a LOT, they seriously hamper the pain causing qualitys of many blows and as such change the types of strikes which one tends to favor. I spar a LOT better bare knuckle than i do with gloves, with gloves im still getting used to the limitations.

lol your point about my BJJ friend is one that did not escape me...
In REALITY, if neither of us had been wearing gloves.
Either one of us would have been knocked out whilst going to the ground ( we exchanged a lot getting there) or he would have simply snapped or cranked my neck not slowly squeezed it.

We also obviously dont have mats either.
Dude i live in Australia and spar in a gym in the city, just a room not a ring. We are happy to just not be sparring on tiles and to have access to gloves and multiple partners:p


To the guys who do bareknuckle, how do you deal with facial contact? As it stands we do it with open hands fairly hard and with fists occasionaly as light tags but we dont try to fully smash each other there when its bareknuckle. Currious if any others spar bareknuckle and how they deal with the facial contact issue.

[Paul]

bare knuckle? learn to deal with it, sh.it happens. After copping a few good shots to the face I've started learning to move or block so my face/head doesn't get hit as much(or as solidly).

I agree that there is definately a difference between gloved and bare knuckle sparring.

for protection we typically use a mouth piece and a pair of goggles(to protect the eyes).

[Ka]

Hey Jon
Going hard core as ususal,good value
I am going to second mats for you,although long gi pants rather then shorts would certianly be a start.

I have found that rather then go all out each time you come to spar,decide with your partner what exactly you would like to work on.For eample if you would like to work on body shots then make it that you both cannot go for the head and just the body or the legs,do that for 3 min round.Or if you would like to parctise the shoot have your partner defend against that.etc etc.

While you definatly need to have the days when you go all out,I genernally see that to be unbeneficial if you do that every day all day.I think people lose site of there pricples in the rush to get out of the way of his fist.
Problem with the partner thing is that you have to have a good partner who is willing to leran from you and himself,if his goal is just to put you down each time then it becomes a match and not training.

Pad wise ,cup and mouthguard are must haves,shinguards and headgear would be well worth it for your type of stuff.I would say first purchase a good pair of open hand grappling gloves(that way you can punch and lock)but spend the money as the crapy ones slip lots.
Please don't do bareknuckle,I am sure you have experienced the after effects of striking full force bare knuckle.Not good for long term health of partner or wrist and hand.Use those palms and arms boy(or that what a teacher used to say to me)

A palce called black belt pro have a good deal with training on mats at there gym,plus they have a load of good heavy bags and all the equipment you would expect of a boxing gym at less then inner city gym costs.If you get to know someone at Boxing works in the city,you will find they are resonable on people who are willing to train hard,they also have lots of mat space.

[Ka]

PS
I think BGZ Roushou is an excellent way of increasing your listening skills(whatever you want to call it) and you can go at all different levels of intensity.But once again I think you have to agree with your partner as to what you want out of the particular session.

[JWTAYLOR]

Jon, ease on back with the full contact every day.

1. 3 days a week is actually ALLOT for full contact. Professional NHB fighters don't go real full contact every day. That's a total myth. They wouldn't be in good shape for their real fights if that were the case.

I used to do the same thing as you, and it made me a WORSE fighter, not a better figher. I was ALWAYS injured. When I fought, I was slower and weaker. When I wasn't fighting, I was a limping, cast up target. Think about it, if you were a crook, would you go after the guy walking around normally or after the guy with the swolen eye, a cast on his arm, and a hard limp?

Now, I only do real full contact 1 night every couple of weeks and for me is plenty, and I still get broken bones.

2. If you can't get the gear to protect yourself, don't go full contact. Bite the bullet and do whatever it takes to get some mats, some better gloves, some shin and maybe some foot gear, and wear some good headgear if you are really going at it.

The goal isn't just to whack each other around, it's to become a better fighter. Beating yourself to death doesn't do that. Train SMART, and hard.

JWT

[Sharky]

Hi there. I box. I train 4 times a week. 2 sessions include sparring, the other 2 sessions are more fitness based.

I guess it's how much you want it, what you want from it, and what your goals are. My goals are not to be in NHB. I understand that if i went to train more and sparred more then i woiuld be a better fighter.

But it comes down to how much MA means to you. MA means a lot to me, but it's not my life totally. I ALREADY go around aching most days. I don't think i can step it up a level and still enjoy it - it's not what i want. I don't want to do any more than i am doing.

I'm sure i have a really good point, but i can't put it into words, because i've been awake for 36 hours.

Peace.

[Ryu]

I like JWT's advice. That was good.
I also think full contact 3 days a week can be too much depending on how intense it is.
I usually do it once a week or so. The rest of the times I will roll or put in the striking (just not as hard as FULL contact).

Ryu

[SevenStar]

Yeah, pretty much what ryu and JWT said. Too much full contact, and you're just asking for injury.