How do you relax in a sparring match?

[Hitman]

Dear all,
Is it possible for some one to tell me how to relax and not tense up in a sparring match?
2) How do you keep on sparring for more than 15 minutes without a break and not wore yourself out, if you are not practising chi kung?

Thank you
Hitman

[Ray Pina]

I learned this lesson well.

Two years ago I used to be able to "spar" with classmates for 30 minutes. They would switch in and out but I would stay. I'd be tired, but I could do it.

Then I fought 6 minutes of San Da and gassed out....kaput.

I came out throwing like a thug with a little technique. But you can't fight that way, you get exhausted.

In Jan. I had a breakthough that helped me find my technique, how I like to fight. I know what I'm looking for in a fight, I know exactly what I want to do. So now I stay calm and out of reach or ride that area where you can be in or out in a single step and wait. But once I go I go balls to the walls looking to seriously hurt the guy .... of course they tap before that.

So I say, spar for as many hours as you want. Look to fight not at all. Stay relaxed and out of harms way -- easy to be calm when not in harms way -- until you KNOW your have him. Then you're relaxed too, because you see yourself beating him with forearms just before it happens. You just have to go do it.

DISCLAIMER: Of course, in a fight, anything can happen.

[Judge Pen]

Experience, confidence, conditioning.

Ray is right, it makes a huge difference when sparring in class and sparring in a competition. Adreniline and the drive to be more agressive can drain you very quickly. But the more experience you have, and the more confident you are in your strategy, the easier it is for you to be effecive and efficient.

[Wong Fei Hong]

I think the way my muscles relax is kind of how beef gets tenderised, a lot of beating :D

On a more serious note i think you need to train for it in class, whatever technique you do you try and relax try and relax move fast relax, one thing i usually say is have you ever seen a horse or a sprinter run whilst tensing his mucles as much as he would do in a squat ? No exactly.


The more you train the more you relax, the more you relax the faster you move. So your body kind of says hey lets relax so im faster and dont get hit.

It might also be mental the fear of getting hit soyou tense and brace, just think of it as a game, its fun, so you play it dont worry bout getting hurt.

Also its good to learn how to tense at the last minute for example relax when hitting and boom tense the fist when it lands, this way you differentiate between relax and tense.
Also when being hit, you relax and get your partner to hit you lightly in the abs, at this point you expell all the air and tense the abs, but only at this point, this way again you learn to absorb the punishment, and you separate relaxation from tension, plus you wont have fear of being hit if thats what tenses you up.

As for sparring for over 15 mins thats a pros field !!! thats 5 3 min rounds or even a whole mma fight. Thats impressive !!!!

I have the worst stamina so i cant even begin to comment on this. Unless you mean sparring in the sense of no contact just reflex training which is i do a move he does a move, in this case the easiest way is to pace yourself and play at your pace not the other guys.

About the chi kung comment i didnt quite understand it , if you can improve your stamina through chi kung thats great,by all means do it ! esp ifyou do chi kung before the match, you oxygenate thoroughly your muscles your blood stream etc have a ready supply so you wont run out of wind so fast.

Ive heard from pro's that 800m is the equivalent of one round of a fight, so lets say you want to go 5 rounds as a goal, you would
start off with 800m jog with 1 min rest in between each round of 800m

once you are able to do this, you move on to adding sprints , so your programme ends up looking like

400m sprint 400m jog
rest 1 min
400m sprint 400m jog
rest 1 min
200m sprint 600m jog
rest 1 min
200m sprint 600m jog
rest 1 min
800m jog

etc ive seen this tailored in different ways for different amounts of rounds etc but 800m was the rule of thumb

Another way was for each round
8 x 100m sprints with 10-15 seconds rest per 100m sprint
and 1 min rest between each set of 8

[IronFist]

I don't think qigong would help your endurance in a fight at all.

SAID. Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. Your body gets better at what you make it do, and worse at what you don't make it do. Since qigong is not similiar to sparring at all, it will not help your sparring conditioning.

Now, since sparring is similiar to sparring, it is probably the best way to condition your sparring endurance.

On that note, things like jump roping and running are similiar to the stress placed on your body in sparring, but not exactly. Some people can run 3 miles without tiring, but they get tired when they spar for 5 minutes, so they think "maybe if I run more I will have better endurance for sparring," and they increase the distance they can run to 5 miles, and they still get tired in sparring after 5 minutes, because they haven't done anything to make their body more efficient at sparring.

Of course, if you're a complete beginner, and you increase the distance you can run from 0 miles to 1 mile, it may improve your sparring a little bit, but once you have developed a general level of conditioning it no longer works that way.

Traditionalists and sifu nuttriders will bash this post all day*, but the 5 or 6 people on this site who have put forth the effort to study sports science know I'm right. And you should, too :D



*because the last time I correctly mentioned SAID in a discussion about why doing high reps of bodyweight exercises will not build strength, I had to defend myself against hippies for the next 5 pages of the thread.


PS. I just read your original post again. Sparring for more than 15 minutes at a time? That's a long time, dude. Rounds in UFC are not even 15 minutes. If the time is that important to you you'll probably have to tone down the intensity a bit. Remember, you can train hard, or you can train long, but you can't do both at the same time.

[MasterKiller]

I'm sure his Qigong statement is about focus and mental conditioning, which would help someone relax and not tense up during sparring.

And if Ironfist doesn't think pro athletes do mental conditioning exercises for focus and relaxation, then he's already lost 1/2 the battle, regarless of training idealouge.

[Chief Fox]

When people are tense they tend to clench their teeth. This leads to tension in the jaw then down the neck and into the shoulders. Which in turn has an affect on your whole body.

The next time you spar, try to relax your jaw.

[IronFist]

I'm sure his Qigong statement is about focus and mental conditioning, which would help someone relax and not tense up during sparring.

And if Ironfist doesn't think pro athletes do mental conditioning exercises for focus and relaxation, then he's already lost 1/2 the battle, regarless of training idealouge.

I said what now? Mental exercises are awesome. I wasn't aware that's what qigong was for, though.

Hell yes pro athletes do mental conditioning and visualization exercises.

[IronFist]

The next time you spar, try to relax your jaw.

But don't open it :D

[Chief Fox]

But don't open it :D
I actually got kicked in the jaw yesterday. I saw it coming a split second before impact. Just enough time to clench my teeth.

So yes, if you're about to get hit, tighten that jaw or it could be lights out. :eek:

[chaiwai]

Relax prior to sparring,
during the match it's difficult, bordering on very difficult.
Are you afrait of getting hurt
or loosing the fight?

[joedoe]

I found the best way is to do a lot of sparring. Once you are used to it, and are comfortable with getting in there and maybe getting hit, it becomes a lot easier to relax. It doesn't result in the same adrenaline dump that it does when you first start, so your body is able to relax more.

[young leopard]

I appreciate this question, something I have dealt with in the past, as I have realatively less experience than many ppl on this forum.

My 2 cents:
I agree getting used to the idea and experience of sparring helps you loosen up and avoid the adrenalin dump

But you can become comfortable with your sparring partners, thus building a false sense of losseness and first sport or street fight with a agressive fighter you may tense up.

Look at James Toney in boxing. He is 60 lbs over weight and never gets tired even though most of his fights go 10-12 rounds. He is loose and relaxed (allowing even a fat man to move quickly). Yes partially because boxing is a sport with gloves, but also because he his a thug inside and wouldn't mind continuing the fight if they met on the street.

Also if the person you are sparring with is not all that, just work defence, build confidence their attack can't affect you.

[Mutant]

Just shoot up with heroin before sparring. It worked for Yip Man.

[IronFist]

Try drinking?

[Ray Pina]

It just dawned on my you asked about how to be calm "sparring," not fighting.

To be calm sparring, make sure you want to be sparring. What I mean by that is, train a lot of drills. Train drills that make you feel safe dealing with punching and kicking. After a while, you'll want to test the stuff out of curiosity.

Get yourself good headgear with a cage so you don'thave to worry about breaking your nose. Then find a sparring partner that you can trust. Or have a teacher or senior "ref" it, his job being to stop the action if someone gets caught with a shot or two and is obviously overwhelemed. Start slow and easy. Work your way up to full intensity. Then slowly, in time, start using smaller gloves. Or, sometimes use boxing gloves but no head gear but go lighter to the head. You just have to spend time with all of this until one day it seems like no big deal to go fight without gear.

You;ll still have some nerves, either about being hurt or losing, but you'll learn to control it and actually use it to make you hyper sensitive.

[dougadam]

Focus on your breathing