Like some advice.

[JamesC]

I'm taking the advice that some of you gave me a while back on starting a sparring group. The thing is, most of them want me to "teach" them at the same time. Just with an emphasis on sparring.

I'm thinking my basic setup will look like this:
- Warmup with basic athletic movements(i.e. air squats, jumping jacks, etc). I'm not going to do a conditioning class. If they want to do that they can do it on their own time.
- Shadow boxing with basic boxing and kickboxing combinations(i.e. 4 counts, 8 counts etc.).
- Pad drills using the same combinations we did before.
- Sparring

For those of you that do hard sparring with and without padding, do you have any recommendations?

My sparring background comes mostly from muay thai, so there will be a lot of that mixed in the the kenpo that i've done recently. May add in some intensity drills from Krav Maga(i'm an instructor) for the people that are too meek about hitting someone else.

[mickey]

Greetings,

If they want you to teach them that means you have some potential income that could be used towards the purchase of some good quality equipment.

If this is an exclusive training group, I would introduce a conditioning program at the outset, work it for a few months and then leave it to them to continue on their own. You don't have o do it every time. You can even split the set of exercises so as to not use up most of the time you have allotted. If you feel it it too much, as your post suggests, design a template program for them to work with on their own. That being said, what is your idea of a conditioning program?

What happened to bag work?


mickey

[donjitsu2]

I think if you're gonna be working with guys who don't have a lot of experience in martial arts or sparring I'd spend a lot of time doing "sparring" drills.

For example: Partner 1 is only allowed to attack (limit attack options at first - like only jab/cross) and Partner 2 is only allowed to defend.

Or, you can do something like Jab only sparring, etc....

Drills like that really help getting used to trying to hit someone and having someone trying to hit you. You've got to get confidence levels up first or you'll end up with a bunch nervous guys going ape**** on each other.


Train Hard,
Josh Skinner

[JamesC]

Let me give a little more info. Sorry.

All of these guys were part of my old class and have sparred quite a bit, with the exception of 1. He's fairly new, but he has a problem with only wanting to counter punch.

It will all be for free. I just have a bit more experience with sparring, especially with gloves. We already have quite a bit of good gear. I have all of my own from past fight training. The only exception is a heavy bag. We have a heavy bag, but it's on a terrible stand.

[YouKnowWho]

It will all be for free.

It's better not to mix teaching and fighting together. Old Chinese saying said, "If you want to fight him, you don't teach him (and also the other way around)". I used to have a lunch time fighting group like this. We do:

- 10 solo drills (6 reps each).
- 150 reps belt cracking.
- 60 round group bag throwing.
- spar/wrestle.

There is no skill "development" (partner drills) but skill "testing".

For the sparring, 3 rounds will be good. It's better to set the rule so people willl know when a round is over.

[-N-]

Let me give a little more info. Sorry.

All of these guys were part of my old class and have sparred quite a bit, with the exception of 1. He's fairly new, but he has a problem with only wanting to counter punch.

It will all be for free. I just have a bit more experience with sparring, especially with gloves. We already have quite a bit of good gear. I have all of my own from past fight training. The only exception is a heavy bag. We have a heavy bag, but it's on a terrible stand.

If everybody is at a decent level, then just spar and give feedback. You can collectvely coach each other. You can be lead coach, but try to get the others to think their way through their problems and develop some practice scenarios to train specific things.

For the counterpuncher, put him in the middle of 3 guys and make him fight his way out. The others don't have to attack. Just keep closing in to pressure him to initiate.

If he still doesn't attack, 2 guys should grab his arms while the 3rd guy b!tch slaps him.

[Lucas]

All of these guys were part of my old class and have sparred quite a bit, with the exception of 1. He's fairly new, but he has a problem with only wanting to counter punch.

lol ya what N said.

you could also start him out by put someone up on a wall or just standing there and have them just defend, not even counter punch, but just block, shield, bob, weave and evade, make that guy do just offensive until he gets used to the idea of initiating.

[Lucas]

Oh how many guys are you?