Amount of Time Spent Sparring?

[arnisador]

In Thai boxing, what percentage of training time is typically spent in free sparring, as opposed to drills, conditioning, etc.? That is, how much of the training time is generally "real" ring time?

At our school, we spar twice a week. But, we do not use knees and elbows, so the free sparring that we do isn't really Muay Thai. We only work our knee and elbow techniques on the thai pads and heavy bag. Our free sparring is really international rules kickboxing. According to my instructor, we will begin using knees and elbows after a minimum of 3 years of continuous training. Currently, I am the 'senior student' and I only have 9 months of training.

Brian Twitty

[arnisador]

How many days a week do you train? I'm trying to understand the issue of the benefits of training to fight vs. the benefits of actually fighting--what's the right mix?

We have classes Monday - Thursday and on Saturday. Free - sparring classes are separate from the regular classes. The sparring classes are on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. The regular classes are mostly conditioning consisting of thai pad training, focus mitt drills, bag training, and partner drills. Hope this helps.

[Baoquan]

when i train with kick-boxers (several, but not all of tehm "traditional" MT guys", we generally train 1:1:1 - ie for every hour spent in the ring, one on conditioning and one on drills.

Was just reading a book on Eagle Claw kungfu by Sifu Shum, and he recommends 2:1 - for every hour spent on forms, spend 2 sparring (in this case, "sparring" also refers to practising kicks/strikes/blocks/locks in concert with another student).

Unfortunately, i dont think i'm up to sparring 2 hours every other night...

IMHO, sparring is essential - but only when used in tandem with time spent getting ur form right.

cheers

Bao

I have trained with a few MT guys and we always kept it 2-1. two hours sparring for every hour of conditining. I was told the only way to get better at sparring is actually sparring, conditioning is neccessary, and drills are important, but the only way to get better at sparring is hitting and being hit.

[Damian Mavis]

It kinda depends on what your after arnisador. I train 5 days a week in Muay Thai and if I could I would spar 7 days a week. If you want to be really good in the ring then spar every chance you get. Unfortunately injuries will most definately keep you from sparring every day...like today I caught a knee on the muscle right beside my knee and now I can't even walk. I'm hoping it will heal enough for me to spar again in the next couple of days.

When it comes to conditioning... I find catching full contact hits to various parts of the body toughens you up fast and conditions very well... it's hard on the body but it works very well. And for stamina conditioning, fighting in the ring is the hardest conditioning I've found so again, more ring time is good if that's what your after. As for drills....hopefully you have a good grasp of those before you get in the ring.

Basically I feel that if you want to excel in the ring it's something you should do as much as your injuries will allow. These are my personal feelings though.... at the Thai boxing club I train at the head instructor doesn't even push you to spar for the first year or so. But he let's you do it if you want to.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD

[KumaSan]

Well, since I don't only train in Muay Thai, we don't get to spar as often as I would like to. We do "timing sparring" fairly often, I would say at least once a week, but the full on sparring sessions don't happen nearly often enough for me. Usually they happen when someone keeps dropping their hands during class. Then we hear the instructor say "Okay, everyone get their boxing gloves". I love when that happens.

Our fighters spar more, obviously, but that tapers off as the fights approach. With a good holder, thai pad training can get almost as intense as a sparring session, with less chance of injury.

We do some MT in our class. I think part of it depends on level of proficiency as well. At lower levels, proper body mechanics are needed. I'm kind of in the medium-lower level, where we're working more of the sparring into things (not just Muay Thai), but still needing the drilling to get the proper reactions.

And of course there's the conditioning aspect as well.

Bryan