Sparring can be fun!

[Miles]

Some people love it, some hate it, but it is important part of training.

What are some of the drills you or your school utilize to improve your sparring. As an example, sometimes we will do sparring with just one side-say, a right leg; Sometimes we will spar using just hands against someone using just feet; or just using a particular technique we want to work on such as a narabon or back kick.

Anyone else have some fun sparring drills?

 

[granfire]

Anyone else have some fun sparring drills?

Spar with the instructor and try to look more alive than the rabbit staring at the snake!

 

[ATC]

Here is a fun one...Keep one leg in the air and only use that leg that is in the air. You cannot put it down either.

 

[StudentCarl]

We like to play 'head hunter'. First to head point wins--no other kicks count but are useful to setup. (limited to light head contact since we do this with all team members down to 6 year old yellow belts)

 

[mango.man]

My 2 favorites that we do regularly are:

King of the Ring - First person up fights person A until someone scores. The person that scores stays in and fights person B until someone scores. Continue the process through person C D E etc until everyone has fought then start over again with person A and rotate through everyone 3 times or so. The person that is up fighting the most (because they kept scoring first) is declared "King of the Ring"

The Terminator - First person up fights person A until they are able to take control of the fight either by whooping person A's butt or by shutting down person A's fight. Once one of those is done, that first person has to stay in against person B and do the same, then C, D, E etc until the first person has fought everyone (without a break) and either took control and dominated or shut down everyone else's game. Then the next person (person A) gets up and has to do the same against everyone including that original first person. Keep at it until everyone has been in the center and fought against everyone else and either successfully whooped up on everyone or shut everyone down.

I have seen the terminator take as long as 2-3 hours to complete in a class of 10 or 12 fighters because by the time you have gone through the first 5 or 6 fighters you are so exhausted that it starts taking longer and longer to dominate or shut down a well rested fighter that has been waiting to get in there against you. Expect each person to be in the middle for 10-20 minutes against the 10 or 12 other fighters, so schedule this activity appropriately.

 

[ATC]

My 2 favorites that we do regularly are:

King of the Ring - First person up fights person A until someone scores. The person that scores stays in and fights person B until someone scores. Continue the process through person C D E etc until everyone has fought then start over again with person A and rotate through everyone 3 times or so. The person that is up fighting the most (because they kept scoring first) is declared "King of the Ring"

Yes this is a fun one. The better fighters tend to go what we call around the world. That is beat everyone from begining to end.

The Terminator - First person up fights person A until they are able to take control of the fight either by whooping person A's butt or by shutting down person A's fight. Once one of those is done, that first person has to stay in against person B and do the same, then C, D, E etc until the first person has fought everyone (without a break) and either took control and dominated or shut down everyone else's game. Then the next person (person A) gets up and has to do the same against everyone including that original first person. Keep at it until everyone has been in the center and fought against everyone else and either successfully whooped up on everyone or shut everyone down.

This one I don't like so much. Because everyones level is different and some just can't be
dominant against better fighters. We do something similar but we just have them do a 2 minute round vs. everyone (1x1) regardless if they win or lose.

I have seen the terminator take as long as 2-3 hours to complete in a class of 10 or 12 fighters because by the time you have gone through the first 5 or 6 fighters you are so exhausted that it starts taking longer and longer to dominate or shut down a well rested fighter that has been waiting to get in there against you. Expect each person to be in the middle for 10-20 minutes against the 10 or 12 other fighters, so schedule this activity appropriately.

Yes this takes a long time.

fun to watch not fun for the person up vs. everyone (1x1).

 

[Blindside]

Here is a fun one...Keep one leg in the air and only use that leg that is in the air. You cannot put it down either.

Thats going to make it tough to avoid the single leg takedown.

 

[ATC]

Thats going to make it tough to avoid the single leg takedown.

Ha ha ha...yeah it would.

 

[Earl Weiss]

For kids, "Belt Sparring" shows the importtance of footwork and movement. Take some old beltsand cut them into 18" lengths. Have opponents take 2 lengths and put them thru their belt on both sides. Object is to grab the opponents belt pieces before they get yours. (You can also use 4 pieces positioned arounfd the body)

 

[rlobrecht]

We do something called Bull in the Ring. Everyone stands around the ring, and one person enters the ring. Then every 20 seconds the opponent changes for the next person around the ring. At the end of the exercise everyone will have fought everyone else twice 20 seconds each.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

We will sometimes spar against multiple opponents. Usually 2 on 1, but I have done it 3 on 1. At a black belt class one time about 20 of us stood around in a circle and on the command we all had to run in and basically attack anyone we could, it was like an all in brawl, there were no teams it was just score on as many people as possible. In that one you really had to watch your back.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

this could be fun