Sparring: not technique against technique, but mind against mind

[Kung Fu Wang]

Play his game.

In

- theory, it's better to be good on everything.
- reality, you don't have enough time to be good on everything. If you try to be good on everything, you may end with nothing.

If you play a

- boxer's game, you are testing your punching skill.
- wrestler's game, you are testing your wrestling skill.

IMO, it's better to play

- striking game against a wrestler.
- wrestling game against a boxer.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

In

- theory, it's better to be good on everything.
- reality, you don't have enough time to be good on everything. If you try to be good on everything, you may end with nothing.

If you play a

- boxer's game, you are testing your punching skill.
- wrestler's game, you are testing your wrestling skill.

IMO, it's better to play

- striking game against a wrestler.
- wrestling game against a boxer.

Not arguing with that. I am a striker who's best at facing grapplers because I am really good at defending/avoiding takedowns while striking.

However, where I differ from what you are suggesting is that I had to learn grappling to an extent to be able to do that. I would definitely not consider myself a good grappler, but I have enough experience grappling those better than me to know how to defend against them and stay in my game.

Similarly, I am primarily defensive when facing strikers. However, I have to be decent at offense, for when those moments arrive. I'm not suggesting he train them equally, but for the one person in his club that he's talking about, sparring against him will give him the basic experience needed to supplement his style.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I'm going to go against the grain here and suggest something odd: Play his game. Just play it knowing there is a good chance you will lose at it, so that you don't get frustrated.

You have in front of you a guy who is very good defensively, and willing to be defensively. You're not used to that, as you're normally used to aggressive opponents, which I'm guessing means that you're used to being defensive. So you're aggressive skills are not that great. Note: none of this is guess work, it's what I got directly from your post.

By being aggressive against him, you may lose, but you will learn how to be aggressive. Since he's good at dealing with aggressive opponents (this part is guesswork, but I'm assuming that he spars the same people as you), you will have to work really hard at your aggressive fighting which, as long as you stay focused and fight calmly, can help you improve how you fight aggressively. Even if it's not your go-to fighting style, it's useful to be able to do, especially if in the future you're forced by situation or sparring partner to be aggressive.

Personally, I suck at being aggressive because most of the people I spar are either aggressive or less patient than me/less able to deal with my defensive footwork. It's something I'm working on, but I wish I had someone who was like the guy you described to spar regularly with.

This is useful for training weaker skill sets. I have students spar 15 second rounds as it forces both fighters to be more aggressive than they normally would be. 15 seconds means you have to get to business right away if you want to have fun sparring.

 

[NinjaChristian]

I think what I want to do is to get him to attack when i am ready for it. There are times that he attacked in almost complete safety not because i was so off balance that I could not respond, but because he knew how I was going to respond. When I get charged, my first reaction is to throw either a front kick or a side kick; he delt with either of these by pushing it to the side. then when the distance really closes I will send a punch toward his head(he's shorter than me, so that's the closest thing to me) he blocks this punch easily, than immediately throws a reverse punch. I can block the first one most of the time, since he always throws it, but after that i get a little disoriented or something, because I have trouble seeing the techniques after that. I think I am turning my head away or something. So what I am working on right now is getting better at front leg kicks, transitions between kicks, and improving my perception in close quarters(by not turning away, using better angles, etc)

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I have students spar 15 second rounds ...

I had done even more extreme such as 5 seconds round. Your opponent attacks you and you attack him at the same time. One attack decides winning (or no winning).

It's similar to Renaissance Festival show.

 

[Jujutsuka]

But what he did is stay back, and wait. and wait. and wait. By all this waiting, he shut off just about everything I know how to do.

This actually could work to your advantage if it were a real fight instead of a sparring match. Usually when we're fighting in self-defense, we only have to attack if the guy actually comes at us. If all he does is run away, though, then he's not even a threat.

It's like Bruce Lee said: You're only required to fight if your opponent enters within your zone of reach. Anytime he stays out of reach from you, then you don't even have to waste your time fighting a guy like him.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

But what he did is stay back, and wait. and wait. and wait. By all this waiting, he shut off just about everything I know how to do.

You can use the "earth" strategy and "move in slowly inch by inch".

You can

- twist your front foot left and right,
- twist your back foot left and right,
- slide yourself forward, and
- move in with your best defense posture (low stand, one arm guide your head, another arm guard your body).

This way, you can close the distant slowly, with strong protection, force your opponent to do something, you then react to it.

 

[dowz]

I have the same problem when sparring too. Usually with defensive opponents, the moment you try to move in, you can always predict a back thrust coming your way, forcing me to shuffle back away immediately. Find it very hard to close in the distance.