Intro:
At the request of many members, we now have a sparring guide meant to help people understand and learn how to spar properly.
Sparring is offered after your first month of training at the Thai Boxing Institute and sparring is never required. Sparring is always OPTIONAL.
We will never force you to spar.
Also: As a courtesy to our members we don’t allow drop-ins for sparring.
If you are being referred to us for sparring then it would be good to know who you are by the referral party and it would be great to meet you first and for you to drop-in to an ‘All-Levels Muay Thai’ pad work class before being considered to drop-in for sparring.
Appreciate your understanding.
Lastly, check the videos at the end of the post to see examples of good sparring and bad sparring.
Sparring in a nutshell:
Sparring ISN’T fighting. Sparring isn’t hitting your partner at 100% power, nor is it trying to ‘win’ the rounds.
The general purpose for sparring is to improve your skill, but also to help your teammates improve as well.
What does that mean? It means to always have an intention or plan for sparring.
‘TACTFUL AND TACTICAL.’
Tact: Thoughtfulness, consideration, understanding.
Tactical: Calculated, plotted, planned, strategic.
This should be your sparring mantra!
Things like working on your defense, balance breathing, relaxation. Or perhaps only using your jab for a round or working on your low kicks.
Isolation and repetition are key concepts to technique acquisition and improvement.
Hitting someone for the sake of hitting them (i.e. not following through with your kick and just spamming a punch to your partner’s face) is considered bad form and rude.
The idea of sparring is to utilize Muay Thai concepts and techniques in combinations or sequences.
I emphasize the word ‘Muay Thai’ because although maybe you may have done a martial art in the past, those techniques can be done in Muay Thai but maybe should be reserved for competition. Things such as spinning back kicks, heel kicks are considered bad form in sparring and takedowns from MMA/Judo/Jiujitsu are strictly prohibited.
Equipment:
Please keep all equipment clean and odor free. 🙂
Optional:
Headgear: We will never really be going so hard and rough that a headgear would be needed but if you are competing you might consider getting your own headgear to get used to wearing one.
Athletic supporter: It hurts to get kicked there. Up to you if you want to wear one and don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Knee pads: Protects against knee to knee collisions as wells as protecting your partner from your knees.
Elbow pads: Required if you are practicing elbows (i.e. competetion class or clinch class). No use of elbows (not even ‘shadowing’ or ‘showing’ elbows) without elbow pads. Elbows can seriously injure your training partners. Please be very careful with them.
Required:
14 oz or 16 oz Gloves: It would be considerate to have a separate clean pair of gloves to spar in. What usually happens to gloves after a lot of use is that the knuckle padding wears thin and you can seriously hurt someone.
Also they begin to smell. Don’t be the person sparring with stinky gloves and equipment.
Basic gauge for weight of gloves:
Under 160lbs: 14 ounces
Over 160 lbs: 16 ounces
Shin Guards: I don’t mind the cloth ones, but your training partners would appreciate the thicker padded strap on variety.
Mouthpiece: A boil and bite type of mouthpiece that covers the top row. No need to buy the kind that covers both the top and bottom.
Hygiene:
Keep all equipment clean, dry and odor free (elbow pads and knee pads too)
Keep your nails trimmed. If doubling up on classes change your shirt to a dry one before sparring/clinching.
Types of sparring:
We have few different types of sparring classes. I will use a gauge or scale of 1-5 in power and intensity to rank the classes. (ALL sparring classes have the purposes of development and learning. Yes, even our ‘Competition Class’)
‘1’ being shadowboxing flow and light bag work, ‘3’ being moderate bag work and pad work, and ‘5’ being hitting with all your might and power.
Note: In all honesty there shouldn’t be a reason to be hitting each other to the head at 100% (intensity ranking: 5).
I will allow it to the body with pads (knee pads and body shield) or gloves, but never punching each other in the head at a level ‘5’.
Sometimes we will do hard boxing sparring but that is only reserved for those competing, interested in competing, or those helping the athletes prepare for competition.
Kneeing and elbowing the head is never allowed. Head kicks should be practiced with extreme care and caution and should only be used by and against experienced athletes.
If you and your partner are cool with each other and consider yourselves ‘homies’ (the gauge I use is that if you two spend the day chatting or sending each other memes) then I generally let the action go harder for as long as feelings aren’t hurt or it gets emotional. (i.e. swinging punches wildly).
Lastly, all sparring will be done under the direct supervision of a coach.
Competition Class:
Learn how to compete or help others prepare for competition. Rules, scoring, cornering. Drills and sparring involving. Must be a TBI member for longer than a month to participate.
Equipment needed: body shield, gloves, mouthpiece, elbow pads, knee pads and shin guards.
Intensity level: 4
Beginner and All Levels Drilling and Sparring:
Technique drills, situational sparring and freestyle sparring. Freestyle sparring is done with the same partner for 2×3 min rounds, switching to a new partner after every set.
Intensity: 1-3
Equipment needed: Gloves, mouthpiece, elbow pads, knee pads and shin guards.
Open Sparring:
8×3 min rounds. New partner every round.
All Levels Clinch:
Muay Thai clinch class covering the basics such as wrestling holds, positions and attacking from within the clinch. Drills and live sparring.
Clinch sparring: Don’t muscle. Understand how to manipulate balance and the use of leverage. Learn to breathe and relax. Don’t get so competitive. Don’t knee the legs.
If you are good at one thing don’t spam the technique. Use it a few times and move on.
If you are extremely good at the clinch, put yourself in a compromising position and practice getting out of it.
Clinching in sparring:
Clinching should be ‘Tactful and Tactical’. Try not to straight knee your partner.
Use of elbows in all types of sparring: When you know how to use controlled, proper technique, understand where the proper training targets are for elbows, know how to defend against elbows then that’s when you can use elbows. Typically you are trained for this kind of sparring in our competition class. If you don’t have elbow pads, don’t even think of using elbows!
Tips from me:
Don’t run away, take up too much mat space, learn to stand your ground sometimes. Check, defend and not be pushed back.
Give and take: Sometimes you strike your partner with a few things, and then you let them hit you back with a few things. This is the definition of letting your partner ‘work’.
When you both are volleying technique fluidly at each other, that is the definition of flow sparring, which is about 90% of the sparring done at the gym.
Techniques to be careful with:
Catching kicks: Too easy to do at this pace. Catch a few and move on to a different defensive technique. Practice checking or evading.
Headkicks
Elbows
Straight Knees
Sweeps (show the sweep or control it)
Spinning backfist/Spinning Elbow (just show it, don’t follow through)((Generally, this is for intermediate to high-level fighter training))
Forbidden techniques:
Considered rude, dangerous, unsportsmanlike:
Push kick the face/stomp the knee
MMA techniques, double leg takedowns, judo takedowns, ‘grapevining’ the leg and throwing people.
No striking with the heel, no axe kicks, or spinning heel kicks.
Lastly:
I’ve compiled a list of suggestions from coaches and members that may help you on your sparring journey:
Follow through with your technique:
Don’t stop your kick half way when you think you’re going to miss or get blocked. Follow through with it so you know how it feels like to have your kick missed or get blocked. And what your options are after that happens.
My partner is trying to teach or explain everything to me:
Let me drill or spar. Sometimes it is warranted, but do not talk to me while I am training. I am working here!
People who are much larger and smother you during clinch:
They are not swimming with you or trying to work back and forth, just grabbing you tightly the entire round so you cannot move your arms.
Good etiquette:
This is still the real world, common sense and respect still apply, even more so since you are sparring. Communicate properly, checking in on your partner making sure you are not hitting them too hard or being too aggressive or overwhelming.
Bad etiquette:
Starting off the round at medium to high intensity. If I do not know you and you just immediately go for a six-hit combo at fifty percent, you are instigating a fight.
Don’t say ‘Let’s go light’ to your partner and immediately start bombing people.
When light sparring, stop catching every kick.
Throwing head kicks:
Time them and drop them in very lightly. If you cannot throw them with control, do not throw them.
Defending head kicks:
When the light kick drops on your shoulder, do not plow the person to the floor. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Also, do not sweep or dump off catching a kick that was sent out slowly and with control.
If you have a sparring partner clearly hurt or stunned:
Give them a second or two to get themselves together. You are not getting paid to win the fight.
If you land a good shot, pausing to check on your partner every time completely interrupts their ability to fire back. Just keep going and take the return shot.
Don’t treat the mat like a ring:
It is frustrating to chase someone straight back thirty feet and only stop when we hit the parking lot.
Eventually, you have to stand in there. This drives me insane. You have now bumped into every other person on the mat, interrupted the sparring session countless times to apologize, and all you have done is run backward. Take an angle or something.
Do not be scared to get hit:
Learn to take a hit and defend it.
A Few More:
Adjust your game to the body weight and experience level of your partner.
If you have a problem, a request, or anything at all, vocalize it quickly and concisely in a way that does not interrupt.
I love partners that do this.
It takes all of ten seconds to say, “Can we go hard to the legs and body?” or “My left knee is rough, please do not kick my lead leg.”
Your rounds are infinitely better for it.
Communicate with your partner.
Respect the size difference and skill level of your partner.
Good: Going fast and soft.
Bad:Going fast and hard.
Good: Give some, take some. General sparring that is not focused on a specific goal or aimed at preparing for an actual fight should be a back-and-forth affair. If you are trying to dominate in a general sparring session, you are an asshole.
Bad: Letting your anger take over. Whether it is something they did wrong or you made a mistake and can’t calm down, sparring angrily increases the risk of injury to someone.
If you are angry, take a walk. There is more respect and maturity in taking a moment to regulate your emotions.
Make sure you are both okay with the pace and intensity.
Treat all partners with respect.
There is no polite way to knee someone in the gut, so do not get upset or angry if you get tagged.
Be aware of size differences: if you are 6’3″, 220 pounds, do not teep the 5’5″, 135-pound person through the wall.
Also, just because you are smaller does not mean you can tee off on the bigger person.
Take care of your partners as you are all here to help each other.
It is not a fight; it is training. If you get pieced up and your response is, “Let’s really fight,” then you need to take a break from sparring.
Power is the last thing you need to worry about.
Getting tagged at ten percent is more than enough to see what is or is not working. Doing it at one hundred and ten percent is not going to make it a better learning experience. If anything, it just makes others not want to work with you
When sparring with someone who is as good or better than you, go easy. Often they are more than happy to go light and help you and teach you something. Don’t try to prove something.
Videos:
Good sparring: