What intensity do you like to spar at most? In fight camp I like 70%. Outside of fight camp I like 40% 😂 FREE Magnesium. Improve Sleep & Recovery magnesiumbreakthrough.com/gabrielfree Use code: Gabriel10 and only pay for shipping.
I think it all depends on who you're sparring with...I'm small and not that experienced so it wouldn't really make sense for me to spar with some of the guys there because they're a lot bigger and better than me...but if I'm sparring with someone more my size and level we go a bit harder....not really what you would call hard sparring but the intensity definitely goes up levels
I try to go as fast and light as possible most of the time because I prefer to work on tactics and technique.Also I don’t mind hard kicks and punches to the body and legs. But I hate spar wars and guys who have no control.
i like to spar light very often,even every day(full speed,no power). Medium intensity less(more power but not try for ko) Really hard sparing once in 2 weeks(going for the finish but with full protection and a supervisor)
Hey Gabriel love your videos. I was wondering could you make a video discussing rhythm? What is rhythm in fighting? How can I train rhythm on my own and with a partner? Not sure if you made a video about this topic. Again thank you for your help, your channel has made a huge difference in my training.
I think it would have been important to note, that whether you compete or desire to compete is a pivotal factor as well. Those of us that just love the fight game and are happy with the thrills we get in light to medium sparring regularly, don't really need to do hard sparring. The risk to benefit doesn't really exist unless you are competing and seeking higher levels of combat. The average dude on the street attacking you is going to get wrecked if you light spar regularly (with proper coaching/instruction of course).
As a beginner I've been on so many hard spars that I wasn't ready for where people (mostly other boxers and coaches) judged my ability as a boxer that I just wanna be world champion cause I proved in my shorts/ videos that I have that potential 💯
Sub concussive contact to the head is suspected in CTE, which we expose ourselves to in the fight game. When I had a school in the 90's we went all out to the body, but light to the head, MMA style. Still, the head injuries, leg injuries, face injuries...lol...it all happened. Stay safe! Awesome video dude.
I would think the best sparring setup is sparring with someone you trust who's figured out just how hard to hit you to not damage you but make you afraid of getting hit. As a beginner I just did my first hard spar and it was against someone who didn't like me and was way more experienced. It was obvious he just wanted to hurt me and thats exactly what he did.
Sparred hard a lot at my gym for a year a few times every week with rarely no breaks, plus I trained on my own ended up with a fractured rib on the 13th of July had to stop sparring and training until September! still healing up now. from my experience yes the hard sparring gets you fight ready, but if you spar light every time you won’t be used to getting punched to the face or body much at all.
Thank you Gabriel! Many great points in this video on a topic I've researched and discussed in depth. My thoughts: Unless you want injures and a short time in martial arts you best not spar hard too often. However, if you never spar hard then you won't learn the valuable lessons of that kind of pressure testing. Pressure being one of the 3 components of learning anything: -Education (Kata, Kihon, basicss/fundamentals, etc) -Exploration (Henka/Bunkai/Free form, research, etc) -Pressure (Sparring, Belt testing, Written tests, drills, etc) How much time should be spent during class learning/practice? How much time should be spent exploring what you're learned and practiced? How much time should be spent pressure/testing? Many right answers here 👍👍
I really appreciate all of your videos! Got my first amateur boxing match in october (if we can pin down a venue...) and they've been helping me really think things through during my recovery between training. Your comment about overconfidence with light sparring in particular has really given me something to think hard about. Its tough because there isn't anyone quite my size or bigger i can hard spar with at my gym at the moment.
Broke my Nose 4 times in 1,5 years just by ego aggressive sparring partners.. went to my first fight with a broken nose and lost by tko due too much swelling and blood. now i have to take 1 year off but i want to spar again so damn much
I do light sparring all training day, is a moment for lessons and learning, I use to sharp the basics of the techniques, And almost everyday of training we do hard to the body an easy on the head, fast but stoping before delivering the blows clean to the head. And sometimes all out sparring, with little to no restrictions. The body is always purple and hurt but the head is safe as possible
Have you ever fought a Sanda or Sanshou fighter? Wanted to know what you think about the style compared to kickboxing or mauy Thai. Great videos! I share them all the time.
Thanks for sharing. Yes. In China I fought a Sanda athlete. They have many strengths but some weaknesses. First off I far as I've seen they train crazy hard. And are very strong. Great side kicks and balance. Weakness is fluidity in boxing. Perhaps a video to make.
Hey, Gabriel! Love your videos. I've started teaching Muay Thai and I wonder if you have some tips for new instructors, because its very different than just help someone during the training sessions. Thanks and cheers from Brazil!
I've mainly sparred light due to the fact that I find it hard to tell if the people who would be a good partner. What are you suggestions for finding good hard sparring partners? Perhaps a video on finding good hard sparring partners would be good.
Nicely put.. I always wonder if protective gear can sometimes make bad habits.. I had seen quite a lot ppls wreck their hands even when they got 12oz gloves - maybe lack of conditioning?
They both have pros and cons but I think it's necessary to hard spar from time to time. Light sparring doesn't always give a clear indication of what one or both fighters are capable of. Point fighters and counters fighters tend to thrive in light sparring. Fighters with more aggressive and hard hitting styles don't. So when they are required to spar light, they are forced to compromise their natural fighting style. Taking power off of shots comes at the price of decreasing ones speed as well. So now an aggressive, bone breaking, head hunter type of fighter has to try to point fight which may play into the other person's strength. One fighter may also have a huge reach advantage which makes light sparring even harder unless the shorter fighter is just lightyears ahead of the taller fighter in terms of technique and skill. But when both fighters are relatively even in terms of technique, the fighter with the reach advantage tends to thrive in light sparring. One of the best ways to nullify a reach advantage is pressure and controlled aggression. We saw this with Strickland vs Adysanya. Another way to cancel out a disparity between technique is to flat out hit the other person hard. Make them bag up and think twice about throwing a shot or catching a kick. I've seen plenty of technical and slick fighters crumble under the pressure and power of a bull. Another good example of this is Justin Gaejthe vs Edson Barbosa.
100%. Absolutely agree. Hard sparring is pretty much way to go. You are not really challenging yourself by doing light sparring anyway. Light sparring is for total beginners or used for warm ups. But hard sparring is the real thing
Why not go half way? "Light" sparring with hits you actually feel and make you insecure without putting all your weigh behind each strike. What's the point of trying to kick your partner's head off and send him to the shadow realm on a normal Tuesday?
Well don’t you think it’s up for both of them to decide ? Like if you hv a competition u shld probs want to know what ur acc getting urself into. Depending on the level of competition, ur acc FIGHTING so u shld try see what that feeling is like and it’ll help u be more calm in tough situations. But Yh Gabriel made some gd points about hard sparring. Just depends on what u want.
Hey Gabriel, I have a question. When it comes to developing new fighting strategies and techniques in the ring, is it a good idea to experiment with those techniques and strategies with light sparring at first and then overtime go hard?
I've learned the same thing from hard sparring. Jabs, the 1-2, headmovement, blocking/shoulder rolling, footwork, pivoting, clinching, step-in knee to the body, straight right to the body, low kicks and frontkicks is nearly all I use.
I have a question, how do you train to increase volume of output in a fight? I feel that my rhythm and output is a bit slower and often get overwhelmed by high output fighters or heavy hitters.
To be honest, I think hard sparring is mostly unneeded granted you spar correctly. Most of the time light spar. Light kicks, light punches, light pace, try out various things that you drilled and practiced. No real threat of injuries, but may occur. Sometimes medium spar. Higher intensity and pace, 30-40% to the body/legs, feathering to the head. Very rarely hard spar. Honestly this just occurs organically most of the time. When I train with the guys I train with a lot, those medium intensity spars end up being hard spars but controlled to the head most of the time. The only time I "spar hard" off the rip is when a motherfucker I've never met is throwing 60% plus. Ok, so you trying to fight, not even train, ok. The guys who start out only hard sparring always has the same issue. They trained with an asswipe that is higher level and wouldn't let them do anything. They end up very gun shy with very good defense but has difficulty getting their offensive going. I ain't heard a single person mention this by I've seen it time and time again at gyms that "hard spar" all the time. Then you see the opposite too, fuckers who go hard all the time but anytime they face opposition their level or higher, they quit because that's the way they trained. They trained to bully the weaker people. There's a time and place for both, but most of the time, light is all you need because you're not trying to fight your teammates, your gymmates. You're trying to be iron sharpening iron. Not breaking it.
There are other ways to condition. Using drills, using pads. Training without shinpads. Hard spar is definitely not the only way to condition your body. It is effective sure, but again, not the ONLY condition method. Becoming over confident because you light spar has got to be an individual problem and those folks need to be humbled. That is not martial arts. And in many cases, it's through martial arts, through sparring that they end up humbled.
This is me:"The guys who start out only hard sparring always has the same issue. They trained with an asswipe that is higher level and wouldn't let them do anything. They end up very gun shy with very good defense but has difficulty getting their offensive going." My defense is great but I'm gunshy because I started off getting demolished before I even knew what a Jab, footwork or headmovement were. I'd rather spar light and actually learn the techniques we were drilling but that was considered weak, so hard sparring only because it was one of those knuckleheads gyms. I got way more technical in a different gym where we went light.
What intensity do you like to spar at most? In fight camp I like 70%.
Outside of fight camp I like 40% 😂
FREE Magnesium. Improve Sleep & Recovery magnesiumbreakthrough.com/gabrielfree
Use code: Gabriel10 and only pay for shipping.
I think it all depends on who you're sparring with...I'm small and not that experienced so it wouldn't really make sense for me to spar with some of the guys there because they're a lot bigger and better than me...but if I'm sparring with someone more my size and level we go a bit harder....not really what you would call hard sparring but the intensity definitely goes up levels
Gabe. Please do a breakdown of Melvin Manhoef
I try to go as fast and light as possible most of the time because I prefer to work on tactics and technique.Also I don’t mind hard kicks and punches to the body and legs. But I hate spar wars and guys who have no control.
i like to spar light very often,even every day(full speed,no power).
Medium intensity less(more power but not try for ko)
Really hard sparing once in 2 weeks(going for the finish but with full protection and a supervisor)
Had sparrig is ghood, I spaer had ervy sejjion ad I'm fhyne.
😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂
Hey Gabriel love your videos. I was wondering could you make a video discussing rhythm? What is rhythm in fighting? How can I train rhythm on my own and with a partner? Not sure if you made a video about this topic. Again thank you for your help, your channel has made a huge difference in my training.
Great suggestion!
I'll try to get it made soon.
I think it would have been important to note, that whether you compete or desire to compete is a pivotal factor as well. Those of us that just love the fight game and are happy with the thrills we get in light to medium sparring regularly, don't really need to do hard sparring. The risk to benefit doesn't really exist unless you are competing and seeking higher levels of combat. The average dude on the street attacking you is going to get wrecked if you light spar regularly (with proper coaching/instruction of course).
As a beginner I've been on so many hard spars that I wasn't ready for where people (mostly other boxers and coaches) judged my ability as a boxer that I just wanna be world champion cause I proved in my shorts/ videos that I have that potential 💯
Sub concussive contact to the head is suspected in CTE, which we expose ourselves to in the fight game. When I had a school in the 90's we went all out to the body, but light to the head, MMA style. Still, the head injuries, leg injuries, face injuries...lol...it all happened. Stay safe! Awesome video dude.
Gabrial, you are my inspiration!
🙏🙂🙏
Started boxing at 28, after a few broken bones i only spar light now at 31. I ain’t no fighter i just want to learn the technique and be in shape.
I would think the best sparring setup is sparring with someone you trust who's figured out just how hard to hit you to not damage you but make you afraid of getting hit. As a beginner I just did my first hard spar and it was against someone who didn't like me and was way more experienced. It was obvious he just wanted to hurt me and thats exactly what he did.
Sparred hard a lot at my gym for a year a few times every week with rarely no breaks, plus I trained on my own ended up with a fractured rib on the 13th of July had to stop sparring and training until September! still healing up now. from my experience yes the hard sparring gets you fight ready, but if you spar light every time you won’t be used to getting punched to the face or body much at all.
Thank you Gabriel! Many great points in this video on a topic I've researched and discussed in depth. My thoughts:
Unless you want injures and a short time in martial arts you best not spar hard too often. However, if you never spar hard then you won't learn the valuable lessons of that kind of pressure testing.
Pressure being one of the 3 components of learning anything:
-Education (Kata, Kihon, basicss/fundamentals, etc)
-Exploration (Henka/Bunkai/Free form, research, etc)
-Pressure (Sparring, Belt testing, Written tests, drills, etc)
How much time should be spent during class learning/practice?
How much time should be spent exploring what you're learned and practiced?
How much time should be spent pressure/testing?
Many right answers here 👍👍
I really appreciate all of your videos! Got my first amateur boxing match in october (if we can pin down a venue...) and they've been helping me really think things through during my recovery between training. Your comment about overconfidence with light sparring in particular has really given me something to think hard about. Its tough because there isn't anyone quite my size or bigger i can hard spar with at my gym at the moment.
Broke my Nose 4 times in 1,5 years just by ego aggressive sparring partners.. went to my first fight with a broken nose and lost by tko due too much swelling and blood.
now i have to take 1 year off but i want to spar again so damn much
I do light sparring all training day, is a moment for lessons and learning, I use to sharp the basics of the techniques,
And almost everyday of training we do hard to the body an easy on the head, fast but stoping before delivering the blows clean to the head.
And sometimes all out sparring, with little to no restrictions.
The body is always purple and hurt but the head is safe as possible
Have you ever fought a Sanda or Sanshou fighter? Wanted to know what you think about the style compared to kickboxing or mauy Thai. Great videos! I share them all the time.
Thanks for sharing. Yes. In China I fought a Sanda athlete.
They have many strengths but some weaknesses.
First off I far as I've seen they train crazy hard. And are very strong.
Great side kicks and balance.
Weakness is fluidity in boxing.
Perhaps a video to make.
@@GabrielVargaOfficial Please make a video on Sanda. The takedowns and slams add a interesting dynamic that dutch style kickboxing doesn't have.
At the gym I go to everyone makes a big deal because I don’t use head gear but I noticed I get hit a lot more with head gear on
Agreed. I feel headgear mostly helps with cuts and head clashes.
Aside from that I think it just makes you get hit more.
Hey, Gabriel! Love your videos. I've started teaching Muay Thai and I wonder if you have some tips for new instructors, because its very different than just help someone during the training sessions. Thanks and cheers from Brazil!
I've mainly sparred light due to the fact that I find it hard to tell if the people who would be a good partner. What are you suggestions for finding good hard sparring partners? Perhaps a video on finding good hard sparring partners would be good.
Nicely put.. I always wonder if protective gear can sometimes make bad habits.. I had seen quite a lot ppls wreck their hands even when they got 12oz gloves - maybe lack of conditioning?
Hi Gabriel, what you think about headguards with a nose horizontal nose protection for kickboxing?
Please do a breakdown of Melvin Manhoef
Funny you post this on my hard spar days 😂
the differences are often not used in a gym. mostly they choose one and only do that one.
They both have pros and cons but I think it's necessary to hard spar from time to time. Light sparring doesn't always give a clear indication of what one or both fighters are capable of. Point fighters and counters fighters tend to thrive in light sparring. Fighters with more aggressive and hard hitting styles don't. So when they are required to spar light, they are forced to compromise their natural fighting style. Taking power off of shots comes at the price of decreasing ones speed as well. So now an aggressive, bone breaking, head hunter type of fighter has to try to point fight which may play into the other person's strength. One fighter may also have a huge reach advantage which makes light sparring even harder unless the shorter fighter is just lightyears ahead of the taller fighter in terms of technique and skill. But when both fighters are relatively even in terms of technique, the fighter with the reach advantage tends to thrive in light sparring. One of the best ways to nullify a reach advantage is pressure and controlled aggression. We saw this with Strickland vs Adysanya. Another way to cancel out a disparity between technique is to flat out hit the other person hard. Make them bag up and think twice about throwing a shot or catching a kick. I've seen plenty of technical and slick fighters crumble under the pressure and power of a bull. Another good example of this is Justin Gaejthe vs Edson Barbosa.
100%. Absolutely agree. Hard sparring is pretty much way to go. You are not really challenging yourself by doing light sparring anyway. Light sparring is for total beginners or used for warm ups. But hard sparring is the real thing
Could you show us when to eat healthy and when to have junk food? Or maybe compare diets for upcoming fighters looking to being competitive
Hey Gabriel can you do a video on how to get fit back into camp after having time off
Thank you
Why not go half way? "Light" sparring with hits you actually feel and make you insecure without putting all your weigh behind each strike. What's the point of trying to kick your partner's head off and send him to the shadow realm on a normal Tuesday?
Well don’t you think it’s up for both of them to decide ? Like if you hv a competition u shld probs want to know what ur acc getting urself into. Depending on the level of competition, ur acc FIGHTING so u shld try see what that feeling is like and it’ll help u be more calm in tough situations. But Yh Gabriel made some gd points about hard sparring. Just depends on what u want.
light to the head hard to the body
@@ratopetista4508This!!
Hey Gabriel, I have a question. When it comes to developing new fighting strategies and techniques in the ring, is it a good idea to experiment with those techniques and strategies with light sparring at first and then overtime go hard?
I see so that's why my moves tend to stay more basic 🤔 too much hard sparring🕺 also why I only use high probability techniques
I've learned the same thing from hard sparring. Jabs, the 1-2, headmovement, blocking/shoulder rolling, footwork, pivoting, clinching, step-in knee to the body, straight right to the body, low kicks and frontkicks is nearly all I use.
Maybe hard punches to the body and light to the head
In my gym, we have sparring light, sparring and timing
a fix for the light sparring not respecting the shots. is simply recording ur spars, u can see patterns and mistakes much better than from memory
Hey, Gabe can you make a video on Naoya Inoue's next fight.
Me at 21:04 watching this before going to sleep ✌🏼
Isnt the real benefit from light sparring that you do better Technic?
I have a question, how do you train to increase volume of output in a fight? I feel that my rhythm and output is a bit slower and often get overwhelmed by high output fighters or heavy hitters.
Same.
I impose to my self do light sparring even if i know the other guy won't...
One of the realest ones .... I'm very picky when it comes to spend my time to learn something.... and i want yo say .... Youre the best one ....⚡🤍
can you just do light spar and condition the body? like get your friend to hit you on the stomach with pad or kick your leg to condition
For a person that does not plan to compete Hard Sparring is very dumb.
To be honest, I think hard sparring is mostly unneeded granted you spar correctly.
Most of the time light spar. Light kicks, light punches, light pace, try out various things that you drilled and practiced. No real threat of injuries, but may occur.
Sometimes medium spar. Higher intensity and pace, 30-40% to the body/legs, feathering to the head.
Very rarely hard spar. Honestly this just occurs organically most of the time. When I train with the guys I train with a lot, those medium intensity spars end up being hard spars but controlled to the head most of the time.
The only time I "spar hard" off the rip is when a motherfucker I've never met is throwing 60% plus. Ok, so you trying to fight, not even train, ok.
The guys who start out only hard sparring always has the same issue. They trained with an asswipe that is higher level and wouldn't let them do anything. They end up very gun shy with very good defense but has difficulty getting their offensive going. I ain't heard a single person mention this by I've seen it time and time again at gyms that "hard spar" all the time. Then you see the opposite too, fuckers who go hard all the time but anytime they face opposition their level or higher, they quit because that's the way they trained. They trained to bully the weaker people.
There's a time and place for both, but most of the time, light is all you need because you're not trying to fight your teammates, your gymmates. You're trying to be iron sharpening iron. Not breaking it.
There are other ways to condition. Using drills, using pads. Training without shinpads.
Hard spar is definitely not the only way to condition your body. It is effective sure, but again, not the ONLY condition method.
Becoming over confident because you light spar has got to be an individual problem and those folks need to be humbled. That is not martial arts. And in many cases, it's through martial arts, through sparring that they end up humbled.
This is me:"The guys who start out only hard sparring always has the same issue. They trained with an asswipe that is higher level and wouldn't let them do anything. They end up very gun shy with very good defense but has difficulty getting their offensive going."
My defense is great but I'm gunshy because I started off getting demolished before I even knew what a Jab, footwork or headmovement were. I'd rather spar light and actually learn the techniques we were drilling but that was considered weak, so hard sparring only because it was one of those knuckleheads gyms. I got way more technical in a different gym where we went light.
i am always hard when sparring