An important point is to never use hard sparring to get into condition. You need to be in the best condition possible when engaging in hard sparring and you should cut the session short if you get to the point where fatigue masks fitness. The damage gets done when fatigue sets in.
Hmm opposite viewpoint from me, me and my friend like to train awhile, hit the heavybag and mitt work and then we spar at the end when we are already less explosive than being fully fresh and starting out
@@futasvg-ftw7972 I think he means that fatigue is the worst enemy of techniek. Because as you fatigue you become slower your posture will fade and your technique becomes harder to maintain. Classic quantity vs quality dilemma during training.
I have only done one session of sparring and the biggest lesson was that as soon as you become tired or out of breath you literally become a heavy bag for the guy who is still fresh. So I will sparr again but not before training a lot my cardio I already started doing a couple running sessions a week beside drill training
When I started kickboxing we only did light sparring all the time. I thought I was making exceptionally good progresses because I landed a lot and was able to avoid a lot of punches. Then I got into hard sparring for the first time and noticed my speed was only possible because of where my point of gravity was. Because of this I didn't had good balance and stumbled a lot. Hard sparring showed me my flaws in technique. On the other hand I noticed that there is a signigicant impact on brain health and it's much more diffcult to study with focus after you got hit in the head with force.
I like to spar hard once every two or three weeks because I plan to box for a really long time, but hard sparring definitely is a go to to condition yourself. Great video btw
When I was younger, I used to spar hard all of the time. You learn how to deal with pressure and how not to get flustered when someone comes at you swinging. At my current age (58), competition isn’t even an option. Also, it is much harder to take a shot now than it used to be 30 years ago. I love sparring though and much prefer sparring light. Every now and then someone will ramp it up and things will get a little crazy but it mostly stays controlled.
I totally agree. Especially when you want to get confident in your guard, you need to test it in sparring where your opponent actually hits it with full force. I would also like to add that, in my experience, people who always train light often tend to just ignore when they are getting hit. I had that a couple of times when someone would come in, I would hit them (very light) in the head and they would just continue to do the same approach, because they totally ignored that these shots would have been massive hits, had they been dished out with full power. So I think that *only* training light can also teach you incorrect techniques -- of course this goes not for everyone, but in my experience, for quite a lot of people.
agreed Or the people that develop their whole style from it example = always trying to hit you when you punch / counter your punches when they land. Its like cmon if i hit you with a hard right hand and you absorb it to try to sneak in a shot how many times you can try to do that. Obviously they just do it because they dont fear the impact
@@Ufhhh12 yea i dealt with that before, people trying to develop their whole style around the mercy youve shown not realising its not as safe of a move. Had a shorter reach friend keep trying to duck under my jabs and get inside so id let him work inside cause i needed the experience but he didnt realise how easy it was for me to frame him and "crush" him which is just holding his head down so he cant spring up with a hook, one day i did it just to show him and he realised its a bit more tricky than just getting inside, you have to get in and hit before you get controlled
Agree. Even if I love light sparring for the opposite reason of most of people, if the hit is connecting in light sparring I try to learn a pattern that not allow it to happens anymore. Most of people really don't understand the light sparring is a moment of reflection and improvement in a depper level.
@@lightnang at least one day week is good on my view. But light sparring with intentions to learn and sharpen you skills need to be done everyday. Visualization training with shadow boxe too is a good approach. But so often do hard sparring, cause you need the feeling that soft sparring can't give. One is to create MindBody connection. The other is to apply what you learned
All my confidence back when training came from fighting through those hard rounds and sparring with bigger guys. Altho if one was to overdo that and go much harder would surely end in some serious unnecessary brain damage imo. Great videos :)
Very reasonable opinion. I feel like when you step in the ring with someone who is actually trying to hurt you the timing seems a little different it almost feels like a different game than sparring with someone who isn't trying to hurt you. At least that's what it seems like to me. After you understand the difference I believe all aspects of your training are better.
Good ideas. I have know coaches who believed that light sparring only is enoug. All of their students were crushed in their first fights in the beginning of their career. The opponent was perhaps not so skilled but he/she was familiar with full contact. And what worst is that these young skilled but not so though talents ended their careers soon.
This is so important! A dose of reality is important, especially when we are young. However we have yo look at why we are training. Do we want to make money as a professional? Hard sparring is more important, but our body is our instrument and damaging it hurts us come fight time. If it's for self-defense, there is no point damaging ourselves worse in training than would happen in an attack/street fight. From the early 90's to mid 00's there was this sort of sea change that went from light sparring to knocking each other out weekly thanks to the UFC. It took 20 years, but I think we are finding a balance as a culture now
Defend the head and harden the body, and know when to say you had enough. Seeing guys keep working when I know the body is gone, bad news when power comes to head.
This makes sense. i have been doing kickboxing for the past 2 months and in sparring i have actually found it hard to put proper power into sparring without someone else initiating it but i would like to be able to learn how to turn up the heat
Yup I agree with a lot of comments. Hard to the body but light to the head or if below yr level keep it playful and teach the beginners how to control their power...
I second this. I prefer 80% "technical" sparing. Meaning 60% to body and legs. And only 30-40% to head. Noone likes concussions, or losing brain cells or headaches after sparring. It suqs
Hard sparring 80/90 when you first start out, you gotta get beat up a lil so that way you know it’s serious . Fighting is not like any other sport, you cant just call timeout or have teammates to carry you. It’s all on you, specially in competition or a real fight. That individual your facing is trying to knock your head off. You can get seriously hurt , possibly die. It’s happened before. Too much light sparring you develop bad habits with pulling your punches plus the shots ain’t as hard so you neglect defense a little and develop noodle guard which in the long run not good for competition
Thats kinda harmful mindset to have tho, the best is when you have people throwing heat and still acting like its a "game" not being scared of punches, imagine going into a fight and thinking every punch can make you die, you will never be successful. Thats my opinion tho, You gotta start not being scared of punches one way or another.
@@Ufhhh12 that’s a good point , the first month or so def start off light but eventually hard sparring is a must with a coach or experienced fighter watching so it’s still controlled and doesn’t get out of hand. With the more experienced one gets the less it’s needed
@Jake Collins If you gonna spar hard gotta be prepared the day before or hrs before to make sure muscles are rested this less damage .It’s not something that has to be done all the time . Personally if you don’t have a fight coming up maybe like once a month if you an active fighter. If you have a fight coming up though at least 1 or 2x a week . Fighting is not for everyone. Hard sparring must be done . Any champ will tell you that . The ones that say they don’t do hard sparring anymore have a lot of years of experience and compete often . But I’m pretty sure they all sparred hard at some point. There’s no ifs or buts about it . Hard sparring is the closest thing you’ll get to a real fight
@@arvyguzman5866 I disagree. Fighter pilots, police officers, and soldiers train for LIFE AND DEATH scenarios. Fighter pilots don't train dogfighting with real bullets and missiles. Police officers don't "practice" responding to active shooter situations by having real bullets shot at them. Marines and soldiers don't "practice" how to take cover from bullets and RPGs by having real bullets and RPGs fired at them during training. Getting punched in the head or the body DOES NOT make one better at taking future punches to the head and body. One CANNOT "get used to" being punched. Go ask any carpenter if he ever "gets used to" hitting his thumb with a hammer. Go ask him if the 20th time he hit his thumb with a hammer was less painful than the first time he hit his thumb with a hammer. You can NEVER get used to the pain and shock of hitting your thumb with a hammer in the same way that you can NEVER get used to getting punched in the head.
Great video, Gabriel. If we look at the top 5 boxers on the planet earth today: Naoya Inoue, Oleksandr Usyk, Terence Crawford, Errol Spence and Canelo--it's very easy to find sparring footage of them on RUclips (it's a little bit harder to find sparring footage of the top kickboxers). Literally all 5 of them spar at fight intensity. If you put 2 and 2 together, that kind of suggests firmly that hard sparring is required to reach the top of the mountain.
I think the best sparring is somewhere inbetween how the Dutch and the thais spar, fast and technical but still landing hard shots while not really trying to hurt them
Loose Thai style is fun anytime of the day and great for improving reads, setting up specific strikes and reaction time. Dutch style for conditioning, defense, reaction time, and letting out pent up energy lol
@@gamemak0r I'm telling you in don't think using surplus 'stupid energy' is good for anyone. Do you think I'm using it, still? Do you think I will try to 'educate' barely functional adults high on stupid energy (and roids maybe) with my fists? Hope you don't have to deal with them too often. Cause they're also the type waiting for you on the parking lot for 'reasons'.
the pros are you can manage your opponents power that are closer to your weight the cons are if he’s having a bad day you could get knocked out with one punch or kick
I think that if you train for self-defense it's a must. If you don't care about that then it's really up to what you're comfortable with. Bigger sparring partners should be taking care of you at least a little.
following because this is a really good question. at my dojo most of the folks at my skill level are much heavier than me, and i do think the difficulty is helpful training, but i also think it can fuck with my ideas of what works and what doesn't (me getting rid of useful techniques just because they aren't working on the much bigger people, or getting used to tactics that are less useful against smaller and faster people), and it also fucks with my confidence sometimes when the weight advantage is just insurmountable on some days. so i too would like to hear some perspectives
@@neokimchi I think it’s important to spar different people at different weight & height. Gives you different looks; sharpens your toolset plus exposes things you’re not proficient at. I’m 6’5 but light for my height. Everyone in my class is shorter than me besides this guy who’s 6’3 and about 50lbs heavier. He makes me uncomfortable because my advantage of reach isn’t useful like on others and his power negates my distance management. Hes able to bulldoze in the pocket or get in range at will. That forces me to adjust my approach and improve. I have to move well and tighten up my defense or get lit up. Going back to a shorter opponent or my weight is like night and day.
everyone need to realise what it's like to do a sparring with someone who is here to hurt you and not giving you any gift! It's really different and make you understand that : "ok i have a real pressure, i need to be focused !"
I agree with you. We are lucky to do smokers every month or every other month where they can get a chance to spar hard with someone else in a competitive environment.
We only have hard sparring in our Gym. And i have no Good Defense it sucks when you Need a week or two to get healthy from sparring. This sparring always feels like a real fight. Im to old for that shit. I wish we would go easier sometimes
Suqs man. Try to speak to your sparring partners. Tell them you just wanna spar technically. If it doesn't help just go to the heavybag lol. Better than getting injured Edit: One of the best defense to defend against a puncher imo is teeping the leg. It stops them from advancing. Check hook too...or time lowkicks on their jab...look up "kickbox counters" on youtube. Helps a lot.
Went through hard sparring for the first time and got hurt for inside leg kick for the first time. It was eye-opening and never had I realised how much flaw I had in my techniques if I had no one hard sparring.
I like to go 70%, most punches your opponent throws at a normal fight gonna be around that averaged out too except the punches that you want the opponent to really hurt with at 70% you can basically get the same amount of speed and it will hurt already.
Agree, you need it if you want to get good. It is up to the coach to plan it the right way, not too often, with the right partners and giving you a guidance trough the rounds on how to work. Another point: sparring in boxe, kickboxe and mma need different approach
What I find in my gym is, that people just stand in highguard absorbing friendly punches not moving their feet or they head at all. Then they think they are very good and counter with straights, which is good for learning the timing, but they all don’t know what todo when the opponent actually follows up on punches
Good to see a REAL professional and multiple champion talk about this intelligently instead of the droves of keyboard warriors who be like: "If you don't spar hard all the time, you're a pussy bro. I spar hard every day cuz I'm built different."
Hard body and leg shots, no head shots is best way I think but with light sparring for full contact so atleast most of the bodyshots and leg shots have been drilled. That's how I would prefer it personally.
Thank you this describes me ! I want to enhance my technique but not compete I don’t fight for competition then my coach told me I wasn’t a fighter because of that …. Which I feel like I’m still a fighter just not a competitive fighter
Maybe spar hard to the body & legs but moderate sparing to the head for a good compromise for someone who wants to be pro? It's not like hard shots to the head in sparring is good for brain conditioning. You can do all the neck exercises to make the head more resistant to impact. Maybe even condition the face & head by taking shots while resting against the mat?
Don’t disagree with anything you said, but being able to spar light effectively does take some experience with sparring harder. I’m sure you’ve had some experience where you threw a light kick and the person caught it and tried to sweep you. Like if that was a real kick, they be on the floor., or maybe through a soft technical overhand right and just touch their face , but they came back with knees or something else... If that was a real overhand right, they be rocked
I got into boxing and I recently started sparring. Hard sparring is only needed if you plan on competing. But if you’re just trying to learn the sport it’s definitely unnecessary and probably just harmful.
My question is, what if I wanted to just spare to learn to defend myself? Would I need to occasionally mix in the hard sparring to prepare myself in case of a fight?
i like to go hard, maybe not 100% but hard because i hate it when i go easy and the other not, i like it intense but not to the point you destroy the other one : True fights are made for this. But i don't have the impression to really work if there is not that tension
Gabriel, what do you think about doing lighter type full sparring and then say something like Kyokushin type hard sparring (no head punches) to condition your body for fights? Maybe a way to do it with less trauma to the head?
My coach aims to technical sparring But most of ppl do fight not box, lucky I survived figths with the newbies and I started to do boxing with the middle lvl skill and amateurs 🤣 So I think more experience some one haves more technical it becames
Light sparring everyday, Hard sparring without hard strikes to the head 2 to 3 times a week "5 minutinhos sem perder a amizade" ( Brazilian slang for hard sparring with anything in yours style permitted. Basically a real fight) once on a month or two basis
I realize football isn't fighting. But, they both have this aspect - you have to be able to get jarred really hard and keep it together. We did full speed only an hour on offense and an hour on defense each week. When we did it differently, the attrition was too high.
Hard sparring when you are in good level and your partner's are in that level our higher level .when you are in a class you allways have different levels so you have to ajust partner to partner.
Man im sorry to hear that... im also thinking about to start kickboxing but just because i wanna know hoe to defend myself on the street im not interested in doing amateur fights. Do you think that i could also get good with mostly light sparring and hard sparring maybe once a month when i got to a certain level and developed good defense or do i have to do it more often. Im want to train in mma and i would also be cool with going hard 100% everywhere except the head in light sparring. But its not worth to take noticeable brain damage. How often did actually spar hard per week and for whst period of time ? Would be thankful for everyone who answers that has experience with this 💪🏻
How many days do you like to put in between sparring days? When you do have a sparring day, is your entire training day centered around sparring, or do you plan in other sessions for the day?
Too many variables to answer but let me give you one thing to consider. The time of the day for hard/hard-ish sparring. Not hard sparring late in the day have lots of serious advantages. One important advantage is that doing other things after the fighting, you will better detect injuries of all sorts. Or simply notice better potential imbalances. If you take a shower and go to sleep after hard sparring, you detect nothing the day after... Massages are good but naps are a necessity for people with enough time to train a lot. World class athletes will often take 2 NAPS a day (one long, one short), on top of the night sleep. _
I have taken knock downs via the body twice in sparring, one guy kicked me in the ribs hard enough to drop me, another guy months later got me with too many body punches on my liver and i dropped hahah, its an unreal feeling, impossible to stay standing.
Totally agree. Light spar all the time can even give you wrong habits. Like not parrying punches properly coz you just don’t feel the impact much on your head. You just keep your gloves glued to your face and you think you can get away with that. Hell no. Even a good jab can be felt thru your gloves, and a good cross feels really bad. I realized I simply won’t be able to compete without decent amount of hard sparing so I just decided not to engage in amateur fights at all 😂 I’m too old for this shit and I have good money income anyways so boxing is just a hobby for me. It’s not worth having brain damage. Ofc I do spar but mostly light and medium, and I don’t claim that I be really good at boxing
I thank my chute boxe instructors for giving me the confidence to be fearless with it comes to sparring. That chute boxe hard sparring style is great for the younger guys. But I've definitely tone down the hard sparring as we get older.
If i went 60-70 percent i would knock out most people, not to brag but I've got Artur Beterbiev type heavy hands. Edit: 80 and 90 percent, is too much and then your not sparring no more.
I think if you have a fight coming up hard sparring is necessary otherwise it's not smart. It always takes that 1 guy to make everyone start fighting for real though. I think if you do this as more of a hobby you shouldn't hard spar ever IMO
@@theshapetv9203 no they can use 8 oz on hard spars. Smaller gloves is safer for the brain because the punching force is less and it’s a smaller hit surface
@@Prymary2 Less protection for your hand makes you punch a bit lighter since you don't want to break your hand, boxing gloves are not for your opponents safety
I almost hate to be that guy but, how hard is hard enough to get good at fighting? If 60% isn't it, how close to 100 do you consider to be good preparation for fighting? Is the ability to go 80-90% etc and still be safe just something that comes with more skill and conditioning? And, how often do you think it makes sense to go hard if I'm doing it mainly for self defense?
I don't see why you can't have your cake and eat it too with this one. Go hard to the body light to head. If you have good control you should be able to go fast and light so do that to protect your brain, and go 80 90% to the body. Of course not too often but for conditioning's sake it should work well.
@@GabrielVargaOfficial thanks head like 70-60 right im kinda getting used to hard sparring now before i was to afraid to getting hit now its not so bad. Thanks coach 🙏
As a young man sparring hard 3 times a week was a must, it was the late 90’s and we really didn’t know better. We were concussing each other numerous times a session, but it was GOD mode for the ring. I no longer spar like that at 43 😂 although if someone wants to bring it I’m not above turning up.
Do you feel that natural toughness and experience of being hit by//hitting angry dudes throughout life helps with the conditioning aspect? 🤔 I’ve had definitely dozens of fights throughout my 45 years (going right back to high school), and getting punched in the face (even with 10oz gloves) has never rocked me (yet!)🤞 PS. I’m not advocating ‘street fights’, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. I have one of those faces I guess...plus I can be kinda sarcastic/annoying 🤷♂️🤭🙏
For self-defense purposes, hard sparring is NOT needed at all. Here's my proof. Wrestlers don't punch each other at all. All wrestlers do is take down, control, and pin. They don't punch. They don't kick. They don't bite. They don't even do chokes or arm bars. Yet the average high school wrestler would destroy the average punk on the street in a 1-to-1 attack/fight situation.
I like to do both, love to spar hard against bigger guys because i know they will not be crying around, it's harder for me to finish them and i can also get used to be hit way heavier than what someone can do to me in a ring in my own weight class(most the time). And i like to do very fast sparring against guys that are around my weight or less and be the most technical i can. When my partner is bigger i do my best to not get hit and look at It pretty much like a real fight, while against smaller guys i like to get hit and practice my dutch style guard, use head movement a more reckless way, etc. I also don't like to go too hard to my partner head, so i will use at most 50-60% while going 80-100% in legs and body.
Hard sparring is absolutely essential if you want to develop some solid C.T.E.
Cte is the biggest excuse for fighters who are scared to go hard
@@slapthat304I think not wanting to lose brain cells is a pretty good excuse to not spar hard bro
@@slapthat304 You sound like someone who's had too many hard punches during sparring
@@declan8577 yes Master🙏🏿
@slapthat304 Done a few hard rounds myself. Personally, I don't think it's worth it unless you're ACTUALLY preparing for a fight
An important point is to never use hard sparring to get into condition. You need to be in the best condition possible when engaging in hard sparring and you should cut the session short if you get to the point where fatigue masks fitness. The damage gets done when fatigue sets in.
What exactly is fatigue masks fitness?
Hmm opposite viewpoint from me, me and my friend like to train awhile, hit the heavybag and mitt work and then we spar at the end when we are already less explosive than being fully fresh and starting out
@@futasvg-ftw7972 I think he means that fatigue is the worst enemy of techniek. Because as you fatigue you become slower your posture will fade and your technique becomes harder to maintain. Classic quantity vs quality dilemma during training.
I have only done one session of sparring and the biggest lesson was that as soon as you become tired or out of breath you literally become a heavy bag for the guy who is still fresh. So I will sparr again but not before training a lot my cardio I already started doing a couple running sessions a week beside drill training
@@peterlaanguila5098 learned the same lesson the same way bro lol. It scary to get completely exhausted in the ring. Rude awakening lol
When I started kickboxing we only did light sparring all the time. I thought I was making exceptionally good progresses because I landed a lot and was able to avoid a lot of punches. Then I got into hard sparring for the first time and noticed my speed was only possible because of where my point of gravity was. Because of this I didn't had good balance and stumbled a lot. Hard sparring showed me my flaws in technique.
On the other hand I noticed that there is a signigicant impact on brain health and it's much more diffcult to study with focus after you got hit in the head with force.
Same here. First hard sparring was a reality check, so I bought better protection gear and I started to do it more often
@@marcusgraham3257 didn't your uncle Peter taught you? ;)
Pretty accurate. You don't experience stress in light sparring but light sparring has the advantage of letting you try new things
@@Lucasl501 I like ur pic lmao 🤣
@@roflswamp6 yeah me too, I love boxing
I like to spar hard once every two or three weeks because I plan to box for a really long time, but hard sparring definitely is a go to to condition yourself. Great video btw
Does your name mean you don’t support pride?
@@khuraym2511 a certified "I quickly became homophobic. Hating on gay people became part of my lifestyle G💀YS" moment
@@khuraym2511 I don't spar with lgbt at least, but it's not like their bodies could undergo hits
@@Lucasl501 I totally agree bro first time I’ve seen someone anti lgbt everyone it entitled to their own opinions respect for stepping upto yours.
@@khuraym2511 I have nothing against gays and etc though, just the toxic political community they created
When I was younger, I used to spar hard all of the time. You learn how to deal with pressure and how not to get flustered when someone comes at you swinging. At my current age (58), competition isn’t even an option. Also, it is much harder to take a shot now than it used to be 30 years ago. I love sparring though and much prefer sparring light. Every now and then someone will ramp it up and things will get a little crazy but it mostly stays controlled.
Are you still training and sparring a lot ?
@@j.b.2333 yes. I did 8 rounds yesterday before rolling for an hour.. I’ll probably get another 4-5 rounds in today.
@@Markperna1 thank you very much sir, my goal is to keep practicing combat sports, training and sparring also later in life.
@@j.b.2333 👍
Bro im 21 and i wanna be training martial arts for the rest of my life even until the 50s and 60s but im scared i might get a career ending injury
I totally agree. Especially when you want to get confident in your guard, you need to test it in sparring where your opponent actually hits it with full force.
I would also like to add that, in my experience, people who always train light often tend to just ignore when they are getting hit. I had that a couple of times when someone would come in, I would hit them (very light) in the head and they would just continue to do the same approach, because they totally ignored that these shots would have been massive hits, had they been dished out with full power. So I think that *only* training light can also teach you incorrect techniques -- of course this goes not for everyone, but in my experience, for quite a lot of people.
agreed
Or the people that develop their whole style from it example = always trying to hit you when you punch / counter your punches when they land.
Its like cmon if i hit you with a hard right hand and you absorb it to try to sneak in a shot how many times you can try to do that. Obviously they just do it because they dont fear the impact
@@Ufhhh12 yea i dealt with that before, people trying to develop their whole style around the mercy youve shown not realising its not as safe of a move. Had a shorter reach friend keep trying to duck under my jabs and get inside so id let him work inside cause i needed the experience but he didnt realise how easy it was for me to frame him and "crush" him which is just holding his head down so he cant spring up with a hook, one day i did it just to show him and he realised its a bit more tricky than just getting inside, you have to get in and hit before you get controlled
Agree. Even if I love light sparring for the opposite reason of most of people, if the hit is connecting in light sparring I try to learn a pattern that not allow it to happens anymore. Most of people really don't understand the light sparring is a moment of reflection and improvement in a depper level.
@@B..B. I'm a 14 year old aspiring muay thai fightee who just switched from American kickboxing to muay thai, how often do I need to hard spar?
@@lightnang at least one day week is good on my view. But light sparring with intentions to learn and sharpen you skills need to be done everyday.
Visualization training with shadow boxe too is a good approach.
But so often do hard sparring, cause you need the feeling that soft sparring can't give. One is to create MindBody connection. The other is to apply what you learned
All my confidence back when training came from fighting through those hard rounds and sparring with bigger guys.
Altho if one was to overdo that and go much harder would surely end in some serious unnecessary brain damage imo.
Great videos :)
Very reasonable opinion. I feel like when you step in the ring with someone who is actually trying to hurt you the timing seems a little different it almost feels like a different game than sparring with someone who isn't trying to hurt you. At least that's what it seems like to me. After you understand the difference I believe all aspects of your training are better.
Most brain damage occurs during those hard sparring sessions, not even in fights. Practice at your own risk.
Good ideas. I have know coaches who believed that light sparring only is enoug. All of their students were crushed in their first fights in the beginning of their career. The opponent was perhaps not so skilled but he/she was familiar with full contact. And what worst is that these young skilled but not so though talents ended their careers soon.
Seen this happen thousands of times too.
This is so important! A dose of reality is important, especially when we are young. However we have yo look at why we are training. Do we want to make money as a professional? Hard sparring is more important, but our body is our instrument and damaging it hurts us come fight time.
If it's for self-defense, there is no point damaging ourselves worse in training than would happen in an attack/street fight.
From the early 90's to mid 00's there was this sort of sea change that went from light sparring to knocking each other out weekly thanks to the UFC. It took 20 years, but I think we are finding a balance as a culture now
Defend the head and harden the body, and know when to say you had enough. Seeing guys keep working when I know the body is gone, bad news when power comes to head.
This makes sense. i have been doing kickboxing for the past 2 months and in sparring i have actually found it hard to put proper power into sparring without someone else initiating it but i would like to be able to learn how to turn up the heat
Yup I agree with a lot of comments. Hard to the body but light to the head or if below yr level keep it playful and teach the beginners how to control their power...
Gotta hard spar atleast once in a blue moon but most of the time like pretty much all the time ya have to light spar
I second this. I prefer 80% "technical" sparing. Meaning 60% to body and legs. And only 30-40% to head. Noone likes concussions, or losing brain cells or headaches after sparring. It suqs
I agree
Hard sparring 80/90 when you first start out, you gotta get beat up a lil so that way you know it’s serious . Fighting is not like any other sport, you cant just call timeout or have teammates to carry you. It’s all on you, specially in competition or a real fight. That individual your facing is trying to knock your head off. You can get seriously hurt , possibly die. It’s happened before. Too much light sparring you develop bad habits with pulling your punches plus the shots ain’t as hard so you neglect defense a little and develop noodle guard which in the long run not good for competition
Thats kinda harmful mindset to have tho, the best is when you have people throwing heat and still acting like its a "game" not being scared of punches, imagine going into a fight and thinking every punch can make you die, you will never be successful. Thats my opinion tho, You gotta start not being scared of punches one way or another.
@@Ufhhh12 that’s a good point , the first month or so def start off light but eventually hard sparring is a must with a coach or experienced fighter watching so it’s still controlled and doesn’t get out of hand. With the more experienced one gets the less it’s needed
@Jake Collins If you gonna spar hard gotta be prepared the day before or hrs before to make sure muscles are rested this less damage .It’s not something that has to be done all the time . Personally if you don’t have a fight coming up maybe like once a month if you an active fighter. If you have a fight coming up though at least 1 or 2x a week . Fighting is not for everyone. Hard sparring must be done . Any champ will tell you that . The ones that say they don’t do hard sparring anymore have a lot of years of experience and compete often . But I’m pretty sure they all sparred hard at some point. There’s no ifs or buts about it . Hard sparring is the closest thing you’ll get to a real fight
@@arvyguzman5866 I disagree. Fighter pilots, police officers, and soldiers train for LIFE AND DEATH scenarios. Fighter pilots don't train dogfighting with real bullets and missiles. Police officers don't "practice" responding to active shooter situations by having real bullets shot at them. Marines and soldiers don't "practice" how to take cover from bullets and RPGs by having real bullets and RPGs fired at them during training.
Getting punched in the head or the body DOES NOT make one better at taking future punches to the head and body. One CANNOT "get used to" being punched. Go ask any carpenter if he ever "gets used to" hitting his thumb with a hammer. Go ask him if the 20th time he hit his thumb with a hammer was less painful than the first time he hit his thumb with a hammer. You can NEVER get used to the pain and shock of hitting your thumb with a hammer in the same way that you can NEVER get used to getting punched in the head.
Right. Light spar all the time develops bad habits for sure
Great video, Gabriel.
If we look at the top 5 boxers on the planet earth today: Naoya Inoue, Oleksandr Usyk, Terence Crawford, Errol Spence and Canelo--it's very easy to find sparring footage of them on RUclips (it's a little bit harder to find sparring footage of the top kickboxers). Literally all 5 of them spar at fight intensity. If you put 2 and 2 together, that kind of suggests firmly that hard sparring is required to reach the top of the mountain.
I think the best sparring is somewhere inbetween how the Dutch and the thais spar, fast and technical but still landing hard shots while not really trying to hurt them
Loose Thai style is fun anytime of the day and great for improving reads, setting up specific strikes and reaction time. Dutch style for conditioning, defense, reaction time, and letting out pent up energy lol
@@gamemak0r Pre-fatigue drills are the best thing for making the surplus 'stupid energy' out...
@@HAYAOLEONE Surely you have seen the types of people who only show up for sparring?
@@gamemak0r I'm telling you in don't think using surplus 'stupid energy' is good for anyone. Do you think I'm using it, still? Do you think I will try to 'educate' barely functional adults high on stupid energy (and roids maybe) with my fists?
Hope you don't have to deal with them too often. Cause they're also the type waiting for you on the parking lot for 'reasons'.
This brings me to another question: How advantageous is it to spar with people above your weight? What are the pros and cons to consider?
I would stay away from that. No much benefits. No more above 10lbs above 150lbs is standard. Much safer.
the pros are you can manage your opponents power that are closer to your weight the cons are if he’s having a bad day you could get knocked out with one punch or kick
I think that if you train for self-defense it's a must. If you don't care about that then it's really up to what you're comfortable with. Bigger sparring partners should be taking care of you at least a little.
following because this is a really good question. at my dojo most of the folks at my skill level are much heavier than me, and i do think the difficulty is helpful training, but i also think it can fuck with my ideas of what works and what doesn't (me getting rid of useful techniques just because they aren't working on the much bigger people, or getting used to tactics that are less useful against smaller and faster people), and it also fucks with my confidence sometimes when the weight advantage is just insurmountable on some days. so i too would like to hear some perspectives
@@neokimchi I think it’s important to spar different people at different weight & height. Gives you different looks; sharpens your toolset plus exposes things you’re not proficient at. I’m 6’5 but light for my height. Everyone in my class is shorter than me besides this guy who’s 6’3 and about 50lbs heavier. He makes me uncomfortable because my advantage of reach isn’t useful like on others and his power negates my distance management. Hes able to bulldoze in the pocket or get in range at will. That forces me to adjust my approach and improve. I have to move well and tighten up my defense or get lit up. Going back to a shorter opponent or my weight is like night and day.
I love your channel! Very good videos, especially this one! 🙏🏻👍🏻
Gabriel is very intelligent, what a gem, great advice sir
everyone need to realise what it's like to do a sparring with someone who is here to hurt you and not giving you any gift!
It's really different and make you understand that : "ok i have a real pressure, i need to be focused !"
I agree with you. We are lucky to do smokers every month or every other month where they can get a chance to spar hard with someone else in a competitive environment.
Thank you for this. This is something I’ve been overthinking about alot and your insight definitely cleared it up
We only have hard sparring in our Gym. And i have no Good Defense it sucks when you Need a week or two to get healthy from sparring.
This sparring always feels like a real fight.
Im to old for that shit. I wish we would go easier sometimes
Unless you wanna get in the ring/cage, leave that gym.
Switch to Kyokushin, or smth similar.
Suqs man. Try to speak to your sparring partners. Tell them you just wanna spar technically. If it doesn't help just go to the heavybag lol. Better than getting injured
Edit:
One of the best defense to defend against a puncher imo is teeping the leg.
It stops them from advancing.
Check hook too...or time lowkicks on their jab...look up "kickbox counters" on youtube. Helps a lot.
Omg I was literally just wondering this question yesterday thank you tons Gabriel
Went through hard sparring for the first time and got hurt for inside leg kick for the first time.
It was eye-opening and never had I realised how much flaw I had in my techniques if I had no one hard sparring.
This cleared up a lot for me, thank you!
Excellent I appreciate your honesty and details into The SPARRING SUBJECT 🙏
I 100% agree, great video/advice. Thanks coach!
I like to go 70%, most punches your opponent throws at a normal fight gonna be around that averaged out too except the punches that you want the opponent to really hurt with
at 70% you can basically get the same amount of speed and it will hurt already.
Dude thank you man ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for being real
Agree, you need it if you want to get good. It is up to the coach to plan it the right way, not too often, with the right partners and giving you a guidance trough the rounds on how to work.
Another point: sparring in boxe, kickboxe and mma need different approach
At my gym We go light to head, medium to legs & body with kicks and hard with punches to body.
Hard sparring helps me with my fight day nerves. When I know I went hard during camp, I can rely on that to calm my nerves
What I find in my gym is, that people just stand in highguard absorbing friendly punches not moving their feet or they head at all. Then they think they are very good and counter with straights, which is good for learning the timing, but they all don’t know what todo when the opponent actually follows up on punches
At the end of the day its fighting thank you for being honest
Good to see a REAL professional and multiple champion talk about this intelligently instead of the droves of keyboard warriors who be like: "If you don't spar hard all the time, you're a pussy bro. I spar hard every day cuz I'm built different."
Hard body and leg shots, no head shots is best way I think but with light sparring for full contact so atleast most of the bodyshots and leg shots have been drilled. That's how I would prefer it personally.
Thank you this describes me ! I want to enhance my technique but not compete I don’t fight for competition then my coach told me I wasn’t a fighter because of that …. Which I feel like I’m still a fighter just not a competitive fighter
Maybe spar hard to the body & legs but moderate sparing to the head for a good compromise for someone who wants to be pro? It's not like hard shots to the head in sparring is good for brain conditioning. You can do all the neck exercises to make the head more resistant to impact. Maybe even condition the face & head by taking shots while resting against the mat?
Don’t disagree with anything you said, but being able to spar light effectively does take some experience with sparring harder.
I’m sure you’ve had some experience where you threw a light kick and the person caught it and tried to sweep you. Like if that was a real kick, they be on the floor., or maybe through a soft technical overhand right and just touch their face , but they came back with knees or something else... If that was a real overhand right, they be rocked
Can you make video about deaths during fight and why do they happen.
Not enough electrolytes.
Just kiddin
taking notes to raise my sons as kick boxers:
< 12 years old: Point fighting
14< : hard rounds
16
I got into boxing and I recently started sparring. Hard sparring is only needed if you plan on competing. But if you’re just trying to learn the sport it’s definitely unnecessary and probably just harmful.
Appreciate hearing your thoughts on this 🙂
My question is, what if I wanted to just spare to learn to defend myself? Would I need to occasionally mix in the hard sparring to prepare myself in case of a fight?
i like to go hard, maybe not 100% but hard because i hate it when i go easy and the other not, i like it intense but not to the point you destroy the other one : True fights are made for this.
But i don't have the impression to really work if there is not that tension
Cool story.
Gabriel, what do you think about doing lighter type full sparring and then say something like Kyokushin type hard sparring (no head punches) to condition your body for fights? Maybe a way to do it with less trauma to the head?
It honestly depends on the person.
My coach aims to technical sparring
But most of ppl do fight not box, lucky I survived figths with the newbies and I started to do boxing with the middle lvl skill and amateurs 🤣
So I think more experience some one haves more technical it becames
Any updates on the Wonderboy collab? Really looking forward to that.
Light sparring everyday,
Hard sparring without hard strikes to the head 2 to 3 times a week
"5 minutinhos sem perder a amizade" ( Brazilian slang for hard sparring with anything in yours style permitted. Basically a real fight) once on a month or two basis
I realize football isn't fighting. But, they both have this aspect - you have to be able to get jarred really hard and keep it together. We did full speed only an hour on offense and an hour on defense each week. When we did it differently, the attrition was too high.
Well If its all about the confidence well then maybe it's not necessary
Hard sparring when you are in good level and your partner's are in that level our higher level .when you are in a class you allways have different levels so you have to ajust partner to partner.
Will i don't do hard sparring anymore bc it doesn't teach anything i used to do hard sparing but after i got some speech problem i learn my lesson
Man im sorry to hear that... im also thinking about to start kickboxing but just because i wanna know hoe to defend myself on the street im not interested in doing amateur fights. Do you think that i could also get good with mostly light sparring and hard sparring maybe once a month when i got to a certain level and developed good defense or do i have to do it more often. Im want to train in mma and i would also be cool with going hard 100% everywhere except the head in light sparring. But its not worth to take noticeable brain damage. How often did actually spar hard per week and for whst period of time ?
Would be thankful for everyone who answers that has experience with this 💪🏻
How many days do you like to put in between sparring days? When you do have a sparring day, is your entire training day centered around sparring, or do you plan in other sessions for the day?
Too many variables to answer but let me give you one thing to consider.
The time of the day for hard/hard-ish sparring.
Not hard sparring late in the day have lots of serious advantages.
One important advantage is that doing other things after the fighting, you will better detect injuries of all sorts. Or simply notice better potential imbalances.
If you take a shower and go to sleep after hard sparring, you detect nothing the day after...
Massages are good but naps are a necessity for people with enough time to train a lot.
World class athletes will often take 2 NAPS a day (one long, one short), on top of the night sleep.
_
People who always go out of their way to catch every kick in light sparring meanwhile if it was hard their ribs be broken lmao
So, what do you think about Kyokushin ?
agree
I have taken knock downs via the body twice in sparring, one guy kicked me in the ribs hard enough to drop me, another guy months later got me with too many body punches on my liver and i dropped hahah, its an unreal feeling, impossible to stay standing.
Yeah look not everyone likes to do hard sparring however if u wanna start leveling up that’s what ur gunna have to do
Sparring is also a verbal agreement on how hard you want to go
Totally agree. Light spar all the time can even give you wrong habits. Like not parrying punches properly coz you just don’t feel the impact much on your head. You just keep your gloves glued to your face and you think you can get away with that. Hell no. Even a good jab can be felt thru your gloves, and a good cross feels really bad. I realized I simply won’t be able to compete without decent amount of hard sparing so I just decided not to engage in amateur fights at all 😂 I’m too old for this shit and I have good money income anyways so boxing is just a hobby for me. It’s not worth having brain damage. Ofc I do spar but mostly light and medium, and I don’t claim that I be really good at boxing
I think WE should do both, 80% light, 20%hard
@7:00 *cues Pokemon theme*
What are your thoughts on pulling punches in sparring?
If you know you are going to land a punch to the face will you pull back?
I thank my chute boxe instructors for giving me the confidence to be fearless with it comes to sparring. That chute boxe hard sparring style is great for the younger guys. But I've definitely tone down the hard sparring as we get older.
What about for self-defence? Should we do hard or light sparring?
If i went 60-70 percent i would knock out most people, not to brag but I've got Artur Beterbiev type heavy hands.
Edit: 80 and 90 percent, is too much and then your not sparring no more.
I am 15 and do sparring with older sparring Partners like 40 or 31.Should it be hard or not so.Theyre also bigger and heavyer
They should chill when it's with you imo
@@Prymary2 OK thanks
If you were to fight israel adesanya or alex pereira, what kind strategy would you use to defeat them?
I used to spar hard two to three days a week. I think three days is too much.
For how many years should you hard spar to have a couple of fights not turn pro?
Can you explain in a video what do you mean 20-30%, 60-70%,80%?
Usually this means the %age of power and intensity
@@dukey03 i know that but if he can explain it more in depth
Fighttips has a great video on the subject, basically its how much you penetrate the target
I think if you have a fight coming up hard sparring is necessary otherwise it's not smart. It always takes that 1 guy to make everyone start fighting for real though. I think if you do this as more of a hobby you shouldn't hard spar ever IMO
Four days deep on the rark
Why do every gym spar with 16 oz gloves?
Tf should they use? 50 oz?
@@theshapetv9203 no they can use 8 oz on hard spars. Smaller gloves is safer for the brain because the punching force is less and it’s a smaller hit surface
@@kayjay8077 how is the punching force less
@@Prymary2 you have less protection
@@Prymary2 Less protection for your hand makes you punch a bit lighter since you don't want to break your hand, boxing gloves are not for your opponents safety
I almost hate to be that guy but, how hard is hard enough to get good at fighting?
If 60% isn't it, how close to 100 do you consider to be good preparation for fighting? Is the ability to go 80-90% etc and still be safe just something that comes with more skill and conditioning?
And, how often do you think it makes sense to go hard if I'm doing it mainly for self defense?
Oh so i thought hard sparring should only be done during fight camps. Hmm interesting. I see what you mean.
I don't see why you can't have your cake and eat it too with this one. Go hard to the body light to head. If you have good control you should be able to go fast and light so do that to protect your brain, and go 80 90% to the body. Of course not too often but for conditioning's sake it should work well.
I love hard sparring, iron sharpens iron
So twice 5 rounds at 80-90 power?
That's what I do when I'm close to a fight.
I don't go 80% to my sparring partner's head but 80 to the body and legs.
@@GabrielVargaOfficial thanks head like 70-60 right im kinda getting used to hard sparring now before i was to afraid to getting hit now its not so bad. Thanks coach 🙏
As a young man sparring hard 3 times a week was a must, it was the late 90’s and we really didn’t know better.
We were concussing each other numerous times a session, but it was GOD mode for the ring.
I no longer spar like that at 43 😂 although if someone wants to bring it I’m not above turning up.
Do you feel that natural toughness and experience of being hit by//hitting angry dudes throughout life helps with the conditioning aspect? 🤔
I’ve had definitely dozens of fights throughout my 45 years (going right back to high school), and getting punched in the face (even with 10oz gloves) has never rocked me (yet!)🤞
PS. I’m not advocating ‘street fights’, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. I have one of those faces I guess...plus I can be kinda sarcastic/annoying 🤷♂️🤭🙏
Cardio that's what sparring is for and technical hits and yes going hard to learn, kinda like a smoker helps you stop doing stupid shit
You need a microphone
hard sparring is conceptually utter nonsense imho
For self-defense purposes, hard sparring is NOT needed at all. Here's my proof. Wrestlers don't punch each other at all. All wrestlers do is take down, control, and pin. They don't punch. They don't kick. They don't bite. They don't even do chokes or arm bars. Yet the average high school wrestler would destroy the average punk on the street in a 1-to-1 attack/fight situation.
I like to do both, love to spar hard against bigger guys because i know they will not be crying around, it's harder for me to finish them and i can also get used to be hit way heavier than what someone can do to me in a ring in my own weight class(most the time). And i like to do very fast sparring against guys that are around my weight or less and be the most technical i can. When my partner is bigger i do my best to not get hit and look at It pretty much like a real fight, while against smaller guys i like to get hit and practice my dutch style guard, use head movement a more reckless way, etc.
I also don't like to go too hard to my partner head, so i will use at most 50-60% while going 80-100% in legs and body.
Gabriel is very intelligent, what a gem, great advice sir