Or the alternate solution if they want the conditioning is light sparring,I guess hitting with hands open and very lightly is good,I mean like a little tap or smthin,lerdsila become good from alot if light sparring,and light sparring let's you to be more creative too,now people forget that to be a boxer,you need the brains too,gotta adjust,with that I believe that brawlers or infighters can be smart of sorts,and boxing will be in it's gold era again,with better knowledge, trainings,and the amount of talents we will come back to the 70s,big talent,big skills.
As a true and very dedicated boxer, I have cut back on sparring to once a week. I train 6 days a week- take 1 to 2 days off for rest is very intelligent. You DO NOT want to burn 🔥 out. As boxers, it’s subjective. In other words, we are all different in regards to what works for us. By the way, gym wars are stupid. I agree. God bless you, and thank you for your intelligent insight. 😎🥇🥊🥊🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾✝️💖
My Muay Thai coach has this great rule I think should be the gold standard if it isn't at most gyms: light to the head, medium to the body, attack the legs.
Tell me about it : TRUE story of mine. I sparred a guy name mark 4 weeks before my first amateur smoker. I tuned him up bad in one round he quit. Immediately I sparred a big heavy weight, I was whooping his ass and embarrassing him until he threw a chest elbow into my nose… we kept fighting and threw another breaking my nose clean over. I set it back…. Come fight night - I fought mark again - first jab reset my nose and made it bleed bad… I punched myself out trying to knock him out in panic, I wasn’t In the best of shape, the fight ended up getting closed off because of how much I was bleeding. Most embarrassing moment in my life. However / it changes my life for good. I was an alcoholic at the time and never drank again z
@@lennypensante5309 this really happened to me. My name is Steven Clarke. The fighter was mark Robert’s. This happened in February of 2010 I was 20he was 21 Im from Philadelphia/ Delco I had a strong reputation for street fighting and knocking people out cold. I’ve been arrested publicly over 20 times while I was a juvenile. I was reckless and dangerous. I’ve been in welll over 100 street fights from the time I was 10-21. My last street fight was with a 6”4” guy named Andrew in south Philly. Between that fight and my smoker match I changed my life for the better and quit alcohol and weed. I was a raging alcoholic fueled by severe physical and mental abuse by my father. Jumped and beat up weekly in southwest Philly. Bullied and picked on until I had enough and channeled my rage into fighting constantly. One thing I want to add, most of my fights have had a lot of witnesses and had big crowds. I was roughly 64-2 arguably 65-1 lol. Dan Carson was a brutal fight. Dude was very strong and tough.
I did continue boxing for quite awhile. Inused it as an outlet to get sober and find balance in life. I boxed the colosseum in Clifton - than got serious and started training at upper Darby boxing gym with Naim the dream Nelson. Check his Box rec profile. I would sort and fighting smokers preparing for golden gloves. Problem was weight. I’m 5”8 and back than i was a clean cut 165. I couldn’t make the 154 or even 160 weight limits. I use to fight at 168 smokers and went 10-0 with 9 knockouts…. Against nobody’s I should mention. Still / I was 24 expecting my first born son…. Everything stopped for him… than soon after I was expecting a daughter. I tried to continue boxing but couldn’t. My name was mention ima few news papers in some smoker fights. Google “delco is boxing back” my name is Steve Clarke. There are some were some videos of my fights by people is don’t know….. long gone by now I presume. I’m 33. My goals and dreams stopped for my 9 & 7 years old kids.
I had some very big street fights. Crowds of kids watched from all schools in the area. I was widely known in Delco. Hard to keep count, but I was 64-2 maybe 65-1 in all these fights from when I was 14-21. Dan Carson and Ivan Thomas were the two who beat me. I did beat Ivan the first time….. not even 20 minutes later we rematch in Clifton because I felt I didn’t quite beat him bad, he than kind of kicked my ass lol. It was a clean 5 minute competive fight until I was lifted slammed on my Camaro and beat down. I was than jumped with a ratchet and crow bar. He kicked my accross the face I got up and era every shot. I walked away fine with some good sweeping bruise shut other wise cognitive and fine. Dan Carson was the first fight I “lost” Many people said won. There was a huge crowd of Ridley and O’Hara kids, some upper Darby. It was actually a high profile fight, we both had reputation and popularity in our high schools via upper Darby (me) and Ridley him. When we fought it was a tough battle. I had some lumps but his face was unrecognizable. His nose broken split bleeding from top to bottom. Both eyes black swollen and split blood was every were.. me … I had a little blood form the nose and a gigantic welt on the left side of my head. Good fight. I thought I had one the day after but at the end - I didn’t.
Yup, I was an amateur in the 1970s and grew up in the gym wars environment. Part of the problem -- then as now -- was the shortage of qualified trainers. Your trainer might be a guy who boxed a few rounds, or took a karate class, or simply was a boxing fan (nothing inherently wrong with that, some great trainers including Angelo Dundee never boxed a round). No lessons in covering the basics of offense and defense with no-contact sparring, gradually moving to light sparring. No direction during sparring. The only rule was the bell. Some boxers managed to learn the craft despite that environment. But there are too many examples of the cost of gym wars -- Gerald McClellan being a notable example. Reportedly he took cumulative damage from heavy sparring sessions that culminated in his debilitating brain injury during a title fight. Kronk was notorious for gym wars and Thomas Hearns seems to show the cost of that cumulative injury. And Mayweather seems to goad on a reckless approach that he himself wouldn't participate in during his career. Roberto Duran was known for brutal sparring sessions, although in his case it was his sparring partners who suffered for it. Boxers do need sparring with reasonable contact to prepare for the real thing. But training needs to be done with at least the same caution as a sanctioned amateur bout, in which a referee will protect the fighters. There's a problem when sparring sessions are free-for-alls with more potential for injury than a sanctioned bout.
What a great comment. I didn't even think about a trainers credentials, which to this day you see unqualified coaches taking charge of sparring. I was actually going to mention Kronk gym in the video (I even included an image of the gym) and how brutal their gym wars were. It wasn't helped by the heat in the gym either. I like your suggestion that sparring should be handled like any sanctioned fight. That's pretty much the point I wanted to make but couldn't articulate it here.
I think sparring is great when you WORK with your sparring PARTNER. It's not a fight, it's a time to practice things that need work. Start slow and work your way up. Learn everything from how to throw the jab and protect yourself from it to how to move in the ring in general.
Yep.. this is why you need to choose your sparring partners very very carefully. I can't tell you how many times I've sparred a guy 'lightly' and by the end of the round(s) it's a full on brawl.
There was some mma guy back in the day who said light sparring more often can help you try more risky shots and pickup on timing better for a better offense as a pose to hard sparring everytime where you cant ever drop your guard and i think theres alot of truth to that. You can still go fast and pull your punches.
I'd like to learn more about this. I can see why light sparring allows for more creativity. But I still think hard sparring sharpens fighters better, and builds punch resistance.
Sorry but this is nonsense. We Muay thai fighters spar all the time. And there isnt many head trauma's. You know why? Because when you spar you dont need to go all out like it is a war. And if you do limit the heavy punches only to rhe body. You dont need to go that hard with punches to the head. Give each other the space to actually try your combo's and strategy
theres a huge skill gap in boxing unlike other sports. most fighters are no where near the top guys and ladies. fighters arent being taught the sweet science. getting destroyed by someone way better than you in sparring wont help you get better. fighters need time to watch film and actually break bad habits.
this is the cost of fighting, we are fighters and we entered this sport knowing the damn risks that comes along with it. Sparring was and always will be an essential tool for the boxer to sharpen his skills. if you're not going to sparr hard then how the fuck are you supposed to develop the mentality and capability to be actually able to HURT your opponent. People seem to forget that what they are actually doing is plain FIGHTING. And with modern era, they just want to make everything easy. You either make time for sparring or make time for losing. Because the guy who gets his brain blown up everyday in the gym will eventually kill you in the ring. This is boxing, and it ain't a joke.
I recommend you watching Jesse Enkamp's video on hard sparring titled "Something WEIRD Is Happening In Martial Arts", it basically explains why hard sparring isn't good to do too much or with the wrong mindset. Most of the things you are saying in this comment are done better with light sparring than hard sparring, light sparring is how you get your skills and hard sparring is testing them in actual combat.
@@ivotcomer3183 i'm not tryna say that light sparring has absolutely no place in your training regimen. i'm only saying that it is not a substitute for hard sparring. If you light sparr all the time, you're mind is gonna get programmed to throw light punches all the time. How you train, you preform. and it annoys me to see alot of people these days tryna kick hard sparring out of the equation. Light sparring alone will only get you so far, but wether you like it or not. You have to stimulate the fight night environment with real hard sparring.
@@kxvra you're right, but hard sparring doesn't need to even done every day or week. Should be used rather sparingly. Most of the time, light sparring at like 50 or even 60% is ideal.
People ruin sparring... sparring cant ruin boxers. Weight GYMs can't ruin people... ego lifters ruin GYMs. Your parents are not the reason for your failures... your decisions are the reason.😂 Nice video. I get your point.
you can train your conditionning on the bag and on the running fields , you can trains your defense and technique on light sparing , neck exercises with weight to harden your chin , hard sparing is only good to learn composure and deal with pressure and power it's a fraction of the work
My coach was an ass, I was dead tired and he tells me to go two more rounds pass four and I took a vicious beating multiple times bc I was gassed. So yes it could be very dangerous if u got an egomaniac trainer.
I agree that most should light spars alil more often . But gym wars or sparring hard is so necessary to get to where you want to be. Not one great boxer out there that didn’t have sparring wars . It’s the price you pay. It also matter how you take care of yourself and your mind outside of boxing . I believe James Tony drank and did drugs which also messing up your brain! Add the crazy sparring and your brain of course will go suffer double . But look at mayweather great defense no drinking or drugs . Lots of crazy sparring but seemingly no cte. We have to look at their lives outside the ring as well when we talk about these things. Kids might see these vids ( not just yours ) and think that they can get to pro while never sparring hard
Fair point. Sparring hard plays a huge part in the development of a fighter. But gym wars takes a lot out of a fighter with extremely niche benefits (e.g. digging deep, taking shots). I hear your thoughts about other factors outside of training that may affect fighters health.
@@cheeks7050 with all respect , are you a competitor? Amateur or professional? And if so explain why you disagree? If you don’t compete you might not know what it takes to become one ?
@@-Higashi- I compete. You're coping by saying it was the drugs that frazzled Jame's Toney's brain. Bruh he absorbed thousands of punches in his life. He has trauma induced brain damage and that's a fact.
@@cheeks7050 it was a comparison. Not all boxers how spar a lot and fight a lot get to be like Tony. I was bringing up mayweather how fought and sparred hard and still sparring . And isn’t like that. Mind you different weight classes . But still someone who is defensively smart and isn’t drinking and doing drugs has a better chance of not having brain damage
FORREAL. Had a guy in our gym, he was incredible and is a hardworker the only downside is that he always gives his 100% even in sparring. He’s sparmates with actual professional fighters for almost half a decade now, he’s never as focused as he used to. He still has the heart tho but still, he should’ve had a bright future ahead of him.
I believe too sparing should be just work. However, hard sparring is great to prepare you for the heated moments in a real fight. You fight like you train… so preferably you want to build the intensity a bit before a fight. Depending on the skill level of course, sparring should be at like 2-3 times a week. It worked for me tho so that’s just my personal opinion. Great vid
Once you understand how getting hit works and you can respond to getting hit accordingly you don't need hard sparring consistently. Once every few months after your good enough to go pro in my opinion
A tip for sparring:hit the head lightly,body average,other parts(for the ones that don't do boxing)as usual,then sparring will be better,and i believe with that training we can go back tot he golden era,even better,boxing got plenty of talents,i'm sure about that,and i believe this method of sparring can increase their ability helped with the talents thwy have,boxing..it wouldn't be as exciting as before with the brawls,but now i guess you can be as equally as exciting as defensively.
Light to the head, hard the to body. Coaches need to stop getting stars in their eyes and putting their fighters through improper sparring. They value performance over longevity. But that's the American way. Change my mind.
Heavy sparring is needed, albeit in small amounts as opposed to easier or focused sparring (when I boxed, sometimes we would do defensive and offensive drills vs our sparring partner).
Idk if any of you guys box but you need to spar to learn how to ebb and flow and learn the openings during your and their sequences. Its the main reason to go to a boxing club instead of a mirror and bag
I genuinely was shocked when i went to a regular boxing gym for the first time i had just dont muay thai before everyone just freely lets out their aggression on each other
Can you tell if my sparing day is good, i do it 3 times a week 1 hour session. Mitts 3 rounds of 3 min hitting and then holding and 1 min break in between = 24 min 1 min break Partner drill 3 rounds of 3 min hitting and defending combinations and 1 min break in between = 12 min 1 min break open sparring but controlled 3 rounds of 3 min free motion sparring but with pre determine punches and combinations and 1 min break in between = 12 min 1 min break Open sparring 3 rounds of 3 min free motion sparring but with any random combinations and punches with open hands 1 min break in between = 12 min In this routine, always have hands open in the glove and don't use power at all, learn control and just tag the Partner
Truth is, if you’re scared of getting hurt or CTE then simply don't spar at all. If you do want to compete make sure your coach follows are the basic sparring precautions. One thing I do to make sure the sparring isn't dangerous is that I occasionally do funny gestures that make my partner and the audience watching laugh. When it comes to gym wars, its most likely they will hard spar to prove themselves so not much you can do there.
Got this one mfer in the gym that loves to spar like it’s an actual fight, and many guys (myself included) refuse to spar him for that reason. Now, I COULD go in there, eat the hits and maybe land some decent shots of my own. But I’m not a pro fighter, and I don’t ever plan on doing this shit for a living, so is it really worth the brain damage?
i agree. i spar 3 times a week, and the biggest problem is it isnt light spar its a bit hard so i always get a strong headache and an lightheaded freeling after spar
I spar but not ready for amateur yet (i believe) but i could feel my self slurring more and forgetting when i sparred heavy x3 weekly, now i cut it down to weekly and aiming more for technique, strategy, lighter sparring, no need to hard spar if your not pro, especially not dog house rules
I've left sparring with light headaches sometimes, but eventually it stopped. And I used to have hard rounds I realized you don't win anything In those rounds.
In karate we usually have a rule where you snap hits and go light to the head, fair game to the body except kicks where we advise to snap the hit to avoid serious injury and just get the movement, timing, and technique down, and legs are fair game in addition to takedowns and throws.
The human body is only good at what it does on a regular basis, and this includes boxing. Sparring is a must when preparing for a fight, no doubt about it. It is also a must when amateurs are learning how to box. However, this does not mean sparring where you are trying to kill your partner. I have seen gym wars in Philadelphia where they are actually proud of this type of sparring. Sparring should help you sharpen your reflexes, learn various styles, etc. It should not be a display of macho or an invitation to brain damage. Couches who allow this are doing their fighters a great disservice.
@@jmgonzales7701by staying hydrated, sparring maybe twice a week. But I truly believe football players who been playing since their childhood years all the way to the pros have the same head trauma boxers have
@@fsabdul-ghaffaar5504the amount of rounds and the scoring system in boxing favours heard headshots were MT scores kicks to the body and off balancing an opponent very highly… but make no mistake, there are A LOT of Muay Thai fighters with CTE I’m sure
Great video! There is absolutely no benefit to “Gym wars”. It only further perpetuates the idea that fighters should not be treated as human athletes but more like gladiators.
True. But fighters who come up through the amateur ranks don't get paid a penny (apart from bursaries), yet still deal with much of the dangers as the pros.
Hate to say it, but sometimes that hard sparring is needed. Just went through that not long ago tonight. It definitely revealed that I still have a lot to correct on my form. But I do agree, swinging for the fences isn't gonna make anyone tougher.
I'd argue the opposite. You need to spar as much as possible, but only spar hard when your close to a fight. Look at some of the best muay thai fighters of last generation like seanchai, somrak and lerdsilla. When they where young the only thing they did was watching the older fighters spar and do sparring themselves. The more you minimise sparring, the less skills you will have and the more risk you take in competition.
This is an excellent alternative for the culture. It’s sucks getting hit im the face , but I feel like no matter how much it sucks, this is fighting. Martial arts. It’s a part of the game . Best bet is to mitigate the amount of damage taken.
I think some people are literally BUILT to fight and others are not it’s that simple. Some fighters are less prone to CTE purely from genetics, Team 3D alpha did a video on it explaining why most Mexican boxers don’t suffer from brain injuries and that’s not to say it’s only Mexican boxers I think there’s people from all ethnicities who are less prone to brain trauma. Simply put most fighters aren’t that lucky which is why sparring should always be “light” and I don’t see a reason why fighters spar every week I think 1 or 2 times a month and keeping it to under 8 rounds is some good enough to keep rust off
sparring is great for good boxers that dont get knocked around like that but if your getting beat up or getting hit alot spar lighter, but gym wars are very important for an up incoming fighter that have talent.
Hard sparring is dangerous but its also necessary because in a real fight hes going to be trying to knock your head off. At the end of the day boxing is a trauma sport. As with anything else the constant hard sparing will make the boxer sharper but on the flipside can damage the boxer. All boxers do not suffer from cte but enough do due to being punched in the head.
Thats why sparring drills are better than just flat out "sparring" it makes it even worse where people like to hard spar in the form of gym wars beating the holy hell out of each other for some lame views likes comments when back in the day recording sparring sessions was to review and analyze all whats good and not good and that method made others into world champs back then but now it just not even worth it so this video right here made sense sure you can't prepare for a fight by doing everything except sparring but hard sparring all the time or doing one variant to me won't even help everyone in the long run
I agree every single thing u said brother , some people are like obsessed to act like a badass so hard sparring makes them feel better , its super dumb
I just had this discussion with my friend yesterday as we both are boxer, he recently meet up with 2 friends of him which trains mma and muay thai. Both of them try to convert him into thier sport and he questioned should we both join in the fun.
this whole video is so inaccurate. all the best of the best do sparring and no it does not ruin you. if the best of th best spar then it obvious the training is wrokning
You have to spar but it's to work on your craft. It's not a fight, you're not going for a win or to feed your ego. Robert Garcia academy is a good example of proper sparring
Thank you for making this video. its all true. sparring can damage fighters. precaution MUST be taken at all costs. it is speculated that Gerald Mclelann had damaged himself in sparring before the Nigel benn fight.
*I DISAGREE ANYBODY CAN THROW A PUNCH, BUT YOU GOTTA BE ABLE TO TAKE ONE. NOW I DO BELIVE SPARRING SHOULD END THE COUPLE OF WKS LEADING TO THE FIGHT THO.*
@@houssedecouette4056 *NOBODY SAID THAT. I SAID YOU GOTTA BE ABLE TO DISH IT AS WELL AS TAKE IT. NOBODY SAID "STAND THERE AND GET YOUR HEAD BEAT OFF", BUT YOUR NOT GONNA EVADE EVERY PUNCH NEITHER.*
Good luck with stopping the gym wars. Especially when you are a white boxer going into a black gym. Only when you get a certain level of skill sets can you steer or control the pace of sparring. That or when you’re still new you got to hit them harder to get respect that they don’t abuse you.
You have to spar hard in the beginning. You have to learn timing and learn how your opponent moves, you have to learn to recover and fight after you have been tagged hard. If the first hard punch you take is in a fight, you are going to have a bad time.
It depends on what you want out of boxing, if you want to be great you have to Spar hard learn to fight and learn when to box only hard sparing can teach you that, everyone looks good hitting the bag and hitting the mitts. But your real skill level shows in sparing.
No “dumb coaches and dumb boxers” ruins Sparring
Puerto rican sparring is a good example of safe training. Kinda fun too.
Boxers have to spar. They need the contact but they should only spar just before the main fight and only a couple of sessions.
Absolutely. That sharpness is necessary before a fight. Its just sad hearing how they deteriorate from years of head trauma
Or the alternate solution if they want the conditioning is light sparring,I guess hitting with hands open and very lightly is good,I mean like a little tap or smthin,lerdsila become good from alot if light sparring,and light sparring let's you to be more creative too,now people forget that to be a boxer,you need the brains too,gotta adjust,with that I believe that brawlers or infighters can be smart of sorts,and boxing will be in it's gold era again,with better knowledge, trainings,and the amount of talents we will come back to the 70s,big talent,big skills.
@@TheNeorch ur conditioning will suck with light sparring
@@jmgonzales7701 Only if your doing it wrong or only doing light sparring.
As a true and very dedicated boxer, I have cut back on sparring to once a week. I train 6 days a week- take 1 to 2 days off for rest is very intelligent. You DO NOT want to burn 🔥 out. As boxers, it’s subjective. In other words, we are all different in regards to what works for us. By the way, gym wars are stupid. I agree. God bless you, and thank you for your intelligent insight. 😎🥇🥊🥊🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾✝️💖
My Muay Thai coach has this great rule I think should be the gold standard if it isn't at most gyms: light to the head, medium to the body, attack the legs.
Yeah, I've noticed combat sports outside of Boxing handle sparring differently.
aot of fighters do not have control
For us it's Controlled to head
Full power to body 😂
But Muay Thai fighters are way more active then boxers. That's mainly why they spar lightly.
@@Cilent__pro mma fighters do the same type of sparring and they still fight as often as pro boxers
There’s hard sparring and then there is good sparring
hard sparring can be good sparring
Let me guess, you aint a boxer
Tell me about it : TRUE story of mine.
I sparred a guy name mark 4 weeks before my first amateur smoker. I tuned him up bad in one round he quit. Immediately I sparred a big heavy weight, I was whooping his ass and embarrassing him until he threw a chest elbow into my nose… we kept fighting and threw another breaking my nose clean over. I set it back….
Come fight night - I fought mark again - first jab reset my nose and made it bleed bad… I punched myself out trying to knock him out in panic, I wasn’t In the best of shape, the fight ended up getting closed off because of how much I was bleeding.
Most embarrassing moment in my life.
However / it changes my life for good. I was an alcoholic at the time and never drank again z
In which movie this happens?
@@lennypensante5309 this really happened to me. My name is Steven Clarke. The fighter was mark Robert’s. This happened in February of 2010 I was 20he was 21
Im from Philadelphia/ Delco
I had a strong reputation for street fighting and knocking people out cold.
I’ve been arrested publicly over 20 times while I was a juvenile. I was reckless and dangerous. I’ve been in welll over 100 street fights from the time I was 10-21. My last street fight was with a 6”4” guy named Andrew in south Philly. Between that fight and my smoker match I changed my life for the better and quit alcohol and weed. I was a raging alcoholic fueled by severe physical and mental abuse by my father. Jumped and beat up weekly in southwest Philly. Bullied and picked on until I had enough and channeled my rage into fighting constantly. One thing I want to add, most of my fights have had a lot of witnesses and had big crowds. I was roughly 64-2 arguably 65-1 lol. Dan Carson was a brutal fight. Dude was very strong and tough.
I did continue boxing for quite awhile. Inused it as an outlet to get sober and find balance in life. I boxed the colosseum in Clifton - than got serious and started training at upper Darby boxing gym with Naim the dream Nelson. Check his Box rec profile. I would sort and fighting smokers preparing for golden gloves. Problem was weight. I’m 5”8 and back than i was a clean cut 165. I couldn’t make the 154 or even 160 weight limits. I use to fight at 168 smokers and went 10-0 with 9 knockouts…. Against nobody’s I should mention. Still / I was 24 expecting my first born son…. Everything stopped for him… than soon after I was expecting a daughter. I tried to continue boxing but couldn’t. My name was mention ima few news papers in some smoker fights. Google “delco is boxing back” my name is Steve Clarke. There are some were some videos of my fights by people is don’t know….. long gone by now I presume. I’m 33. My goals and dreams stopped for my 9 & 7 years old kids.
I had some very big street fights. Crowds of kids watched from all schools in the area. I was widely known in Delco. Hard to keep count, but I was 64-2 maybe 65-1 in all these fights from when I was 14-21. Dan Carson and Ivan Thomas were the two who beat me. I did beat Ivan the first time….. not even 20 minutes later we rematch in Clifton because I felt I didn’t quite beat him bad, he than kind of kicked my ass lol. It was a clean 5 minute competive fight until I was lifted slammed on my Camaro and beat down. I was than jumped with a ratchet and crow bar. He kicked my accross the face I got up and era every shot. I walked away fine with some good sweeping bruise shut other wise cognitive and fine.
Dan Carson was the first fight I “lost”
Many people said won. There was a huge crowd of Ridley and O’Hara kids, some upper Darby. It was actually a high profile fight, we both had reputation and popularity in our high schools via upper Darby (me) and Ridley him. When we fought it was a tough battle. I had some lumps but his face was unrecognizable. His nose broken split bleeding from top to bottom. Both eyes black swollen and split blood was every were.. me … I had a little blood form the nose and a gigantic welt on the left side of my head. Good fight. I thought I had one the day after but at the end - I didn’t.
Stop it.
Yup, I was an amateur in the 1970s and grew up in the gym wars environment. Part of the problem -- then as now -- was the shortage of qualified trainers. Your trainer might be a guy who boxed a few rounds, or took a karate class, or simply was a boxing fan (nothing inherently wrong with that, some great trainers including Angelo Dundee never boxed a round). No lessons in covering the basics of offense and defense with no-contact sparring, gradually moving to light sparring. No direction during sparring. The only rule was the bell.
Some boxers managed to learn the craft despite that environment. But there are too many examples of the cost of gym wars -- Gerald McClellan being a notable example. Reportedly he took cumulative damage from heavy sparring sessions that culminated in his debilitating brain injury during a title fight. Kronk was notorious for gym wars and Thomas Hearns seems to show the cost of that cumulative injury. And Mayweather seems to goad on a reckless approach that he himself wouldn't participate in during his career. Roberto Duran was known for brutal sparring sessions, although in his case it was his sparring partners who suffered for it.
Boxers do need sparring with reasonable contact to prepare for the real thing. But training needs to be done with at least the same caution as a sanctioned amateur bout, in which a referee will protect the fighters. There's a problem when sparring sessions are free-for-alls with more potential for injury than a sanctioned bout.
What a great comment. I didn't even think about a trainers credentials, which to this day you see unqualified coaches taking charge of sparring.
I was actually going to mention Kronk gym in the video (I even included an image of the gym) and how brutal their gym wars were. It wasn't helped by the heat in the gym either. I like your suggestion that sparring should be handled like any sanctioned fight. That's pretty much the point I wanted to make but couldn't articulate it here.
I think sparring is great when you WORK with your sparring PARTNER. It's not a fight, it's a time to practice things that need work. Start slow and work your way up. Learn everything from how to throw the jab and protect yourself from it to how to move in the ring in general.
so basically, they've butchered the meaning of sparring to be a fight that doesn't go on the record lemao
Yep.. this is why you need to choose your sparring partners very very carefully. I can't tell you how many times I've sparred a guy 'lightly' and by the end of the round(s) it's a full on brawl.
Sparring works when ego is put aside...
Sportsmanship and camaraderie makes for essential sparring.
You got to find a good sparring partner that you help eachother learn. And leave the spar wars on occasion to feel real fight pressure.
Its power down and learning,not trying to kill each other at all
I spar 2 times a week. TOUCH sparring. I hard spar once or twice maybe a week before an amateur bout. But im no professional I wouldnt know.
There was some mma guy back in the day who said light sparring more often can help you try more risky shots and pickup on timing better for a better offense as a pose to hard sparring everytime where you cant ever drop your guard and i think theres alot of truth to that. You can still go fast and pull your punches.
I'd like to learn more about this. I can see why light sparring allows for more creativity. But I still think hard sparring sharpens fighters better, and builds punch resistance.
It's a risk we're all willing to take
Sorry but this is nonsense.
We Muay thai fighters spar all the time.
And there isnt many head trauma's.
You know why?
Because when you spar you dont need to go all out like it is a war.
And if you do limit the heavy punches only to rhe body.
You dont need to go that hard with punches to the head.
Give each other the space to actually try your combo's and strategy
Muay Thai culture is different than Boxing culture.
theres a huge skill gap in boxing unlike other sports. most fighters are no where near the top guys and ladies. fighters arent being taught the sweet science. getting destroyed by someone way better than you in sparring wont help you get better. fighters need time to watch film and actually break bad habits.
All boxers should look up to Mayweather
mayweather literally encourages sparring wars in his own gym
hard spar 2 times a month the rest light spar
this is the cost of fighting, we are fighters and we entered this sport knowing the damn risks that comes along with it. Sparring was and always will be an essential tool for the boxer to sharpen his skills. if you're not going to sparr hard then how the fuck are you supposed to develop the mentality and capability to be actually able to HURT your opponent. People seem to forget that what they are actually doing is plain FIGHTING. And with modern era, they just want to make everything easy. You either make time for sparring or make time for losing. Because the guy who gets his brain blown up everyday in the gym will eventually kill you in the ring. This is boxing, and it ain't a joke.
I recommend you watching Jesse Enkamp's video on hard sparring titled "Something WEIRD Is Happening In Martial Arts", it basically explains why hard sparring isn't good to do too much or with the wrong mindset.
Most of the things you are saying in this comment are done better with light sparring than hard sparring, light sparring is how you get your skills and hard sparring is testing them in actual combat.
@@ivotcomer3183 i'm not tryna say that light sparring has absolutely no place in your training regimen. i'm only saying that it is not a substitute for hard sparring. If you light sparr all the time, you're mind is gonna get programmed to throw light punches all the time. How you train, you preform. and it annoys me to see alot of people these days tryna kick hard sparring out of the equation. Light sparring alone will only get you so far, but wether you like it or not. You have to stimulate the fight night environment with real hard sparring.
@@kxvra you're right, but hard sparring doesn't need to even done every day or week. Should be used rather sparingly. Most of the time, light sparring at like 50 or even 60% is ideal.
People ruin sparring... sparring cant ruin boxers.
Weight GYMs can't ruin people... ego lifters ruin GYMs.
Your parents are not the reason for your failures... your decisions are the reason.😂
Nice video. I get your point.
Hundreds of rounds of sparring can cause head trauma which can definitely affect a fighter. It is about how you approach sparring though.
@@Turmo180touch sparring
you can train your conditionning on the bag and on the running fields , you can trains your defense and technique on light sparing , neck exercises with weight to harden your chin , hard sparing is only good to learn composure and deal with pressure and power it's a fraction of the work
Some people think and are built different. JC Chavez is all he really did was spar and still fought every two months
Hard sparring couple times a month or before a fight
My coach was an ass, I was dead tired and he tells me to go two more rounds pass four and I took a vicious beating multiple times bc I was gassed. So yes it could be very dangerous if u got an egomaniac trainer.
I agree that most should light spars alil more often . But gym wars or sparring hard is so necessary to get to where you want to be. Not one great boxer out there that didn’t have sparring wars . It’s the price you pay. It also matter how you take care of yourself and your mind outside of boxing . I believe James Tony drank and did drugs which also messing up your brain! Add the crazy sparring and your brain of course will go suffer double . But look at mayweather great defense no drinking or drugs . Lots of crazy sparring but seemingly no cte. We have to look at their lives outside the ring as well when we talk about these things. Kids might see these vids ( not just yours ) and think that they can get to pro while never sparring hard
Fair point. Sparring hard plays a huge part in the development of a fighter. But gym wars takes a lot out of a fighter with extremely niche benefits (e.g. digging deep, taking shots). I hear your thoughts about other factors outside of training that may affect fighters health.
Disagree
@@cheeks7050 with all respect , are you a competitor? Amateur or professional? And if so explain why you disagree? If you don’t compete you might not know what it takes to become one ?
@@-Higashi- I compete. You're coping by saying it was the drugs that frazzled Jame's Toney's brain. Bruh he absorbed thousands of punches in his life. He has trauma induced brain damage and that's a fact.
@@cheeks7050 it was a comparison. Not all boxers how spar a lot and fight a lot get to be like Tony. I was bringing up mayweather how fought and sparred hard and still sparring . And isn’t like that. Mind you different weight classes . But still someone who is defensively smart and isn’t drinking and doing drugs has a better chance of not having brain damage
FORREAL. Had a guy in our gym, he was incredible and is a hardworker the only downside is that he always gives his 100% even in sparring. He’s sparmates with actual professional fighters for almost half a decade now, he’s never as focused as he used to. He still has the heart tho but still, he should’ve had a bright future ahead of him.
That has nothing to do with sparring that’s from life or just not being focus
I believe too sparing should be just work. However, hard sparring is great to prepare you for the heated moments in a real fight. You fight like you train… so preferably you want to build the intensity a bit before a fight. Depending on the skill level of course, sparring should be at like 2-3 times a week. It worked for me tho so that’s just my personal opinion. Great vid
Sparring too heavily is the problem. Unfortunately, many many boxing gyms spar too heavily.
I’m a boxer myself and I definitely agree with this and I don’t spar frequently when I prepare for a fight
Once you understand how getting hit works and you can respond to getting hit accordingly you don't need hard sparring consistently. Once every few months after your good enough to go pro in my opinion
A tip for sparring:hit the head lightly,body average,other parts(for the ones that don't do boxing)as usual,then sparring will be better,and i believe with that training we can go back tot he golden era,even better,boxing got plenty of talents,i'm sure about that,and i believe this method of sparring can increase their ability helped with the talents thwy have,boxing..it wouldn't be as exciting as before with the brawls,but now i guess you can be as equally as exciting as defensively.
Light to the head, hard the to body. Coaches need to stop getting stars in their eyes and putting their fighters through improper sparring. They value performance over longevity. But that's the American way. Change my mind.
As an mma guy you guys spar way too hard it is never that serious you learn through difficulty not getting beat up
@@shinsoatimaku Good point!
In our gym te 90% of sparring is light to the head and hard to the body . Hard sparring only some during the preparation for a fight .
boxers need to spar if you dont want to spar then dont compete cte just comes with the sport
But it doesn't have to😂
Heavy sparring is needed, albeit in small amounts as opposed to easier or focused sparring (when I boxed, sometimes we would do defensive and offensive drills vs our sparring partner).
Sport: fighting
Athletes: fight
RUclipsrs: you're running your career!!!11
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
We spar really light. Only 3 times a week usually. Never hard
Safety first 👏🏽
Idk if any of you guys box but you need to spar to learn how to ebb and flow and learn the openings during your and their sequences. Its the main reason to go to a boxing club instead of a mirror and bag
The answer to sparring is virtual sparring 😂😂
Maybe the issue lies within the boxers sparring, rather than sparring itself.
I genuinely was shocked when i went to a regular boxing gym for the first time i had just dont muay thai before everyone just freely lets out their aggression on each other
this is why i rather do muay thai or kickboxing. their gyms usually have lighter sparring
Can you tell if my sparing day is good, i do it 3 times a week 1 hour session.
Mitts
3 rounds of 3 min hitting and then holding and 1 min break in between = 24 min
1 min break
Partner drill
3 rounds of 3 min hitting and defending combinations and 1 min break in between = 12 min
1 min break
open sparring but controlled
3 rounds of 3 min free motion sparring but with pre determine punches and combinations and 1 min break in between = 12 min
1 min break
Open sparring
3 rounds of 3 min free motion sparring but with any random combinations and punches with open hands 1 min break in between = 12 min
In this routine, always have hands open in the glove and don't use power at all, learn control and just tag the Partner
Truth is, if you’re scared of getting hurt or CTE then simply don't spar at all. If you do want to compete make sure your coach follows are the basic sparring precautions.
One thing I do to make sure the sparring isn't dangerous is that I occasionally do funny gestures that make my partner and the audience watching laugh.
When it comes to gym wars, its most likely they will hard spar to prove themselves so not much you can do there.
Got this one mfer in the gym that loves to spar like it’s an actual fight, and many guys (myself included) refuse to spar him for that reason. Now, I COULD go in there, eat the hits and maybe land some decent shots of my own. But I’m not a pro fighter, and I don’t ever plan on doing this shit for a living, so is it really worth the brain damage?
Sparring didn't ruin Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.
Does Tony officially suffer from CTE? I know he had a mental health crisis but can we know? I dont doubt it just curious
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
well for me my coach stop the sparring if you get too much hits in the face and also he sometimes tell the better to go easier to not hurt eachother
Well last time i wanted to "light spar" some random guy in gym and it ended up with broken nose
i agree. i spar 3 times a week, and the biggest problem is it isnt light spar its a bit hard so i always get a strong headache and an lightheaded freeling after spar
You should keep it to a light technical spar
I spar but not ready for amateur yet (i believe) but i could feel my self slurring more and forgetting when i sparred heavy x3 weekly, now i cut it down to weekly and aiming more for technique, strategy, lighter sparring, no need to hard spar if your not pro, especially not dog house rules
I've left sparring with light headaches sometimes, but eventually it stopped. And I used to have hard rounds I realized you don't win anything In those rounds.
In karate we usually have a rule where you snap hits and go light to the head, fair game to the body except kicks where we advise to snap the hit to avoid serious injury and just get the movement, timing, and technique down, and legs are fair game in addition to takedowns and throws.
I'm watching this, knowing I am going to spar tonight.😅
@@Suaru Good luck and stay safe 🙏🏽
good video
Only 500 subs your style is amazing! 💪💪
@@KhaledMakunouchi Thank you for the kind words 🙏🏽
The human body is only good at what it does on a regular basis, and this includes boxing. Sparring is a must when preparing for a fight, no doubt about it. It is also a must when amateurs are learning how to box. However, this does not mean sparring where you are trying to kill your partner. I have seen gym wars in Philadelphia where they are actually proud of this type of sparring. Sparring should help you sharpen your reflexes, learn various styles, etc. It should not be a display of macho or an invitation to brain damage. Couches who allow this are doing their fighters a great disservice.
This is like saying scheduled team practices are not necessary for NBA teams.
sparring makes boxers what they are 0 way around it. you wanna be world class? you need years and years of sparring to get there.
how do we minimize brain damage
@@jmgonzales7701by staying hydrated, sparring maybe twice a week.
But I truly believe football players who been playing since their childhood years all the way to the pros have the same head trauma boxers have
@@MansaMusa-v5q My thing is Thai fighters take elbows and knees to the head how is boxing any worst.
@@fsabdul-ghaffaar5504the amount of rounds and the scoring system in boxing favours heard headshots were MT scores kicks to the body and off balancing an opponent very highly… but make no mistake, there are A LOT of Muay Thai fighters with CTE I’m sure
@@MansaMusa-v5qomg do u really think that staying hydrate can help u from getting cte? Not really.
Great video! There is absolutely no benefit to “Gym wars”. It only further perpetuates the idea that fighters should not be treated as human athletes but more like gladiators.
1:30 Forget Muhammad Ali
I mean its their job everyone makes sacrifices (at least for the pros)
True. But fighters who come up through the amateur ranks don't get paid a penny (apart from bursaries), yet still deal with much of the dangers as the pros.
these sacrifices as you call them , makes their careers shorters and destroys their skills
So should I hard spar all not?
Hate to say it, but sometimes that hard sparring is needed. Just went through that not long ago tonight. It definitely revealed that I still have a lot to correct on my form. But I do agree, swinging for the fences isn't gonna make anyone tougher.
Most people here seem to agree that hard sparring is necessary but should be toned down
That’s all James Toney did. I repeat all he did and he turned out okay.
To learn you need to spar but there's different levels when doing so
Having cte it's not a big deal
It's dementia lite, it kinda is
I'd argue the opposite. You need to spar as much as possible, but only spar hard when your close to a fight. Look at some of the best muay thai fighters of last generation like seanchai, somrak and lerdsilla. When they where young the only thing they did was watching the older fighters spar and do sparring themselves. The more you minimise sparring, the less skills you will have and the more risk you take in competition.
This is an excellent alternative for the culture. It’s sucks getting hit im the face , but I feel like no matter how much it sucks, this is fighting. Martial arts. It’s a part of the game . Best bet is to mitigate the amount of damage taken.
I have to disagree, I think boxers should spar because it helps them win fights
The fact is you should not do hard sparring sparring IS fine If you dont wanna Knock your opponent out
@@MCboombox hard sparring is what makes champions
I think some people are literally BUILT to fight and others are not it’s that simple. Some fighters are less prone to CTE purely from genetics, Team 3D alpha did a video on it explaining why most Mexican boxers don’t suffer from brain injuries and that’s not to say it’s only Mexican boxers I think there’s people from all ethnicities who are less prone to brain trauma. Simply put most fighters aren’t that lucky which is why sparring should always be “light” and I don’t see a reason why fighters spar every week I think 1 or 2 times a month and keeping it to under 8 rounds is some good enough to keep rust off
mexican isn't an ethnicity based on genetics it's based of culture
Beautiful Vid Bro 🔥
Mental sparring should be the new norm 👍
sparring is great for good boxers that dont get knocked around like that but if your getting beat up or getting hit alot spar lighter, but gym wars are very important for an up incoming fighter that have talent.
Hard sparring is dangerous but its also necessary because in a real fight hes going to be trying to knock your head off.
At the end of the day boxing is a trauma sport. As with anything else the constant hard sparing will make the boxer sharper but on the flipside can damage the boxer. All boxers do not suffer from cte but enough do due to being punched in the head.
Thats why sparring drills are better than just flat out "sparring" it makes it even worse where people like to hard spar in the form of gym wars beating the holy hell out of each other for some lame views likes comments when back in the day recording sparring sessions was to review and analyze all whats good and not good and that method made others into world champs back then but now it just not even worth it so this video right here made sense sure you can't prepare for a fight by doing everything except sparring but hard sparring all the time or doing one variant to me won't even help everyone in the long run
we do a lot of flow sparring in muay thai, not constantly leaving class with CTE😅
I agree every single thing u said brother , some people are like obsessed to act like a badass so hard sparring makes them feel better , its super dumb
Urbano Antillon is a sad case
I just had this discussion with my friend yesterday as we both are boxer, he recently meet up with 2 friends of him which trains mma and muay thai. Both of them try to convert him into thier sport and he questioned should we both join in the fun.
MMA doesn’t pay as well as Boxing
this whole video is so inaccurate. all the best of the best do sparring and no it does not ruin you. if the best of th best spar then it obvious the training is wrokning
You have to spar but it's to work on your craft. It's not a fight, you're not going for a win or to feed your ego. Robert Garcia academy is a good example of proper sparring
Thank you for making this video. its all true. sparring can damage fighters. precaution MUST be taken at all costs. it is speculated that Gerald Mclelann had damaged himself in sparring before the Nigel benn fight.
Yeah he probably did there’s no way he got damaged only in the fight
*I DISAGREE ANYBODY CAN THROW A PUNCH, BUT YOU GOTTA BE ABLE TO TAKE ONE. NOW I DO BELIVE SPARRING SHOULD END THE COUPLE OF WKS LEADING TO THE FIGHT THO.*
Did bro watched the video!
eating punches doesn't make you physically thougher it only weakens your chin
@@houssedecouette4056 *NOBODY SAID THAT. I SAID YOU GOTTA BE ABLE TO DISH IT AS WELL AS TAKE IT. NOBODY SAID "STAND THERE AND GET YOUR HEAD BEAT OFF", BUT YOUR NOT GONNA EVADE EVERY PUNCH NEITHER.*
@@SetsunaFSeiei-qy6kg well you dont need two sessions of hard sapring a week to learn to deal with pressure and pain
Stop talking in constant bold.
Oh, and hard sparring should be done leading up to a match, all other times light is better.
Just be nice when sparing ?
Lame
Ive been saying this forever. Its dumb
Facts, they always go hard in sparring trying to hurt each other
sparring is fun. end of story
Laughs in James Toney
Good luck with stopping the gym wars. Especially when you are a white boxer going into a black gym. Only when you get a certain level of skill sets can you steer or control the pace of sparring. That or when you’re still new you got to hit them harder to get respect that they don’t abuse you.
Protect yourself
You have to spar hard in the beginning. You have to learn timing and learn how your opponent moves, you have to learn to recover and fight after you have been tagged hard. If the first hard punch you take is in a fight, you are going to have a bad time.
not only that but know how to fight with addreline. fighting addreline is so different then without it.
A video based on scientific articles, love it !!
More to come my friend
🤦🏻♂️
It depends on what you want out of boxing, if you want to be great you have to Spar hard learn to fight and learn when to box only hard sparing can teach you that, everyone looks good hitting the bag and hitting the mitts. But your real skill level shows in sparing.