Hi TFW users

What is better sparring hard or sparring light?

Both kinds of sparring have their place. Limited, light sparring is good when you are first implementing techniques that you have learned. Really aggressive sparring can actually deteriorate your technique and lead you to develop bad habits if you try it too soon.

Also, the risk of injury obviously becomes greater the more aggressive you are - which can really mess up your training, not to mention repeated blows to the head (even with head gear) can lead to some pretty serious complications over time.

I pretty much agree with Macedo84, to a point.

The sparring has a lot to do with timeing as well. I stop hard sparring 6 weeks out and stop sparring altogther (which includes 100% grappling to submission) at 2 weeks out. Ideally I like to have 9-10 weeks between my fights.

The first 3-4 weeks I am still intaking good amounts of calories. So my body has fuel to run and a means to repair. And if in the off chance I get beaned, cut or tweaked I still have time to heal. Hard sparring for me is full potective equipment (head gear with face cage, elbow/knee pads, shin guards, 16oz front padded sparring gloves in addition to cup/mouth piece & handwraps), close supervision and going "I mean this" speed vs "Ima kill you" speed. It's also in this first phase that I tend to work on my weight oriente conditioning activities.

The next 4 weeks I pull off the face cage and replace it with standard head gear. The elbow/knee pads go away because we aint using them in sparring. Well we are but at a very restrited intensity. And the pace is what I call under water. Moderate speed with medium power. This is the time I tweak my game for the guy I am fighting. Gives me th ability to apply what I learn w/o being forcd to revert back to "my way" because the tempo is balls out. This phase is when I work on my speed, agility and the bulk of my conditioning.

The last 2-3 weeks I am more focusd on getting the last of the weight off. Being on a restricted diet means I need to restrict my damage. Getting hurt while cutting is horible because you just can't heal when you aren't feeding your body. I work mainly on cardio and technique. Lots of focus work while minimizing my potential for injury.

On another note. Never sparr w/o compitant trainers being present to oversee it. You need an outside voice to tell you to pick it up or tone it down. Most sparring sessions if left unchecked turn into sluggfests. Fighting is competative and it is human nature to turn it up a notch when we percieve we are on the short end of it. Also you need the traind eye to beable to critique and correct you. What's the point in sparring if you can't learn from your mistakes? And who better to observe those mistakesthan a guy who isn't in there, who has a view of the entire picture (not just your perspective) and who has the experience to unbiased advise????????

karma bump tabwyo