A Great Sparring Method for MMA & Kickboxing!
February 3, 2010
There are three general forms of sparring that most kickboxing schools will do… everybody does full sparring (punches, kicks, and knees), then the second form of sparring all schools do is just boxing, and then SOME will do body sparring.
However, very few gyms do a special kind of sparring for MMA and kickboxing that is very beneficial… I learned this in Thailand… which is kick sparring.
Kick sparring means sparring with ONLY kicks… but there are a few ways to play. One is straight up any kick you want, head kicks, body kicks, leg kicks, round, front, side, etc. You can keep your hands up for defense but no punching or clinching.
Another way to play is leg kick sparring – where you can only attack each other’s legs. You can defend the kicks – but all the kicks are to the legs. Then there is body kick only sparring and head kick only sparring.
You can then spice it up a little by allowing kicks to be caught and countered. So you can call a round of body kick sparring that allows people to catch the kicks with their hands (and then counter with punches, trips, etc.) which will teach people how to time catching kicks and kickers how to kick without getting their kicks caught.
I just did this drill today in my Miami kickboxing class and it was a big success… give it a shot in your own training!
–Master Marcos Avellan
P.S. Reminder, reserve tickets for the FFA Banquet that is happening on Feb 28 by visiting www.FFAspace.com right now! Everyone is invited (you don’t have to be from FFA), please visit FFAspace and see the video!
P.P.S. We have a new kickboxing sparring class on Wednesday at 8:30PM at our Miami MMA school, if you are interested, speak with Master Efrain.
