On sparring.

Does it work? Will it work? Can I make it work? There’s only one way to find out: through live sparring. Live sparring is the best way to see if the technique that was just demonstrated under a controlled and scripted situation really works. I don’t think sparring needs to be hard or with 100% of our strength. As long as we learn about ourselves and how to execute the technique we are developing, then we are receiving the benefits of sparring.

Sparring is where we learn to tweak whatever technique or form that we’ve drilled, ensuring that it will work for our uniqueness (body type, mental temperament, sparring style, etc). We learn how to gauge the distance between ourselves and our opponent, we become sensitive to our opponent’s movement, and we learn what works and doesn’t work for us as individuals. Sparring is an invaluable part of any martial training, but you have to spar with the right mind. It’s not practice makes perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect.

There are different ways to spar and depending on your level and your partner’s level, you would want to understand the best way to spar for both of you to benefit and to prevent any unnecessary injury. When sparring with a kohai (junior, someone with fewer skills than you), we should focus on helping the kohai grow by providing feedback after the sparring session (we take away from both our training if we use the valuable time for sparring to talk). It is also a time for us to try out techniques that we’re not good at. When sparring with someone of the same level, we work on sharpening our tools. This is where we develop our tokui waza (favorite technique, best technique) and possibly go about 75 – 80 percent as if we were in a competition. When sparring with someone senior to us, just do our best to get an ippon, submission, or clean hit, the senior will appreciate our earnest attempt and provide feedback afterward. Sparring is not the opportunity for you to show off your favorite technique on a lower belt over and over, reducing them to a training dummy. Sparring needs to benefit both partners in their martial growth.

The development of mental fortitude is a crucial benefit of sparring. Sparring has helped me understand how to remain calm in a stressful situation. Think about it, in Jiu-Jitsu, you have someone on top of you applying tremendous pressure, so much sometimes that you want to tap. But you don’t, you learn how to maintain your calm and work your way out of that position. (I actually used that in a job interview: “Tell us a time when you remained calm in a stressful situation.”)

In essence, sparring is to grow in your martial journey and to help your partner grow. Sparring is not about winning. Have fun when you spar, it’s not a kill-or-be-kill situation. Sparring should be enjoyable for everyone.