Krav Maga Bristol Sparring Tips

Krav Maga Bristol Instructor Jim Halton shares some sparring tips to help improve your sparring in Krav Maga lessons

1. Have a gameplan! In Krav Maga on day 1 you get shown your basic stance and how to strike, feet should be shoulder width apart, hands held high, [More…]

elbows in, chin down. If you find yourself out of this stance during sparring or pressure testing then get back into it quick! Good stance is the foundation for both your striking and your defence!

2. Stick to your gameplan! Have 4 or 5 combinations which are SOLID. Nothing fancy. If you find yourself doing some fancy technique that you have invented and not been taught there is probably a reason its not been taught, maybe it doesnt work so well? Keep your gameplan basic and make it strong! There are no black belt techniques only basics performed at black belt level!

3. Chin down, hands up! whenever I see someone getting hit its usually when their hands are down. Keep your hands up to defend more punches.

4. End with a kick.

5. If you cant do it on the pads or the heavy bag then don’t try doing it in sparring. If you spend 99% of your time fighting in the orthodox stance, why switch to south paw when you fight? It will be weak!

6. If you have to cover up, use your feet to move away or close the gap and work your inside game.

7. Exhale on the effort! Do this during shadowboxing and padwork as well!

8. If you want to use a new combination in sparring, drill it on the pads first, make sure that it works before you try it under pressure.

9. Stick to the basics, many of the most powerful strikers produced the whole world over have a very simple but brutal gameplan.

Combat Sport Analysis

A lot can be learned from certain combat sports both good and bad they are one of the testing grounds which interest us, good functional movements that we can and do use elements of for striking system. I recorded all of the strikes delivered from one fighter for 1 round in a stand up fight by one of the best thai strikers produced. Have a look:

Note all of these are single combinations, notice how simple they are, many are single shots!

front kick
lead roundhouse
rear roundhouse
jab
rear roundhouse
rear roundhouse
rear roundhouse
rear roundhouse
double rear roundhouse
rear roundhouse
left hook
left hook right cross
lead roundhouse
left hook right cross
right cross

Now of course, this is from a Muay Thai fight, the Thais score kicks a lot higher and so there is more emphasis on kicks.

Same thing for Boxing, here are the strikes from one round. I used the 1 – 8 boxing strike system to record the significant striking combinations:

1-8
1
3
1
3
3
1
3
1
3
4
1
1
1-2 causes a knock down
3 causes a knock down and fight stopped by ref

Hope this gives you all some food for thought when you are next either working long and complicated padwork combinations, working the heavy bag, training with a partner or during your next sparring session.

Please remember this is only one small element of our training, to be a complete fighter you need to train them all, as they say you are only as strong as your weakest link! So dont forget to train ground, multiple opponents, edged weapons, baseball bat, firearms, robbery, negotiations, chokes and verbal tactics too!!!

Still work your combinations but focus on the basics!!! On that note I’m off to do some training, see you all in class!

Author: Krav Maga Bristol Instructor Jim Halton teaches regular classes at Brunel Academy, Speedwell Bristol.